In het boek The Effective Executive beschrijft Peter F. Drucker hoe het omgaan met tijd doorslaggevend is voor het al dan niet effectief zijn:
Effective executives ... do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start out by finding out where their time actually goes. Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time. Finally they consolidate their 'discretionary' time into the largest possible continuing units. This three-step process:
- Recording time
- Managing time
- Consolidating time
is the foundation of executive effectiveness.
Effective executives know that time is the limiting factor.
The output limits of any process are set by the scarcest resource. In the process we call 'accomplishement', this is time.
Time is also a unique resource. ... The supply of time is totally unelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. ... [T]ime is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday's time is gone forever and will never come back. Thie is, therefore, always in exceedingly short supply.
Time is totally irreplaceable. ... There is no substitute for time.
Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and neccessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.
Bron: The Effective Executive, Peter F. Drucker
