by Teboho Seretlo
Counting the number of hours spent on any given task, is it really practical? I know that in some management consulting firms, pay is arrived at using time-sheets of how much time you have spent on a particular project. I have also come across APPS that help you manage your timesheet to make it easier to collate and send to those who will be paying you for your time and maybe vice-versa - it could be you paying a consultant/contractor you have hired, based on time.
Enters the debate about time management vs. attention management. We all have 24- hours in a day, to start with, so be more intentional about how you use your time. However, do not be too fixated, technical and inflexible in your approach about time management because this may have unintended consequences, like stress and burn-out and unhealthy habits of eating your lunch at your desk (or skipping it altogether). To the extent that you allocate 15 minutes to returning emails, and when that 15 minutes is over, you move to the next task and the next etc. No no no.
I think the aim is to minimise the amount of distractions. Mind you, I said “minimise” not “eliminate”, because it’s almost a myth to think that you can get rid of distractions altogether. Maybe rather think about the timing of the distractions. Example, when you will check your emails or your phone messages. In an article I read by a guy called Coach Blase (see article on this link - https://medium.com/the-ascent/forget-time-management-you-need-attention-management-c566a94c7669), he makes a reference to the cell phone being his biggest, powerful distraction. Aren’t we all dealing with that common distraction? The cell phone. Some (like me) will check it “unprovoked” at wee hours of the morning and then wonder why they struggle to go back to sleep (and cry insomnia!!). How we use this much needed gadget is entirely up to us. If you will look at the phone and suddenly scroll mindlessly on social media posts and WhatsApp messages with jokes, memes and videos that have been “forwarded many times”, then you are letting distraction eat away at your time, attention and flow.
Another common distraction in my world is emails, so I have learnt to silence the notifications on my WhatsApp and my emails during certain times of the day (not altogether, because remember, we cannot eliminate but minimise distractions), especially when I am focusing on that work that requires my full attention to enable me to flow. Picture this analogy, which I read in the Harvard Business Review by Maura Thompson on how to overcome that habit of email distraction - you are riding a bicycle and have a specified distance to cover, and as you are cruising nicely along, something suddenly out of the blue makes you to hit on the brakes. Obviously you will lose your momentum and it takes time to get back into the rhythm/flow of things at which you were cycling prior to hitting those brakes. And if another such unexpected thing happens again and again on your trip, how much longer will it take for you to reach your destination? And by the time you reach it, you are feeling exasperated, exhausted and frustrated.
Another way to look at flow is - You know that task that requires your full attention and you would rather do it when your mind is at its peak in order to achieve “flow”? In my case, if I have a proposal, a business plan or a pitch document to prepare, I focus on this completely and therefore I seem to have less distractions because I am so vested in paying attention to the document; like not even lifting my eyes from the keyboard to say hi to my kids. Then I realise how time has flown. So, if I were to be fixated about strictly allocating time to my tasks, then this might mess up with my flow and the next time I try to work on the document, I may not be as creative or focused and consumed by it.
It would also seem that motivation is what seems to spark attention management. Coach Blase, in that same article, makes a valid point that actually, if you have a personal connection (and therefore, motivation) to any given task, you are more likely to place more effort and attention on it. What makes me want to do a specific task, why does it excite me over others, what motivates me to want to do it? If I can answer those questions, then it will help me understand why I also tend to procrastinate doing certain other tasks. Attention Management also helps increase productivity; whereas time management seems to focus more on where and how time was spent. Time management does not necessarily help you to increase your productivity and may also cause you to lose your rhythm, your flow.
So the next time you are in a time-management class, or before you even sign up for it, please ask them to touch on this concept of attention management. More importantly, engage with your clients about your fee. Should it really be based on the rate/hour or a more fair and equitable method that measures the quality of your output vs the scope of work and desired outcomes that you were contracted for? Good luck with this one, though.
Teboho Seretlo is the managing director and founder of Seretlo Investments (Pty) Ltd, a business support services consultancy which assists micro, small and medium enterprises with business intelligence support, business plans and investor pitch decks, funding applications, business cost optimization and business improvement processes. She also ran a franchised premium dry-cleaning outlet of her own for 5 years. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Maths from University of Fort Hare, Management Development Programme (MDP) from GIBS and an International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) GIBS & Rotterdam School of Management. She has over 25 years working experience with corporates such as Nedbank, Momentum, The Coca-Cola Company, SABreweries and Unilever, where she gained experience in a variety of disciplines including B-BBEE &transformation, financial management & budgeting, project management, decision-support, business strategy & analysis as well as research. She is passionate about gender issues and does volunteer work for women empowerment organisations.
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