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  • Time Bankrupt?

    By Joshua Kim December 14, 2010 8:15 pm EST

    Do you feel like declaring time bankruptcy? Do you have more things to do each day than hours to do them in?

    Three possible reasons why you and I might be time bankrupt:

    1. Truly Bankrupt: You are being asked to do more work without as many people. Your job demands have grown exponentially, but the resources to do your job have stagnated (or declined). Technology means that you are always connected, which means you are always working. Work is exciting and exhilarating, and you are working on an incredible new project with an amazing team. You love your job, it energizes you, and the distinction between work and leisure has disappeared. Laptops and Blackberry's, iPhones and broadband equal 24/7/365 availability. Budgets have never been tighter, and the need to produce to bring in revenues (and keep you and your team employed) is greater than ever.

    2. Shouldn't Be Bankrupt: The reality is that we have no reason to claim time bankruptcy. How many hours of TV, Hulu, Netflix and YouTube did you watch last week? How much time on Facebook? Working longer does not equal working smarter. Are we getting enough exercise and enough sleep to be truly productive? Do all of our meetings have agendas? Do we only meet when we need to actually do something, and do we keep information meetings to 30 minutes and decision meetings to 1 hour? Are we confusing spending lots of time working with working effectively?

    3. Acting Like Bankrupt: Perhaps we are not really time bankrupt, but being "too busy" is the newest status symbol. We no longer practice conspicuous consumption (who can afford to do that when we need to pay our mortgages and save for college), but we can project an image of importance by our level of busyness. Important people are over-scheduled. Important people have lots of meetings and absolutely no time. Crazy busy is the new corner office.

    Where do you fall? I'm probably guilty of all 3.

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Comments on Time Bankrupt?

  • Time bankrupt no more
  • Posted by Michael Ritter at UW-Stevens Point on December 15, 2010 at 7:15am EST
  • I use to feel like I was "time bankrupt" until I:

    1. switched from Windows to a Mac (less time wasted screwing with viruses, system crashes, and now use software that just makes sense … and works)

    2. took up GTD (Getting Things Done) approach to time management (search GTD for more about the system).

    3. started saying "no" more often.

    4. cleared the clutter and became much more organized.
  • Getting Things Done
  • Posted by IHE Reader on December 15, 2010 at 9:31am EST
  • I second the "Getting Things Done" method. Here is a nice diagram of the GTD workflow:

    http://macin.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/gtdclouds_2048.jpg

    David Allen's book is a good, easy read. Mileage may vary, but it has worked well for me.
  • I'm Too Damn Busy to Comment on this Post
  • Posted by StevenB on December 15, 2010 at 10:00am EST
  • Heh. I like your "acting like bankrupt" category. I have to scratch my head when I see those FB status messages from people writing about how busy they are, how they are winging off again to give a presentation (but they have no time for it), how they'll never get all the work on their to do list finished by 5 pm, etc. They are so busy, busy, busy. And yet here they are adding 10 status messages a day to FB, letting me know about their latest Farmville acquisition and the TV shows they watched last night. But they always have to let you know how busy they are, and how they have no time for all that work.
  • Perhaps, we just like our jobs too much
  • Posted by Ed Garay , Busyland at UIC on December 17, 2010 at 7:15am EST
  • I must be a trend setter, then, because I have been "too busy" since, like forever. Many of us at work are; then again, we have a very lean staff and work at the University of Illinois where there still is a hiring freeze and there have been no raises for quite some time, now.

    I am probably guilty of the article's three main points about no having enough time. Like many, I have started to say no a lot more often, and while not a Mac user, I have found that having my Windows Tablet PC, iPad and iPhone with me at all times, has made me a lot more productive :: multi-tasking galore!

    Extensive multi-tasking has been very effective for me and many others looking to clone ourselves or somehow make more time to get more things done (GmTD) during these lean years in Academia. Can't say that I can remain focused or devote my entire attention to one thing or another anymore, and I know effective multi-tasking requires that we are very disciplined and organized, and that we pay attention to detail and quality, but it works, at least for me.

    Perhaps, we like our jobs too much, and as we increasingly use mobile technology in HigherEd, it is too easy to blur that fine line between work and personal life. I stopped making the distinction long, long, long time ago, since I moved to this digital continuum. Too bad many of us still have to go to the office everyday, 9-5pm, 7-3pm, 9-7pm or whatever it is, and we should indeed try to stay away from Facebook and other distractions during working hours, but as our digital continuum extends our working opportunities well into the night, early in the mornings and on most weekends, does it really matter if that Facebook status got posted past our lunch time?

    In the end, it is all about being productive and getting more things done (GmTD) and meeting/exceeding all that we are supposed to contribute to enhance education and the missions of our universities.

    Now, if we could only declare email bankruptcy a couple of times each year and simply trash all email that needs attention, and just start anew, now that would be the bankruptcy that I would love to be guilty of...

    Greetings from Chicago.

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