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There’s a laundry list of phrases that trigger me in #academia and related professions: one of the most frequent ones is “I don’t have time” / “They don’t have time.”

The reason it triggers me so often isn’t so much that the statement doesn’t reflect a stark reality: today’s academic and research world has arguably never been more of a pressure cooker to perform, and with less and less resources to do so.

My problem with the statement is what then usually happens: a deep dive into the metaphorical weeds of why that person doesn’t have enough time , when usually it’s two larger issues that are at play.

Modern, professional careers never have enough time to do everything – “not enough time” is a truism at this stage. Careers are a constant balancing act of prioritization*

What “I don’t have enough time” often in fact boils down to is one or more of two issues:

1) “I don’t perceive enough value or return on investment on that activity in order to prioritise it highly enough to get done”,

and/or

2) “I perceive too many barriers or obstacles in the way in order to be remotely feasible of fitting it into my hectic schedule”

Neither reason 1 or 2 is explicitly about time (of course time is involved): they’re about priorities and barriers. Any response by a manager or leader hoping to encourage said individuals into making time for an activity should take into account these very real possibilities, rather than just fixating on the pure time issue.

There needs to be some give and take too: if you manage to show the value proposition (1) and remove some of the barriers (2), the individual may well prioritise the thing you’re encouraging them to do. But they have finite time, so this shift in focus may come at the cost of some attention to some other existing activities. It’s your job as leader or manager to be ready for and account for this: if at this stage you penalize them for a slight shift in focus, you’ll undo all your good work and more…

* at least for those who go about their careers in deliberative ways: some people wing it and appear to go spectacularly well – but perhaps not recommended as an approach for all people

timemanagement #leadership #management #workload #working #planning #motivation #priorities #barriers #obstacles #careeradvice

Full Video Notes

There are two phrases that in particular bug me in academia and related professions over and over again.

The first one I have already covered in this Hacking Academia video series, and that is the phrase “I have to.” I have to get this done. I cannot go out with my friends because I have to do this. I pointed out the obvious, which is that you almost never have to do something. You might estimate that there are bad consequences if you do not do something and hence want to avoid those bad consequences, but you almost never have to do something.

The real damage that that phrase does is when it becomes the default thing that you say all of the time without ever really thinking it through.

The second phrase that really bugs me and that comes up quite often in academia and in related professions is the “I do not have time” phrase, or the “they do not have time to do that” phrase. The way in which this phrase bugs me is a little bit different to the way that the “I have to” phrase bugs me.

First I want to provide a little bit of context, and then explain my perspective on what the phrase “I do not have time” really means, and some of the things that it should prompt in terms of thinking, both for the person making the statement and for the people they are interacting with, especially leaders and managers.

So firstly, a little bit of professional context. There are professions where people are basically told to do something and they do it, with varying degrees of enthusiasm or reluctance. One of the ideals that is still somewhat in touch with reality in academia and similar professions is that people are relatively self-motivated, and that at least a significant chunk of what they do on a day-to-day basis is self-driven.

They are not being micromanaged to do everything on an hour-by-hour basis. That is the context in which my comments in today’s video are made.

What often goes wrong with the phrase “I do not have time” is that people around that person immediately dive into analyzing why that person does not have time, and how they can free up more time for that individual. While that is a nice ideal to have, the reality of modern high-pressure professional careers is that you never have enough time to do everything that you want to do.

It is all about prioritization. The phrase “I do not have time” is really telling the listener two things.

The first is that of all the things that that individual is prioritizing doing that day, that week, that month, or that year, they do not regard the activity they have just said no to as high enough on that chain of priorities.

The second thing it may also be telling the listener is that the person in question regards the proposed activity as having too high a barrier or obstacle to entry in order to carry it out, and hence it will not fit into their already very busy timetable.

If you are a leader, supervisor, or manager and you are trying to encourage your team members to do something new and you get this response, there are really three paths you can take.

The first path is to free up time for that individual. Sometimes that will be realistic, but a lot of the time you just cannot do it.

The second path is to try and remove or reduce the barriers or obstacles. That is, to make the thing that seems relatively daunting in the eyes of the person you are talking to, and hence too much of an ask given their already tight workload, less difficult by reducing the number of obstacles and the amount of effort required to actually have a go at doing it.

The third path is ultimately about self-interest. If someone says “I do not have time to do that,” especially in self-driven careers where people are constantly evaluating the return on investment of various activities, what that really means is that the person you are talking to does not regard this activity as having enough of a payoff.

That payoff can take many forms. It could be helping the organization they are part of. It could be helping their team members or colleagues. Quite often it could be helping them in their own professional career. Regardless of the specifics, the perception is that there is not enough return on investment for that individual, and hence they will not prioritize it.

What you can do in response is work on ways to explain, show, or illustrate that what you are proposing really does have value for that individual. Even from a purely selfish or self-centered perspective, they should give it some thought, because it may be much more important to them than they initially and superficially thought.

Obviously, if this is a person in your team, there has to be some give and take. If you go down the route of illustrating how useful this could be to the individual’s career, what you are ultimately doing is encouraging them to prioritize this activity over some other activity.

If you are their supervisor or manager and that happens, and they decide they do have time for this, you have to be willing to accept that some other things will inevitably be deprioritized. They are not suddenly going to become dramatically more efficient at everything.

Finally, this relatively logical and rational approach to managing the “I do not have time” statement needs to take context into account. In high-pressure careers, such as many parts of academia, the “I do not have time” statement is often a precursor or a symptom of an individual or group under significant stress or duress.

If you go through the step-by-step process described above but something is fundamentally wrong, and this statement is just a superficial symptom of a deeper issue, you need to address that first before considering these tactics or strategies.

The “I do not have time” or “they do not have time” statement will often be an accurate synopsis of the circumstances. You will not always be able to convince individuals that they should consider doing the new thing you are proposing.

However, some of the time, if you can reduce the barriers, even perceived barriers that may not actually exist, and increase or clearly explain the motivation for why making time for this activity could be valuable, even from a self-interest perspective, you may be surprised how often people either find the time or deliberately make the time to do it.

That may come at the cost of some other things, and you have to be prepared for that tradeoff.