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A Few Myths About Managing Your Time
anything. Psychologists define it more precisely. To them,
obsessions are persistent and often irrational thoughts that
creep into consciousness and are hard to chase out of the mind.
Some mild but typical examples: a tune that keeps running
through your head, the fear that you forgot to lock your front
door, the worry that you left a confidential document on your
desk at the office.
When an obsession triggers actions—often strange and of
little or no value—this is called a compulsion. A classic example
from Shakespeare: Lady Macbeth compulsively washes her
hands to rid herself symbolically of guilt. To psychologists,
Shakespeare’s example is telling, for they theorize that obses-
sive-compulsive behavior is an indirect way of resolving an anx-
iety or a repressed wish.
Compulsive actions frequently are anchored to time. A few
are relatively harmless, though they do generate unwarranted
stress. For example, do you really need to know that you can
get to work 30 seconds faster by taking an alternate route?
Must you save time by always working on that flight or com-
muter train? Do you spend inordinate amounts of time cleaning
your desk because you fear the chaos that might result from
neglecting it?
A mild obsessive-compulsive, time-related behavior can
often be conquered via the six R’s:

Are You a Perfectionist?
One of the most common (and pernicious) forms of obses-
sive behavior—and one that can interfere with true effi-
ciency and productivity—is perfectionism. Someone once said,
“Perfectionism isn’t the solution—it’s the problem.”
Time management is merely a series of choices—a skill that enables
you to differentiate between what you need to do and what you’d pre-
fer to do. Good organization requires setting priorities, and priorities
remind us that time constraints truly do limit our options. Doing a
thing well is far more important than doing it perfectly. In fact, the illu-
sion that we can do anything perfectly prevents some people from
doing anything well at all.