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Part 11 — Correcting Your System to Match Your Task Volume


Part 11 — Correcting Your System to Match Your Task Volume

This superpower will keep your system ever-evolving in the right direction

The Problem

If you have been adding more tasks than ever to your overall commitments, you may have noticed some unexpected changes. You have less unscheduled free time available. More defects (Part 2) occur.

But you don’t exactly know what to do about it. Some suggest you should reduce your task volume by cutting back on projects and commitments, but that’s not a viable solution for you. A more effective response is to add capacity, but that’s easier said than done, especially if you have some Type A tendencies in your task management.

Why Is This Important?

Ambitious people want more out of life than their counterparts, but this demand can turn destructive if it’s not channeled in the right way. In fact, a constructive response requires deliberate choices. It also helps to have knowledge of time demands (Part 1), Type A tendencies (Part 10) and task volume limits (Part 8).

Think back to when you first started to make task management improvements. You took a class or read a book, and picked up some new behaviors, which over time became new habits.

One way to explain your success is to say that you increased your capacity. To use the jargon of Part 8, you increased the size of the box containing your balloon full of tasks. Therefore, you could accommodate a bigger balloon.

So, the good news is that you have done this before…perhaps unconsciously. As a teenager, you used your budding time-awareness to make improvements to your task management that increased your capacity. And while you can’t go back in time and make the same changes, you can find comfort: most teens are able to figure out this transformation on their own.

Not so for adults. Instead, their amnesia on these matters leaves them confused. Now, they need to be reminded of progress they made, even if it was many years ago. Then they need to appreciate that their beginner’s luck has run out. Adult improvements require greater awareness.

The best place to start? Develop a personal baseline (a profile) of your current capacity. One method is to analyze your skills in each of the 13 fundamentals introduced in Part 9. Armed with this self-knowledge, you can decide which precise Pareto Improvements to make (Part 5).

What’s the Link to the Rapid Assessment Program (RAP)?

The RAP creates the opportunity to determine which improvements to make, and a plan to make them. But these aren’t random changes.

Instead, they are based on a very quick self-diagnostic, and a new understanding of how task management works in real human life. This approach sets you up to make corrections to your task management system at any point in the future.

Find out more about the MyTimeDesign Rapid Assessment Program in this webinar.

Part 11 — Correcting Your System to Match Your Task Volume was originally published in 2Time Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Part 8 — Why There’s Always a Limit to Your Capacity to Manage Tasks Effectively


Part 8 — Why There’s Always a Limit to Your Capacity to Manage Tasks Effectively

And what happens when you try to exceed it

The Problem

Like most people, you probably wish you could make one, final, ultimate set of changes to your task management system that would last forever. What kinds of changes? Maybe a behavior change to adapt (like a new habit, ritual, routine, or practice), or a new app to download, or a device to acquire.

But experience (and research) show that there is no final solution that lasts forever. Why? Part of the reason is that unwanted symptoms, or defects, show up whenever the volume of tasks you are trying to manage nears your personal limits.

Consider a balloon trapped inside a box. The balloon’s size can be increased or decreased at will, as long as it never touches the sides of the box.

However, if you increase the volume of air in the balloon past a certain point, the walls of the two objects start to touch. Eventually, the balloon loses its shape and deforms. If even more air is added, it bursts.

Now imagine that:

  • the box represents the upper limits of your task management system, made up of your behaviors, apps and devices.
  • the balloon pictures all the tasks you are trying to manage at a given time.
  • its changing shape reflects your total task volume in that moment.

When your personal task volume increases to a certain point — before it reaches the capacity of your system — you don’t have a problem. But once it hits a certain limit, unwanted symptoms or defects occur.

This relationship between task volume, your capacity, and unwanted symptoms is a fact of life — the reality of managing tasks. (The analogy to the balloon in the box is only partial.)

In this context, understanding each of these three components in isolation is just the beginning. However, as a connected system of psychological objects, there is a new level of comprehension that’s possible that makes all the difference when you seek to make improvements.

Why is This Important?

If this model is true for all functioning adults, it could explain a few things. For example, even after we make a number of critical improvements to our task management, unwanted symptoms will probably recur.

To most people, this is bad news. In their minds, a problem they had solved has returned. Unfortunately, some use this evidence to invalidate their progress and those who give advice. For example, Getting Things Done by David Allen is disparaged by many who see the return of unwanted symptoms. They see it as a sign of the guru’s failure. Or their own.

But some escape the trap: for a handful of advanced productivity enthusiasts, the re-emergence of old symptoms is nothing more than an indication of proximity. It has no more significance than the sound a car’s sensor makes as it reverses to a wall.

As such, when unwanted symptoms re-appear, they take the occurrence as a sign: it’s time to perform a fresh diagnosis. The fault is no-one’s.

But they also realize that the solutions they used as a beginner, or last year, or last week, can’t be recycled. Hence the need for a new assessment, and perhaps even better diagnostic tools.

What’s the Link to the Rapid Assessment Program?

In the training, you learn how to use a unique diagnostic toolset to understand your current system. Plus, you are given a full list of unwanted symptoms to work with and a way of mapping them to their behavioral causes, which sit inside your current setup.

These are lifelong tools which apply to all levels of task volume. While better diagnostics will undoubtedly appear in time, you’ll have already made “The Switch” from taking the general advice of others, to using personalized insights based on your self-evaluation.

P.S. While I have used the term “tasks” in this article, I mean “time demands”.

Find out more about the MyTimeDesign Rapid Assessment Program in this webinar.

Part 8 — Why There’s Always a Limit to Your Capacity to Manage Tasks Effectively was originally published in 2Time Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Part 7 — Why You Are Always Already Diagnosing

Why you are already using diagnostic techniques to improve your task management, but might not know.

The Problem

One of the ways in which pedagogy (the teaching of children) should be different from andragogy (the teaching of adults) lies in the fact that learners think differently as they mature. With more years of experience, and greater age, the adult brings a higher degree of discernment to the interaction than a child.

Today, you don’t pretend to absorb everything someone tried to teach you at face value. Right? But what do you do instead?

Well, in task management, you hear new advice to change a behavior or pick up a new technology, and…then you pause. While the teacher may want you to simply follow orders without question (like a child) you probably can’t. Your mind won’t let you.

Instead, you perform a brief, but possibly imperceptible diagnosis.

Checking over your current system, you consider areas of weakness and the difference their specific suggestion might make. If it passes your internal test, you apply the change. If not, you don’t.

Why is This Important?

Being a great diagnostician may be a novel idea, but the truth is everyone who considers themselves a productivity enthusiast already employs this practice. So does everyone reading a book, taking a training or listening to a podcast in the area of task management.

The challenge is to make this skill explicit. And to get better at it while doing so.

Even the gurus are challenged by this goal, as evidenced by the paucity of their teaching on this subject. Almost all of them are great diagnosticians, but they don’t talk about The Switch they made.

I don’t think they’re hiding anything — just sticking with the simple-to-explain themes beginners resonate with the most.

What’s the Link to the Rapid Assessment Program?

In this training, you explicitly develop your skills as a task management diagnostician….a self-coach. In a short time, you gain an understanding of the fundamentals of task management, how they work together, and some basic principles to apply in any diagnosis.

It sets the groundwork for you to make The Switch to nurturing lifelong diagnostic skills.

Find out more about the MyTimeDesign Rapid Assessment Program in this webinar.

Part 7 — Why You Are Always Already Diagnosing was originally published in 2Time Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Parts 1-6 of the Rapid Assessment Series

People with blue building blocks illustration

Have you ever wondered how we teach self-evaluation skills to our learners at 2Time Labs? If you have, you may have noticed that we combine a number of separate ideas into one wherever possible.

But it’s not as if we tell you what’s in the original stew of ideas!

In this series of 16 posts originally appearing on Medium, we break the Rapid Assessment Program into its key components.

Part 6-Why “The Switch” from Outside Advice to Inside Knowledge Empowers You
Part 5 — Why All Improvements Are Not Made Equal
Part 4 – Improvements Based on Self-Diagnosis Are Different
Part 3 – Why is Avoiding Bright Shiny Improvement Objects So Important?
Part 2 – Why the Best Indicators of Improvement Aren’t Necessarily Positive
Part 1 – Why time demands aren’t the same as tasks

We have taken the liberty of posting the following 10 posts (numbering 7-16) individually in future blogs on this site, each in its entirety.

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Interactive Learning Leads to Better Results, Surprising Students

If the research shows that Interactive Learning is a far better approach than Passive Learning, why is it not used more often? The answer might lie in the way students are swayed by skillful lecturers into thinking they are learning more than they actually are.

As you may know, here at 2Time Labs we have been advocating the introduction of interactive learning wherever possible. It’s not by accident.  The research is clear that involving students in material ways works. Taking this message to heart, about a year ago I brought it to the planners of a future virtual summit. After some discussion, the ideas were included in the design and implementation of the actual event which was recently concluded.

For example, during the online conference summiteers were required to join a community platform (Mighty Networks) which was used as the technological base. They were invited to make full use of its features, which many did to interact with each other, presenters and exhibitors. They were all invited to remain as permanent members.

They were also given the opportunity to engage with nine digital interactive learning tools  – quizzes, games, assessments etc. Each supported the objective of the summit, focusing on a single key area of learning.

Finally, at the end each day summiteers were invited to join a live networking lounge in the form of a video group chat on Zoom.

Consequently, this is the first virtual summit I know of that attempted to go the extra interactive  mile. Every other one I have either presented at or attended has been almost 100% passive. (A few allowed a few questions at the end.)

Knowing the power of a community and digital interactives from personal experience, I wondered why this could not be different. The technology to provide an interactive experience has been available for some time at a low price.

Then I read this article and it struck a chord:  The Dangers of Fluent Lectures..

According to the author, “A study says smooth-talking professors can lull students into thinking they’ve learned more than they actually have — potentially at the expense of active learning.”

Call it a version of the Dunning-Kruger Effect if you will. In this case, the student over-estimates how much learning is happening because the teacher using passive learning is skilfully taking them from start to finish, requiring little or nothing of them in return.

By contrast, their counterparts in the interactive learning classroom actually learn more, but think they are learning less, according to the research. The reason? Apparently, they are confronted with their (true) shortcomings early on in the process. This makes them feel inadequate.

Also, they are forced to undergo a real, public struggle in real time which requires a show of effort and failure. Finally, they are lulled into thinking that the delivery of active learning isn’t as “polished” as that of passive learning due to its inherently discontinuous nature.

As a result, teachers using active learning receive lower student evaluations. According to the article, it “inadvertently promotes inferior (passive) pedagogical methods.”

Maybe this explains why the ratio of passive to interactive time spent at virtual summits is almost 100% to 0%, even though there is abundant technology to create more of a balance. The problem lies in the attendee-learner’s perception.

I have a suspicion that this may continue to be the case for some time. However, in a  cynical corner of my mind I predict the change will finally come only if hosts start to notice that predominantly interactive summits produce more sales than  their counterparts. In other words, when money starts to talk.

At that point, perhaps, the drumbeat for interactive summits would begin for all to hear.

By the end, the study shared a little unintended light. According to one of the it’s researchers in a message to teachers everywhere: “If you use (inter) active properly, your students will learn more and they will enjoy and appreciate it, especially once they see evidence of their learning.”

This hints at the power of a gamified approach in which learning/summit attending is deliberately engineered to produce an intrinsically motivated, fun experience. While providing such learning isn’t easy, my experience at the recently concluded summit is that it adds a dimension which participants relish. In fact, some said they were sad to the see the event draw to a close.

As I move into the planning stages of 2Time Labs’ own Time Blocking Virtual Summit slated for March 2020, I am inspired (but informed) by these research results. Real learning (vs. entertainment) is a slippery objective to attain in even traditional settings. We just don’t know much about how it should be conducted in these new, online, multi-attendee environments such as classrooms and virtual summits.

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The Problem with Procrastination

There’s a popular confusion that exists around the phenomena of procrastination.

First of all, people who study the challenge it poses often fail to account for the fact that procrastination is a psychological object. As such, according to Kurt Danziger, the history of the word’s usage must be studied as well as the term itself, because meanings change over time.

Unlike physical objects (like a broken arm), there are a wide range of interpretations flying around but little guidance about defining the phenomena while it’s actually taking place. In other words, it’s far too easy to trick yourself into thinking that you are not procrastinating when you are, and vice versa.

Here’s an example of an interesting study which asked:

Do you overcome procrastination by breaking projects into pieces and rewarding yourself for completing a piece?

In the results paper published several months later, the authors report:

The professionals in the right tail with the highest productivity scores were particularly adept at overcoming procrastination, getting to the final product, and focusing on daily accomplishments. Low ratings on these three habits were typically reported by professionals with the lowest productivity scores.

Notice that the reported result lacks enough specificity to be useful. In fact, there may be some circular reasoning: describe yourself as overcoming procrastination and the survey rewards you with a high productivity score…which means that you are adept at overcoming procrastination.

Also, you have no idea what definition of procrastination the surveyors meant the subjects to use, or the one they actually used.

Finally, if you hope to become less of a procrastinator you can take a guess – the cure has been defined in the question as “breaking projects into pieces and rewarding yourself for completing a piece.”

But is that the only cure?

It’s a bit like asking: “Do you take aspirin when you get a cold?” If you answer negatively, then the conclusion a weak survey would draw is that you get a lot of colds. The possibility of other cures and of being completely free from colds don’t enter into the equation.

This may seem like splitting hairs but once you see psychological objects for what they really are, you  are able to see them everywhere, and are forced to question findings like these. Kurt Danziger ended up challenging a great deal of social science research based on statistical techniques used for the physical sciences. He was not a favorite son in the academy.

While we are fortunately free from numbers in the example I have cited, we must still use his logic, especially if we are serious about making real improvements. Ultimately, we need to translate all improvements into actions otherwise they may as well be flights of fancy.

 

 

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Speeches in Washington DC

During the month of May, I’ll be visiting Washington DC to give a couple of speeches. The latter is free to the public, although space is limited.