Note 005: Time
Time is money... right?
Not always. This week I take a more nuanced view of Time, one that allows you as creator both the breathing room for invention, and deadline delivery ability to keep you in business.
I end with my Top-7 counterintuitive Time Management tips for Architects.
Not All Time Is Created Equal...
Note 005: Myths, confessions, strategies
They were both slapping their knees with laughter.
Tears rolling down cheeks, I had missed obviously missed something hilarious. A smile spread across my face, what happened, what did I miss?
Quite pleased with myself, arriving home a full 10 minutes earlier than estimated, I shook my father-in-laws hand and thanked him for collecting the kids after school, so we could quickly get ready to go out for dinner.
“Mate, I’ve got to let you in on something. She told me the key to getting you here on time is giving you a deadline 30 minutes before the actual deadline, knowing you will 100% be late. Hahahahaha!”
Hilarious. But it had worked, apparently for years, unbeknownst to me.
Where they right??Did I really have no concept of time?
Time is money
Or so the saying goes.
These questions are very real to the creative professional. I battle, wrestle and dance with them every day. Let’s try and unravel this conceptual knot.
If I have learnt anything from 20 years of being creative, inventing solutions, and resolving problems across different deadline landscapes, some low stakes, some extremely high stakes, it is this.
Not all time is equal.
Industrialism
Time does in fact equal money.
Industrial Era?principles taught us to increase efficiency (how quickly you can complete your known, repeatable, billable tasks), minimise overheads (costs such as salaries, studio rent, software licensing, printing) and presto! - instant profit:
Revenue – Expenses = Profit.
Processes in that mindset therefore are optimised to always look for faster delivery -?woochi! (< whip cracking sound?), less deliverables and cheaper labour.
Think Henry Ford on the?Model-T?factory line.
There is an obvious challenge here in creating beautiful, original, inventive, detailed architecture
The simple answer is to produce mass produced, repeatable, cheap drawings. But that's not me, and as part of our tribe here?I doubt that is you.
Let’s take a more nuanced view of Time, one that allows you as creator both the breathing room for invention, and deadline delivery ability to keep you in business.
Golden hour
Time Type A > Invention
This, as all creatives know is a very special, elusive type of time. The holy grail.
I always referred to this special, often late night place, as being in the?zone, management theorist’s describe it as?flow state, but I think my favourite was a term coined by Scotty, my 1st ADAD graduate employee, in honour of it usually occurring for us very late at night.
How do you know you are in your Golden Hour?
Well, for me, a sense of actual time has disappeared, and probably has for some minutes or hours beforehand – who knows I’ve lost track – but something has?clicked.
Those multiple design parameters; the tension between concept and resolution; between section and plan, across junction and?parti,?you just have the answer – or more to the point, you have the?direction?of the answer.
Beautiful.
Anyway, we are not here to describe being in the?zone, but it is very important to cultivate the most favourable possible physical parameters to allow it to happen.
And once you are in there let nothing pull you out.
Zone-time
To all that know me well, It will surprise you that we have come all the way to note 005 without a single?David Lynch?or?The Simpsons?analogy for these written life lessons so far. Lets fix that now.
David Lynch often describes reading Robert Henri’s?The Art Spirit?early in his creative practice, pre-film when he was mostly painting as having a large influence on him. There is one line he repeats that I?100% agree with. To paraphrase (both artists):
“If you want to get 1 hours good painting in, you need 4 hours of uninterrupted time”
I live by this rule, and protecting that space.
My very important addition to the advice is this, your 1-hour?In-Zone?design time may come earlier, but if you are 2 hours in and you have not yet hit it and are interrupted, you go back to stage 1. Do not pass go.
Psychologically, this is an extreme form of?switching costs?but for the purpose of this note, I’ll boil my advice from the battlefield down to this:
Protect your design time in?the Zone?with your life. Turn off notifications, email, phone on silent, no chance of interruption.
This does not mean every day, or every project, but for me though I insist on this initially for every new project, new site, new concept, and new ideas.
Time-block out, on your calendar, when and how you will cultivate your?Golden Hour?mental space.
Production-time
Time Type B> Production
When outside the Zone, I am?ruthless?in being self-aware of where I am within each project stage, and where I am within each sub task of each project stage.
Because the?yin?needs the?yang.
We are creative professionally here, so what we are striving for is dancing between precious moments of design exploration, then ruthless times of production.
We need to create wonderful ideas:?Value Creation, but?must also?deliver on our deadlines,?Value Delivery.?The Zone?cannot exist without?Production.
I also find this exciting depending on the project, crank the music, produce and resolve. Sections following on form your nailed-plan. Vice versa. Window schedules from your resolved elevations. All threshold details from that one special one you invented. And so on.
Production Time / v Zone Time?is what I allude to with my Mantra?Protect your Process?in?Note 002: Fees, where my strategy for concept work especially is to ensure I have the time blocked, to work hard, unbothered, for the magic to happen
Seasons
You probably already know when you do your best work, when you have a higher chance of entering?the zone.
领英推荐
For me, this has changed during different life stages.
During my university days, I was a total night owl - all the creative gold came very late
Lectures, tutorials, socialising and surfing throughout the day, it was not until deep into the night that I tended to do my best work. Architects were even known for this kind of sleepless life, the struggling artist?myth,?which while I would not trade my personal experience for the world - it is not healthy long term, and not what I do now, and not what I would recommend.
And now?
Now, I am a super-early riser - all the creative gold comes very early
What happened?
I would love to say that after extended periods of mediation and reflection, I rejected overwork and began to live a balanced, calm life. Not quite…
In January, exactly 2 months after completing 5th year architecture, was the birth of our 1st daughter. The bright side regarding work, (I tell myself), is that sliding directly from 5 years no sleep into parenthood meant I never had a good nights sleep to miss!
Parenthood, family, and work life balance will be a whole other Note (possibly many) in the future.
Paralysis
One of the?best?things about running your own practice is that no will tell you what to do, ever again.
One of the?worst?things about running your own practice is that no will tell you what to do, ever again.
My advice for when you don’t know how to start… Just start. Don’t know where to start? Just start anywhere.
Don’t get anxious, remember, time is not created equal and meditating on the correct way to approach a new problem, is squarely suited to?zone?time.
When Harry Margalit first taught me how to set up hand-drawn 2-point perspectives as a first year architecture student 20 years ago, he gave me advice that I literally use every day, my staff and students are sick of hearing it, even my kids are sick hearing it when they are stuck in almost any life problem.
“Work from the known, to the unknown.”
It is total myth that you must invoke the?muse,?have inspiration strike before you take action. Do the work first, inspiration comes as a result of doing the work, then it is a virtuous cycle.
Another hack that I employ for myself in those times you just aren’t feeling it - jump into something else. The beauty and curse of running a practice is that there are always 1,000 items that need attending, and batching these into production vs invention groups is important.
I even have a name for this productive-slipping across tasks and projects:?Productive Procrastination.
If I am stuck on a design-turn in one project (creation / invention), I’ll have a breather by attacking a rote-documentation piece (door and window schedule), or even a tender analysis or proposal preparation, to dive into spreadsheeting and number problems - problems with objectively correct solutions and answers before returning.
I will inevitably get fatigued from the number crunching, but I am knocking off those essential tasks and very often the subconscious has been whirring away on the inventive solution for me.
Like a little invisible creative army hiding on our brains, working only when we are not paying attention to them
Time management reframed - my top 7 tips for architects
1. When is your Time?
Are you a?night owl?or a?kookaburra? Block out a 4-hour window against all intruders at one point each week, per project in early design phases.
2. Golden Time
Your time in the?zone?is number 1. Production is wasted if the concept is not rock solid. And it must be continuous. Notifications off. Hold my calls. Zone time. Now relax, once here, this time is not to ever be micromanaged or rushed.
$$$-Alert: refer back to?Note 2 Fees: I?protect my (design) process?by building a lump sum in around these time-blocked nuggets of joy (1. Concept Design (all), 4. Construction Documentation (key invented details)
3. Production Time
Ruthlessly crush your?production?work, music up, coffee on, get into the work, enjoy!
$$$-Alert: refer back to?Note 2 Fees: I?protect my (production) process?by ruthlessly quantifying the known parts of the process that are known (3. Development Application (all), 4. Construction Documentation (most), 6. Full Contract Administration
5. Time starts now
Just Start.
4. When Time drags…
Switch:?Productively Procrastinate
6. When Time snags…
Work from the known to the unknown
7. And most importantly, Deadline Time
Hit your deadlines?- this may mean massive nights leading up to the finish line (for you creative director, not your staff, respect their work life balance above all else)
And remember, if all else fails, you can always bring your clocks forward half an hour :)
Do you have any awesome time-management strategies that have worked for you? I’d love to hear them!
See you soon,
Andrew Donaldson
One more thing before you go to enjoy your weekends: I cant believe we are 5 notes in now, thanks so much for all your feedback, kind words and support! Truly.
I have only invited the small bunch of you I know personally so far to this experiment, bus as it seems to be providing some of you with real value - why not share it with another friend who may be considering taking the plunge?
:)
Note 005 done and dusted!
Please give me any feedback whatsoever on this experiment, I would love to hear from you - after all, this is for you :)
PS - if you have a friend, colleague, or archi-buddy that you think would benefit from Andrew’s Notes, please feel free to send this to them or share with the button below: - lets grow this tribe :)
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