Time is not results

I love this article.  In the knowledge work of many jobs today, time management is important, yet managing time can be misleading.  What you need to manage is productivity and efficiency.  And unfortunately too many times senior management thinks that working more equals being a better employee.  And too often senior executive are the worst at that.

It is possible that people work long hours because they are inefficient, don’t understand well the subject, or use outdated tools.  The last item, using outdated tools, is pervasive because of the fast pace of innovation and new technologies.  I love technology because of the efficiency it gives me (and therefore it lets me have a life and see my family).  Technology often does not just give you an incremental gain, not even an exponential gain.  It is transformational.  It is like comparing crossing the Altantic on a Tall Ship versus taking a modern jet.  I am amazed that many are not keeping up with technology.  It makes life so much easier (and is not going to go away).

I was pleased to see this article by By Johanna Rothman:

Management Myth #10: I Can Measure the Work by the Time People Spend at Work

Here’s a few extracts I strongly support:

Time at work does not equate to good work. It never has, and it never will. Oh, you can’t work without spending time working somewhere and on the work itself, but that doesn’t mean that you have to spend lots of extra time at work.

People can work about eight good hours a day on an intellectually challenging job before mental exhaustion sets in. Some people can work fewer than eight hours. This means that if you want people to accomplish more work, then you should restrict their time at work to no more than eight hours a day.

The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Meetings
Once you start ranking the project portfolio and managing the work that way, the next thing for you to examine is the amount of time people spend in meetings.

Measure Results, Not Time Spent