An article in the New York Times that reiterates some of the points that I have made in this blog can be found here:An Empty In-box or With Just a Few Email Messages.The writer shares the practices he uses to work his email down to zero, but unfortunately doesn’t address the fact that his set of habits can’t be picked up and used by many people, simply because they are product of his own idiosyncracies. Not that this is wrong – it’s just that people who want to achieve a Zero Inbox generally need more than a list of one person’s habits in order to achieve the goal. In other words, they need to craft a set of practices that work for them, and them alone, and perhaps more importantly, a way to change their own habits reliably.Most people, however, are convinced that they need to just get less email, and that somehow throttling communication in some way is the right approach.The fact is that spam filters and email rules do help for a while, but they don’t resolve the underlying problem that created trouble in the first place — personal habits that were never intended to handle the number of emails being received.Ultimately, only a smart change in habits will produce the desired end-result.
On Thoughts of Overwhelm
I have written before about how one free oneself from a sense of overwhelm, without actually doing anything time management related.
Instead, I have found a great deal of value from working on my thoughts.
The following article demonstrates the principle beautifully — it’s taken from the Radical Happiness blog and the article is entitled “Unnecessary Thoughts.”
Here is an excerpt: Life is never actually overwhelming because there is only so much we can do in a moment. But the mind brings ideas into this moment about what you “have” to do, what you want to do, what you’ve done in the past, what others want you to do, doubts about doing it, and ideas about any number of other things unrelated to what you are doing or need to do, which confuse and stress you out.”
Solving the Paper Problem
There are a number of ways that time demands can enter a user’s time management system, but those that enter on hard copy, or paper, are probably the most annoying for professionals.
Some people’s offices are visual testimonies to the fact that they have a problem.
Piles of magazines, letters, bills and memos lay in piles on any available horizontal surface, creating a clutter that is overwhelming to the occasional visitor. In 2Time language, the problem might be one of Storing or Tossing, and the solution might involve the use of scanners, secretaries and dumpsters.
In most cases, however, the piles are a symptom of an underlying problem of Emptying.
Emptying involves more than just the “cleaning out” of different capture points. Instead, it also includes, perhaps, the most difficult practice to master in a user’s time management system — the point at which they must make a definitive decision about how best to handle a time demand.
To Empty well, a user must make time and space in their day to route each and every time demand to its proper destination in their system, and in many cases the decision is not a simple one. Sometimes, a decision cannot be made in the moment because it involves other people. In other cases, it requires research or deeper thinking.
When the time demand presents itself on paper, a different problem arises. Paper is difficult to work with because of its sheer physicality.
It takes up space, and unless it is sorted and filed away, the information that is on paper in all the different forms mentioned before is likely to be hidden between the pages. As a result, the information is difficult to find, plus time-consuming to recover.
Each piece of paper in a pile on a desk, on the ground, in a book, on a bill, etc. represents a small decision by the user to “attend to this later.” By making this decision, a user creates a time demand that essentially consumes a small piece of their future schedule.
At first, walking into an office with lots of paper in piles feel overwhelming, but many users train themselves to be immune to that feeling — they become numb.
Their productivity suffers as their peace of mind dwindles.
Some believe that the solution lies in refusing to accept paper into their lives, but I think that this is a bit of a red herring.
So are other strategies like buying a filing cabinet, scanner or hiring a personal assistant.
Instead, the solution lies is becoming better at Emptying, perhaps by improving a Belt Level, and elevating the act of Emptying to a place of importance in a daily schedule.
Users that grant themselves time and space to make high quality decisions about paper that enters their lives simply don’t have the problem that paper causes most of us.
Signs of a White Belt
In 2Time, a While Belt has the honor of being the “lowest” belt, in the sense that a user at this level is just starting out on the journey of developing their own time management system, and still has the habit of trying to rely on their memory, versus using a conscious system.
Most of the professionals who have taken the NewHabits-NewGoals and MyTimeDesign programs based on 2Time discover that they are White Belts, due in part to the rigorous standard that must be accomplished to attain the higer belts. In these programmes, there is an important idea — that each of 11 fundamental practices can be evaluated separately. A composite picture can be created by pulling together the scores that a user gives himself in each discipline.
It’s not too different from looking at the composite scores of a baseball player who can be evaluated by their RBI’s, Home Runs, Batting Percentage, etc. A batter might be great in one statistic but lousy in the others, reducing their overall effectiveness.
In 2Time, professionals are advised to give themselves the lowest belt level they find when they do their personal evaluation.
At the same time, there some easy ways to tell that a professional is operating at a white belt, or novice level,
instead of analyzing the disciplines.
White Belts have one or more of the following: A high number of unread items in Email Inboxes
- Missed appointments
- Often having to say “Sorry, I didn’t remember”
- A Voice-mail Inbox that is consistently full
- Frequent mad scrambles to find lost information stored on paper
- Key information that is stored electronically is not consistently backed up
A White Belt is not someone who lacks for willpower or good intentions. As a professional, they may have a simple job that
requires no more than White Belt skills.
However, White Belt users need to be aware that their skills may not allow them to progress to bigger projects, greater
responsibilities and promotions up the corporate ladder. They might not have the capacity to start a business in their spare time or conduct an effective exercise program.
It’s not an indictment on them per se, but it is indicative of what is needed to accomplish higher performance.
After all, Little League baseball is not Major League baseball, and it shouldn’t be. In like manner, time management for hourly workers is not the same as time management for executives, and anyone who aspires to high performance in their career will be faced with those moments when their time management system needs an upgrade. For those who are successful, it will probably happen several times in their careers – an occasion that requires them to develop a new time management system in order to accomplish their new goals.
30 Days of MyTimeDesign for $1.00
The signs of the recession are everywhere, and there are many people who are without jobs and are looking for ways to cope. After some thought, I think I have found a way to make it easier for anyone who comes to this blog to get their hands on great value, for only $1.00.
Starting next week, I am going to offer the first 30 days of MyTimeDesign to the public for only a buck.
What will a participant who registers receive?
I have found that the majority of people who take either my 12-week online program – MyTimeDesign – or my 2 day live program – NewHabits-NewGoals – get the most value from the first few topics that are covered.
While this isn’t true for all who have taken the course by any means, the first few concepts and practices that are learned are enough to change anyone’s time management system for a lifetime. During the first thirty days, participants come to grips with the fact that they have already designed and are using some kind of system, usually ad hoc, and are now entering the realm of consciously carving out a system they want.
They also cover practices such as Capturing, Tossing and Storing, which are some of the conerstones of all time management systems, and they fine-tune their own system to their own precise needs.
While MyTimeDesign is a 12 week program, the first 30 days are perhaps the most important to most users.
And, there are some who will not stop after 30 days, and will instead choose to complete the entire program. The truth is, it depends on their particular needs.
So, stay tuned — for those who have been waiting for the right time to do MyTimeDesign, this just might be it!
Taking the Measure of Your Time Management System
Recently, I had the first graduate of the NewHabits programme here in Kingston ask to be certified at a new belt level, and it made me wonder whether or not I have the right set of measures set up to graduate a user from a White Belt in time management to a Black Belt.
The “test” took the form of a quick interview over the phone in which I quizzed him about his practices in each of the 11 fundamentals. He easily “passed,” and we had an interesting chat after which I prepared his Yellow Belt for delivery.
Afterwards, I wondered to myself if I measured the right thing, and it took me to a bigger question.
I don’t know whether the quality of a time management system should be determined by the way in which a user engages the critical practices, or the objective results that they are able to accomplish.
In the past, as noted in this blog, I have firmly adhered to the idea that a Green Belt in time management, for example, should have accomplished a particular level of skill in each of the 11 fundamentals the underlie all time management systems. The ladder of belts that I created is an easy way for a user to measure his/her progress overall.
But is that the best, or only measure?I realized that there are others that could be used that could just as useful, such as:
- the average number of unprocessed emails in his inbox / voicemail inbox /etc.
- the average number of unread emails in his inbox / voicemail inbox /etc.
- the amount of time it takes to reply to an email on average
- the number of appointments that were missed during a week
- how fresh /stale the items are in various lists
- how many activities are determined by a schedule
These are also valid measures that can be used to evaluate the quality of a time management system that seem to deserve a place, but the problem is that the tools don’t exist to measure any of them.
The closest I have found was a recent discovery that Xobni, the Outlook add-on, does measure a few interesting facts about an individual’s email usage. (I re-installed the program this week after a few months hiatus, due to a system crash.) Here is an idea of what it measures:
PDA’s and Productivity (part 1)
The release of the “Pre,” the latest smartphone manufactured by Palm, made me wonder once again about the design of these devices.
Recently, I read an article in the Harvard Business Review on the topic of breakthrough technologies, and it made me think in more detail about the job a smartphone/PDA is meant to help users perform.
In the old days when the PDA replaced the paper organizers such as the DayRunner and Filofax, the answer was obvious. PDA’s were all about productivity. They were meant to assist users in their job of being organized.
Today, however, as more functionality is added to the PDA it seems that the original mission has been lost, and that designers are no longer thinking about their users’ intention to be more organized. Instead, they are looking to combine as many electronic devices into one, with the goal of maximimizing convenience.
However, convenience is not the same as productive.
Picture two professionals seated beside each other in the typical airport lounge (I happen to be seated in the departure lounge of VC Bird Airport in Antigua.)
One has brought along his cell phone, camera, PDA, laptop, watch, digital voice recorder and mp3 player. He uses them in a somewhat clumsy manner.
The other pulls out her iPhone, Blackberry or Pre, and performs the same functions with a single unit.Clearly she is using a more convenient arrangement. But is she more productive, and is she able to manage her time with greater skill?
That’s not clear at all.
As I see it, the use of more complicated gadgets could either make things harder or easier, depending on the the design.
I have some thoughts about what a device should do to enable a user to improve the management of their time.
1) Ease of Capturing
A good PDA should help users to Capture effectively, and give users a choice of methods for doing so.
Like many users, I use a small pad to capture most of my incoming time demands. It sounds like the easiest option in the world to pursue, but I wanted to find a way to combine the pad and PDA into a single package so that I could carry it around easily.
I found a PDA wallet that could take a pad as an insert, but the real problem came when I tried to find a replacement pad. They were impossible to find.
Recently, I have resorted to purchasing a small pad that I cut down to size using a pair of scissors. I looked for a replacement PDA wallet that would allow me to use an off-the-shelf pad. It appears to me that they are no longer even made!
I am sure that users of smartphones have the same problem — no easy way to combine a paper pad with their unit.
I know that the manfuacturers would argue that you can use some kind of keyboard or stylus to capture time demands, but as many users know, that method is slow, clumsy and prone to errors. They would prefer to use a simple paper pad.
In terms of time management, users would gain more from a vastly improved device for capturing, than they would a camera or mp3 player.
(This is article will be continued)
Meetings and Precious Time
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/jobs/18pre.html?8dpc : Meetings are a Matter of Precious Time
One thing I know now is that once a meeting has gone off in the wrong direction, it’s difficult to bring it back on track after only 10-15 minutes of intoxicating, aimless chatter. Taking the initiative to define the PAL (Purpose, Agenda, Logistics) within the first five minutes probably saves ten times that time it takes.
What’s the Job of Time Management?
For the past few days, I have been mulling over an interesting article from the December 2008 Harvard Business Review called Reinventing Your Business Model, by Johnson, Christensen and Kagermann.
I found it fascinating because it led me down a path of rethinking the way I am thining about ways that 2Time is being offered to the public.
Specifically, it caused me to ask some fundamental questions about what “job” people are trying to do with their time management systems. The definition of the word “job” is quite specific in the article — “a fundamental problem in a given situation that needs a solution.”
The article also mentions the four most common barriers that keep people from getting particular jobs done: insufficient wealth, access, skill or time.
I have thought about it a little and have come up with the following answers to the question: “What fundamental problem are people trying to solve with the time management systems that they use?”
Answer 1: Not Feeling Bad
No-one likes to feel the sting of their inner critic – that little voice inside that points out what they are not doing right. This voice tells them that they are lazy, or that they are a procrastinator, or flaky, or forgetful or failing to get on top of things. It might also conclude that they are overwhelmed. They try their best to avoid these feelings by using strategies that make them feel productive.
Answer 2: Feeling Good
For many, getting to the end of the day knowing that they got a LOT done is a wonderful feeling to have. If they have a sense that they were focused, productive and energetic, then that counts as a tremendous positive that boosts feelings of confidence, and personal power.
Answer 3: Taking Care of Myself
Exercise is constantly touted as the best medicine there is, and its presence has been linked to a prevention of diseases of all kinds. Yet, some 77% of adults report that they would exercise more if they could fit it into their daily routine.
Many, whose time management systems don’t work for them, end up not exercising as much as they’d like.
Answer 4: I Am Getting Better
I think there are a few people who just like the idea of making progress from year to year. They want to know that they are using better techniques now than they were using a year ago, and that they are simply not stagnating with old tools and stale techniques.
I believe that this is what leads people to purchase iPods and Blackberries when they are interested in using them to become more productive.
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These four items are not presented in any particular order, and represent my thinking about what problem people are trying to solve when they consciously think about using time management techniques, tools or tips.
If you have some thoughts on this, I’d appreciate hearing them. Simply leave a comment below.
An Individualized Approach to Time Management
This is a guest post on developing a personal approach to time management by Holly McCarthy.
With all of the advances in technology over the last several years, many people think that technology alone can help you manage your time more effectively. While this may be true, it can be very difficult to create a one-size-fits-all approach to time management. One of the reasons for this is the fact that along with all of these innovations, some people have more or less room for flexibility as a result.
This can be seen in the growth of the telecommuting professional. Technology has advanced far enough that it is no longer necessary to live in the same city where your office is physically located. Depending on the type of company you work for, you may need to be available for a certain amount of hours per day, or you may simply be given a quota to fill. In either case, time management is up to the individual.
Self Assessment
When trying to improve your time management skills, you need to be completely honest with yourself. If you know you rarely achieve your personal goals each day and have gotten into some bad habits, it’s time to address these issues. What tools do you have at your disposal that make your life easier when it comes to working and managing your time?
Look at your home office. Chances are you have many different tools that could be used if you wanted to use them. There are many free applications on line as well. Is your time management and planning system working for you? Be honest with yourself. Do you need a PDA, or does paper work better for you? The most important thing when assessing yourself is to figure out what is and isn’t working and why.
Personalize and Individualize
After taking a good look at your current methods of managing your time, fix things to suit your needs personally. If you don’t really get anything accomplished in the evening, start working earlier in the day. Any distractions that may be around the house could be eliminated. Working when people are around may be difficult, so try to work when you know the house will be empty or relatively empty.
Of course, individualizing your time management action plan all hinges on you and your ability to assess your own needs. If all you need is a calendar and a notepad to get the juices flowing and keep track of things, do it. Sometimes learning a new system or software wastes more time than it ends up saving you. The main goal is to improve your own abilities, not to do what works for someone else. It has to work for you and if it doesn’t, you will ultimately end up paying the price.
This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of continuing education online. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com