It can be spent, bought, wasted and cheated, but the most important issue for the new millennium may be how to manage time. Time-management skills are big business, with all sorts of services available which promise to transform daily living by improving your skills in this area. The BBC, as part of its Time Season, sends David Stafford around the globe to find out How to Beat the Clock (Saturday, BBC 2, 9 p.m.). In Silicon Valley, California, Stafford meets professional organiser Gunilla Koch who makes a fortune out of helping workers - who earn huge salaries but have no time for themselves - by doing all the mundane things in life like shopping, buying flowers for mother, etc. Then it's on to Salt Lake City to meet Hyrum Smith and Steven Covey - authors of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - who run Franklin Covey, one of the biggest time management companies in the world with a turnover of $500 (424.41 million) million a year. And yes, they include Bill Clinton among their fans.
John Pitman concludes his series on personal services with a documentary on the mobile hairdresser in Rock and Rollers (Saturday, Channel 4, 7.30 p.m.) It focuses on two rival hairdressers who operate in Brighton - one who caters for a racy young clientele, the other who tends the retired, greying inhabitants of the seaside town.
On Monday, Streetwise, RTE's consumer affairs magazine returns for a fifth series (Network 2, 8.05 p.m.) with presenters Maria Mullarkey and Martina O'Donoghue. Items covered include the ongoing saga of taxis in the capital and service charges in restaurants - who really gets the money?
On BBC2, (Monday, 7 p.m.) Digital Planet looks at how the digital age is insidiously changing the way people communicate. People no longer feel the need to stop and have a chat at a desk, on a street corner or over the garden fence, with the result that work places and communities are changing and becoming increasingly dependent on technology.
On Tuesday, (Network 2, 10.20 p.m.) Karl Tsigdinos returns with a new series of Drive, the motoring magazine. It includes a preview of the new Volkswagen Beetle - which has taken off in the US, but won't be available here until 2000. There's also a look at the new Ford Focus and the Caterham 7, a specialist handbuilt sports car based on the Lotus.
The inside stories of dodgy dealings and skulduggery in the commercial world are told in Blood On The Carpet, a new series beginning on BBC 2, Wednesday 9.50 p.m. The series kicks off with The Rocco Forte Story which chronicles how a small milk bar business grew to become the Trusthouse Forte hotel and catering empire worth £4 billion. Unfortunately the empire and its boss, Sir Rocco Forte, were completely surprised by a hostile takeover bid and lost everything in a bitter battle with Granada.
