BodyPiercingJewellery

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I think you're right, that it is a common mistake. But sometimes what we need in order to see something clearly is for someone to put it into words for us. I think, actually, that this is why productivity is such a popular topic on the Internet (your web site, for example). Because productivity works sort of like Alcoholics Anonymous (although with obvious differences) in that if  you name the problem and talk about it all the time, you have to face it.–Penelope

The beauty of it is that if you manage to consistently do the "Important but Not Urgent" tasks on time, you will rarely have "Important and Urgent" tasks on your table.

The hard part, of course, is implementing this…

As you can imagine that kind of approach results in long work days, a lot of stress and a jealousy for people that can just go home and relax after their workday is over.

I’ve been trying to change my work habits for years, but I am starting to believe that how I go about planning my week/month has more to do with personality attributes than time management skills.

Penelope, after reading your blog for a while, I got interested in the two books that you frequently cite: the Gilbert's one and Seligman's "Learned Optimism". Seligman actually cites research that shows that generally pessimistic people are the ones who are much more realistic than the optimists. At the same time, pessimists get ill and depressed more often, achieve less in life etc.

Obviously, both optimistic outlook and realistic estimates are useful at different times. I haven't finished Seligman's book yet but, as I understand, his solution is the idea of "flexible optimism" when the (typically optimistic) individual is aware of human nature to make faulty estimates (especially in the optimistic state) and turns optimism off from time to time to make realistic judgements.

I think we need realism when we do our daily planning and when we choose a task to do right now from our daily to-do list. When we are actually in the process of doing then it's better to put on a huge hat of optimism.

(On a side note, I found Gilbert's book rather depressing with research after research showing how pathetic we humans are at making predictions about our feelings after particular events in the future. His style is entertaining but I'd rather read Seligman's book who is actually trying to show the way out of the thinking style that each of us develops by the time we reach adulthood.)

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Oh, this is a great comment. A great summary of the positive psychology movment.

–Penelope

My coaching clients who are time challenged commit to playing their day backward most nights, starting with the last task and working toward the first, with a focus on time involved in each task.

When we work "forward", well, everything can seem important and/or urgent at the time, or at least we can rationalize that's so. On the other hand, when working backward, after the fact, there is often another sense of what honestly demanded time and what honestly did not.

For example, moving forward, perhaps watching TV for 3 hours seems right, justifiable, etc. Working backwards and seeing, hmmm, getting ready for bed (20 minutes), preceded by three hours of TV, preceded by having dinner with the kids (45 minutes) may seem a bit "off" in the way one is spending vs. investing one's time.

This playing-my-day-backwards strategy can be useful when we wonder "where did my time go?" or am I "spending" vs "investing" my time appropriately. It provides a very different context (often insightful but maybe not always pleasant) with which to explore how one uses one's time.