Applied Research in a World of Increasing Time Demands
As an aside, I have found an interesting new web-service that’s called Taskbin.com that I think is quite interesting.
It’s offered to groups that need to coordinate project actions in a transparent way, and to keep a single point of reference for who is doing what. It seems quite easy to use and I am looking for the right project to give it a shot.
One benefit of the 2Time system is that it’s an effective tool for coaching, and even self-coaching.
Using the components to look at a professional’s time management system is a little like using a cheat sheet, or diagnostic tool to figure out what the underlying problem is.
For example, a user who is a White Belt in Capturing is going to experience a predictable set of challenges -they are going to complain of “forgetting a whole bunch of stuff”.
A White Belt in Scheduling would say that their To-Do list rolls from one day to the next, without ever changing, making them feel that they are accomplishing little as it grows infinitely long.
A coach who understands the underlying components can easily understand why a user’s system is not working the way they want it to, and why the gaps are being experienced the way they are.
In like manner, someone who is rigorous can coach themselves using the components of 2Time, and decide for themselves which habits they want to change, and at what pace.
Recently, I have been more and more careful to protect the first few hours of each working day. In a prior post, I mentioned that I had fallen into some bad habits, and fallen into the trap of checking email at every spare moment.
What I have also noticed is that my energy is very different at 8:00 a.m. than it is at 2:00 p.m. I am a real morning person, and being an energetic type, I usually work out for 1-2 hours each morning (6 days a week with one for rest). Continue reading “Protecting the First Few Hours”
I have been wondering if there is a company or individual who is interested in helping me to monetize this blog.
Or better yet, how can such a person be found? Would they be willing to work on commission?
Do let me know of any ideas you might have in this regard.
As a consulting professional, I have tracked the way I use my time for years.
One of the greatest innovations I have come across in the past year is a program called SnapLogger, which takes screen-shots every few minutes as long as the user is active in Windows. It is an excellent program.
Now, if only Outlook would cooperate and allow a user to record the actual history of an appointment or task. Continue reading “Task Tracking”
I recently got an email from someone who read my blog and came away with the idea that he SHOULD be moving towards become a Black Belt. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Being a Black Belt certainly is an option for those who want it, but it is no better or worse than any other belt. It just depends on what one wants to use it for.
In this sense, the 2Time philosophy is that a time management system is like an orchestra, made up of 11 possible instruments (if there is such a thing). At any given time, anywhere from zero to 11 positions can be filled, and each has its own kind of music. Continue reading “Another 2Time Analogy”
One of the more difficult habits to break when using Outlook is hard to change because of how the program is designed.
Here is the typical scenario:
Here is what I would really want to do, that as far as I can tell is not programmed into the latest version of Outlook. Continue reading “A Hard Habit to Break”
I am on the search for thought partners for this whole field of time management.
Interestingly, I finally found some research in the area of time management, but it hardly is a fount of new ideas. Instead, it is an empirical study of whether or not time management provides any benefit to the user, in very broad terms.
While this may seem like a common-sense question, I imagine that the author, Brigitte Claessens, who did this research for her thesis, was forced to answer such a basic question because there was so little scholarship on the question to begin with.
While I hope to contact her to find out where the cutting edge of the research might be, I wonder why there isn’t at least an online forum to discuss the ideas at the heart of time management. If it does exist, please let me know!
I have been experimenting with a new skill that I think that I will include as a new habit. It only makes sense, however, for 2Time users at or above the Orange Belt level – those who have begun to use their schedule to manage their time demands.
It comes from the observation that we all need to recuperate from intense efforts, much in the same way that runners must recover from long runs or intense sprints.
Therefore, as the logic goes, the working day can be set up as a set of intervals alternating between intense effort and recovery activity. Continue reading “Advanced Scheduling Skills”
One of the things that I wished Outlook would do intelligently is to link the contents of a time slots with the next logical time slot.
For example, I wish I could assign individual time demands to a particular kind of time slot, such as time that I spent at home. It would be able to understand that if an item were to be dismissed from the list of reminders, that it could be “forwarded” to the next appropriate time slot automatically. At the moment, the user has to reschedule every single time demand that has not been completed individually, instead of in bulk.
In other words, Outlook should understand that scheduled items that are not completed need special, intelligent handling and a greater choice of options. Continue reading “Outlook Enhancements — Wishing and Wanting”