Time management
Anyone wish this “world’s shortest course” were longer?
That’s from ‘The World’s Shortest Course in Time Management’ on Marty Nemko’s blog. I assume that it is a trick question.
Time management is an important skill about which people have strong views. Tyler Cowen has previously written:
All people are equally good at time management, but some people are more willing than others to admit that they are doing what they want to do, while others maintain the illusion they wish they were doing something else.
Will Wilkinson disagrees. I stand between the two. I think it is often tempting to pretend that you are ‘not good at time management’ when you are either lazy or demotivated. But I also think that time management skills can be improved – primarily by adopting a relentlessly single-minded approach to your tasks, for example:
- Don’t live in your inbox
- Make most of your decisions quickly
- Never put anything down unfinished
These are goals I aspire to, rather than principles I uphold.
