“People never seemed to notice that, by saving time, they were losing something else. No one cared to admit that life was becoming even poorer, bleaker and more monotonous… But time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart. And the more people saved, the less they had.”
- Excerpt from Momo by Michael Ende
If you’re looking for a good book to read, I always recommend Momo. The book is hard to find because it was originally written in German, but Amazon usually carries it. I won’t spoil the plot in case you do wish to read the book, but generally speaking the story involves our curious relationship as humans with time. Even though Momo is usually classified as a children’s book, it contains some of the deepest wisdom I have ever read. I love this book because it reminds me that the key to time is not in time management, as if we mere mortals could really do such a thing, but rather in how we value our relationships and life itself.
All of us struggle with fitting enough into a day. Based on a recent employee survey at my company, a lot of my organization struggles with feeling like priorities have been set with unrealistic expectations, or they feel that they cannot maintain a reasonable balance between their personal life and work life. As a manager whose job begins with ensuring that my employees have what they need to succeed, these numbers trouble me. I want to do something like offer classes in maximizing personal productivity through Microsoft Outlook or give everyone a Franklin Covey calendar and a copy of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Indeed, I highly recommend this book (not as much as Momo). But I think something much deeper is afoot in our modern workplace that cannot be conquered through better productivity and communication.
I think we are losing our ability to value work, relationships, and play for what they simply are. We are so busy saving time, racing to deadlines, and squeezing out that little bit of extra effort that we are losing our ability to focus on the task right in front of us and to complete it. More troubling, we are losing the ability to value the person right in front of us. It’s as if each of us is compelled by some external force to garner more resources and attention, and since there aren’t enough of these to go around, we try that much harder to hoard what cannot be captured. We then spend too little time actually doing what we need to get done, thereby reinforcing our perception that we need to garner more resources.
If this sounds familiar, here’s my advice: STOP! No one ever de-cluttered their life with incremental steps. No one ever built trust with an email or a planning meeting. No one ever really lives in Outlook. Time is life itself. Choose to enjoy the time you have right NOW. Choose to listen. Choose to laugh. Choose to not worry. Be clear about what you are doing, and just do that. Do not worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
You can never ever go wrong by being clear with yourself (and your boss and your team) about what you will do today. But today is about more than just work. It’s your time to live.
- Mark Gardner