Time Wasting Efficiency

David Powlison on how he manages his time:

I’ve had to learn how I work best, and it’s not thecultural ideal of tightly scheduled efficiency. For me, effective andproductive often operate in ways that seem quite “inefficient.” I’mmore “third-world” in my use of time: event-oriented andperson-oriented, rather than time-conscious and to-do-list-conscious. Ioperate with an inner gyroscope tuned to whether or not any particularexperience or interaction is complete – not to how long ittakes or whether it fits the schedule. I’m attuned to whether or notany particular thought is actually finished thinking, rather thanwhether the product is done on time. So I tend to take the time ittakes to get something right—whether that “something” is the closeattentiveness of getting fully engaged in this conversation ofconsequence, or how to craft this sentence and paragraph, or whetherI’m stopping and actually noticing the hawk flying overhead right now.

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