I saw 2 people arguing earlier, about which was the faster browser, between Chrome and Firefox. It seems they couldn’t agree, but both insisted that one was a split second faster at delivering a page, than the other.
Hurry up and wait!
It’s a good idea to look for ways to manage your productivity more effectively. But if we spend major time on minor things, the day will always run away from us. We end up a contestant in the ‘hurry up and wait’ game.
Here’s what I mean:
If the guys in that browser argument were to save half a second per page view using the faster browser and they viewed 400 pages a day, it would save them just over 3 minutes a day. When it comes to saving time, there are bigger fish to fry than this.
Plus it’s going to take them almost a full working month, just to regain the hour they lost, arguing about browser speed – sharing benchmarks, statistics and graphs, over a total of 48 heated blog comments!
I see it like this:
- If Bob has the fastest computer, uses the fastest browser and has the fastest broadband connection, yet he uses them ineffectively, he’s going to see little real benefit.
- If Barbara has a 2 year old computer, uses the slowest browser and has a slow broadband connection, yet uses them effectively, she will fly!
Before working on the tools, we should make sure the person using them is managing their time effectively. Otherwise they gain time where it doesn’t matter, then lose time where it does.