One of the common refrains in productivity culture is that “everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day.”
The implication is generally that we should be better at time management.
This approach is based on a premise that the same task takes everyone the same amount of time, which is simply not true.
Just like some people run a marathon in 2 hours and some people run it in 5, the same task can take different people different amounts of time.
The real key to “time management” is time allocation: to allocate the right amount of time to a task.
The real key to “time management” is time allocation: to allocate the right amount of time to a task.
To allocate time well is to understand how long something will take. How long it takes to do something can depend on several factors.
Here are the 5 main factors that influence how long a task will take.
(1) Timing
At the most basic level, the question of “how long” it takes to do something is really a question of “when” you’re doing it.
When I leave my house at 5 am to go to the gym, it takes 10 minutes. If I leave my house at 8 am, it can take 15–20 minutes.
It’s a simple example that proves the point: how long it takes to get somewhere depends on what time you go.
The same applies for our work. You’re better at doing certain tasks in the morning as opposed to the afternoon or evening.
Although I usually workout very early in the morning, that’s actually not the best time for my body to exercise. I like driving to the gym when no cars are on the road, but at 5:30 am my body needs more warm-up and mobility before a workout than I need at 8:30 or 9 am.
There’s a lot of virtue signaling around people who wake up at the crack of dawn and get to their office by 8 am or earlier. For a long time, I felt like I was “lazy” for not meeting that standard. Then I remembered that when I worked as an attorney early in my career, I typically arrived at the office at 9:30 am and usually started my work around 10 am.
Our bodies and minds follow certain rhythms. We have the circadian rhythm that sets the cycle for activities on the daily schedule. Within the day, we also have ultradian rhythms, which are cycles of about 90 minutes.
These rhythms govern bodily functions, body temperature, and brain activity.
Knowing your rhythms and what times are best for you to do certain tasks can help you plan the right task for the right time.
(2) Tools and Resources
Even if you’re attempting to do something at the best time for that tasks, how long it takes will depend on the tools and resources available to you.
Using my example from above, it would take me longer to get to the gym if I was walking or taking public transportation. On the other hand, if I were going somewhere in New York City, the car might be the slowest form of transportation.
If you’re making cookies, it will generally take you less time if you use an electric mixer than if you mix by hand.
When it comes to your work, consider what tools and resources are available to you that could shorten the task time.
Your primary resource is your energy. A cognitive task will take a lot longer if you’re exhausted or in a brain fog, saddled with grief over a loss, in physical pain, or in a state of emotional upheaval.
Beyond your energy, consider other tools and resources available to you: What technology tools help you in your work? Where can you rely on templates or pre-prepared materials to speed up a task?
Don’t forget other people: teamwork, collaboration, assistants, and even AI can help us do things faster.
For tasks that you repeat often, one of the best resources is a solid system that you can rely on.
(3) Outside Interference
One of the reasons it takes longer to drive to the gym at 8:30 is traffic: at 5 am, no cars are on the road. By 8:30, there is more traffic. At a particular corner, I might be at a stop sign for a full 5 minutes.
In fact, one of the reasons I often do my morning work session at the gym after my workout is so that I don’t interrupt my creative flow with the outside interference of traffic — and the frustration that creates for me.
It’s a strategy that falls under both time management and emotional management.
Outside interference can take many forms, including traffic, other people, pings from your phone, alarms, weather, sounds, smells, and other stimulants or distractions.
Even a 2 minute interruption can take 20 minutes to recover from, stretching out the time of a task.
One thing to recognize here is that, sometimes, some forms of “outside interference” can actually help us stay on track and help us do a task more effectively. It’s important to get clear for yourself on when you need that interference and when it will be disruptive.
More on this another time.
(4) Skills
This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to overlook: if you don’t have the skills necessary to do the task, it can take you a lot longer to do it.
Imagine you’re baking a cake and the recipe calls for folding egg whites into the batter. If you don’t know how to do this, you’ll have to stop and look up how to do it, extending the time of your task.
The same applies to any type of work. A “simple” update to a website might be a 10 minute task for one person and 2-hour task for someone else.
Even if you have the skills, your level of fluency in those skills can impact timing. Consider how you read an article now compared to how long it took you to read a sentence when you first learned to read.
Building fluency in skills is crucial to doing things more effectively.
Understanding the skills involved in a task and assessing your skill level can help you determine how long the task might take you. And if you don’t have the skills, this might be a good place to call in some resources to help you do it more effectively.
(5) Inner Distractions
Perhaps the biggest variable of all is the inner distractions. It takes a lot longer to do things if you’re battling your inner critic, plagued by self-doubt, perfectionism, fear of failure, or other mental chatter.
If your mind is caught up in worry about other things in your life, or situations beyond your control, you can’t be present to what you’re doing.
Resistance in all its forms can be a heavy weight to push against in doing any task, extending the time it takes to get it done.
In addition, the inner distractions often become a gateway we use to seek out outer distractions, like email, social media, and other forms of escape. Then we get saddled with emotions from those distractions that can create new inner distractions.
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