(Note – you can listen to this post by clicking here)
CBC radio’s program, Out of Their Minds, recently ran a piece about time travel.
Scientists – including Einstein – have shown conclusively that when we move fast, time actually goes slower. In other words, someone moving at the speed of sound ages less than someone sleeping. At the speed of light, time actually stops.
This relationship of time to speed is somewhat tricky when applied to our working lives.
Anyone who has ever spent a prolonged period wallowing in unproductive torpor knows that idleness is bad. It kills our ability to think and cripples us; in reference to the above CBC piece, we become older and less sharp than we actually are.
But the opposite is also true. When we move too fast at work, particularly if we’re doing managerial work, we’re doomed to fail. Sometimes I think that in our game, in this era of social media, it’s amazing we can manage anything or anybody. As Henry Mintzberg has said, the true nature of managerial work is frenetic and chaotic.
So the question remains, what can a PR pro do to reap the benefits of moving fast but still manage effectively? There are a whole host of tactics including: scheduling specific times for distractions like social media, conducting more meetings face to face, and engaging in activities like regular blogging that require sustained focus.
At the end of the day, we just need to be aware of how our approach to time can help or hinder us. How often do you reflect on your approach to time and speed?