I Hate You Ann Peterson
I don’t really. Just in a few trying moments now and then.
Anyway I wonder if what she said works elsewhere in life or at work.
Ann said something 5 minutes into our first running session that really hit me.
“It’s not how far you run, its how much time you run”.
Really? Since when? It’s all about distance when I was running back in the day (way way back in the day). It was all about running 1 or 2 or 3 miles every time and if time got involved it was “can I run those 2 miles faster?”
But I did what we as a big group of us were told. We had all joined the “Couch to 5K” running club a couple of weeks back. Ann is the leader, the one with the whistle and the stopwatch. And in that first session we ran for a few minutes each time, walked for 3 minutes, ran for 3 minutes. Rinse and repeat. Increase the time running each week she said. Hard. Brutal. But I like it the concept. Makes sense.
Let the time you run each week grow, not necessarily caring about the overall distance.
While I can’t say I’ve enjoyed the running these last 2 weeks (I still cursed Ann out last night in fact while running in Stoll Park a thousand miles away on business here in KC) The stopwatch can’t be right—these time intervals are the longest ever! But I really like the premise of focusing on time.
- Maybe I don’t need to get through my whole to-do list today but rather spend one hour solely focused on that to-do list every day.
- Maybe I don’t need to read those two books by next Friday, but rather focus an hour a day every day on just reading. Period.
- Maybe if I am a sales rep, I don’t have to focus on making 45 calls out before lunch today but rather focus on 3 hours of just making calls as quickly and wonderfully as I can.
- Maybe it doesn’t matter what I do with the kids on Saturday but how long we just “do” something that matters.
- Maybe if I quit counting stuff (am I the only one who does that?) and focus on counting the time I spend doing stuff I should, maybe the results would better.
Let’s hope I’m right ( and I think I am) – I don’t need any more reasons to be taking it out on Ann.
Till next time,
Grow The Business.
Mark
Mark McCarthy's Blog 
Very interesting spin on Ann’s comment Mark. I think I certainly could use some of that scheduled time to enhance some work habits. Thanks for sharing.
The only problem with focusing on time rather than output is that for most people tasks will expand to fill the time available. I actually prefer to focus on the results – because then if I’m really efficient I get the bonus of extra time to use as I choose.
Well said Mark! I like this line of thinking!