in july 2009, paul graham wrote an insightful blog post on the difference between managers schedules (the bosses) and makers schedules (the engineers, creatives, artists, programmers of the world). paul argues that managers spend their days in hour blocks because of the millions of meetings they schedule to get things done while makers spend their days in half day blocks because it takes at least that long to actually create something (in fact, it takes an hour just to get started).
since reading the post i have not been able to drop this concept from mind but, unfortunately, i haven’t done anything about it. i find myself with some incredibly difficult business challenges to solve yet no time to even give them the five minutes they deserve. i complain about having no time. but in some weird twisted way i even notice that sometimes my complaining is secretly mixed with bragging – as if the fact that i am so tied up with meetings is a testament to how important i am. terrible. but at the end of the day, one thing is clear and that is that nothing changes…i make nothing.
so this week i am trying something new. monday will be spent in meetings getting alignment with the team and client on what needs to get accomplished that week. tuesday through friday i have blocked off every morning from the time i get into the office until 1pm to “make;” i am calling them “maker morning sessions.” 1pm through the rest of the day will be for meetings, emails and the likes. i’m not sure how this will work but i think i owe it to myself, my team, and my client to take some time to shut up, stop managing, and make something. we’ll see how it goes.
anyone want to join me in my experiment?
p.s. while searching for images for this post i found this image…thought you might like it:
