It's About Time

Time is of the essence. It is the one resource that we're offered free of charge. It is also our scarcest resource -- the one that we value most. How we use time determines everything. So how can you manage time wisely? How can you make time, find time, and take time to do the things that matter to you most? Above all, how can you make a friend of time and use it to your advantage? To find answers to those questions, we talked to 17 people who make it their business to know about time. Their observations, which are as varied as their industries and personalities, offer new insight into what it means to have time on your side.

Nicolas Hayek

Cofounder, CEO, and chairman of the board
The Swatch Group
Biel-Benne, Switzerland

Time is both wonderful and horrible. it is wonderful because it holds so much fantastic possibility. It is my work and my life. I create beautiful objects that measure time. If time didn't exist, then my profession wouldn't exist. I wouldn't have 42 watch plants. I wouldn't have built a company with $3 billion in sales. I wouldn't be a billionaire. And I wouldn't have given pleasure to the many people who have bought my watches.

Yet I hate time. Why? Because you cannot keep it. You cannot catch it. You cannot stop it. You cannot possess it. It's always present, but if you try to hold it, it disappears.

We all feel so very important. I certainly do. I walk around the streets of Switzerland, and people recognize me and whisper to their friends that I am the chief executive of one of the biggest companies in the world. I saved the Swiss-watch industry. I partner with giant corporations. I'm doing important things. What does time do? It turns me to dust. I am a tiny particle on a tiny planet in a vast universe. In the end, I am even less than that.

So never try to manage time. It will beat you at every turn. Never try to plan your days and nights minute by minute. Do schedule your time, but never schedule 100% of it. You'll kill your creative impulse if you do. Never try to organize every minute of your time weeks in advance, or you'll be bored to death. Instead, let time renew itself around you. Let it divert you. Let it do something unexpected, something new. Let it bring nice things, and let it bring bad things over which you have no control. And don't try to use personal tricks to fool time. It will always catch up with you.

Nicolas G. Hayek, a celebrity in Switzerland, turned the insolvent Swiss-watch industry into a multibillion-dollar empire. The Swatch Group includes such brands as Omega, Rado, Tissot, and Swatch.

Steve Fredericks

COO and CFO
Digital Domain Inc.
Venice, California

Time management is not a practice but an attitude. I've made a decision not to stress out about time management, so I'm fairly relaxed most of the time. I don't carry a cell-phone, I don't have a pager, and I don't give out my home number. And my company hasn't lost any business as a result.

I liberated myself from my pager two years ago, after someone beeped me late at night about a purchase order that I hadn't signed. Supposedly, the vendor's offer was good only until midnight. The person who paged me was proposing that I return to the office and sign the thing. I couldn't imagine that the sellers of this equipment wouldn't wait until the following morning to get my signature. As it turned out, they were perfectly delighted to receive the form the next day. I figured that if this was the direst emergency that my staff could come up with, then it was time to get rid of the pager.

I do make sure that I'm accessible when I'm at work. I leave my door open, I answer my own phone most of the time, and I never schedule back-to-back meetings. You can always choose whether or not to twist yourself into a pretzel over work -- and I always choose not to.

Steve Fredericks (Sjf@d2.com) joined Digital Domain Inc. in 1995, after a long career at IBM. Digital Domain was founded by Scott Ross, former head of Industrial Light & Magic; director James Cameron; and animatronix specialist Stan Winston. Digital Domain has won three Academy Awards, including one for "Titanic" (1997) and another for "What Dreams May Come" (1998).