Una McDevitt reviews Slave to the Clock, Master of Time by Sean McLoughney published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. Price €19. Accountancy Ireland readers can avail of a 15% discount by quoting Accountancy Ireland Reader Offer when placing an order by
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Let me begin by asking you to conduct a little experiment. Ask ten colleagues the following question - ‘How are you?’ - and listen to their responses. Based on my own anecdotal evidence I would guess that the most common reply you will receive will not be a cheery ‘I’m fine, how are you?’ or ‘Not too bad, what about yourself?’ but will most likely be ‘I’m busy’!
We now seem to spend so much of our time being busy these days that busy has become the response to almost any question we’re asked. For example, Question: ‘How is work?’, Response: ‘Oh, very busy’, Question: ‘What are you doing this weekend?’, Response ‘I’m really busy’ and so on. The modern era has become an age where we have become ‘Slaves to the Clock’ and that slavery brings with it a range of negative consequences on our health, our well-being and our personal and professional lives
It would appear then that many of us need help in learning how to better use that precious, limited resource we call TIME in order to become ‘Masters of Time’. Sean Mc Loughney’s book then is a welcome new publication on this topic.
The book is an easy-to-read, self-help manual on how to debunk the seven myths that have sprung up around time management. Each chapter looks at a current myth around time management and then walks you through a step-by-step process on how to build a personal strategy to tackle that particular myth and give you time for personal and professional success. By the time you reach Myth (Chapter) 7 you are well on your way to becoming a ‘Master of your time’.
A word of caution here however lest you become carried away and believe that this book has magical powers and that simply by reading it you will solve all your time management issues. Not so. The book contains a wealth of common sense tips on ways to tackle the myths but you must be willing to put in the effort necessary to implement the tips. You must want to change your habits and must be committed to doing the work required to successfully get to your end destination. Each chapter challenges you around your own personal beliefs and habits in relation to time management. It is only by being totally honest in identifying your own bad habits that you can then identify ways to change the habits to create new, more effective habits.
Let’s take an example from the book, the ‘to-do list’ that we are all familiar with. This is Myth No. 2 according to the book and the chapter is entitled ‘To-do lists are the answer to my time management woes’. How many of you reading this feel yourself resonating with that sentiment? How many of you ever get to the bottom of your ‘to-do’ list?
Working through the chapter we find that the reason why to-do lists don’t work is largely because they are simply a list of tasks as they spring to mind, in no particular order and with no prioritisation system used to structure the list. The reason they fail is because we, the writer, fail to manage ourselves and others effectively and we allow the list to become over-long, over complicated and overwhelming!
Sean does not suggest that we get rid of ‘to-do’ lists totally. He does however suggest a way to use them more effectively. He re-brands the ‘to-do’ list as an ‘adding-value’ list and suggests that every task on the list should add value in some way to you, your boss or your organisation. The simple suggestions made force us to look more closely at why something is on the list and he goes on to suggest other questions we should ask ourselves when compiling our list so that the final list is a useful tool and not a useless one – as many current ‘to-do’ lists are.
In common with modern day time-management thinking, the book looks at building a strategy for both our personal and professional lives. We are all ‘whole’ beings and each chapter has a very useful section entitled ‘Introducing master of time to the home’.
I’ll conclude by returning to my earlier experiment. Are you one of those persons who answers ‘I’m busy’ when asked the question ‘How are you?’ If you are then this book is for you. If you are committed to taking the time and effort required to debunk each myth and build up your own personal strategy for changing old habits your life, both personally and professionally, will no doubt be the better for it. And next time we meet I look forward to your answer to my opening question, which will, of course, be ‘How are you?’!