Your Time is a Resource
But are you really accomplishing what you want to get done?
“Project management can be defined as a way of developing structure in a complex project, where the independent variables of time, cost, resources and human behavior come together.” ~ Rory Burke
The problem most people run into using time management systems is that time is treated not as a resource, but as a metric.
In project management, time is of course part of the measure of how projects are progressing, but good project managers never lose sight of the fact that time is a resource.
So what is the difference and how can that save you time, energy, and effort?
When you are using time as a metric, you are measuring your success and your failure by how much time it costs you. You look at the minutes or the hours that you spend on a certain task and if you complete that amount of time doing that task then you have succeeded. Admittedly, you will get things done using time as a metric like this. If your standard is to do something for an hour, whether it's write or plan social media posts or exercise, then doing it for an hour will result in some form of progress or accomplishment.
However, the problem here (as you might already notice) is that it treats your efforts like busy work. You might as well just have a job where you clock in, put the widgets together, and clock out. Are you really accomplishing what you want to get done?
It is an easy trap to fall into because working at something for an hour (or an afternoon or a set time block) definitely feels productive and results in some kind of measurable output.
What is missing is the integration of your efforts with your goals. Because you are tracking minutes and hours and isolated tasks, you are easily losing sight of the bigger picture, not just of the task you were working on but the projects you are trying to finish.
Experienced project managers who treat time as a resource are using it as another tool in their tool chest, along with their personnel, material resources, money, etcetera. They understand that how much time something takes is directly related to all the other resources needed to accomplish that task, and plan for all those elements to work together.
They are always working on a deadline, of course, and the time frame they are working in is often crucial to the success of the project. But you never see a construction project manager looking at the calendar to decide what needs to be done next. They look at what needs to be done next, factor in how much time and resources it will take, and fit it into the calendar.
You might think this difference is splitting hairs, but it really does make a difference because if you are focused on your goals then the time you set aside to accomplish tasks will align with your plans and your overarching schedule. You're not making busy-work because you have a few hours on a Thursday afternoon that you can spare. You aren't scrambling to figure out what you're supposed to be working on during that two hour time block on Tuesday morning.
I always say that your schedule should be determined by your goals, not by your tasks. When you are managing a project successfully, the time management slots into place right next to your energy management and your money management and your resources management.
Especially for solopreneurs, the energy management component is crucial. Here is where time management system and productivity hacks fail, because they are trying to cram more work into your schedule without regard to all your other resources. Did you do more work in less time? Then that is what they consider a success, regardless of what it costs you in other ways or whether or not it contributes to your project goal. If you are treating time like a metric and not a resource, then you are easily misled into thinking that time is the most critical factor and end up over-scheduling yourself, leading to exhaustion and burnout.
I see too many solopreneurs doing exactly that because they think every hour of the day needs to be devoted to some task or another. They've been led to believe that "wasting" time is the biggest sin.
No, the biggest sin is failing to progress for the sake of “hustling” your time.
So, how do you stop filling up your calendar every day with tasks and start managing the projects you have on deck in a way that utilizes your time efficiently as a resource?
The easiest way to do it is to simply sit down and write out the steps of the project that you're working on. …at least, that is what is easiest for me!
However, I have found that a lot of people are shocked when they try to sit down and do this because they don't actually know all the steps that they are doing (they do them without thinking about it), and they realize that they're doing a lot more than they thought they were.
A good example of this is writing a blog post. I have so many clients who put on their schedule "write and post a blog post " and shoehorn it into couple of hours once a week.
They may be able to write a blog post in that amount of time but what they are actually scheduling is:
thinking up a topic for a blog post
researching that topic
drafting a blog post
editing a blog post
creating post/formatting a blot post
adding media such as images to the blog post
scheduling the post
That is resource-heavy work, in the sense that it takes a lot of brain power and more time than you initially estimate. Even if you can write fast and create a long post in one or two hours, there remains all the other things you have to do.
But folk put that on their schedule and don't think about time as an equal resource to all the other resources, instead treating it as an all-powerful metric that will help them accomplish the goal that they have set out to do. Then they spend two hours doing all of that work and end up exhausted. The rest of their schedule for the day goes completely wonky because they did not factor in resources such as mental energy as well as all the extra steps of editing the draft or researching the topic/subject or looking for and adding media.
Back to the point of treating time as a resource instead of a metric: in order to understand how it interacts with your other resources you need to know what other resources you need in order to accomplish that task. This is why you must figure out the steps/components of the project itself, even if only in broad strokes.
When you know it is just simple busy work and doesn't require other resources such as intense mental focus or doing a lot of research, then scheduling it for one or two hours any day of the week will not be a problem.
But if you know for a fact that writing a blog post does not just take you a couple of hours to write, but also a lot of mental energy and time spent researching the topic as well as looking for images you want to use to illustrate what you are writing about, then you can develop a realistic plan of action by breaking up that project into smaller bites and scattering them through the week; or if that is not how your brain works, then batching writing blog posts for one day of the week when you can give it your full attention and know that you don't have to worry about doing anything else that day.
In project management, every resource is precious and each one must be utilized in harmony with all the other resources. The calendar or the time frame is just a reference or a guideline for how much energy, time, and money needs to be thrown at the project to get it done by the deadline.
As for time being a metric sometimes, it's when you complete the project. That is when you sit down and look at all the resources as metrics together to analyze how successful your project management was an accomplished in your goal. But that's for a separate newsletter!
The Task Mistress is a newsletter about productivity for authors and solopreneurs! It is written by me, KimBoo York, a published author and former project manager.
My goal is to get you thinking about how you manage your time and talents in ways that are more than just another “how to prioritize you to-do list!” I focus on holistic productivity which is about more than just getting things done – it's about creating a lifestyle that supports your overall happiness, health, and success!
Visit the Task Mistress website for information about services and coaching!
What a wonderful article on how we treat time, and the importance of thinking big picture about our goals and the mental energy we might need to invest in them!