Zakaria plagiarism time-management lesson: "Other things will have to go away"

From a New York Times report on the plagiarism charges against Time & CNN correspondent Fareed Zakaria ("A Media Personality, Suffering a Blow to His Image, Ponders a Lesson"):

Mr. Zakaria’s career suffered an abrupt setback recently after bloggers discovered that his column of Aug. 20 for Time magazine had passages lifted almost entirely from an article by the historian Jill Lepore that appeared in The New Yorker in April.

Mr. Zakaria quickly apologized. But within minutes, Time had suspended him for a month and CNN, which had posted parts of the column on its Web site, removed the article and suspended him until further notice. Both began investigations of his work, as did The Post.

On Thursday afternoon, Time and CNN said they had completed their reviews, found no evidence of plagiarism and restored Mr. Zakaria to his demanding schedule. Just as quickly as his employers had questioned his credibility, they rallied around him....

In an interview on Friday in his CNN office, Mr. Zakaria again apologized for what he had called “a terrible mistake.”

“This week has been very important because it has made me realize what is at the core of what I want to do,” Mr. Zakaria said. He said he wanted to “help people to think about this fast-moving world and do this through my work on TV and writing.”

He added: “Other things will have to go away. There’s got to be some stripping down.”

There's a section in the Mistake Bank book (currently in development) about the tendency of time pressure to create mistakes. The temptation for Zakaria to "make hay while the sun shines" needs to be measured against the cost of a significant mistake such as this one.

Things can go awry - don't forget to include buffers in your daily schedule

The 99 Percent blog had a great post today by Scott Belsky entitled, "Nobody's Perfect: Why We All Need a Margin for Error" and explained how an unexpected phone call and bad weather combined to upend an entire day's schedule. Writes Belsky:

Upon arriving at the office, my two morning meetings were already waiting. I had to reschedule my lunch, and the ripple effect continued throughout the day.

Needless to say, it was a tough one. Noticeably absent was the opportunity to think, get any real work done, and connect with my team. With no margin for error, the whole day became compromised.

[Of course this was fun to read the same week as I related my "Sorry I'm Late" mistake story.]

Remember this Ira Glass quote cited by Kathryn Schulz in her TED Talk? "A story is when you expect something to happen, and something else happens instead." Our daily runarounds are full of moments when something unexpected can happen, and as Belsky notes in his story, not taking those possibilities into account can hurt your productivity and raise your stress level.

Putting it another way: a full day's schedule with no breaks is a bit of a lie.

Belsky continues:

Capacity -- specifically, the amount of time and energy we have to expend each day -- is limited. With so much that we want to accomplish, most of us are eager to fully utilize our capacity. But should we?

I would argue, "No." Without a certain amount of capacity left idle, you lose the flexibility to adapt to the unexpected or to capitalize on circumstantial opportunities. You need to create and preserve some margin in your days to reach your full potential.

I like the idea of building buffers into your daily schedule a lot. Not only can they help absorb unexpected situations, they also have a great side benefit. Sometimes things do go as planned, and you don't need the buffer. Then you find yourself with one of the greatest gifts of all: a few free moments to think.

Monica Gould audio story - can chasing a large customer simply be a time drain?

I love this story, recorded during our longer interview with Monica from 2010. It felt to me, as she was relating it, that she was discovering and analyze this situation in the moment; as if, in fact, she was coming to terms with her feelings about it just as we were talking. She argues with herself a bit: "I'm not sure it was a mistake... [but] it's just not a fruitful use of time..." just like we do when we are evaluating something that isn't working out as we'd planned. Magic!

Download "Monica Gould - realizing a strategic opportunity is actually a waste of time" (2:21)

Transcript:

I don't know that it was a mistake, I just... strategically I've invested a significant amount of time in garnering state government contracts. And it's just not a fruitful use of time. I say it's a mistake because I should have realized how closed that market is and perhaps not invested as much time and energy in it.

Because it's an opportunity lost. I'm spending time marketing in this arena, and there's another whole business arena that's a whole lot more accepting of bringing in new people and networking and meeting people.

I guess the big lesson is, once you go into a marketing strategy, test the waters, give it some time to work, but don't waste too much time in it. I've retracted my time and resource from doing that. Not because I don't think there's business out there, but I don't think they're willing to bring new people in. They're entrenched with the contractors they have. It doesn't matter how good you are, unless you have worked for PennDOT for 15 years, they're not just going to take a new firm. I'm not the only person who's experienced that. It's really not worth my time and energy to bid on that stuff. I learned, don't waste too much time in one area. You're going to lose opportunities to get work elsewhere.