The constant conflict between the Maker's Schedule and Manager's Schedule

This is something that has bothered me always for the past several years, especially in the period when I was working on my own. Paul Graham has managed to put this so eloquently into words:

… There are two types of schedule, which I’ll call the manager’s schedule and the maker’s schedule.

The manager’s schedule is for bosses. Its embodied in the traditional appointment book, with each day cut into one hour intervals. You can block off several hours for a single task if you need to, but by default you change what you are doing every hour.When you use time that way, its merely a practical problem to meet with someone. Find an open slot in your schedule, book them, and you are done. Most powerful people are on the managers schedule. Its the schedule of command.

But there is another way of using time thats common among people who make things, like programmers and writers. They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can’t write or program well in units of an hour. That’s barely enough time to get started. When youre operating on the makers schedule, meetings are a disaster. …

 
comments powered by Disqus