Makes me feel like I need a shower

[brewer12345]

after reading this http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/050822/17177.html

[justin]

I feel like I just wasted my time reading this article

[HFWR]

BS

[REWahoo]

Brewer, you keep posting this crap and we'll take away your decoder ring and change the secret handshake...

REW

[brewer12345]

I thought the following was particularly disturbing:

"Have a personal mission statement and allocate my time accordingly...

Be kind in a time-efficient way..."

Brrr....

[Nords]

Yecccccchhhhh, Brewer, I know obscenity when I see it! What a jerk he is!!

Because I could write a whole other very good column in that second day, and I believe two very good columns do more for the world than one excellent one. Besides, I enjoy the feeling of having completed something. It feels better to have, in two days, gotten two columns done, not just one.

I always suspected this about journalists... quantity over quality every time.

I wish he hadn't worked on this column at all!

[Lazarus]

When I retire I want to live somewhere that no one has ever heard someone say "Personal mission statement"

[justin]

Do these "journalists" get paid by the word or what?!

[SLC Tortfeasor]

A perfect illustration of one of the greatest mixed-blessings of the Internet: Anyone can get anything published.

[flipstress]

I have to confess that I have a problem with time.* I am often a few minutes* * late for social appointments--a carry-over from growing up in another country where it was the norm to come half-an-hour to even an hour late for dinner and other social events.* I also tend to put things off for later.

Anyway, I thought I could benefit from reading about "time management" so I started reading "First Things First" this spring.* I know, I know, I'm a decade or so late--did I tell you about my lateness problem?--but that's where a lot of 90's buzzwords probably came from:* personal mission statement, win-win, vision, paradigm, empowerment, etc.*

I find the book too serious and it seems that I will have to work hard, and so I've postponed "enriching" myself for now.* I couldn't get over the effort I'd have to expend to think of my mission and it seems like it would be so static, set in stone and that I would be bound by the mission.* There were some good parts, though, about the importance of distinguishing between urgency and importance, etc.

Anyway, the article brewer linked seems shallow in comparison, especially the part about being kind in a time-effective manner, confining kindness to acts that require little time.* Maybe time and how we use it relates to the "big picture" of our psychological make-up and underlying philosophy of living that any half-baked article like this just won't do.

I haven't given up entirely, though.* I've started on "Getting Things Done" which has a lighter tone than "First Things First."

[brewer12345]

flip:

I think one of the tragedies of American life is the constant feeling that we must be rushing around doing things at every minute. Yes, we get a lot done, but arre we happier for it? Not that I can see. I personally think that the Europeans have a better way of daily life. One of the things pushing me to FIRE is the desire to be able to take life slower.

If you can get by without buying into this insane pace of life, do so.

[Caroline]

So here I am, taking a break from my busy workday, and I read Brewer's post and click the link to learn how to make the most of my time, and I'm thinking, "yeah, I need to be more efficient! And a personal mission statement isn't a bad idea either!"

Then I page down and find everyone ELSE pooh-poohing the column, the guy who wrote it, and the horse he rode in on. I have only one thing to say to all of you...


THANK you!

This is precisely why I come to this forum -- to spend time with wiser heads who have escaped the corporate rat race and are again capable of recognizing BS when they see it!

Thanks to you all for reminding me that, as Mr. Spock so famously put it: "Constant exposure does result in a certain degree of contamination."

Think I'll go lie down, take a nap, and let the decontamination process begin!

Caroline

[BUM]

Originally Posted by Lazarus

When I retire I want to live somewhere that no one has ever heard someone say "Personal mission statement"

I'm with you Lazarus! I always HATED Personal Mission Statments (PMS), Vision statements, and almost anything to do with Malcom Baldrige. I went to a meeting about 15 years ago, where we were commanded to state our 5 year PPG - personal performance goals. Listening to all this crap was mind-numbing. When it was my turn I took the podium and said, "In five years I want to have money shootin' out my ass. Thank you very much." It was a bad joke a few laughed. One guy even clapped. Neither one of us were ever heard from again.

Epilogue: I met my goal. But it took 10 years. Most of the others did not.

[SteveR]

BUM,

Nice one!

I have had my fill of the HR warm and fuzzy hand holding "team" oriented program of the day BS. Management programs are just as bad. What ever happened to Quality Circles? They went the same way as MBO, and Quality One programs. The BS that ASQ spews forth from ISO and related bodies is pure BS and if you ever went through an ISO audit you will know what I mean.

My bosses over the past several years have bought into this mind numbing time wasting demeaning and worthless BS. I guess you can tell I have a mild dislike for this stuff. 8)

In my recent performance evaluation but boss started in on my Develpment plan over the next 3-5 years. I told him my plan was to be retired and grateful I would not have to endure this torture ever again. He was a bit shocked especially when I told him the only thing I needed to develop was my portfolio and if he could get the idiots at Corporate to stop wasting management time on this kind of BS the company might be better managed to actually make more money. He ended the meeting right there but he did smile about it. I am only 2 years older than he is so he knows I am here because I want to be, not because I have to be. It is a big difference.

[justin]

Caroline,

I think this article is worse than the corporate HR time management goal setting crap.

It looks like this guy wrote the article on his blackberry at 4:50 pm to make his 5:00 pm deadline. I think I am dumber for having read his article.

[BUM]

Right on SteveR,

Keep the faith. My position was was akin to heresy back then, but hey, what the heck!



BUM