T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
consciously. You may now be choosing your level of clothing (if
not the specific tie or earrings) by habit or default, but you’re still
performing an act of free will.
Becoming more conscious of the choices you make and learn-
ing to reclaim some of these choices is the very essence of effec-
tive time management.
We’re not suggesting that you wear leather or cutoffs to busi-
ness. We’re not suggesting that you give a great deal of conscious
thought to whether you should brush your teeth, or what toothpaste
you should use, or which hand you should hold the toothbrush
in, or which quadrant of your mouth you should brush first. You
should go right on performing such tasks by rote so long as your
routine is effective for you. (And oh the havoc when, for example,
you develop carpal tunnel syndrome in your dominant hand and
have to try to learn to brush your teeth “wrong-handed.”)
But if you’re making all of your decisions by rote, you’re prob-
ably not making the best decisions for yourself.
The Dilemma of the Ringing Telephone
Imagine for a moment that you work in an office and that your
office has a telephone (not too much of a stretch there). Imagine
that the phone rings (again not a real feat of creative visioning, I
suspect). Shall you answer it? Yes, you do have a choice—espe-
cially if you have voice mail or can let the call ring through to
another phone—but most of us automatically snatch up a ringing
phone. (Remember Pavlov and his salivating dogs? And we don’t
even get a biscuit as a reward when we answer our bells!)
You may have to make the decision to answer a ringing tele-
phone without the most important piece of information, namely,
who’s on the other end, but let’s make it easy by giving you caller
ID. Let’s suppose that the caller is your significant other (hereafter
referred to as the “SO”), the man or woman you share your life