Author: Francis Wade

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The Reliability of a Green Belt

A Green Belt is masterful in the use of their time management systems.

It truly seems to others as if nothing falls through the cracks when dealing with a Green Belt. Requests big and large are never forgotten. Email never languishes unreturned. They hit deadlines without seeming to break a sweat. They don’t have moods that prevent them from doing what they said they would do.

Users at lower levels imagine that the Green Belt must be stressed out managing the volume of things that they are able to handle. The truth is that the Green Belt is better organized, and therefore more at peace than others could ever imagine. Continue reading “The Reliability of a Green Belt”

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On Being a Black Belt pt 1

The very best users of a time management system are what the 2Time Management system recognizes as Black Belts.

Black Belts have already been practicing as Green Belts in many of the components of the 2Time Management System, from Capturing to Reviewing.

They might not be perfect, but they are constantly improving the way they manage their time management system.

However, at the Black Belt level they are no longer just concerned with their own system. Instead, they are concerned with the systems of others. Continue reading “On Being a Black Belt pt 1”

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Putting it All Together

Once a professional has committed to a lifelong process of mastering the way they manage their time, the 2Time system can become their very best guide.

Self-Assessment

Starting with each of the elements, a user can decide what level they find themselves at. Going through each of the eleven components, they can assemble a composite description of their current level of mastery. Our advice here is to be conservative, and to resist the temptation to overrate.

Here is a sample Self-Evaluation for a fictitious user who has gained some understanding of the different elements that make up the 2Time system. Continue reading “Putting it All Together”

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Component/Fundamental #11 – Reviewing v2

A critical skill used in any well-functioning time management system is that of reviewing and improving.

Definition

Reviewing is the skill of looking over both the contents of the time management system AND its functioning, with a view to preventing problems and improving the user’s personal productivity. There are two kinds of reviews, Content Reviews and System Reviews.

  1. Reviewing Content
    In order to prevent a time management system from exploding at any time, a user needs to investigate the content in each of the components at regular intervals to ensure that the pipeline of time demands is not about be filled, or clogged. The best users are always referring back to the contents of their time management system in order to:

    • update items in lists and schedule
    • adjust the timing of tasks in a schedule
    • place new items in their capture points
    • dispense email from their in-box to different folders and lists

    They set certain standards for themselves with respect to how often to review critical lists such as their “Waiting For” lists and “Thinking About” lists. Continue reading “Component/Fundamental #11 – Reviewing v2”

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Component #10 – Warning v2

No user’s system is perfect, and all systems are liable to fall apart at the seams when pressure hits and certain practices (like Reviewing) fall by the wayside.

Definition

What a smart user at a high level will do is to create a series of warnings that indicate whether or not the system is operating adequately. Ideally, these warnings should be designed to come early – long before there is any danger of the system failing.

Warning involves putting in place automated signals that tell the user that the system is about to fail. Continue reading “Component #10 – Warning v2”

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Component/Fundamental #9 – Switching v2

One of the most important tasks that a user of any time management system must perform is to switch from one task to another. While this may seem like a simple action, the more capable users include practices that are unique.

Definition

Switching is defined as stopping one task, looking at all the time demands, and deciding what to do next.

Principles

Advanced users take great care about switching, knowing that there is always a temptation to switch too quickly. To do so is to court disaster.

  1. Firstly, the most advanced users cherish the moments when they are in the flow of any activity – in fact, a major goal of their system is to stay in the flow as long as possible without interruption. Continue reading “Component/Fundamental #9 – Switching v2”
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Component/Fundamental #8 – Interrupting v2

Definition

In the book titled “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author talks about the optimal psychological state – one in which a person gets lost in the activity at hand. They get lost in time, and experience a kind of empty silence as they focus all their attention on the task at hand. Their creativity and productivity are as high as they can get.

Then the phone rings, someone answers it and someone wants to sell them stocks. They brush off the call, but not quickly enough. Their state of flow is gone.

They buckle down again, and 30 minutes later they are back in the flow state. They are once again focused, and time whizzes by.

That is, until they get a note from their spouse via their secretary that screams at them because they forgot to pick up their child, who is now languishing at the day care facility, and all of a sudden they are over two hours late.

While the state of flow is the best possible one to be in, it is potentially a dangerous one, because one’s full range of awareness is intentionally limited to complete the task at hand.

To effectively manage time, a user needs methods for both entering and interrupting the flow state. Continue reading “Component/Fundamental #8 – Interrupting v2”

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Different Kinds of Lists v2

There are many ways to organize lists, and there are only a few that seem to be “required” because they serve a particular and unique function:

  • Next Activity List: a list of all items that are ready to be executed immediately, and are on the list waiting for a scheduled time to be used.
  • Someday List: a list of all items for which there is an interest in executing someday, but not immediately.
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Component/Fundamental #7 – Listing v2

A critical part of any time management system is the activity of Listing.

In the prior component, Scheduling, I addressed the power of expanding the use of a schedule from a mere Appointment Calendar to a possibly useful planner of each and every kind of activity that places a time demand on a user.

As useful as a schedule is, however, it has its limits.

Any user that tries to schedule too many items into a calendar will ultimately cause their calendar to fail from the weight of too many time demands. At the moment, there is no calendaring system or technology that exists that will not fail from over-scheduling.

Definition

Listing involves putting a time demand on a list that is created to pull together items that share some common attribute.

Continue reading “Component/Fundamental #7 – Listing v2”

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Goof-Off Time and Other Techniques

One of the efforts that we at Framework are undertaking this year is that of defining a method of time management that fits the Caribbean tempo and lifestyle.

The reasons why none of the popular approaches used worldwide has become popular in our region are varied and many: too much rigidity, too much technology, not enough humanity etc.

While the best approach I have found is the one described in the book Getting Things Done by David Allen, even this approach does not provide a complete time management solution for our way of living.

I know this from personal experience, having lived in both North America, with its daily predictability, and here in the Caribbean, where life is filled with unpredictability. At the moment of writing, for example, I have been waiting for 7 weeks to receive DSL service…

In my reading this morning, I realized that my own time management tricks have evolved a great deal over the years. In particular, my calendar has evolved to the point where I discovered that I actually have three calendars in one:

Continue reading “Goof-Off Time and Other Techniques”