Reactive versus Proactive Time Management

Reactive people are event driven and task oriented. They do what they are asked to do. The way things have to be done is known in advance. Their main tools are to-do lists and criteria such as important / not important, urgent / not urgent.

Advantage : a feeling of security in front of an immobile world
Drawback : standard behaviours inappropriate in a changing world
Symptoms :
•  focus on the to-do list
•  work done with a permanent feeling of overload.

Proactive people work the other way round. They are project driven and goal oriented. They do not use to-do lists. Such waiting lists are replaced by a virtual space where possible actions are noted. These ideas of actions do not enter space-time nor activate their brains yet.

Processing is done in a second step. It is a crucial step where they carefully decide which virtual actions to reject and which to transform into real actions with a length and later on with a date of execution.

Activities are not predefined tasks. Project management induces to think over the best way to achieve them. The proactive approach promotes a creative process of continuous improvement.

Avantage : a creative approach of an ever changing world
Drawback : autonomy and responsibility are key values to be adopted
Symptoms :
•  focus on current action
•  work done with enthousiasm

Proactime is a proactive tool dedicated to proactive users. It includes all necessary features for adopting the proactive approach.