Applied Research in a World of Increasing Time Demands
2Time is nothing more than a game.
From a certain perspective, it is a complex game in which a user is scoring themselves using the belt system, and attempting to improve their score over time by changing long-ingrained habits.
Users take the initial course and decide what level they are currently operating at, and which belt-level they belong to. They develop a plan before leaving the course with target dates for changing certain habits. Continue reading “The Game of 2Time”
If there is a friend you have who can be relied upon to ignore your emails, voice-mails and text messages, and to forget important commitments, then the chances are good that that person is a novice in the art and science of time management.
They may be quite well-intentioned, intelligent, willing to learn and sincerely apologetic, but the fact that they are a Novice has nothing to do with their mental frame of mind.
Instead, it has everything to do with how time demands flow, or do not flow through whatever system they are using. Their processes and habits are what make them a Novice, and nothing else. Continue reading “The Chaos of a Novice”
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”
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”
In a prior post, I made the point that within every time management system there lies a structure that is always present.
I compare it the bone structure that makes up the human hand. Although individual hands might be different, a fully functional hand must have all the component parts. They each serve a distinct purpose. While it is possible to function without all the parts, there are a few essential bones that must be either present, or replaced, in order for the appendage to work.
In the same way, a time management system must have certain basic components, without which it does not function. These basics are Capturing, Emptying, Tossing, Storing, Scheduling, Acting Now, Listing, Switching, Warning, Interrupting and Reviewing.
In fact, an effective time management system in 2007 must be able to do things that a time management system in 1970 just was not designed to do. Continue reading “Time Management: The Martial Art for Working Professionals”