I'm always searching for time. Or, more accurately, I’m searching for better ways to manage time.
I know I’m not alone in having an inverse relationship between available time and the amount of tasks/activities I want or have to accomplish. Remember the famous Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last”? A bank teller yearns for more time to read, his favorite pastime. His wish is granted when he survives nuclear destruction and stumbles upon the remains of a library, its book catalog somehow intact. But then in an iconic moment of irony, he breaks his thick eyeglasses. Time has long been a topic of examination in society.
This month’s issue features a business owner who seemingly has a good handle on time management. Dwayne Mitchell runs Premier Drain and Sewer Cleaning in Memphis, Tennessee. That’s not all he does. He also still works full time for the Memphis Fire Department. Balancing these dual occupations is what intrigued me the most when I first spoke with Dwayne. Anytime you see someone fitting so much into their available time, you want to know their secrets. How do they get it all done without feeling overwhelmed?
Dwayne seems very laid-back about his balancing act. Part of it is that he’s been doing this awhile. He was hired on at the fire department in 2004 and started his drain cleaning company only three years later. Almost two decades in, he’s been able to fine-tune his time management strategies. From an outside perspective, we marvel at how someone fits it all in, but for a person like Dwayne, it’s simply their normal day-to-day.
Dwayne also maintains a reasonable mindset about it and accepts his limitations. He’s not out there promising 24/7 emergency service to customers. His fire department schedule is structured so that there are large blocks of time available for the drain cleaning work, but he still has to schedule nearly all his jobs out in advance. His nephew, Brandon, who works with him, can handle jobs that come up suddenly, and if not, Dwayne has a small network of drain cleaning friends who can help out. Clear communication is also key. Dwayne says his customers and the plumbers who hire him are understanding about his fire department responsibilities.
I’m reminded of a podcast I listened to recently featuring author Oliver Burkeman, who specializes in writing about topics like productivity, time management and happiness. The gist of Burkeman’s philosophy is this: There is freedom in accepting our limitations. You do more by doing less. By being fully present in the time you do have rather than constantly wishing for more. There will always be too much to do. There will always be more things that you could meaningfully spend your time on than you’ll be able to devote actual time to. It’s the avoidance of accepting the finitude of time that causes so much of our anxiety with it.
To quote a portion of what Burkeman said on the podcast, “There’s incredible power in embracing limitations, in looking them full in the face and more fully inhabiting our position as finite humans instead of constantly trying to optimize … our way out of them.”
So when it comes to time management, you accept that you’ll never be able to master it perfectly. That’s impossible. You just keep giving your best effort, and that will be plenty.
Enjoy this month’s issue.
