Author: Francis Wade

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New Terminology for Scheduling

Now and then I find that here on 2Time I am forced to craft a new word for a concept that doesn’t quite have the right definition.  For example, “time demand” is a phrase I had to coin in the absence of any other, to describe the basic unit of stuff that we deal with every day.

I need another term to describe a “booked” period of time in one’s schedule.

If you are new to this site, you may not know that a time demand is Captured and Emptied into one of several places.  A schedule is one possible destination for a newly Emptied time demand.

Once it gets placed in a schedule, it can either be “hard” or “soft” depending on what other time demands depends on its completion, and what consequences occur if the action fails to occur.  It gets transformed from it’s original status as a free-floating commitment, and now has the following characteristics:
– a clear description of the action to be taken (and hopefully a clear understanding of the outcome)
– a start-time
– and expected end-time (and therefore a duration)

These are the basics, but there are other important attributes that usually aren’t captured in one’s schedule, such as:
– dependencies in both directions
– other people who may be participating
– location
– importance
– dollar costs
– consequences if it’s not completed
– the degree to which the time estimate is unbiased
– the distribution of the estimate

The problem I have is I don’t have a name or word for a scheduled time demand.  Here are a few I have tried:

Appointment — this is OK for White Belts who only record meetings with others in their calendars, but it becomes a problem for Yellow and Orange Belts.  When they need to schedule a solo activity they are forced to talk about “appointments with themselves”… which simply sounds weird, if not a bit tacky.

Occasion — let’s see, where is my black tie?  This isn’t a bad one, but it sounds a little official, and doesn’t conjure up everyday time demands like doing the laundry, which definitely isn’t anything special.

Time-slot — a bit dry, I have used this term more frequently, even though it sounds as if some decision has been pre-determined to some degree.

Designated time / time period / time-gap — these all sound clunky and have a bit of the pre-determination that time-slot carries.

Space — sounds too much like something physical rather then temporal.

Segment — promising…  I am thinking of the term in radio or television terms, in which a certain period of time is used for a particular program.  The only part I don’t like is that the word “segment” seems to imply that the time-period it describes is being used for something particular, when in fact it might not be used at all.

The winner is… “segment.”  Unless someone can come up with a better term!  Let me know if you have a suggestion.

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Best Practices in Time Management

Is there such a thing as a best practice in time management?

It might seem that this is a no-brainer… of course there are things one should be doing, and things one should not be doing!

I would argue the opposite, based on my experience of teaching time management programs.  Here’s why.

I assume that people who take my programs have taught themselves the skills that they use on a daily basis.  Some are more capable than others, to be sure, and can handle a larger number of time demands.

However, before improving a single habit, practice or ritual, I encourage each person to make an assessment about whether  or not the change they are contemplating will enhance their peace of mind.  In some cases that surprise me, the answer is a clear “no.”

From my point of view as an outsider to their lives, there seem to be clear-cut cases of changes that people “should” make.  As a coach/expert in the area, I sometime think that all my experience adds up to something, including a right to tell someone what’s best for them… as if I can know what’s best about their lives.

I’m better when I remember an important principle: maximum peace of mind comes when there is a match between the volume of time demands in one’s life, and the capacity of one’s system.  While it’s fine to have more capacity than volume, we hate it when the opposite is true and we find ourselves falling behind, stuff falling through the cracks, overwhelmed by email and stressed.

At that point, an upgrade is sorely needed.

For some, however, there is no need to change anything, and their “best practices” happen to be the ones that they are currently using – regardless of how they stack up against Black Belts in time management or any standard I might dream up.  They don’t anticipate an upsurge in time demands, and can keep their peace of mind by operating at the same level indefinitely.

It would be a mistake for them to try to change things for silly reasons, such as a need to keep up with the Joneses by using the latest smartphone technology.  Yet, that is exactly what people do all the time.

They adopt a new technology without having an understanding of their time management systems, and end up learning bad habits that must be un-learned in order to retain their past levels of productivity.  (If you’d like to hear some statistics on how that happens, I recommend the new book “The Activity Illusion” by Ian Price.)

So, the long and short of it is that there are no universal best practices.  There are only personal practices that we each need to follow, in order to maintain our productivity and peace of mind.

This doesn’t say that there aren’t consequences for ALL the habits, practices and rituals we include in our time management systems.  There most certainly are.  it’s up to the user to decide when to change them, however, and not someone who comes up with some list of “best practices.”

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Time to Have a Girlfriend

A few years ago when I was struggling in a first marriage that ultimately failed, I came across some advice that I have never forgotten.  It was simple and brutal – if you want your relationship to last, spend 15 hours per week in face to face contact with your spouse.  (See www.marriagebuilders.com for details.)

Not time spent sleeping, watching television or taking care of the kids.  Face to face time.  The kind that allows for conversation and interaction.

He made a good point — when you are dating, you make sure to spend this kind of time to get to know the other person, and you actually engage in certain practices that allow you to fall deeply in love.  He argues that these practices, and their duration, is what allows a relationship to develop.  When they cease, the relationship suffers and eventually dies.

In most marriages, other commitments come into play that reduce the number significantly — kids, work, hobbies, charities, church, chores, sports, television, games, Internet activity.  Over time, the total number of hours shrinks as both partners unknowingly drift to other interests.  Before you know it, each partner has developed a raft of other commitments that serve to keep them apart.

It was a compelling argument, but I had the reaction that most people have when they hear the 15 hour required minimum.  “Where the heck will I ever find that kind of time?”  It seemed to be an impossible task to squeeze that much time in, and I had the stupid notion that time with one’s spouse shouldn’t be forced… which only meant attempting to squeeze the time in between other, presumably more important, commitments.

The author argued that this was a cop-out.  He asked his readers to imagine what would happen if they were to fall in love with someone outside the marriage, and were to conduct a torrid and passionate affair.

If you are a fan of the television series Mad Men you would see a good example of how the busiest people in the world are able to find time to have affairs, and I imagine that you and I are not too different.  15 hours a week on our secret love affair would feel like no time at all, and we’d magically find ways to be together that seem so hard once our lover becomes our spouse, and a few years have passed.

In my second marriage I have worked hard from the beginning to make sure that the 15 hour minimum is preserved, and I schedule time with my wife when I find that the minimum is being threatened.  Some married folk in my time management classes argue that setting time aside to date your spouse isn’t romantic, but they ignore the fact that if they were to conduct an illicit affair, that high level scheduling skills would be an absolute requirement!

They also forget that when they were dating, coordinating schedules was an absolute requirement, and that we all make the mistake in thinking that once we are married, such dedicated time will come easily and effortlessly, without planning and foresight.  Sex should happen spontaneously, right after doing the dishes and changing the baby’s diaper.

Once convinced, however, of the need for 15 hours, finding the time is often a huge challenge.  Those with White belt skills in Scheduling, for example, are likely to find the going tough in spite of their best intentions.  Their best tactic is to upgrade their skills in this area to Yellow or Orange belt levels, so that they can handle this new 15 hour per week time demand that seems to be such an imposing burden.

It seems a bit strange that time management skills might have something to do with saving a marriage.  However, if we look at the things that don’t happen in life because we don’t have the time (such as more exercise, less clutter and better balance) it’s not hard to see that doing well in all of them requires good a time-management skills.

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Your Brain at Work

A new study was just released that backs up the work done by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly in his book “Flow”, that uses a great deal of neuroscience to back up his notion that we are at our most productive when we are focused on a single tack.

The article is entitled “Your Brain at Work: What to Do When There’s Too Much to Do.”

I thought that the point about multi-tasking was well-put:

If you have to multitask, combine active thinking with automatic, embedded routine or transactional routines. That’s why I can iron a shirt or empty the dishwasher during a conference call and still perform relatively well; or, another manager can sign contracts while she’s thinking about her next sales meeting. Become aware of your mental energy needs and schedule accordingly.

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Schedule and Forget It

One of the benefits of having a higher belt (Orange and Green) and switching time demands from lists to a single schedule is that there is a certain peace of mind that’s available.

This is especially true for a high number of time demands.

The reason for peace of mind is simple, and it starts at the moment when a time demand is Emptied from a Capture Point.  If the time demand is converted to a segment in your Schedule, then you have set time aside in the future to get it done.

If the time demand is added to a List, then you have also implicitly set time aside to get the item done in the future, but there is a major difference from the prior option.

When the item is added to a Schedule, you can forget about it until the date/time approaches as long as you have a reliable method for interrupting what you’re doing to remind yourself to get started.

By contrast, when the item is added to a List, something a bit dangerous happens after it’s added:
1.  you make a mental note to yourself of the time that it’s due, or the completion date that would represent a late one
2.  you start to make an effort to remember this due date
3.  when you check your list each day, you must revisit the item to ensure that the due date hasn’t passed, redoubling your effort to remember

The overall effect is that you must revisit the List to check on the item, much in the way that a mother fusses over her baby while it’s sleeping.   This fussing isn’t a problem when the number of time demands is small, but when the total number of items in a List exceeds a certain number, the technique becomes counter-productive.

That’s when we need the relief and peace of mind that Scheduling affords.  The moral of the story is that when the number of time demands grows past a certain point, then it’s better to “Schedule and Forget It” rather than “List and Fuss Over It.”

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Blackberry Addiction in South Africa

It seems that the Crackberry addiction is now afflicting South Africa, much as it has caught on here in Jamaica, where they have become a hot item for thieves.

What caught my eye is the symptoms of smartphone abuse, that I can truly relate to now that I own a Blackberry (it’s been less than a month.)

  • Feeling anxious if one cannot access one’s e-mail or retrieve text and instant messages, or are outside cellphone signal range to receive or make calls;
  • There is an uncontrollable need to check one’s BlackBerry every few minutes to see if there are new messages;
  • Mistaking random sounds as a ringtone or message alert for BlackBerry’s messaging service, BBM; and
  • Panic attacks when unable to locate one’s BlackBerry or if one has left a smartphone at home

The funniest part of the interview is that part where RIM’s representative says that “BlackBerry smartphones have freed people from their desks so that they have the flexibility and time to do the things that matter to them in their social and family lives.”

This is so wrong on many levels that I had a laugh at it… but it worries me that RIM only sees this teensy-weensy slice of the overall picture.

His comment deserves a post of its own, but until them, here’s the link to the article:  South Africans want to break smartphone addiction.

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Hierarchy of the Un-Productive

I have noticed that when I work with people I am becoming quite a quick (and maybe unfair)judge of their ability to manage their time.

It might be because I have spent too much time thinking about and writing this blog, with its belt levels, time demands, practices, habits and the like.  I am always observing managers and executives to see what methods they are using to manage their time.

After all, almost everything I have learned about managing my own time has come from seeing what others are using — all I have done is to put some bits and pieces together to create the 2Time Management approach.

I have mentioned my acid-test on this blog:  when someone comes to me with a “great” idea I ask them to “call me next week Friday at 2:30pm.”  Most are unable to make the appointment, or even to remember that it was missed after the fact.  When confronted, they refer to their inability to remember stuff like that.

Here is a synopsis of professionals I have worked with who demonstrate different levels of productivity.  I might be a bit harsh in my judgments, but you may recognize some of these traits.

Alvin the Avoided
He is unreliable to the point that people around him refuse to work with him.  He may never know that he is being avoided, but he is the last person asked to undertake anything important.

Edna the Earnest
Edna is someone with the best intentions in the world, but none of the skills that it takes to manage her time well.  She lives and dies on the quality of her memory, and is reliable on good days, and simply awful on bad days.

Fred the Fearful
Fred does life simply — he refuses to do too much work for fear that it will be overwhelming.  His “plate is always full” and he is ready to provide  evidence of that sentiment at a moment’s notice.  He refuses to grow — the risk of failure is too great if he does and he insists on keeping things the same, no matter what.

Hurricane Harry
Harry is a very hard worker who always seems to be in the middle of a crisis.  He’s the right guy to have in such a case, but he’s hardy saving lives in the ER and he’s not a professional fireman.  The chaos around him makes him a dangerous person to entrust with very much, as it’s sure to be turned into a crisis of some kind instead of being resoved in an orderly, quiet manner.

There are others to be sure, and I am open to some suggestions to add to this list of observable types.

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Hard vs Soft Scheduled Items

Professionals who undertake the discipline of Scheduling at higher skill levels (Orange and Green belts) have their calendar as the central point of focus (rather than their memory, or lists of different varieties.)

They place most activities directly into an available time-slot, immediately assigning it a date, duration and start-time. In so doing, they are able to forget about the time demand until the appropriate “appointment” comes up.

These users do use their calendars flexibly, moving items depending on what happens each day. They make these changes on the fly, using electronic tools like Outlook in a way that goes well beyond the intent of its designers. As a result, they have developed some special needs.

One feature that would make things easier would be a way to schedule “hard” vs “soft” segments in the calendar.

Essentially, Outlook tries to treat each item in its calendar as an appointment: a timed meeting that involves another person such as a dinner date or a meeting with a customer. However, Orange and Green belts also schedule individual activities, dubbed by some as “appointments with yourself.” The vast majority of these items involve no other people.

However, these two commitments are not exactly alike.

Their lives would be made much easier if Outlook were to distinguish between different kinds of segments, recognizing them as either “hard” or “soft.”

A hard item is one that has external consequences if the start and/or end-times change. Many involve activities with other people who rely on our presence, and have some expectation regarding the other person’s attendance. These segments cannot be changed unilaterally.

A soft item is one that only involves the user, and can easily be moved around one’s calendar, with few immediate consequences. They might have great importance, but a late start would not endanger the end result.

Given these differences, programs like Outlook could help users to “protect” hard segments by making it more difficult for them to be double-booked or deleted, and also by giving them stronger reminders with different pop-ups and audible sounds. Colour coding would also help to separate them from other segments in a user’s calendar.

This would help users to manage the two kind of segments differently, in keeping with their distinct functions.

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Giving up Scheduling on Graduation

I have been playing the video shown below in my NewHabits time management programs, primarily to illustrate Orange Belt scheduling skills.

It’s a great teaching video, as it shows clearly the advantage of using a schedule (even on paper) over a list, or personal memory. It’s an essential level of skill for college students who are taking lots of classes, have lots of assignments and want to do well.

In other words they are inundated with time demands, and many migrate to Yellow belt skills in order to deal with the volume they must handle.  As I watched the video I realized that I probably used these skills as a college student who had a full course-load, and a part-time job.

But something happened when I graduated.  All of a sudden the volume dropped, as I no longer had the same time challenges, and I recall the sense of relief I felt at no longer ever having to feel the pressure of an exam date.

Unfortunately, I also threw out the baby with the bathwater, and lost my Yellow belt Scheduling skills.

It wasn’t until later, when I started my own company, that I began to rediscover these skills.  Once again, it was in response to a huge increase in time demands, and a situation in which  I had to upgrade my skills in order to cope.

I imagine that I’m not alone here.

One of the basic tenets of Time Management 2.0 is that one’s skills are not fixed, and they change over time in response to the number of time demands we face in our lives. The problem comes when we practice our habits for so long that we lose the ability to change them, and even defend our old habits as somehow “fixed” and impossible to change.

The useful thing is to know that we can change them, and that they are indeed malleable, even though I’m sure it’s harder to teach older dogs like myself new tricks.

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Exciting New Software

I just came across something I have dreamed about for some time – a game for email!

In prior posts, I talked about game mechanics, and how the entire 2Time approach could be seen as a game of sorts of improving one’s skill from White to Black Belt over time.  I have also studied some of the work of Amy JoKim, and reviewed her presentation “Putting the Fun into Functional” at least once per year, wondering how her cool ideas could be used to help us manage time better.

Then I came across Baydin Inc, and their cool new app, in the form of The Email Game.  At the moment, I have tested the Gmail version, which I think is the only one available… and it works wonders.

It prompts the user with an amusing count-down clock to drive towards a Zero Inbox, flashing up an encouraging graphic after each action.  Once you have finished dispensing with each email, it gives you some statistics and a score for dealing with your email.

It’s the very first game that I have found that gives immediate feedback on how well the user is keeping their Inbox empty.  This is a big leap forward folks, and thanks to the guys at Baydin (a small startup) for their insight and contribution.

Let’s hope they don’t stop!