If you accused me of being a fanatic about Time or Project Management, I just might admit to that, provided there were no penalties. But unfortunately, under some circumstances, there are severe penalties. Being efficient for the mere sake of efficiency can be detrimental, and could paradoxically be diagnosed as a form of procrastination.

I have subscribed to many methodologies (and acronyms: e.g. PERT; GTD, being the latest), and have seen advocates take refuge in refining their meticulous methods to indeed escape what really needs to be done. Steve Pavlina made a very interesting observation:

“Time management systems are seductive. They lure you in with the promise of greater productivity, more free time, faster income generation, and higher self-esteem. And some of those benefits may indeed be realized. However, another possibility is that your system becomes a distraction that prevents you from achieving real gains. You find yourself investing more and more time in meta-activities like getting organized, prioritizing objectives, and learning the latest productivity software. Actually doing the tasks that your system is designed to manage becomes almost an afterthought . . . perhaps even an annoyance. Instead of helping you increase productivity, your system becomes a means to disguise low productivity. This is a common problem for people who haven’t yet identified a purpose for their lives. The system provides the illusion of productivity [ . . . ] How do you know you won’t look back on your current goals a decade from now and conclude that you were on the wrong path all along? What a waste of time and of life to put so much effort into achieving goals that ultimately won’t even matter.”

So what does this mean? It’s a wake-up call. Our goal of “be more efficient when working” needs to be re-examined, with the emphasis on the purpose of the work behind the “working.” In brief, we should be more concerned about “doing the right thing than doing things right.” [ibid.]

Priority and urgency levels should not be confused with degrees of purpose in life. To test the meaningfulness of any given purpose, I ask myself how much of my love is involved. The acid test of theory perhaps boils down to: am I doing what I love? and loving what I am doing? Once the love is there, then I believe efficiency becomes a mere by-product of my complete absorption into the (Csikszentmihalyi) “Flow.”