Thinking in Time, Thinking in Effort
It seems that one can broadly categorize how we approach work in terms of time-thinking or effort-thinking. Since work can be any activity requiring mental and/or physical effort to be accomplished over a time duration; work, effort and time are related and may be converted one to another.
Time-thinking involves the assessment and management of labour through the lens of time. Whether this assessment is documented or unwritten is immaterial. Effort-thinking is the consideration and management of labour using a scale dimension — and is often undocumented but borne.
Time-thinkers can be identified by following their tendency for:
- Prioritizing work using a set criteria — divide and conquer
- Following a regular schedule — consistency is key
- Appreciating the sequence of activities needed — it’s about “how” to finish
- Delivering results as and when due — time is a resource
- Seizing the moment — take opportunities
- Mood control — take feeling out…just do it!
Effort-thinkers tend to use a size schedule which:
- Focuses on the amount of labour required — succumbs to stress
- Follows an irregular execution plan — lacks consistency
- Overlooks likely sequence of activities involved — it’s about “what” to do
- Guarantees no results or late results — neglects the value of time
- Delays execution — hopes for another day
- Follows the mood — don’t feel like it!
Although these two behaviours can influence how we evaluate work, time-thinking is a more evolved and effective attribute:
Time-thinkers do what can be done, effort-thinkers want to do everything
Time-thinkers are the first to start and the first to finish. An effort-thinker rarely starts and hardly finishes
As time-thinkers relate productivity to efficiency, effort-thinkers equate workaholism to the same
Time-thinkers tend to achieve work-life balance, effort-thinkers are stuck with unwieldy labour
Time-thinking is the mother of high performance, effort-thinking breeds procrastinators
While effort-thinking is an innate tendency, time-thinking is a learned behaviour. Therefore, everyone can become a time-thinker.
