In 1973, an author named Alan Lakein published a book titled How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. It wasn’t the first book about professional time management — my library contains a first edition of James McCay’s 1959 classic, The Management of Time — but it’s arguably the first book to talk about the topic in a recognizably modern way, with a focus on personalized tools like daily to-do lists. It went on to reportedly sell more than three million copies, and was even shouted out by Bill Clinton, who cites its influence on his early career in his autobiography.
Revisiting Lakein’s advice today provides a glimpse into office life fifty years ago. And the encounter is shocking.
One of Lakein’s more famous suggestions is to write down everything you need to do on a single task list. He then says to label each task with one of three priorities: “A” for things that are important and urgent, such as those with impending deadlines; “B” is for tasks that are important but not urgent, and can therefore be postponed if necessary; “C” is for things that are small, easy, and don’t require attention at the moment.
You start by completing the A tasks, crossing them off your list as you go. Then you move on to the B category. If you finish the B tasks, you can tackle some of the C. Lakein notes that these task priorities might evolve. An important obligation with a distant deadline, for example, might start at B, but then, as the deadline approaches, upgrade to A. Lakein’s intention is to help you make sure that you make progress on the things that most require your attention.
Part of what’s shocking about this system is its finitude. In 2024, can you imagine fitting everything you need to do on a single list? Your email inbox alone could likely contribute several hundred items at any given moment. Also notable is Lakein’s assumption of task stability; that your list would more or less stay the same as you carefully worked your way through it during a full workday. Modern work is instead defined by constant new demands — chats, questions, meeting invitations, requests to “jump on a call” — that require timely answers.
Here’s the question that began to fester as I revisited these older ideas: is what we’re doing today any better?
The fact that our modern workflows would swamp Lakein’s quaint system of simple lists and priorities is perhaps more an indictment of us than him. To have more work, arriving with much more urgency, than we can possibly get our arms around is not a good recipe for getting useful effort out of human brains. It is, however, a good recipe for burnout.
A point I often make on my podcast, as well as in my new book, Slow Productivity, is that in my own work on these topics, I describe more complicated time management strategies with reluctance. My bigger wish is to help reform office work to the point that they’re no longer needed, and something like Lakein’s basic ABC system is more than enough.
We’re not there yet, but in the meantime, it helps to realize where we are now isn’t working.
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- If you want to learn more about what’s (regrettably) required to manage your time in our current moment, check out the latest episode of my podcast, Deep Questions, where I tackle three advanced time techniques (listen | watch).
- If you haven’t yet read my latest book, Slow Productivity, you should! Some more encouragement: (1) it was recently named an official selection of The Next Big Idea Club [meaning it was chosen by a panel consisting of Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Dan Pink, and Susan Cain as one of the two best idea books of the season]; and (2) it was selected for the shortlist for SABEW’s Best Business Book of 2024 award.
Thanks Cal! It sure would be nice to manage all of my tasks and responsibilities with simple lists. Instead, I need complicated processes to keep up with everything. I hope more people embrace the ideas in Slow Productivity so we can start to simplify how we manage our work.
Even in Lakein’s time, though, it’s not good advice to do all the A tasks before moving on to the B tasks. I’m sure even then there were longer-term projects that would move the needle and were important but not urgent, which needed to be worked on before all the A tasks were complete.
I don’t necessarily agree that this system can’t be applied to modern workplaces. In fact, I use it every day… in a slightly modified fashion. I keep a single page, prioritized list of tasks on paper and a running tally at the top of the page of “Still Need” items that are due back to me in the immediate future (there’s an electronic list for longer term due dates.) Sometimes the list is daily, but often it’s a 2 or 3 day list, and sometimes will be added onto over the course of the entire week. Items may even change priority over the lifetime of a list. I’ve used this system for decades and across many fields.
Emails and chats are answered in the moment. I personally can’t stand unread messages. I guess I’m an inbox zero person. If research is needed for a reply I inform the requestor and it goes on the list.
I’m in my 40s, not a young person, and I like hand writing on paper, so it works well for me.
I’d bet Lakein had a secretary, his company had a receptionist, and, if large enough, there were administrative assistants to handle the administrative overhead that takes us away from higher priority work. I could focus more on the main work in the 1980’s because administrative professionals kept everything running smoothly until the PC became ubiquitous.
That’s a very good point 🙂 also the number of inputs, I once counted the number I had and stopped at 10. For my children it was over 19!
I’m considering only responding to people who mail me letters, I’ll give them 8 hours of free consulting advice, consider investing in their businesses, be super helpful. But they have to write a letter 🙂
Contrast this to my most recent social media experience – The second follower is begging for money, are they real? And the time it took to deal with it…
The ability to say no to things that aren’t on the schedule as you point out using gatekeepers, physical and electronic was huge.
I’m considering giving the advanced chatbot gateway duty…
Then I have to train another device 🙂
Responding to letters, it’s not a bad filter 🙂
Otherwise it’s a form, people have to pay to verify their identity, an internally I religiously use methods to block my time and turn off the distractions.
Amazing how much more effective one can be when it’s understood the times will be available and when you won’t be.
Otherwise none of these are labor-saving devices, and the communication should have a goal not just to appear to be busy…
🙂
The other huge advantage is you can only put so much on a single piece of paper. I recently considered the benefits of forgetting, if it isn’t important enough to be written down it’s probably not important enough.
As others have said working off a single piece of paper generally more constructive, if the goal is to finish things 🙂
Cal,
I’ve never found any time management easy. Even the A, B, C never worked for me. Everyone assumes that we all fit into the same mold and can do things the same way. If I recorded to dos on a paper or in a notebook or on a spreadsheet, I would forget they existed. And I would wonder what I should put down for the various fields because I had no connection in my brain to them at all. I have a now strength that does better with going with the flow, which is the polar opposite the strength needed to track to dos. I also am a “If I see it, I do it,” and not “if I plan it, I do it” (I’m more “If I plan it, I will never do it.”)
I use a Kanban-style board on my Microsoft Outlook calendar. Not for time blocking…can’t do that at all. Just so when Outlook opens to the calendar, I immediately am reminded I need to do X today. Not everything I do ends up on the “K-board.” Just the things that I need to make sure get done, in case I get pulled into the flow of another direction (an emergency). Once it’s done, I delete it, since leaving it there or “crossing it out” would nag at me as if it still needed to be done. With some things, I also have to spend some time thinking with my fingers so I can work out in my brain the simplest path to do it (and unfortunately, I was informed by someone that I was wrong doing it that way because it didn’t fit his image of how to do things).
As an assistant librarian, I have two to three emails a day and my tasks could be completed with Lakein’s method. If I have many tasks to do before the end of the day I plan tasks by the hour. I enjoy not having to take tasks home as well because everything has to be done on our county server. It’s a relief really. Work stays at work.
🙂
Vacation means to be out of the office 🙂 yet how many people choose to bring it with them.
I remember in one of your books, you mention the term “attention residue.” These days, I feel as though it is nearly impossible to avoid this in office life. This, for me, at least creates a sort of overstimulation in which I am unable to properly focus on whatever I need to focus on, and I believe that it will continue to get worse unless something changes. Oh, how I wish to go back to Lakein’s times, where work life could be contained within a notepad…
And Polish 🇵🇱 month names in calendar pic! 🙂
It seems like the BIG point might be getting overlooked here. Today is no different than 1973—back then, people were overwhelmed with too much to do, just like we are now. Sure, our lists might be longer today, but that’s only because we have more inputs coming at us. The key takeaway, I believe, is to prioritize your intent and focus solely on what you’ve identified as most important. The B’s and C’s on the list aren’t worth your energy and should be consciously avoided. It’s about clarity and discipline, not just action.
Sounds sensible to me!