mostly blech. In my experienc, the Swiss are the most … time regimented culture I’ve experienced. Things just have to be on time, period. I have a Swiss friend who spent some 4 months in the U.S. back in 1997, having previously visited a couple dozen other countries, and he said that even he, a Swiss guy, was astonished and overwhelmed at the mere speed of life here. Hell yeah we are *efficient*. You want something done, I guess, talk to an American. But at what cost? Most medicated developed nation in the world. hmmmmm……
I see the problem if people are ‘forced’ to follow a certain regime because someone requires them to be more productive. Also if ‘productive’ compromises other quality of life issues.
I saw these as simply “use these if they are helpful” and I thought some of them were good ideas…I would like to be more productive and happy!
Timely – I was especially frustrated at work today, started making a list of stupid, frustrating things as they occurred, but of course that didn’t help me feel any better, and it didn’t solve any of them. Unfortunately, the only item of the 25 that seemed helpful for me is the reminder to take vacations. It’s easy to feel guilty blocking time out to be AWAY!!! (We have to figure out each time who will cover during our vacation; we don’t have an automatic setup, but it’s crucial to be sure there’s someone lined up…who gets to do that in addition to her regular duties).
Have any of you seen (or heard about) Tyranny of the Urgent? I haven’t looked at this book (oops, actually it looks like a pack of 5 books according to the link) but the idea, as I’ve heard it, is to think of “importance” on one axis & “urgent” on the other, & to focus on those items which are important over those which seem urgent. Those which are “important’ but not ‘urgent’ often get overlooked. (Ironically, for me, this books/these books apparently talk about the whole idea from a Christian perspective, which somehow had gotten dropped along the way in the sources I’d previously heard about this).
One problem I find is, who defines “importance”? There are alot of high urgency tasks which I don’t think are important, but which are important to someone else, & that’s what kicks them up on the “to-do” list I’m presented with. Like, re-writing prescriptions that I wrote just 2 months ago, because someone’s insurance changed. What’s up with that? Isn’t that make-work????!!!!!! But my complaining about it hasn’t, so far, changed the situation.
Comment by: benjamin ady
1mostly blech. In my experienc, the Swiss are the most … time regimented culture I’ve experienced. Things just have to be on time, period. I have a Swiss friend who spent some 4 months in the U.S. back in 1997, having previously visited a couple dozen other countries, and he said that even he, a Swiss guy, was astonished and overwhelmed at the mere speed of life here. Hell yeah we are *efficient*. You want something done, I guess, talk to an American. But at what cost? Most medicated developed nation in the world. hmmmmm……
Comment by: Helen
2I see the problem if people are ‘forced’ to follow a certain regime because someone requires them to be more productive. Also if ‘productive’ compromises other quality of life issues.
I saw these as simply “use these if they are helpful” and I thought some of them were good ideas…I would like to be more productive and happy!
Comment by: Eliza
3Timely – I was especially frustrated at work today, started making a list of stupid, frustrating things as they occurred, but of course that didn’t help me feel any better, and it didn’t solve any of them. Unfortunately, the only item of the 25 that seemed helpful for me is the reminder to take vacations. It’s easy to feel guilty blocking time out to be AWAY!!! (We have to figure out each time who will cover during our vacation; we don’t have an automatic setup, but it’s crucial to be sure there’s someone lined up…who gets to do that in addition to her regular duties).
Have any of you seen (or heard about) Tyranny of the Urgent? I haven’t looked at this book (oops, actually it looks like a pack of 5 books according to the link) but the idea, as I’ve heard it, is to think of “importance” on one axis & “urgent” on the other, & to focus on those items which are important over those which seem urgent. Those which are “important’ but not ‘urgent’ often get overlooked. (Ironically, for me, this books/these books apparently talk about the whole idea from a Christian perspective, which somehow had gotten dropped along the way in the sources I’d previously heard about this).
One problem I find is, who defines “importance”? There are alot of high urgency tasks which I don’t think are important, but which are important to someone else, & that’s what kicks them up on the “to-do” list I’m presented with. Like, re-writing prescriptions that I wrote just 2 months ago, because someone’s insurance changed. What’s up with that? Isn’t that make-work????!!!!!! But my complaining about it hasn’t, so far, changed the situation.
End of rant…for now, at least!
:-)
Comment by: Helen
4Thanks for your comment, Eliza. I reposted some of it comment here:
Urgent vs important