flexagon | Managing commitments (the last post from the last airplane)

Read an interesting article recently, the full text is online if you are a member: Managing Time by Peter J. Denning. Weirdly, it's not about managing time. Lack of time is the symptom, not the problem , he says. Oh. Really? Tell me more!

Turns out life is difficult.

Time is one of the resources needed to manage commitments. Other resources, such as money, space and personnel, may be needed as well. From now on, let us talk about commitment management.

…we need to know only four things. I'll call them practices because you can learn them as skills…

1. How to track commitments to their completions;
2. How to choose what commitments to make or decline;
3. How to organize the conversations that lead to completions of commitments; and
4. How to manage mood and capacity.

These four practices go together. If we pay attention to only one, we will see some headway but not a lasting solution to our problem.

Books have been written about each one, obviously. He might have said:
1. Getting Things Done
2. First Things First
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People and Getting to Yes
4. The Way We're Working Isn't Working

And I'm sure that tons of people have it almost all together, and any one of those books could be the last piece they need to become happy, super-effective dynamos. But to really see it listed out that you need ALL those skills to get anything done -- and after you've utilized all of them you need time, money, space, and people -- is interesting. And daunting.

The same article recommends adding up how many hours of the week you spend on different activities, along with how many you'd need to do those activities well. People who feel productive and satisfied usually do not spend more than 60-80 hours per week on professional commitments, it says. Geez, I should hope not.