This is the title of a blog post by Elise Keith of Lucid, wherein she explores timescouting as applied to meetings. Two of my favorite topics at once, no wonder i like it!
Europeans Unplug
According to this article, the French have passed a “Right to Disconnect” law that “makes companies with more than 50 employees begin negotiations to define the rights of staff to ignore work-related messages on their smartphones once they have left the office,” while “In Germany they have already gone one step further to prevent burnout among employees by cutting email connections in the evening and even automatically destroying emails which are sent to staff when they are on holiday.”
Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule
This article by Paul Graham is so useful i just have to give a shout-out to it. “Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule” describes two types of time, and how the difference between them causes conflict. Maybe office hours are the solution to my problems?
I’m a fantastic manager—yet i yearn for maker time.
That first article relates to another by the same author from a few years earlier: “Good and Bad Procrastination.” He claims getting real work done requires blowing off errands and smaller work. Well, sure, i mean you can’t do everything at once, and it’s easy but unsatisfying to let the “urgent” crowd out the “important.” But is the absent-minded professor Graham puts on a pedestal really the best role model for accomplishing big, important things? This sounds like a patriarchal throwback, leaving me asking who is washing the professor’s dishes and raising the kids.
Graham says, “When I think of the people I know who’ve done great things, I don’t imagine them dutifully crossing items off to-do lists. I imagine them sneaking off to work on some new idea.” I both feel the truth of this and dispute it at the same time. Accomplishing huge and important things requires hanging in for the long haul, and a commitment to do whatever it takes to reach the goal shining in the distance. Whether Gandhi maintained to-do lists or not i don’t know, but he had a reputation for cleaning latrines at the ashram. In the projects i care most about, i field the balls no one else is catching, along with whatever else i am focusing on. Yet, if i do too much housecleaning and not enough of the fun stuff, i become crotchety and burned out.
Thus the question, as usual, is how to find balance.
Stepping Out
Tonight is the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. The darkness seems an appropriate moment to delve into deeper mysteries. What is time, and how can i shift my relationship with it?
My soul has been seeking a respite. “Respite,” from the old French, meaning “delay, respect.” Exactly. My soul wants a
delay
in the day-to-day
busyness business
of life.
My soul wants respect
meaning (from the Latin)
“to offer attention, consideration, regard
“to look back at
“to bend down on one knee toward.”
Yes.
timescout 