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The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Submission

jordan_ap-01.jpg Recently, blogger Ben Yoskovitz created a meme to create a list of the 100 best productivity tips, under the title “The Ultimate Guide to Productivity.”

Over 100 people submitted their tips, and perhaps I won’t be too late in submitting my own tip to the list (which I understand is still open).

My tip is a bit different.

Francis’ Ultimate Tip: Ignore All Tips

The problem that most people have with being productive is that they spend too much time on tips, and not enough time on the fundamentals. The problem with the field of time management is that there are millions of tips flying around, but no understanding of the basic, fundamental and unalterable structure of the challenge.

It is little like trying to play basketball professionally by taking all the tips that every coach gives, and trying to make them work together. Here is an example of a basketball tip:

Continue reading “The Ultimate Guide to Productivity Submission”

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The Half-Life of Time Demands

halflife.gif

As explained in the post on Time Demands, each Time Demand is made up of some kind of trigger, plus a commitment. For example, that sock lying in the corner represents a Time Demand with the trigger being a visual sighting of the sock, and the commitment perhaps being the desire to have a clean room.

A Time Demand is the basic element of the 2Time Management system.

The 2Time system is all about recognizing Time Demands for what they are and treating them in a very specific manner. They are the smallest elements of a time management system, but they need to be understood differently from the system as a whole.

In the book “Stumbling on Happiness“, Dan Gilbert states:

“In general, many of us have the mistaken idea that large numbers are like small numbers, only bigger. As such, we expect them to do more of what small numbers do, but not anything different. Continue reading “The Half-Life of Time Demands”

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More on Tossing

Here is an interesting article on the need to de-clutter a physical space from 43 Folders.

The thing about clutter is that each and every piece represents a Time Demand that preys on the mind in the form of a delayed action, a feeling of guilt or something that we think is automatically overwhelming. Only when we remove these Time Demands do we give our minds a welcome break.

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Zero Email Inbox

This is a great presentation by the author of 43 folders on maintaining an “Inbox of Zero”:

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=973149761529535925&hl=en]

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Kinds of Lists

Listing is one of the essential practices of the 2Time Management system, especially for users above the Novice or White Belt level.

The premise is simple: it is easier and more manageable to add an item to a list than it is to add the individual item to a schedule in the calendar. For example, a savvy user would schedule the following item in their calendar:

2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Monday, August 10th. Pay bills in bill list

At the appropriate time, they would consult their list of bills to pay which might look like the following:

  • Light
  • Water
  • Cable
  • Phone
  • Visa

This is a much more convenient way to manage a set of similar items than to do the following:

2:00 p.m. – 2:10 p.m. Monday, August 10th. Pay light bill
2:10 p.m. – 2:20 p.m. Monday, August 10th. Pay water bill and so on.

Lists are created for one of two purposes. Some have a psychological function, while others have a more practical function. Continue reading “Kinds of Lists”

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Giving the questions rather than the answers

One of the goals of the 2Time Management system is to once and for all separate the tons of advice with respect to time management and productivity thinking, and differentiate what is essential from what is merely useful.

The fact that there is precious little research on time management techniques is a travesty, and one of the results is that there seems to be no disciplined way to think about time management. At the moment, the different individuals that present their ideas on time management seem to be more interested in presenting what they think of as their “final solutions” rather than in understanding the underlying structure of all systems of personal productivity. Continue reading “Giving the questions rather than the answers”

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So little research

Why is there so very little research in personal productivity?

In designing the 2Time Management system, I have found that there is a severe lack of scholarship with respect to time management.

I can only think that this is because there is not a single, united field that clearly applies to the problem of managing time. What school or college should a graduate student apply to in order to pursue studies in this field? Continue reading “So little research”

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Capturing – Putting Items in Existence

One of the big problems that professionals have in learning how to improve their productivity is to discipline themselves to follow the simple principle of putting items in existence by making them tangible and visible.

Making something “tangible and visible” is the same as writing it down in a place from where it can be reliably retrieved when the item is needed. In other words, it means taking a Time Demand from one’s memory and writing it down, effectively outsourcing its storage from brain cells to paper. Continue reading “Capturing – Putting Items in Existence”

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On Being a Black Belt pt 2

Black Belts are the leaders in defining the 2Time Management system. In effect, they are the system’s innovators that together define and refine the core practices at the core of the system, and at the core of all time management systems.

They are forever researching, testing and trying new approaches as they are made public to see if there are any changes that needed to be made to the system.

Also, they define, and are responsible for, the training that people take to learn the 11 Components. Some may manage the movement of 2Time users from belt to belt, coaching them along the way in breaking new habits and forming new ones.