The Man with Two Watches
“A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.” -Segal’s law
You’ve heard about the dangers of too many cooks in the kitchen. When the kitchen gets crowded, recipes fail. Someone adds salt, then someone else comes along and adds more. Or maybe no salt gets added at all, because everyone assumes someone else did it.
Best case scenario, everything gets made to the specifications of the lowest common denominator. Everything tastes okay, fine, “it’s food.” Nothing is “Wow, this is incredible!”
The cooks in the crowded kitchen also tend to fight a lot. Sometimes they’re fighting for power, but other times they just want order. A leadership vacuum is exhausting. Better for someone else to be in charge than no one.
Or maybe you’ve experienced design by committee, where a bunch of people all have to sign off on a brand change or product update. All around the room, each person offers what they believe is a helpful suggestion.
Problem is, the suggestions are in conflict with one another. They may all be good ideas, but a project can have only so many.
In the end, of course, the design doesn’t come out well. It’s got something from everyone in it; isn’t that great?
Not really, at least not when it comes to design.
Now Let’s Look in the Mirror
Like I said, you know what those experiences are like. You understand that a kitchen needs a lead chef, and a design project has to walk away from good ideas.
Yet many of us we ignore the same problem in our own lives, where we are the ultimate boss.
There is no executive committee that drives our decisions—so in effect, we create one. We muddle the process by adding unnecessary sticking points.
Sure, you may have a boss at work, but you are the boss of your executive functioning. You are the one who sets and acts on priorities.
Without thinking about it, most likely you’ve assigned yourself several different ways for measuring your performance. For each role in your life, you have goals or values. You also have a general sense of wellbeing or progress, e.g. how am I doing right now?
You try to make aligned decisions, but it’s not always easy. Just like too many cooks or design by committee, your preferences can come into conflict and foster a sense of disorder.
You might make things more complicated because you’re afraid to simplify. You might add because you’re afraid to subtract.
If that’s you, it means you’re like the man with two watches: never sure of the time.
(Now is the time for a recurring disclaimer: I write these kinds of posts largely for myself. I’m not judging you, but if the shoe fits…)
Create Your Own Definition of Progress
Life is complex. Some days are better than others, some seasons are just hard—that’s normal. Moreover, serendipity can be a welcome experience; not everything in life needs to be perfectly ordered or planned.
Still, without a way to “take the temperature,” you’ll find yourself out of sorts and constantly trying to compensate for something.
To find the remedy, pare down your watch collection. Decide on your means of evaluation, and be wary of anything that points you in another direction.
The more we have some sense of what it means to win the day, the more order we’ll create and the better we’ll feel.
Have you been going about your life with two watches? Maybe it’s time to choose.
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