I've been reflecting recently on questions around quantifying how long things take to achieve.
Sometimes, we just don't know, but that is often perceived as incompetence or inefficiency - 'How can you not have a rough idea?'
We've engineered out the possibility that it will take as long as it takes.
My thoughts stem from an enquiry about therapy, but it made me curious about why we feel that this is important.
I wonder whether we are conditioned to strive to perform from an early age, in the briefest periods of time, and have driven out experimentation, serendipity and discovery. There isn't time to make a mistake, so the push to get from A to B in the quickest time is paramount. In education, regurgitating information on a test paper is the standard of measuring success. Syllabus content is so packed that the speed of knowledge acquisition is relentless, with little time for reflection and thorough comprehension.
'Only revise this topic for the test' - 'Hit the assessment objectives'.
The emphasis on performance and results is discussed in many organisational settings. Benchmarks, lead times. launch dates and targets are words often spoken. Even within magazines we browse for pleasure, phrases are creating a sense of responding with a degree of haste - 'Achieve this look...' - 'Steal this style.'
These imperative sentences or command statements create an urgency and directness, which fuels the need for effective time management.
Scrolling on social media, content flashes before our eyes, replaced and refreshed within fractions of a second. The pace of life hurtling along at breakneck speed.
It's no surprise that we feel compelled to ask how long therapy might take.
