Every day, we are all getting 24 hours anew. Persons who simply claim that they have no time are wrong in my opinion, because we all have the same amount of time. What they should say instead is, “I don’t want to or can’t find the time for this” or “I am setting other priorities.” In the past, many clever minds have already pondered how to benefit as much as possible from these 24 hours and how to use them effectively. 

Parkinson’s Law – postulated by British sociologist C. Northcote Parkinson – states: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Here is a simple example from the business world: If you are given the task of writing a report to be completed in three weeks, how much time will it take? The answer is: three weeks. But if you are given three days to complete the report, you will finish it in three days. It is therefore important to consider how to use one’s own time as wisely as possible.

Are you deciding for yourself?

What does it mean, though, to use your time “wisely”? When hearing this, a lot of people are thinking of productivity. Using your time wisely may also mean a power nap in the early afternoon, however. Ideally, you can decide for yourself what is wise use of time for you. Of course, this depends above all on the degree of your self-determination. In the workplace in particular, we are not usually deciding ourselves about our time, but for example our superiors, colleagues, employees, and customers.

Effective or efficient?

Effective means doing the right thing or doing the essential, which is whatever gets us closer to our goal. Efficiency, on the other hand, means doing things the right way. When in doubt, what is more important? Ideally, you should be both effective and efficient. In case of doubt, however, effectiveness is more important – because you can do the wrong things very efficiently. If you additionally want to increase your efficiency, the Pareto principle may be of assistance: For many tasks, about 80 percent of the result is already achieved with 20 percent of input. Excessive additional effort would be necessary for the remaining 20 percent to attain perfection. 

Making time

There are so many tasks that have the potential to free up capacities for the essential things. Draw up a list of activities and consider whether just 80 percent would be sufficient for one task or the other. When it comes to your work, make sure to talk to your supervisors and colleagues. What are the expectations? If 80 percent is sufficient in certain areas, you are able to increase your productivity in other activities – and perhaps just take a nap sometimes. After all, it is well known that a power nap increases your productivity enormously afterwards. And then you can do more again in the time you have available.