Our question(s)

In an economy that prizes immediacy and flexibility, how ought we optimize/hack time?

Time
Scheduling
Sleep
Exploitation

Time

Trains and time

E. P. Thompson

What are the task & time orientations?

task: In the morning, the farmer put the goats to pasture and milked the cows. By the end of the day, the chickens were back in the roost. Time is not a thing to be spent or saved.
time: Work is piecemeal and part of a larger process dependent on the synchronization of labor.

Time thrift

Puritanism, in its marriage of convenience with industrial capitalism, was the agent which converted people to new valuations of time; which taught children even in their infancy to improve each shining hour; and which saturated people’s minds with the equation, time is money. (Thompson 1993/2008, p. 8, 2)

Gilbreths’ time studies

Taylor’s motion studies

Dvorak keyboard

“Schedule Your Priorities”

Efficiency vs effectiveness?

please don’t call me an efficiency expert. I’m an effectiveness expert… making the right choices about how you use your time is more important than doing efficiently whatever job happens to be around (Lakein 1973, p. 2).

1973 life hacks

I handle each piece of paper only once.
I write replies to most letters right on the piece of paper.
I keep my desk top cleared for action, and put the most important thing in the center of my desk.
I have a place for everything (so I waste as little time as possible looking for things).
I save up all trivia for a three-hour session once a month.
I try not to think of work on weekends.

I relax and “do nothing” rather frequently
I recognize that inevitably some of my time will be spent on activities outside my control and don’t fret about it.
I keep small talk to a minimum during work hours.
I look for action steps to be taken now to further my goals.
I’m continually asking myself: “What is the best use of my time right now?” (Lakein 1973)

Zeigarnik effect?

unfinished tasks are remembered approximately twice as well as completed ones [because of] a state of tension whose expression may be seen not only in desire to finish the interrupted work but also in memorial prominence (Zeigarnik 1927/1938)

Workflows

GTD, Personal Kanban, 3-5-1

On any given day, assume that you can only accomplish one big thing, three medium things, and five small things… Before leaving work, take a few minutes to define your 1-3-5 for the next day, so you’re ready to hit the ground running in the morning. (Cavoulacos 2015)

Polyphasic sleep

Everyman

da Vinci

Privilege and exploitation

Life hacking for the rest of us

Klarc, the flossing reminder

“I’m so sorry I’m late. We were hit by a hurricane, and the whole village has no electricity! I had to run 8 miles to the next village so that I could call you!”

Would you run 8 miles to remind me to floss? I was paying Klarc $2/hr* … What are you doing to make yourself so valuable [that an] employer would pay 10-20x that amount? (Sethi 2012)

Samia
Katie

Pavlok

It’s capitalism, but is it right?

“there are people I have outsourced to in India who now outsource portions of their work to the Philippines. It’s the efficient use of capital, and if you want the rewards of a free market, if you want to enjoy the rewards of the capitalist system, these are the rules by which you play” [Tim Ferriss quoted in Mead 2011].

Hannah

Is “sufficientism” enough?

If I had a choice of living in a society where I was materially much better off than I am now, but was among the poorest, or in one where I was the richest, but much worse off than I am now, I’d take the first option” (Graham 2010, “Hackers & painters”, pp. 118-120; Graham 2016)

What do we owe the less productive?

[Tony:] “What, Leisha? In the most objective terms you can manage, what do we owe the grasping and nonproductive needy?”

[Leisha:] “What I said originally. Kindness. Compassion.”

[Tony:] “Even if they don’t trade it back? Why?” [Kress 2009, p. 1002]

Ryan

Go around 💬

What is your novel question, insight, or connection for today?

Conclusion

Wrap up

Write a “3-minute paper” (bullets are fine):
- Do you think Gilbreth and Taylor’s efforts contributed to workers well-being or not? Why?

Review

Review quiz

What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?
Where was Bluma Zeigarnik when inspired for the phenomenon that now bears her name? What is the phenomenon?
Do you think Gilbreth and Taylor’s efforts contributed to workers well-being or not? Why?