Time in the Age of COVID

Last summer, I was working with a leader on designing her time. She was ambitious, leading two organizations, managing a family and running two significant personal projects on the side.

After our session she said to me, “It’s complicated. My time is complicated. I didn’t realize what I was actually juggling until now.”

For years we've been so busy doing all the things. It often becomes harder and harder to see what we are actually managing.

With so much on everyone’s plate these days, it's easy to normalize how full our plates really are.

From an outside perspective, it was clear — she had major responsibilities. As her coach, I knew designing her time would be complex.

And this challenge was not unfamiliar to me. Many of the leaders I work with are drawn to build high-powered careers, combined with rich family lives, as well as connected community and social lives. Often, getting to this sought-after mix makes time a tough equation to solve.

Modern time is tricky.

Generations ago, professional work was separated from other tasks. There were clear boundaries around our activities and time. In fact, when the 40-hour work week was introduced by Henry Ford, it was a reduction of work hours. Ford observed that increased hours resulted in more errors and declining productivity, so he designed a shorter week to give more rest and optimize productivity (read more on this from Celeste Headlee).

Now, professionals spend their waking hours weaving their way among a growing list of competing interests, spinning their time into ever more complex webs.

Family roles that change and keep changing as our nuclear unit evolves and grows.

Jobs that demand more time and more risk-taking but provide less and less security.

Socializing that bridges personal and professional. Keeping connected on social media. Volunteering our expertise to support causes we’re passionate about.

This all results in the fragmentation of our time, and specifically our leisure time, turning our lives into “Time Confetti,” a term coined by Brigid Shulte. This scatter, if you will, has also accelerated because of the pandemic.

The bedroom has had to become the office.

In short, the personal and professional are blurred together like never before.

A silver-lining for some during this painful time might be the slower pace we’ve been forced into. I’ve heard numerous client stories about their appreciation for the beauty of slowing down — going for walks after dinner, playing a game of ball tag, finally completing the project that always got pushed down the list and feeling more connected with their families. For some, this time has raised important questions about how they choose to spend their time, both personally and professionally. For others, it's become critical to identify what they value and want to make space for.

The whole time equation has been turned on its head, and that creates an opportunity.

As complicated as this moment is, there is also the potential for it to improve our approach to time. Many assumptions about the way we do things have been tested and have fallen by the wayside.

We've adapted much faster than we thought we were capable of.

As things begin to shift, this gives each of us a choice:

Will you bring back your old approach to time, or will you take a moment and embrace the opportunity to design your days in a new way?