Time management is pain management

If you read a book about effective leadership or how to be an effective executive, you will quickly come across the pearl of wisdom, how time is the most precious resource. Once time is spent, it can not be recovered. Distraction is often the biggest waster of our time, yet we get distracted all the time. Knowing we all get distracted, wouldn't it be wise to have more tools and techniques to avoid being distracted? We even have people whose job it is, to help us manage time, and actually track it in a documented plan, the Project Manager. One could say the project manager is actually the pain manager.

Even Socrates spoke about akrasia, which was the greek term for distraction. I doubt he was distracted by cellphones or YouTube. If we acknowledge that distraction has always been around then we must find better ways to deal with it. A great place to start is identifying that which we do not want to do. I have worked with project managers that are particularly effective in this area, and create lists of things to avoid so that the team doesn't get distracted. The number one distraction for most people, is other people. So by the very nature of working on projects with teams, we must find effective ways to avoid those distractions caused by other people. That list of things to avoid is a good start. There are lots of other tactics that are leveraged as well in todays open floor plans, where people try to find their quiet places. Headphones, signs, specific areas cordoned off to avoid noise, all kinds of quick fixes. I am of mixed opinion though whether that is really the best focus.

Back to traits of great project managers I have seen work wonders in managing the pain. Project plans consist of line items, each usually representing a lot of sub tasks that aren't getting captured in the plan. Nor should they need to be incorporated in the project plan if it's a team of professionals. Gone are the days of detailed, step by step run books, that required no thinking. However good project managers know to ensure that the individual has a plan of their own, to accomplish the task. I often chuckle when I see a plan that has tasks for the software developer that says '90%', because too many developers lack discipline(they arent the only ones) and will always tell you they are 90% complete, even though they may yet to have typed a line of code. The project plan should have major tasks, but each of those tasks will have steps that can be forecasted to knock out the completion of the task. Full Database Backup - not an uncommon task to be found. But that task might have a step of forcing a checkpoint, shutting down the database, ensuring there is plenty of storage to receive the backup, etc... My point is the resource(DBA) responsible for the task of full database backup, knows the steps required to complete the task and has a plan to accomplish it. The effective project manager or technology leader needs to ensure then that everyone with upcoming due dates has their own plan so that the project isn't delayed. And that makes an effective pain management expert, aka Project Manager.

But why all this talk about pain? People want to avoid pain, and will usually do anything they can to avoid pain, it's part of our human psyche. Our brain encourages us to avoid discomfort. Failure is uncomfortable, it is painful, and when projects fail the pain is obvious. However we aren't as critical to projects that get delayed. We come up with a myriad of reasons and excuses for the delay. If we have avoided distractions, made good estimates from the beginning the projects should be completed on time, and no pain incurred by asking to shift dates. More time, always means more money. Something else is delayed, plans are thrown off, goals are missed, and pain is incurred. Enter the finger pointing. This article though is not about playing the blame game and this should always be avoided.

Good project managers and technical leaders will help their teams manage their time in a way they can be as undistracted as possible. First they encourage their team to be clear with what they want to do with their time. Anything not on that list is by default a distraction. In addition they are present, answer questions, keep people focused on the tasks at hand, ensure each member has a plan, limit time on items that are not part of the plan, and hold people accountable. Here is where friction enters the equation. In todays spirit of avoiding pain at all costs, some leaders are loathe to hold people accountable, they want to be liked, and instead are eager to shift dates, coming up with the reason 'du jour'. Effective leaders however are not afraid of conflict and know how precious time is. Holding people accountable will inflict pain, it's unavoidable. They know that time management is pain management. They also know that it's better to deal with pain at an individual level, instead of letting the whole team be corrupted and become ineffective. They also know if its still not dealt with and the project is delayed, or worse, the project fails, then the business loses.