Eternity, Time Management, and Your iPhone
I loathe time management. Keeping time sheets and records of my time is one of those tasks that I have never done very well. It’s probably because I am lazy and enjoy the “unstructured, high-energy, creative work environment” of entrepreneurial companies. But, my better, rational half, knows that I am just bullshitting myself. Accomplishing a lot in the precious few hours we are granted each day takes discipline and careful attention to how one uses one’s time.
I was reminded of this by the truly excellent article by Rob May called “How to Be an Effective Entrepreneur”. Rob spins Drucker’s The Effective Executive into a set of guidelines for effective entrepreneurship, and does it well. To my horror, the first rule in Rob’s article is “Know They Time”, and he begins with a quote from Jean de la Bruyere:
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness.
Ouch!
So, I put my tail between my legs and realized that being more effective will need to start with me trying to battle some age-old prejudices about time management. And, when faced with a new problem that needs to be solved, there is only one effective approach: find a new toy!
Eternity: Weekly time log chart
Hardly a toy, I found an extremely useful iPhone app called Eternity Time Log from Komorian. Most time logging applications are designed to address the problem of billing clients for parcels of time, and there are dozens of them. But, Eternity is designed to help you understand your time better, plan your time better, and adjust your habits.
Quickly and easily I set up a set of categories of tasks and within minutes I was tracking everything easily using my iPhone. Some of the features I found most useful were:
- Easy set up of tasks
- Ability to “fill in the gaps” easily when you have some activities on the clock and others missing.
- Amazing “instant” reporting, including graphs, that give you a feel for how your time is being spent.
- The ability to “slide” in two directions with graphs to see how your time was spent today, yesterday, this week, or this month. Amazingly simple and useful.
Within a week, I know am zeroing in on some time-wasters and realizing (as Druker knew so well) that what I thought I was spending time on isn’t really what I am spending time on at all!
If you are looking for an app to manage your billable hours, this isn’t it. But, if you are thinking about your effectiveness, and trying to improve the way you work, Eternity is a useful and powerful tool. If you are a gadget person like me, and need a bit of a “push” to start manging your time better, try Eternity.
