Proactive Time Management: Defrag Your Time, Fragment Your Tasks

I will approach time management through a metaphor: how your computer’s hard disk gets “fragmented” through repeated usage and what happens when you “defragment” it.

If you think this is going to be technical, don’t worry. It’s not. What attracts me to this metaphor is not the technology. It’s the visual.

The “defrag” program visualizes the hard disk as a rectangular space made up of many, many little squares. Some of them are empty, and some of them are filled with a color (there are several colors reflecting different types of information).

As the program performs its function — defragmenting the disk –the little colored cases move inside the grid.

When the work is done, you have a neat arrangement where all the cases of a given color are near each other. And the empty cases are now all grouped together into a vast contiguous space, instead of being scattered among the colored cases throughout the grid.

Now, why would we want to do that to our computer?

Putting all the relevant information together and leaving a vast amount of empty space where the computer’s processor can roam freely helps the computer work more efficiently.

Defragment Your Time

You’re getting my drift by now: Defragmenting your time will help you work more efficiently. How do you do that?

First, it helps to be aware of the extent to which your time is fragmented.

You’re probably so accustomed to how you work that you probably take it for granted that this is the only way to do things. I suggest you start paying attention to what happens in the course of a day’s work.

Pay attention to those moments when you’re in the middle of something and get interrupted. What is it?
Coworkers popping through your door?
Phone calls?
Pings signaling new emails?

Observe what happens during these interruptions:
- Are you struggling to be in two places at the same time, with the work you were immersed in, as well as with the person who interrupted you?
- Or are your thoughts wandering far away from that work?

Observe what happens after the interruptions:
- Is it easy for you to get back into the flow of what you were doing?
- Or does it take quite a while to get back into it?

Are there, maybe, some self-inflicted interruptions? For instance, when you decide to check your email while you’re in the middle of writing something?

Observe what happens right as you decide to interrupt yourself. Use your emotional intelligence to ask yourself what this is about.

As you become more aware of these interruptions’ toll on your work, you will want to manage them better — i.e., defragmenting your time.

Fragment Your Tasks

The reality of your work situation may be that there are definite limits to what you can do to defragment your time.

I am very aware that you’re not working in isolation and that a lot of what happens during the day depends on other people. So, assertiveness has limits.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up on managing your time.

Let’s go back, for a moment, to the images of the computer’s hard disk:

A grid is full of little cases, some of which are colored (i.e., full) and others are blank. There’s no real pattern, and the blank cases are scattered throughout the grid.

In other words, to risk another analogy, instead of an ocean of free time, you just have a lot of little puddles and ponds of free time.

If you have a large project that would normally require an ocean of free time to be adequately dealt with, you’re probably experiencing a lot of frustrations as you try to squeeze it into the puddles and ponds of time you have.

You must stop every time you start gaining momentum, and then when you start again, you must ramp up again.

I suggest that you defragment your project into little pieces that can fit within the puddles and ponds of time you have.

Let’s say, for instance, that you have a big report or presentation to prepare.

Start by transforming this big assignment into a series of questions that have to be addressed.

Now, when you have a moment, you’re not dealing with the whole big thing, you’re dealing with a smaller unit that is manageable within the smaller units of time you have.

Again, I want to acknowledge that this may be easier said than done. If it were so easy, you’d probably be doing it already. But it can be done, and it’s well worth the effort.

A Proactive Approach

I fully understand that managing your time is not as simple as running a software program to defragment your hard disk.

It takes assertiveness:
Focusing on your priorities.
Taking charge of your agenda.

Remember:
We are talking about “managing” time,
as opposed to “being managed”.

Time management problems are often a sign of some difficulties with assertiveness.

The reward is not just that you will be more productive. Equally important is the satisfaction of putting more of yourself into your work.