What? Well, this morning I discovered that it takes me three minutes to put on hose. I boiled water in the microwave for that length of time and it took me the whole three minutes to put on my hose. Imagine my surprise! I thought it only took one minute. You may wonder what this has to do with organizing. Well...
making accurate time estimates helps us plan our day more effectively. If I asked you how long it takes to get ready in the morning, you might say 30 minutes. So as you plan when to leave your home, you plan in terms of 30 minutes to get ready. Imagine your surprise if it actually takes 45 minutes! No wonder you are always hurrying and running late. If you know it takes 45 minutes, then you can plan accordingly.
What about the time it takes to get to work? You might tell me 20 minutes. I will immediately disagree. While 20 minutes might be the door-to-door driving time, you have to get from your home into your car and once you arrive at the parking lot at work you have to park and walk into your office. My guess is that these additional activities take at least 5 minutes. That means that if you leave your home at 8:40am and you have a meeting at 9:00am, you will be late. Especially didn't you didn't plan time to get into the office and pick up whatever information you needed for the meeting.
So I suggest that you use a timer to time your most common activities. You might find it very revealing. You will probably also start to make better use of your time. Give it a try!
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