Take the time to work, for it is the price of success.
Take the time to think; it is the source of strength.
Take the time to play; it is the secret of youth.
Take the time to read; it is the seed of wisdom.
Take the time to be.friendlv, for it brings happiness.
Take the time to dream; it will carry you to the stars.
Take the time to love; it is the joy of life.
Take the time to be content; it is the music of the soul.
(Original Irish Text)

Real Time and Mental Time
The time that we set aside for a task is usually a mental limitation; in fact our own minds put limitations on our time. How does this happen? We mostly `think' that we need three hours to do a particular job, so what do you think happens? Surprise, surprise, the job does take three hours to complete. Do you find it difficult to accept that we can affect how long it takes to do a job, just by thinking about it?

So, what is mental time`? It is time as it is represented in our minds, as we visualise it, as opposed to real time. For instance, what seems longer to you: five seconds with your fingers caught in the car door, or five minutes under a warm shower'? A night of love and passion, or half an hour in the queue at the bank'?

There is an astonishing difference between real time and mental time. Real time is continuous, fixed. Mental time is flexible, extendable in relation to our needs, our desires, our emotions, perceptions etc. This hypothesis takes us perfectly to Parkinson's first law of time:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Just think about it. If your boss gives you a week to do a job, you usually take a week to do it. And if he gives you two weeks, you will probably take two weeks to complete the same job. So, what does Parkinson's first law prove? We almost always take as much time as we are given to complete a job.

Think about the following situation, as told by C. Northcote Parkinson. It tells of a marquise who needed a whole day to write a letter.

First it took her an hour to go and buy the paper. She got home and started jotting down ideas, for her letter. Which took another hour. Then she started making corrections, which took another hour. Then she stopped for lunch. Another hour. After which she got back to her letter.

She read it over, but she wasn't satisfied She started writing again from scratch, which took half the afternoon. She had to hurry to the post office before it closed. But she couldn't find the address. Horn tiresome! She searched frantically. And finally found the address. She only had five minutes to run to the post office, where she finally posted the letter.

And she went back home, exhausted but happy: happy in the satisfaction of a job well clone and a clan well spent. 'Whoever said that a marquise's life is an easy one? 'she asked herself. `People just don't understand'

Could you be a Parkinson's marquise without knowing it?
Now, really examine that story. For hidden in it are virtually all the clues you will need if you are ever going to manage your time effectively. Why did she need a whole day to do something relatively simple? Was she particularly slow? No. She was slow in a way, but that is not the real reason. Was it because the letter she had written was twenty pages long? No. She only wrote two and a half pages. Well, was it because the letter was so important, written to a very important person? No. The letter was to an old friend. So why did it take her so long to write a simple letter'!

Simply, because of Parkinson 's law. The marquise had a whole day at her disposal, so it took all day to write the letter. That's all.

Think about this. It is precisely because a busy man has many things to do, that he can find the time to do many things, and also seems able to find the time to do a little extra. Is there a Parkinson marquise in each of us, which we are unaware of?

If you are overloaded with work - and I know you are - is it not because you systematically take too much time to do what you do? And if you take too much time, is it not because you think that you need that time, and so extend your deadlines?

Ask yourself. `What would happen if I had half as much time as I thought to do a job?' The first stage would be to cut down on the time that you spend thinking. It's most often that part of the work that takes up most of the time. There are other ways of looking at it, but what we usually don't realise is that we rarely spend all the allotted time actually working; and if we work to an extended deadline, in fact only a small part of that time is put to productive use. Given a day to do something, it is usually only in the last hour that we are really productive. This portion of the day is almost always the most productive, and by far.

Now think about this. Imagine that you had only 20 hours a week to do everything it now takes you 40 to complete:

- You would not have to work any harder. Even very successful people use only half or a third of their time working at their optimum level.
- Re-evaluate the real importance of each task. Everything that is not indispensable is useless.
- Re-estimate the time that really has to be allotted for the tasks that you have retained. When doing your evaluation - remember mental limitations!

Push this idea to its extreme. If you had, not half but one-third of the time, what would you do?

Remember that people who succeed in their chosen field are always asking themselves this question: What can 1 do in one hour? Be conscious of Parkinson's law. Take a deadline that you are used to allotting yourself and chop it in half. Look at the results. If there is time available, go a step further. Take it seriously - play it for real.

A word of caution: never cut a deadline so fine that it causes you to feel stressed. If you seriously employ this system, it is likely that you will at first overstretch. This is normal so don't worry. Advancing deadlines is a game; by all means take it seriously, but only up to a point, but think of it as a game. Why? Because successful people are able to maintain a certain distance from what they do. Therein lies the secret of balance - and success, because one does not go without the other.

The Pareto Secret
If you are employing the idea of cutting deadlines, and thereby giving yourself less time to complete tasks, why not try out the theory of putting only 20% of your effort to obtain 80% results.

The Pareto principle, when applied to time, states that 20% of your time determines 80% of your production. In considering this principle remember this: results come from doing the right thing, not doing things right (Peter Drucker). In other words, you should aim to be effective, not just efficient.

Wilfredo Pareto observed that 20% of the population of Italy controlled 80% of the material wealth. This proportion was extended to other areas by other specialists, and found to be equally true:

- 20% of your priorities result in 80% of your profitable productivity
- 20% of a newspaper contains 80% of its news
- At home, 80% of dirt is found in 20% of the total area
- 20% of the workforce does 80% of the work

The Pareto principle can be applied to dozens of other areas. Consider the effects of the 80:20 equations upon your personal and professional life. Effectiveness and the Pareto principle go hand in hand. If you are not aware of the Pareto principle, or you choose to ignore it, then it is unlikely that you will ever be truly effective.

The most useful - and the most ignored - application of the principle is the following: 20% effort produces 80% effect. By the same token, if 20% of your activity produces 80% of your results, why not reduce or actually cut out the other 80% -just imagine how much more time that would give you. To do what? More effective work activity - or more free time with those you love.

Used intelligently, it will help improve your effectiveness considerably. But you can never be truly effective if you do not know precisely what you want to do with your life - professionally, socially, in your family life, etc. Knowing what you want, having well-defined long-term goals, is the key to becoming effective and to becoming successful. If you do not know why you do something, or a series of things, you cannot progress, you cannot determine your priorities. Having a precise goal allows you to simplify your life enormously. How? It makes decision making easy!

Where is the proof? If you are presented with a choice, each time you have to make a decision concerning a job or an offer someone makes, ask yourself: `How does this offer or this job get me closer to my goal?' or `Does this task get me closer to my goal?' Now link it to a series of questions: `How does this job get me closer to my goal?' 'Is the investment in time worth it?' 'If the time investment is too much, is there any other way, task or job that would bring me closer to attaining my goal more rapidly and effectively?' And ask yourself:

At this moment, how can I use my time to the best possible advantage? (Lakein)

You are not making the best use of your time unless you are moving closer to your goal. Generally speaking, we only excel at the things we like doing.

Even More Effective Time Management
Most of us, from time to time, tend to allow either too much or too little time to do the things that we need to do. And we either operate on a basis of being too optimistic or act over cautiously. If you usually lack time, ask yourself if you have been strict enough about interruptions. Did you correctly assess all the fundamentals involved in completing the job? Remember this: The accuracy of your estimate for a given task is inversely proportional to the number of people involved in accomplishing it.

So, in other words, the more people involved in completing the task, the more chances there are for delays, the larger the delays will be, and therefore more time must be allotted at the beginning.

For this reason, whenever you can delegate a task to one person instead of a team, do it! And when you evaluate a task, keep Parkinson's Law in mind: Work expand so as to fell the time available for its completion.

Once you become reasonably accurate in estimating how long most tasks take to complete, you will be able confidently to plan each day with a reasonable amount of certainty. Be ambitious, but avoid overloading yourself.

Most of us enjoy the buzz of having a full and productive day and to finish the working day with the positive feeling of having achieved something, of having done what was necessary. I am sure that we all obtain great satisfaction when we are able to cross out the last `to do' item on our daily plan.

But, be careful. Only plan a realistically achievable number of tasks (say 10), and do not do more than you planned to do. On the other hand do not do less than you planned. Use the extra time to savour your success - and you will find that it is one of the best motivational drugs!

How much time should we plan?
If you want to get through all the items on your daily plan, you should on-programme 60% of your time - some experts say only 50%. There will always be unpredictable events during the day- emergencies, interruptions, fatigue, or loss of concentration. Trying to plan down to the last minute is usually unrealistic, at best naive. For instance, it would be foolhardy to set up four half-hour appointments in a twohour period, without allowing at least a few minutes to look over the relevant paperwork.

I find that it is worthwhile to carry out a mini review every day before finishing work. How did the day go? Did I do everything that I planned to do? What did I not do and why?

The basic rule for me is: Finish each task before going on to the next. As far as is humanly possible, ensure that you do not get side-tracked. This will prevent you from getting too `spread out'. It will also help you to avoid having to `get back into' a file that you have not worked with for some time: getting re-started, familiarising yourself with the information, preparing the material again, etc. all eat into large amounts of valuable time.

If you underestimate the time needed to complete a job, you may be forced to leave it and move on to something else. Remember this: Memory is what is left when everything else has been forgotten.

- So set priorities based upon:
- Degree of urgency
- Predicted duration
- Deadline

Checklist:
1. Plan no more than ten items per day.
2. Divide complex and demanding activities into more easily programmable sub-activities.
3. Learn to make accurate estimates of the time needed for each task.
4. Be ambitious, but do not overload yourself.
5. Plan only 60% of your day.
6. Revise your plan regularly.
7. Finish each task before moving on to the next.

The efficiency curve - the importance of it
The study of bio-rhythms, the biological cycles of organisms, has shown that although each individual has a personal rhythm there are numerous similarities among human beings.

Research has shown that the general rule is: maximum productivity is achieved at around loam. By the way (and generally speaking, of course) this level is not achieved at any other time of the day, whatever you may think.

After lunch, especially if it was a little on the liquid side, the curve gets pretty low. There is, however, a slight surge as we move towards the end of the afternoon, between 4 and 6pm, which in some cases can be extended to around 8pm.

How to determine your own personal efficiency curve
Observe yourself over the next few days. At what point throughout the day do you feel at your intellectual best? At what point does your energy peak'? By becoming aware of your personal rhythm you will increase your effectiveness and stop wasting time.

Personal checklist:
- You will not dedicate your best morning hours to reading the mail or writing routine memos, etc., things that demand very little concentration and which you could do at some other time of the day when your energy is lower.
- You will systematically reserve your high performance for your most demanding tasks.
- You will not struggle with a difficult task when your energy is low, for two very good reasons. It will take you three times as long to do something half as good and you will become frustrated, which in itself is counterproductive.
- You will avoid getting impatient when things do not go quite as you would prefer. You will accept that it might be better to come back to a difficult problem when your energy curve is at a higher level.

Despite the best-laid plans, the unexpected can occur. Emergencies arise, systems crash, or the `simple' job turns out to be a real stinker. So, how are we supposed to keep on top of things?

The answer is simple. Never over extend yourself. Allow yourself frequent pauses, take time off regularly, and plan your relaxation activities as seriously as you plan your so called important tasks.

Working for too long and too hard is valueless. We reach saturation point very quickly, without being aware of the fact. The average person should not work for more than one hour at a stretch without taking a break. Why? We lose concentration.
Lothar J. Seiwart, in his book Master Your Own Time, cites the result of a medical study on productivity over 60-minute periods of concentration. After 20 minutes concentration has dropped to 70%, at 30 minutes it is 60%. It rallies slightly at around 45 minutes to 68% before plummeting to zero at 60 minutes.

Does your conscience bother you if you take the occasional break'? Or if you do not work long hours at a stretch? You probably think you have more stamina than other people. You can hack it! It's a long-hours job! The others are just a bunch of wimps!

Be careful. How are you going to know you are working too hard, that you are abusing your strength, if you don't take the time to find out'?

The best test is your mood. As long as you are in a good mood, patient, and as long as you can carry out your work with a pleasant attitude, without forcing yourself too much, then you have not gone beyond your limits.

But, and it is a very important but, if you are easily, or even worse, constantly stressed, impatient and short tempered, or if you feel exhausted or depressed, then you are definitely abusing your resources of energy. You should then take the necessary corrective measures before you start abusing your health.

Two very important points:
1. Do not overestimate your strength.
2. Ask yourself this question all the time: `Are all these hours of work really useful'? Couldn't I obtain the same results with less effort?'

In other words, learn to put on the breaks.

If you are tired, if you cannot see your way out of a problem, if you are gnashing your teeth and getting increasingly frustrated - STOP! Take a break. Take steps to define your objectives, establish your priorities, etc. until your new working plan fits in with the amount of time you have available to do effective, creative work. Then you will be ready to seize any new opportunity that might arise.

Note:
John Clark, Dip. SM, MISMA, MIHPE left the corporate life in 1998 to pursue his own career in stress management.
Email: mailto:john@john-clark.freeserve.co.uk