First Things First Time Management? Yeah, Right!

About fifteen years ago, when I was still trying to "improve" myself -- to improve my time management skills -- I bought a book by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill, entitled First Things First .

I found it useless at the time, a waste of money. Here is a slightly edited version of the letter I sent to them. I found it while looking through my hard-drive for stuff to write Hubs about. I hope you find it at least amusing, if not informative.

But, it may be useful after all for us no longer having jobs, but who are doing our own things on the internet. So, while that book is not useful for employees -- peons, grunts -- maybe I should take another look at it. After all, there are hundreds of used copies on Amazon, many for just a penny (plus shipping). ;-)

Dear ...

I bought your damn book (First Things First ), and in less than five minutes into it, I discovered it's just another book for "executives" and "managers," those who spend 80% of their time in B.S. (your "interdependent reality," p. 13, bottom), and maybe 20% actually doing anything concrete. How about a book for us grunts who spend 90% of our time actually doing something, like writing code (computer programming), sitting in a law library or at a computer and pulling cites and writing briefs, or pulling teeth, hammering nails, driving a truck, etc., and who spend only 10% of their time in your "interdependent reality"? That is, how about a book for people who get paid for some sort of fairly direct, immediate results oriented work? A book which recognizes that most work is in time, takes time, and that the time has to be put in. Or is this an impossible dream? I don't think you can do it. So, some "truth-in-advertising" on the book jacket might be in order. For example: "Sorry, this book is not for grunts; nothing can be done for you."

To make this clearer to you, consider the scenario below:

Mr. Dithers to Dagwood Bumstead: Bumstead, El Jefe Telco says they can probably save us 7% on our phone bill on our calls to Paraguay. I want you to get together with Mr. Vaya of El Jefe and get a comparative analysis. Consider the costs of the changeover, if we do it, as well as the monthly difference. Give me a report by Tuesday next. Hop to it; chop-chop.

Bumstead to Daisy (his dog, you'll recall): Daisy, get the phone bills, and break out the Paraguay calls. (Sure!)

Mr. Dithers comes up with the idea. Or Bumstead comes up with the idea and presents it to Dithers. Either way, Dithers says go for it or not. Assuming that, as is usually the case, Bumstead is the peon, and he doesn't have a sub-peon, Bumstead has to do the work himself. He has to dig out the paper records (or, hopefully, computer records) and break out the Paraguayan subset. He's got to set up and hold the meeting. He's got to reconcile the actual past to the hypothetical past, project the future, and prepare a report and/or presentation of his findings. He does the actual work. He doesn't get to "direct" or delegate it. Bumstead is spending 90% of his time grunting away on the spreadsheet or database and writing reports, etc. He is not engaged in a wonderful 80% win-win, touchy-feely, feel-good, mutually empowering, quality time, balanced, synergistic, "interdependent reality." Bumstead doesn't get to kick back and think about "First Things First".

Mr. Dithers can perhaps use your book. For grunts like Bumstead, it is useless.

If you've got 80% of your time to play with, granted there is the possibility of a lot of room for improvement. A "50%" improvement, say, would make a big difference. But 50% of 10% that Bumstead might achieve doesn't get him much more than the time for a good dump.

Addendum: I came across another "Covey" listing. This one is the Franklin Covey company which sells Day Planner Binders, and also does training to improve time management skills. This company and Stephen Covey are probably related, as they link to each other. Their field of interest is the same. The Franklin Covey company offers the Franklin Covey Binder and the Franklin Covey Planner. For me, that stuff is overkill, but for those who still like paper instead of electronic gee-gaws, it could be worth a look.