When people find out I write about time management, they assume two things. One is that I'm always on time, and I'm not. I have four small children, and I would like to blame them for my occasional tardiness, but sometimes it's just not their fault. I was once late to my own speech on time management.
Kada ljudi čuju da pišem knjige o organizaciji vremena, pretpostavljaju dvije stvari. Pomisle da nikad ne kasnim, a zapravo kasnim. Imam četvero male djece, i voljela bih okriviti njih za svoja povremena kašnjenja, no ponekad to zaista nije njihova krivica. Jednom sam zakasnila na vlastiti govor o organizaciji vremena.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
We all had to just take a moment together and savor that irony.
Svi smo na trenutak uživali u toj ironiji.
The second thing they assume is that I have lots of tips and tricks for saving bits of time here and there. Sometimes I'll hear from magazines that are doing a story along these lines, generally on how to help their readers find an extra hour in the day. And the idea is that we'll shave bits of time off everyday activities, add it up, and we'll have time for the good stuff. I question the entire premise of this piece, but I'm always interested in hearing what they've come up with before they call me. Some of my favorites: doing errands where you only have to make right-hand turns --
Druga stvar koju pretpostave jest da imam puno savjeta i trikova kako uštedjeti nešto vremena tu i tamo. Ponekad čujem od raznih časopisa da pišu članak o ovoj temi, o tome kako pomoći čitateljima da pronađu jedan dodatni sat dnevno. Bit je u tome da skratimo vrijeme za svakodnevne aktivnosti, pribrojimo to vrijeme, i naći ćemo vremena za dobre stvari. Uvijek preispitujem takvu ideju, ali mi je uvijek zanimljivo saslušati što su smislili prije nego me pozovu. Najdraže ideje su mi: ići u nabavku samo ondje gdje moraš skrenuti desno --
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Being extremely judicious in microwave usage: it says three to three-and-a-half minutes on the package, we're totally getting in on the bottom side of that. And my personal favorite, which makes sense on some level, is to DVR your favorite shows so you can fast-forward through the commercials. That way, you save eight minutes every half hour, so in the course of two hours of watching TV, you find 32 minutes to exercise.
Biti izuzetno pametan pri korištenju mikrovalne: ako piše tri do tri i pol minute na pakiranju, definitivno ćemo ući malo dublje u to. I moj osobni favorit, za koji ima smisla na nekoj razini, jest snimiti vaše najdraže emisije kako bi mogli premotati reklame. Tako uštedite osam minuta svakih pola sata, tako da tijekom dva sata gledanja televizije, imate trideset dvije minute za vježbanje.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Which is true. You know another way to find 32 minutes to exercise? Don't watch two hours of TV a day, right?
To je istina. Znate kako još pronaći trideset dvije minute za vježbu? Ne gledajte televiziju dva sata dnevno, točno?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Anyway, the idea is we'll save bits of time here and there, add it up, we will finally get to everything we want to do. But after studying how successful people spend their time and looking at their schedules hour by hour, I think this idea has it completely backward. We don't build the lives we want by saving time. We build the lives we want, and then time saves itself.
Dakle, bit je uštedjeti nešto vremena kad stignemo, pribrojimo to vrijeme, i napokon ćemo imate vremena za sve što poželimo. Nakon što sam proučavala kako uspješni ljudi troše svoje vrijeme, i gledajući njihove rasporede za svakih sat vremena, mislim da je ova ideja nešto sasvim suprotno. Ne gradimo živote kakve želimo štedeći vrijeme. Gradimo živote kakve želimo i vrijeme štedi samo sebe.
Here's what I mean. I recently did a time diary project looking at 1,001 days in the lives of extremely busy women. They had demanding jobs, sometimes their own businesses, kids to care for, maybe parents to care for, community commitments -- busy, busy people. I had them keep track of their time for a week so I could add up how much they worked and slept, and I interviewed them about their strategies, for my book.
Malo ću to pojasniti. Radila sam na dnevniku vremena gledajući 1001 dan u životima previše zaposlenih žena. Radile su zahtjevne poslove, ponekad u svojim tvrtkama, brinule su se o djeci, možda i o roditeljima, obveze u zajednici, vrlo zaposleni ljudi. Tjedan su dana vodili evidenciju o svome vremenu, da bih mogla zbrojiti koliko su radile i spavale, te sam ih intervjuirala o strategijama za svoju knjigu.
One of the women whose time log I studied goes out on a Wednesday night for something. She comes home to find that her water heater has broken, and there is now water all over her basement. If you've ever had anything like this happen to you, you know it is a hugely damaging, frightening, sopping mess. So she's dealing with the immediate aftermath that night, next day she's got plumbers coming in, day after that, professional cleaning crew dealing with the ruined carpet. All this is being recorded on her time log. Winds up taking seven hours of her week. Seven hours. That's like finding an extra hour in the day.
Jedna od žena čiji sam raspored pratila, izašla je jedne srijede uvečer po nešto. Dok se vratila kući, pokidao se bojler i poplavio joj podrum. Ako vam se ikad ovakvo što dogodilo, tada znate da je to štetan, zastrašujući i mokar nered. Ona se tu večer suočava s neposrednim posljedicama, sljedeći dan dolaze vodoinstalateri, dan poslije, ekipa za čišćenje dolazi počistiti uništeni sag. Sve je to zapisala u raspored. Izgubila je sedam sati od tjedna. Sedam sati. Kao da je pronašla jedan dodatni sat dnevno.
But I'm sure if you had asked her at the start of the week, "Could you find seven hours to train for a triathlon?" "Could you find seven hours to mentor seven worthy people?" I'm sure she would've said what most of us would've said, which is, "No -- can't you see how busy I am?" Yet when she had to find seven hours because there is water all over her basement, she found seven hours. And what this shows us is that time is highly elastic. We cannot make more time, but time will stretch to accommodate what we choose to put into it.
Ali sigurna sam kada bi je na početku tjedna pitali, "Možeš li izdvojiti sedam sati za trening za triatlon?" "Možeš li izdvojiti sedam sati da podučavaš sedam vrijednih ljudi?" Sigurna sam da bi rekla ono što bi rekli i mi ostali, a to je: "Ne, ne vidiš li koliko sam zaposlena?" Ali kada je morala pronaći sedam sati jer joj je podrum bio napunjen vodom, pronašla je sedam sati. I to nam pokazuje da je vrijeme vrlo rastezljivo. Ne možemo stvoriti više vremena, ali se vrijeme rasteže da se prilagodi onome što odlučimo staviti u njega.
And so the key to time management is treating our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater. To get at this, I like to use language from one of the busiest people I ever interviewed. By busy, I mean she was running a small business with 12 people on the payroll, she had six children in her spare time. I was getting in touch with her to set up an interview on how she "had it all" -- that phrase. I remember it was a Thursday morning, and she was not available to speak with me. Of course, right?
Zato je ključno u organizaciji vremena odnositi se prema svojim prioritetima jednako kao prema pokidanom bojleru. Da bih objasnila bit, volim se služiti jezikom najzasposlenije osobe koju sam intervjuirala. Vodila je malu tvrtku s 12 ljudi na platnoj listi i šestero djece u slobodnom vremenu. Bile smo u kontaktu da dogovorimo intervju o tome kako "ima sve što želi." Sjećam se da je bio četvrtak ujutro, i nije bila slobodna za razgovor. Naravno, zar ne?
But the reason she was unavailable to speak with me is that she was out for a hike, because it was a beautiful spring morning, and she wanted to go for a hike. So of course this makes me even more intrigued, and when I finally do catch up with her, she explains it like this. She says, "Listen Laura, everything I do, every minute I spend, is my choice." And rather than say, "I don't have time to do x, y or z," she'd say, "I don't do x, y or z because it's not a priority." "I don't have time," often means "It's not a priority." If you think about it, that's really more accurate language. I could tell you I don't have time to dust my blinds, but that's not true. If you offered to pay me $100,000 to dust my blinds, I would get to it pretty quickly.
Razlog zbog kojeg je bila nedostupna za razgovor je zbog toga što je izašla pješačiti, jer je bilo prekrasno proljetno jutro, i htjela je ići pješačiti. Naravno da me to još više zaintrigiralo, i kada sam je napokon uhvatila, objasnila mi je. Rekla je: "Slušaj Laura, sve što radim, svaka minuta koju potrošim, moj je izbor." I umjesto da je rekla: "Nemam vremena za ovo ili ono," rekla bi, "ne radim ovo ili ono jer mi to nije prioritet." "Nemam vremena" često znači "nije mi prioritet". Ako razmislite o tome, to je i točnije rečeno. Mogla bih vam reći da nemam vremena očistiti rolete, ali to nije istina. Ako bi mi ponudili 100.000$ za čišćenje roleta, ubrzo bih se prihvatila posla.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Since that is not going to happen, I can acknowledge this is not a matter of lacking time; it's that I don't want to do it. Using this language reminds us that time is a choice. And granted, there may be horrible consequences for making different choices, I will give you that. But we are smart people, and certainly over the long run, we have the power to fill our lives with the things that deserve to be there.
Budući da se to neće dogoditi, mogu priznati izgovor nije manjak vremena, već volja da to napravim. Korištenje ovih riječi podsjeća nas da je vrijeme izbor. I zasigurno, mogu postojati strašne posljedice za različite odluke, to ću vam priznati. Ali mi smo pametni ljudi, i zasigurno gledajući na duže staze, imamo moć ispuniti svoje živote stvarima koje zaslužuju biti u njemu.
So how do we do that? How do we treat our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater?
Kako to postići? Kako se odnositi prema prioritetima jednako kao prema pokidanom bojleru?
Well, first we need to figure out what they are. I want to give you two strategies for thinking about this. The first, on the professional side: I'm sure many people coming up to the end of the year are giving or getting annual performance reviews. You look back over your successes over the year, your "opportunities for growth." And this serves its purpose, but I find it's more effective to do this looking forward. So I want you to pretend it's the end of next year. You're giving yourself a performance review, and it has been an absolutely amazing year for you professionally. What three to five things did you do that made it so amazing? So you can write next year's performance review now.
Najprije moramo razmisliti što su nam prioriteti. Želim vam pokazati dvije strategije za razmišljanje. Prva je s profesionalne strane: Sigurna sam da mnogi ljudi kada se približava kraj godine naprave ili dobiju godišnju procjenu radnog učinka. Tada pregledate uspjehe u protekloj godini, svoj "prostor za napredak". I to ima svoju svrhu, ali smatram da je učinkovitije raditi to s pogledom u budućnost. Želim da se pretvarate da je sada kraj sljedeće godine. Pravite si godišnju procjenu radnog učinka, i prošla je godina za vas bila vrlo uspješna poslovna godina. Koje ste tri do pet stvari napravili a koje su učinili tu godinu uspješnom? Sada možete napisati svoju procjenu učinka rada za sljedeću godinu.
And you can do this for your personal life, too. I'm sure many of you, like me, come December, get cards that contain these folded up sheets of colored paper, on which is written what is known as the family holiday letter.
A to možete učiniti i za svoj osobni život. Sigurna sam da mnogi od vas, poput mene, u prosincu, dobiju čestitke u kojima se nalaze šareni papiri na kojima su ispisana praznična obiteljska pisma.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Bit of a wretched genre of literature, really, going on about how amazing everyone in the household is, or even more scintillating, how busy everyone in the household is. But these letters serve a purpose, which is that they tell your friends and family what you did in your personal life that mattered to you over the year. So this year's kind of done, but I want you to pretend it's the end of next year, and it has been an absolutely amazing year for you and the people you care about. What three to five things did you do that made it so amazing? So you can write next year's family holiday letter now. Don't send it.
Pomalo pokvaren stil pisanja, ako razmislite, o tome kako su svi ukućani odlično, ili čak još sjajnije, kako su svi ukućani zaposleni. Ali ovakva pisma imaju svrhu, a to je da pokažu vašim prijateljima i obitelji da ste radili nešto vama značajno u osobnom životu tijekom godine. Budući da je ova godina završila, stoga želim da se pretvarate da je kraj sljedeće godine, i bila je to zaista savršena godina za vas i ljude koje volite. Koje ste tri do pet stvari učinili koje su je učinile toliko uspješnom? Sada možete napisati svoje obiteljsko pismo za sljedeću godinu. Nemojte ga poslati.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Please, don't send it. But you can write it. And now, between the performance review and the family holiday letter, we have a list of six to ten goals we can work on in the next year.
Molim vas, ne šaljite ga. Ali možete ga napisati. Sad, između godišnje procjene radnog učinka i obiteljskog pisma, imamo listu od šest do deset ciljeva na kojima možemo raditi nagodinu.
And now we need to break these down into doable steps. So maybe you want to write a family history. First, you can read some other family histories, get a sense for the style. Then maybe think about the questions you want to ask your relatives, set up appointments to interview them. Or maybe you want to run a 5K. So you need to find a race and sign up, figure out a training plan, and dig those shoes out of the back of the closet. And then -- this is key -- we treat our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater, by putting them into our schedules first. We do this by thinking through our weeks before we are in them.
Sada ih moramo raščlaniti na izvedive korake. Recimo da želite napisati obiteljsku povijest. Najprije možete pročitati druge obiteljske povijesti, kako bi vidjeli stil pisanja. Zatim razmisliti o pitanjima koje biste htjeli pitali rodbinu, dogovoriti sastanke za razgovore. Ili možda želite trčati 5 kilometara. Dakle, potrebno je pronaći utrku i prijaviti se, napraviti plan treninga, i iskopati te tenisice iz kraja ormara. A onda -- to je ključno -- odnosimo se prema našim prioritetima, kao što bi se prema pokvarenom bojleru, stavljajući ih u našim rasporedima na prvo mjesto. To činimo tako da razmišljamo o našim tjednima prije nego dođu.
I find a really good time to do this is Friday afternoons. Friday afternoon is what an economist might call a "low opportunity cost" time. Most of us are not sitting there on Friday afternoons saying, "I am excited to make progress toward my personal and professional priorities right now."
Otkrila sam kako je to dobro raditi u petak popodne. Petak poslijepodne je ono što bi ekonomisti mogli nazvati vrijeme "niskog oportunitetnog troška." Većina nas ne sjedi tamo petkom popodne govoreći: "Uzbuđen sam što ću napredovati ka mojim osobnim i profesionalnim prioritetima sada."
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
But we are willing to think about what those should be. So take a little bit of time Friday afternoon, make yourself a three-category priority list: career, relationships, self. Making a three-category list reminds us that there should be something in all three categories. Career, we think about; relationships, self -- not so much. But anyway, just a short list, two to three items in each. Then look out over the whole of the next week, and see where you can plan them in.
Ali, spremni smo razmišljati o tome što oni trebaju biti. Dakle, odvojite malo vremena petkom popodne, napravite svoju listu prioriteta sa tri kategorije: karijera, odnosi, ja. Izrada liste sa tri kategorija nas podsjeća kako bi trebalo biti nešto u svakoj od te tri kategorije. Karijera, o njoj razmišljamo; odnosi, ja -- i ne baš toliko. Svejedno, samo kratka lista, dvije do tri stvari u svakoj od njih. I onda promatrajte cijeli listu kroz cijeli idući tjedan, i vidite gdje ih možete uplanirati.
Where you plan them in is up to you. I know this is going to be more complicated for some people than others. I mean, some people's lives are just harder than others. It is not going to be easy to find time to take that poetry class if you are caring for multiple children on your own. I get that. And I don't want to minimize anyone's struggle. But I do think that the numbers I am about to tell you are empowering.
Gdje ih isplanirate ovisi potpuno o vama. Znam da će ovo biti kompliciranije za neke ljude u odnosu na druge. Mislim, životi nekih ljudi su teži od drugih. Neće se lako naći vremena da se pohađa taj razred poezije ako sami brinete o nekoliko djece. Shvaćam. I ne želim umanjiti ničiju borbu. Ali mislim kako su brojke koje ću spomenuti ohrabrujuće.
There are 168 hours in a week. Twenty-four times seven is 168 hours. That is a lot of time. If you are working a full-time job, so 40 hours a week, sleeping eight hours a night, so 56 hours a week -- that leaves 72 hours for other things. That is a lot of time. You say you're working 50 hours a week, maybe a main job and a side hustle. Well, that leaves 62 hours for other things. You say you're working 60 hours. Well, that leaves 52 hours for other things. You say you're working more than 60 hours. Well, are you sure?
Imamo 168 sati u tjednu. dvadeset četiri put sedam je 168 sati. To je puno vremena. Ako radite posao na puno radno vrijeme, dakle 40 sati na tjedan, spavati osam sati na noć, dakle 56 sati na tjedan -- to vam ostavlja 72 sata za druge stvari. To je puno vremena. Recimo da radite 50 sati tjedno, možda glavni posao i nešto sa strane. Pa, to vam ostavlja 62 sata za druge stvari. Recimo da radite 60 sati. Pa, to vam ostavlja 52 sata za druge stvari. Kažete da radite više od 60 sati tjedno. Pa, jeste li sigurni?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
There was once a study comparing people's estimated work weeks with time diaries. They found that people claiming 75-plus-hour work weeks were off by about 25 hours.
Jednom su radili istraživanje koje je uspoređivalo procijenjeni radni tjedan sa dnevnikom vremena ljudi. Otkrili su da ljudi koji tvrde da imaju 75 plus-satni radni tjedan su promašili za nekih 25 sati.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
You can guess in which direction, right? Anyway, in 168 hours a week, I think we can find time for what matters to you. If you want to spend more time with your kids, you want to study more for a test you're taking, you want to exercise for three hours and volunteer for two, you can. And that's even if you're working way more than full-time hours.
Možete pogoditi u kojem smjeru, zar ne? U svakom slučaju, u 168 sati tjedno mislim kako možemo naći vremena za ono što nam je važno. Ako želite provesti što više vremena sa svojom djecom, želite učiti više za test koji polažete, želite vježbati tri sata i volontirati dva, možete. A to je, čak i ako radite puno više od punog radnog vremena.
So we have plenty of time, which is great, because guess what? We don't even need that much time to do amazing things. But when most of us have bits of time, what do we do? Pull out the phone, right? Start deleting emails. Otherwise, we're puttering around the house or watching TV.
Dakle, imamo dosta vremena, što je super, ali znate što? Nije nam potrebno toliko vremena da radimo izvanredne stvari. No, kada većina nas ima komadiće vremena, što mi činimo? Izvadimo telefon, jel'da? Počinjemo brisati e-mailove. Ili se petljamo oko kuće ili gledamo TV.
But small moments can have great power. You can use your bits of time for bits of joy. Maybe it's choosing to read something wonderful on the bus on the way to work. I know when I had a job that required two bus rides and a subway ride every morning, I used to go to the library on weekends to get stuff to read. It made the whole experience almost, almost, enjoyable. Breaks at work can be used for meditating or praying. If family dinner is out because of your crazy work schedule, maybe family breakfast could be a good substitute.
Ali mali trenuci mogu imati veliku moć. Možete koristiti svoje komadiće vremena za komadiće radosti. Možda je to odabir čitanja nečeg prekrasnog u autobusu na putu do posla. Znam kad sam imala posao koji je zahtijevao dvije autobusne vožnje i vožnju podzemnom svakog jutra. Običavala sam ići u knjižnicu vikendom da uzmem stvari za čitanje. To je učinilo cijeli doživljaj gotovo, gotovo, ugodnim. Pauze na koslu se mogu koristiti za meditaciju ili molitvu. Ako obiteljsku večeru imate vani zbog svog ludog radnog rasporeda, možda bi obiteljski doručak mogao biti dobra zamjena.
It's about looking at the whole of one's time and seeing where the good stuff can go. I truly believe this. There is time. Even if we are busy, we have time for what matters. And when we focus on what matters, we can build the lives we want in the time we've got.
Radi se o cjelovitom pogledu na svoje vrijeme i vidjeti gdje se mogu staviti dobre stvari. Doista vjerujem u to. Ima vremena. Čak i ako smo zauzeti, imamo vremena za ono što je važno. A kada se usredotočimo na ono što je važno, možemo graditi živote koje želimo u vremenu koje imamo.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)