Whose time is it, anyway?
“What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I try to explain it, I don’t know.”
-St. Augustine (probably)
It’s been over 3 months of pandemic lockdown here in the US with no end in sight. Among the obvious stressors like lost work, healthcare benefits, grocery supply chain disruption, parents trying to work remotely while also taking care of children who need to engage in remote school, folks refusing to wear masks in public…
Whoa. I should stop before I get depressed.
All those things being true, a particularly fascinating aspect of the lockdown is our new paradoxical relationship with time.
Each day feels like an eternity… but I can’t believe it’s already July.
I’ve never had more time to read… but I haven’t read a book in weeks.
I feel I’m living the same day over and over… but I’ve never had so many different things to do.
When someone asks me the time, the only answer that makes sense is, “It’s day-o-clock.”
What is your time worth?
For many Americans, remote work has become the norm. Industries that resisted going virtual for ages have made an all-but-seamless transition.
(Yes, we’ve still got to figure out what to do for parents with stay-at-home children, dogs barking in the background, how to get folks to stop showing up in underwear and a tie, and why people find it so difficult to mute or unmute themselves when appropriate).
In fact, many workers are positively ecstatic about their new work-from-home situation. So much so that they have no intention of going back to the office, even when it’s ‘safe’ to do so again.
Which raises a new question: Is the 8-hour workday becoming obsolete?
I’ve spent months running virtual workshops for organizations about staying productive, effective, and connected in a work-from-home world. One of the core principles I teach in those workshops is that you don’t need to spend 8 hours “in the office” when you’re working from home.
In fact, you can probably spend half that time. A huge portion of the time you spend in the office is lost to pointless or redundant meetings, trips to your coworker’s desk, shuffling things from here to there, calling tech support, and chatting with colleagues in the hallway or break room.
How much time does it take to get stuff done?
This isn’t unlike public education. Children attending public school in America only spend a fraction of their 6+ hour days truly engaged in learning. One blog run by a veteran educator estimates only 51 minutes PER DAY on average.
That will come as no surprise to homeschoolers, of course (and here I’m talking about proper home schooling, not the emergency system parents have been involved in these past few months). Homeschooled children only need 1-3 hours per day of formal learning to match the 6+ hour school day of their peers (age dependent).
All that’s to say, you’ve probably realized that you can get the same amount of work done at the same quality in half the time or less. Which means, your time is worth a lot more per hour than you previously thought.
So, when the world eventually comes back, you have two ways to approach your employer: Keep working from home for the same pay as always, getting the job done in the hours needed and no longer, OR going back to an 8-hour workday in the office getting paid much more, commensurate with your newly discovered hourly worth.
Who will have the courage to stand up for what their time is truly worth, I wonder?
It’s My Time, Too
My guest on the Beyond Networking podcast this week is Matt Zinman. Matt is in the rare position of being one of the few people in the world to extensively study internships from a practical standpoint.
As the founder of the Internship Institute, a nonprofit that bridges the gap between education and employment, Matt’s learned a lot about what it takes for students, recent grads, and young professionals to build a sustainable career and do work they’re proud of, and for organizations to attract great candidates and bring the best out of them.
One of the most important lessons Matt shared during our conversation emerged while he told his chance encounter story.
“One of the main lecturers at the conference was Patrick J. Jackson, Jr. Afterwards, for whatever reason, I decided to do the meet-n-greet, and go and talk to him.
I’m three or four people back in line, and that was like that moment, unexpectedly my heart started pounding. And I was nervous!
So, I tried to be poised and whatnot, but I went up to Mr. Jackson. And I must have said something to him about thanking him for his time that he was about to spend to speak with me. He stops me and he says,
“Isn’t this your time, too?”
And I acknowledged, you know, that this is also my time and his time, and he says,
“Well, I don’t see why my time is more important than yours. What’s your question?”
And I just was blown away.”
It doesn’t matter if you have millions of dollars in the bank, if you’re the keynote speaker at the conference, or if you’re the president of the university. Everyone gets the same 24 hours each day. Time, whatever it is and however strange it feels, is still the great equalizer. Every hero of your, every legend of any industry, achieved what they did with the same 24 hours you get each day.
So, be sure to respect others’ time and, most important, make sure to respect your own.
It may seem like we’ve never had more time to get stuff done, being stuck in the house 24-7 for months on end. But remember, this is also likely to be one of if not the single most psychologically taxing experience in your life.
Some of that time should be reserved to ground yourself. And if you’re going to ground yourself in anything, it may as well be kindness, generosity, compassion, and connection.
How to Launch Your Career with Matt Zinman
Check out my entire conversation with Matt Zinman where we discuss not just time but also earned confidence, how to prove yourself to yourself, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Internships and what students can do now, recognizing the flow of energy during interactions, gratitude as a daily practice, how to turn difficulties into opportunities…
And that’s just in the first 20 minutes!
Watch before or click the following link to listen: https://www.beyondnetworkingpodcast.com/how-to-launch-your-career-with-matt-zinman/
