Lessons · Teaching · what a transition costs
What a transition costs
A transition is every move between one activity and the next, and each one costs minutes; they are small, they are frequent, and across a year they come to weeks.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Nobody counts these and they are the largest pile of lost time in the building. Three minutes, six times a day, is not a rounding error, and it is the one pile of time you can get back without asking anybody's permission.
How to think about it
Time one transition with a watch, honestly, because estimates are always low. Multiply by how many happen in a day and by the days in the year. Then teach the transition as a procedure and time it again.
Worked example
One transition, timed: 3 minTimed rather than estimated.
3 min × 6 transitions = 18 min a daySix is a low count for most timetables.
18 min × 180 days = 3,240 minThe year, in minutes.
3,240 / 60 = 54 hoursFifty-four hours, which is about twenty-two lessons. Taught and practised, the same transitions take a minute each.
Your turn
A transition takes 2 minutes and happens 5 times a day across 180 days. Write the line that gives the minutes lost in the year.
2 × 5 × 180 = min
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Hurrying a transition instead of teaching it. Hurrying makes it louder and no faster; the minute comes off when everybody already knows where they are going and what to carry.