I want to expand on my note a few weeks ago on 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. (This is part of my ongoing quest to identify why quality is seen as something separate that many feel they don’t have time for.) The main ideas I’m taking away so far are:
- There’s a problem with the “big rocks” analogy: There’s too many rocks to fit in the jar, and the jar is of a finite size.
- No matter what time management system we put in place, the faster we get through our tasks, the faster new tasks show up – and we still never get to the tasks that we actually want to work on (or that we should be working on). For example, the faster we answer email – thinking that we can “focus on what’s important” only after we achieve Inbox Zero – the faster more emails come in that “need” answering. (I believe “need” in the context of email is relative, however there are exceptions.)
- There’s an infinite number of tasks that we could be doing on the job. We need to choose which ones we will do over others, and be comfortable with that discomfort of not doing the other things.
For the teams claiming they don’t have time for certain tasks (quality, schedule, safety, or otherwise), dig into “why” they choose to do certain tasks that they do. Next time you talk with one of your project teams and they tell you they don’t have time, rephrase the question in your mind (perhaps not directly to them): “Why are they choosing to do other things?” They most likely won’t be aware that they are choosing other things as they are trying to navigate the daily pressures of the jobsite.
- Where is the friction in the process?
- What tasks would they be comfortable not completing?
- How can you coach them on how to decide what tasks to work on?
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