Time management is a myth!

I struggle to get through all the tasks on my to-do list.  I’m sure most of you feel the same way.  This week has been particularly chaotic and got me thinking about my time management.

There are many theories and books on the subject – I’ve read my share.  Effective time management is seen as an important trait or skill in every industry, but most of us struggle to find a winning recipe for time management.  

And then I remembered an article by Addison Duvall that made the claim that time management is a myth.  Shocking, isn’t it?  To claim that we cannot manage time when the world demand that we do is ridiculous!  Or is it?

I decided to do a little experiment of my own.  Now I already confessed that I’m behind with my work so I couldn’t afford to be too ambitious with my experiment.   I started by trying to manage 3 minutes.  I set my timer and tried to manage the time.  Very early on in the experiment I realized I’m in trouble.  No matter what method of “management” I tried, the time just kept on ticking away.

In the interest of time (pun intended), my next iteration went down to 10 seconds.  I figured, start small and work your way up.  No luck.  It’s like herding cats, only much more difficult.  I abandoned the experiment.  I’m convinced – time management is a myth!

Addison mentions in her article that we should rather focus on task management, and that makes a lot of sense.  We cannot manage time, we have no control over it.  But we can manage our tasks.

Effective task management is a skill that must be developed, like any other skill.  I don’t know the answers yet, but here are a few pointers I picked up:


1)     Manage your to-do list
Break down tasks into smaller, more manageable sub-tasks.   “Take over the world” is a daunting task.  “Take over Pofadder”, “Take over Namibia” and “Take over Europe” are far more manageable tasks and will help you focus clearly on the task at hand.

2)     Time yourself
I’m a big fan of this one.  If you don’t time yourself and review your performance, how do you expect to get better at managing your tasks and setting and making deadlines? 
For instance, I know that I write comfortably at 4.2 words a minute.  It’s not ideal and I’m not happy with the speed, but it’s where I’m at and I can manage my writing tasks more effectively knowing it.

3)     Perfect doesn’t exist
Stuff happens.  More important tasks or meetings will mess with your schedule.  Deal with it, don’t get upset.

4)     One thing at a time
Focus on a single task and finish it.  Distractions are plenty and multi-tasking is another myth.  Don’t be fooled into thinking you can work on more than task at a time.     

5)     Importance, not urgency
Complete tasks in order of importance, not urgency.  We all get caught out with this one – be vigilant.  And if they all look important?  Then it’s time to re-prioritize.

No matter what you do in life, task management is important.  It’s the key to create the impression that you mastered time management.  And that’s what we strive for, isn’t it?