The Value of Time

​The Value of Time
How to Find More of It​
by John G. Johnson
​

We use the concept of "time" to order our experiences and actives. However, when it comes to using time to enhance productivity some seem to have trouble. "'If only there were more hours in the day!...'; 'I don't have 'enough time!...' ; 'I can't afford to waste time!...'" etc. are some of the phrases we hear when it comes to the relationship with 'time' and persons wanting to be more productive. We even use monetary metaphors to express time's value (ex. have enough, waste, time is money, etc.) So if time is the currency of today -or one of the currencies - then we have to "invest in" and spend it wisely!" That being said, humans have devised all sorts of means and methods to either: "'control,' 'keep,' or 'measure,'" - time so it works for them. Some of these methods have proven to be useful, and have endured throughout "time", so to speak.
 
One such strategy for "getting the most value out of 'time'", manipulating it to your advantage, is the Urgent Importance Matrix (UIM). The UIM goes by many names, for example, the Eisenhower Matrix/Principle, because some claim the 36th.US President, Dwight Eisenhower, invented this method for being productive with one's time in order to get the most out of their day, week, month, or whatever the time-schedule one works with. A 1954 Eisenhower speech also credits him for this quote. But he (Eisenhower) attributed it to an unnamed university professor: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” So who is the source of the UIM? At this point, that's  not important.
 
What's 'important', and of value, are the results conducted on this popular productivity model. How to decide what's Urgent and Important versus a mix, which includes their opposite. The Results? "Our attention is drawn to time-sensitive activities over ones that are less urgent... even when the 'less urgent activity' offers greater rewards". Researchers call this the Mere Urgency effect! In other words, when you have a deadline, and no option for choice, that it must be handled, you get the task done, and do what you will with the other tasks such has setting them aside, or saying NO to doing them.
 
When it comes to time and productivity, it's not about wishing for more; it's about utilizing what already exists, appreciating and making each moment count - quality time. If you're always "busy", yet feel like you are just wasting your time, or have long-term goals, but can't give them neither the necessary time nor energy, or even have trouble delegating and/or saying NO to irrelevant tasks, then the UIM is perfect for you. It allows you to expand or contract time - well, the perception of it - to increase your productivity.
 
So how does the UIM work?
 
The UIM is easy to use. The four boxes are as follows:
 
Box 1 Not Urgent BUT Important (-, +)
Delegate
 
Box 2 Urgent AND Important (+, +)
(Do it immediately)
 
Box 3 Not Urgent AND Not Important (-, -)
(Say NO to task, or eliminate it)
 
Box 4 Urgent BUT Not Important (+, -)
(Decide when you will do it; commit it to your timeline to do at a later time)
 
Simply ask yourself the following questions and insert your tasks into their corresponding boxes and follow its instruction.
 
Box 2- "What's Urgent AND Important AND MUST get done?" Note the linguistic structure - the modal operators of necessity (Need to, Have to, Must etc.) and the linkage words "AND", "BUT" - at work here. It's important that they are used. Modal operators of necessity used imply a lack of choice; they motivate you to take care of the task. The linkage words used in the quadrant boxes and within the sentences balance and highlight the task's urgency, or lack thereof.
 
Box 1 "What's Not Urgent BUT Important?"
Box 3 "What's Not Urgent AND Not Important?"
Box 4 "What's Urgent BUT Not Important?"
 
We tend to generalize that "all" tasks are urgent and important; and that might be true. Yet, this is how we become "overwhelmed", concluding that everything is equal. Like all generalizations, these beliefs need to be challenged, tested for their validity. If unstable they'll fall into the appropriate category within the matrix. This is why the structure of the questions posed above, and how the linkage words are dispersed within each quadrant are vital.
 
Placing each task in their appropriate box has the added benefit of putting you more in control, extending time, making it (time) flexible to the point of giving you choices. So for those who say "I can't find the 'time'"(as if time got lost), the UIM will help you to find it - and an abundance of it, time, that is.
 
So..... "'If only there were more hours in the day!...'; 'I don't have 'enough time!...'", etc.[says who?]
 

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