Time Well Spent

Where Is Your Attention

Where do you put your attention?

Watch Derren Brown people switch in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com 

 

It appears that some people don't notice the switch and while some take a second look they continue on with the conversation.

This came to my attention through a podcast on PRI's The World discussing a new book that describes how scientists are studying the art of conjuring and deception to better understand how the mind works.

Dr Stephen Macknik, one of the books authors, explains why people miss the "people switch" shown in the video:

The fact is that this effect works not because these people don’t pay attention well, but rather because they pay attention very closely ***to the task at hand***, which is giving directions. When you pay attention to something, we’ve shown in our research that everything else gets suppressed in the brain.

From a time management point of view it might be interesting to notice if, when you are focused on a task, you are ignoring the context, i.e. its priority, its urgency, its value.

You can find more about Dr Macknik's work at his web page.

The Effective Use Of Time

The Effective Use of Time As soon as we use a word like effective, the mind might start to associate it with efficiency, which in turn implies minimizing input and maximizing output. However, to be effective is to produce a desired result. So if you are a poet you might spend a lot of time in reflection and take years to write a poem, but if the poem captures what you want, you have been effective. By contrast, if you want to be the first to introduce a new app to the iTunes store, you will probably be well served by being a swift developer. How then do we become effective? Is the best thing to do to embrace all the tenets of time management and practice them rigorously? If we were a species that was homogeneously well suited to be organized and good planners this might be an effective solution but as we can quickly observe humans are a heterogeneous bunch. Some of us are just not well suited to being organized and planning our time. Why not change yourself you ask. Just go to the local bookstore, get a time management book, learn how to follow its principles, and do it. To examine this question look at dieting. How many people do you know who diet successfully? In spite of the best intentions of anyone going on a diet, evidence shows it is more likely that most will not maintain their weight loss and, in some cases, put back more weight than they lost. In a similar vein, send an untidy person on a time management program and there is a good chance they will do the same thing as the dieter: start well, get organized, follow the program and, over time, gradually drift back to their original behavior. That’s not to say that people can’t change – see the Charlie Rose Brain Series for an update on the malleability of the brain – but it takes more than just reading a book. In a lot of cases bringing about change means practicing until the mind is trained to a new behavior. Think of it like being in a 12-Step Program; every day you have to recommit to stay on your new path and keep practicing your new behaviors. At first it might be not too difficult but as time passes it will likely become harder and harder to stay the course. If you cannot commit to such a dramatic investment, the alternative is to craft your best approach from who you are now.

What Is Your Destination & Course?

Discerning Your Own Destination and Course

The goals we identify for ourselves are often framed in the context of the outside world; can I get into the best school, can I get the best paid job?

These are worthy considerations and not to be ignored, but the world is evolving rapidly. Jobs that were important yesterday might be history tomorrow. While finding the right job might be important, it might be just as important to develop a skill set that makes you portable so that as the world changes, you can change with it.

In the following sections we’ll look at a strategic method that can help you find your destination and your course, a course that can support you in making many decisions; but perhaps most important, it can help you make decisions about how you invest the time of your life – after all you have less than 700,800 hours to go!

Life and Sailing

Think of yourself as a 19th century sailing ship crossing the oceans or fighting your way through the Bay of Biscay.

The sea can take control of your direction rendering you wildly off course and lost, its waters so still it is mirror-like and your ship becalmed, drifting at the will of the tide. Alternatively, raging storms with 100 foot waves can drive you off course as all your efforts are consumed keeping the ship afloat. So it is with life – there are numerous forces that will distract you from your intended purpose.

What are these forces and how do they appear in your life? 

Very often they are insidious, like other people and their agendas. Without conscious thought we sometimes get blown off course by other people because we haven’t given due consideration to our own direction. For example someone walks into your office with a euphemistic request such as “Do you have a minute to talk about . . . .” Now it’s very flattering when we are asked for our opinion, so we willingly drop what we are doing and engage in what can become a protracted conversation. Two hours later the person leaves because they have to go to a meeting, and their issue is still not resolved. Meanwhile you are now two hours behind in your day plan and that means you have to work late and you won’t make it to the gym as part of your newly resolved fitness program. You’re off course — blown in the wrong direction by someone else’s needs. This should not be taken as a suggestion that you should not be supportive, but rather you have to find a way to control these situations rather than have them control you. For a humorous example of insidious behavior see the The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management.

If you want to reach a particular goal, you need:

1. A clear destination
2. A course to the destination
3. Navigation tools to help you stay on course

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How Will You Invest Your Time

What Will You Do With the 700,800 Hours of Your Life?

        ▪        How would you use it?

        ▪        What will you become because of the way that you use it?

        ▪        Will you try to manage how it’s used, or will you let life happen as it may?

        ▪        How much of it have you used up?

        ▪        How much of it do you have remaining?

In other words, how will you invest your time?

Intentional or not, you do get to make decisions about how you use your time, even if your decisions are “decisions not to make decisions.”

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A Full Life

An 80 year life offers us

700,800 hours

The big question may be how do we use these hours

How effective is our time investment?

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