Why High-Tech Solutions Don’t Help With Time Management

When people decide to “get better at time management,” one of the first things they do is buy themselves one or more expensive, high-tech items to make the job easier. Maybe it’s a Palm device or a Blackberry. Maybe it’s a smartphone or a swanky, leather-bound planner. Or maybe it’s some piece of incredible software that promised to manage it all for you.

It doesn’t matter what it is. What does matter is that a lot of these high-tech solutions aren’t going to work. Not because the solution itself doesn’t work, but because if you haven’t established the underlying habit you’ll need to make use of it, you’re hosed! And that habit, specifically, is the discipline of using that tool daily. You’ve probably experienced this already if you’ve got a time management tool you bought but never used. Or some books you’ve bought but never read. Or a gym membership you haven’t used.

A gym membership is a great example of this. A co-worker of mine was on the fence about buying an expensive gym membership. She wondered if she’d have the discipline to go three times a week and was afraid to risk the money. So she decided to put herself to the test and see if she could “show up” three times a week to an imaginary gym session (which was really nothing more than following through on taking a 45-minute walk three times a week).

She didn’t do well on the follow through at the beginning, but after a few months she finally got into the swing of it and “showed up” consistently. When she had done that four weeks in a row, she decided she was finally ready to commit to spending that 45 minutes at the gym instead, and bought herself a membership (which she really did use).

Time management solutions follow the same pattern. If you’re hopelessly disorganized, a Blackberry isn’t going to fix that problem. You’ll need to “show up” and get better at organizing your commitments day to day before you’ll really benefit from the efficiency of an expensive device.

Back in 1995 I bought the very first Palm Pilot, thinking it would “get me all organized.” It didn’t. It got used sporadically and then not at all. A few years later I bought a fancier Palm, but to no avail. So finally I decided to take the simple route - I went down to Wal-Mart and picked up a 77-cent pocket notebook and began tracking my action lists and appointments in that.

It took a while, but I finally developed the discipline to “show up” every day and track things consistently. Only after reinforcing that habit did I upgrade my notebook to a smartphone, which just gives me a fancier interface for notes that I can sync with my laptop.

The point is, if I hadn’t developed the discipline of tracking things the low-tech way, I’d never be able to manage them in a more efficient way that helps me get more done. That’s why I say that high-tech solutions don’t help with time management … they only help you execute the disciplines you’ve already developed.

So where do you stand? Are you disorganized when it comes to basic time management principles such as tracking where you spend your time or capturing all the things you need to do? If so, start at the beginning. Get yourself a pocket notebook and start with the basics. For one full week keep notes on everything you do with your time and I’ll bet you see an instant performance increase. Or commit to capturing all your to-dos there, not spread out over post it notes, receipts, scraps of paper and backs of envelopes. You’ll be surprised at how focused that one simple act can get you.

And all for 77 cents. Can’t beat that.

Give it a shot and shoot me an email with your results at dave@davenavarro.com. I’d love to hear about it.