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Speed: Does Doing Things Faster
Some people would say that we are suckers for any product that looks like it will save us time. Unfortunately, too many times all these labor-saving devices just change the demands on us, and can actually end up costing us more time. Take some common household appliances as examples. According to industry research itself, the dishwasher doesn't really save any time at all, primarily because most people wash their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. If most people are honest about the dishwasher, it is a great place to store dishes while they dry. Also, there seems to be a tendency for most people to use more dishes because they don't think they have to wash them, so they spend extra time taking out service sets and then putting them away. The microwave oven certainly cooks faster, but cook so fast that in fact it is difficult to use the time it saves. I have personally observed people standing by the microwave anxiously peering inside for the minute and a half that something is heating. If the same dish were heating in a regular oven, most people would probably do something useful with the 15 minutes or so while they waited for the item to cook. One interesting way to view this phenomenon in your own life is to simply note how much time you spend waiting for your labor saving devices to do things for you. Most are so fast that it is hard to do anything extra with the so-called "saved" time. How much time have you spent waiting for your computer printer to disgorge a piece of paper? If you use your photocopy machine infrequently, how much time do you spend waiting for it to warm up? How much time do you spend waiting for your computer to boot up and shut down? Then there is the additional problem of managing all these
devices. Every time you buy anything with any degree of complexity to the
product, there are several demands on your time:
• some level of assembly; • filling in the registration card and returning it to the organization (basically, so they can do more marketing); • retaining the packaging; • saving the sales slip in case you need to return the device; • some sort of weekly/monthly/annual maintenance; • fueling requirements, such as batteries, paper, ink cartridges, etc.
With all the labor saving devices you currently own and use, do they give you more time for recreation, for leisure, for reading, for time with important people, for more sleep? Have you found yourself so surfeit with time, that you now can write poetry, play a musical instrument, take long hikes in the woods, and learn another foreign language? Probably not, if you honestly answer this question. Or, have all these time saving devices left you feeling more and more rushed, with less and less quality time for pursuing creative interests, whether personal or work? It's possible that we have become like the dog madly chasing its tail. The more time we save, the more time we need to save. The devices generate the need for more time saving devices. That in itself wouldn't be too bad. Dogs look like they enjoy their own tail chasing. Unfortunately, there seems to be an addictive quality that renders one unconscious about what we are actually doing with our time. And that can be dangerous, and certainly counterproductive to what these time saving machines are supposed to accomplish for us.
Please submit your questions to Time Manager Questions
and Answers. If you have questions, undoubtedly someone else has the same
question. By asking a question, you'll help a fellow Time Manager user
become more effective.
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