On Bit Literacy – part 3 – Getting to Empty

empty-step-01-empty-box.jpgAs I mentioned in a prior post, there is a great deal that I enjoyed from the book “Bit Literacy” by Mark Hurst.  In particular, the idea of returning to “empty” struck a chord with me.

If you are a frequent reader of this website you might imagine why, because I have described “Emptying” as one of the fundamentals of time management, and I have repeatedly mentioned the importance of the practice.

Even the sample chapter from a book I am working on centered on learning how to Empty properly.

What Bit Literacy, has done however, is to describe in some detail the actual goal of Emptying, which is to have an experience of being “empty.”

This is not something I have written much about, but it IS something I have experienced when my time management system is running smoothly.

It turns out that the feeling of being empty turns out to be a critical accomplishment.

Hurst reports that people who change their habits and are able to arrive at a Zero Inbox at least once each day find the experience a bit disconcerting.  We are used to looking at email in our inbox over and over again, jumping from one item to another without taking a concrete action that results in its removal from that particular folder.

Most of us are intimately acquainted with the feeling of overwhelm that comes from hundreds and even thousands of items sitting in our email inboxes, each of them calling at us to be read, or actioned in some way.

We often find ourselves responding to whatever email is sent to us, and working on whatever our Inbox “tells us” to work on.  This reactive mode is what we are used to, and it’s the reason that we glance at our inboxes over and over gain, looking to see what the next hot item might be.

When we learn to manage a Zero Inbox, however, there are several moments per week or per day when we are staying at an empty space where all the Inbox email used to be.

I can tell you from personal experience that it’s a strange feeling.  It’s a little like that strange  space that one enters after completing a final exam, giving a speech or getting married.

It’s a space filled with a “now what?” kind of question.

This empty space is the one that allows for the best kind of creativity – the kind that comes from nothing, a blank canvas, a kind of quiet in which the best decisions are made.

This flies in the face of the addictive sense of urgency that some of us cultivate.  In Bit Literacy, the author paints the picture of the “Busy Man” who moves from one activity to another, never stopping for a breath, using the continuous busyness as confirmation that, yes, they are important.

They often develop the awful habit of jumping from one task to another, never really finishing what they start.  They also will try to multi-task, interrupting their conversations to read email on their Blackberries, always busy paying attention to the thing they’re not doing.

This idea of getting to empty flies in the face of all that busyness.

In other places in this blog I talk about the importance of the flow state, and of creating the kind of single-minded focus on a single activity that is essential for high performance.  I have mentioned that one of the goals of the 2Time approach is to produce regular and frequent experiences of being in this state.

Reading Bit Literacy has made me think that I should add the momentary experience of being “empty” to the list of 2Time goals, given how hard it is to achieve, but important an indicator it is of top quality time management.

Furthermore, perhaps there is a way of describing the higher belts in terms of these states — flow and empty — and the degree to which they are accomplished  Following this logic, a Green Belt visits these states frequently, while a White Belt either doesn’t know that they exist, or has never had the experience.

This seems to make sense, and is a practical way to accomplish a powerful kind of inner peace.
[email_link]

On Bit Literacy – part 2 – “Heavy Bits”

ath_ssm_librow_dumbell_row.jpgThere is a major point from the book Bit Literacy that I found some disagreement with.  The idea that “bits are heavy” is fundamental to Mark Hurst’s theory that when they accumulate, the create a burden a user’s life.

He’s right about that, but he’s missing the point that bits by themselves are meaningless.

This can be demonstrated by the fact that the heavy bits on your computer are only heavy for one person – you.  If I were to inherit your computer, the first thing I would do is to wipe it clean of all those bits that you have been working on because they are entirely useless to me.

In like manner, an accusing email from a loved one that is accidentally deleted before being read also has no weight.

Therefore, this statement at the core of Bit Literacy should perhaps be altered to say “Bits are heavy, but only because we make them so.”

Why is this distinction important?

In the first case, it puts the user back in control of their own experience.  The burden that is felt from having too much email is not caused by the email, but by the decisions made around each message, and the immediate decisions and actions taken.

For example, a White Belt will scan email and make mental note to follow up on each item, while leaving the item in their inbox.  Over time, the mental notes multiply and produce an increasing sense of stress every time the inbox is accessed.

To the White Belt, the problem is that the people in their life are sending them too much email.  Some respond by simply deleting all their email, as Bit Literacy notes, arguing that if any of them are important the person will contact them soon.

The Green Belt, however, will read an email once before removing it from the inbox forever.  The email inbox is therefore kept empty, or almost empty.  They know that the White Belt practices produce an increasing sense of stress, and have different habits to protect their peace of mind.

The power that comes from knowing that I am making the bits heavy, can give the user the impetus to go the next step and to devise a system that is built to support their particular commitments.

I can make bit heavy, but my managing them well, I can also lighten the load.
[email_link]

Comments on Bit Literacy

bit-literacy-cvr-175.gifI recently completed an essential book for those with a serious interest in productivity:  Bit Literacy by Michael Hurst.

While I can’t say that I agree with everything in the book, it was a provocative read that went deeper than anything I have ever read in some essential topics. At the same time, I thought that with respect to time management, he made a similar error to other writers in the field — sticking too much to a time management 1.0 mindset.

His overall idea is a sound one – the latest technologies are being mis-used by the majority of professionals who are applying old thinking and therefore stale practices to workplaces that have been revolutionized by email, iPhones and other technologies.  For example, the person who prints out every piece of email in order to “save it in a safe place” is confused by technology, and thinking in very old ways about data.  This makes them very inefficient, and causes them to not just waste paper and space, but also to create a level of paper-clutter that is inefficient.

He makes the point that we make here on 2Time, which is that you can’t apply old practices to the ever increasing mountain of information that is coming at the average user.  Most of the increase in information is not coming printed on paper, as it used to, but instead is coming in the form of bits and bytes, requiring new practices in the form of what he calls “bit literacy.”

As a minor aside, I found the term “literacy” to be a misleading one, as it only makes sense when compared to the way we use the phrase “computer literacy.”  I think a better phrase would be something like “bit capable” which is really what his book is about — the ability to skillfully process the flow of bits that a professional must face each day.

I’ll continue to share what I learned in future posts, but his overall thesis is a powerful one — things have changed, and a user’s practices must also change if professionals are interesting in even maintaining their current level of productivity.
[email_link]

The Problem with Time Management

grape-np_46ozorganic.jpgAn interesting article caught my eye the other day entitled “The Problem with Time Management.”

Given my own interests, I grabbed it up, thinking that I could finally retire the entire 2Time effort because, finally, someone else had come up with something better.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the problem with time management turns out to be a poor working relationship with one’s boss.

The author makes the case that most people are focusing on the wrong thing — i.e. their personal productivity — and should instead be trying to better align themselves with the implicit and explicit goals of their immediate manager.

Here’s a quote:

Time management programs usually focus on your personal productivity, analyzing how you choose to spend your time. This is all fine and dandy, but it misses one essential truth: In an organization that’s devoted to banging pots, you better bang pots or have a damn good reason for not banging them.

That’s why, after the PowerPoint presentation had ended and the trainer went home, you fell back into your old, unproductive rhythms — not because you didn’t agree with the time management expert’s analysis, but because you returned to normal life in the world of The Middle . . . which means doing what you think your boss wants you to do. Bang! Bang! Bang!

So, it turns out that time management problems have nothing to do with one’s habits, or de-facto time management system.

And probably there are religious roots also.  And I should think that our mothers are to blame too.

I don’t want to become too sarcastic, but it hardly seems that THE problem with time management can be traced back to this particular source.

It seems to me that the author has simply over-reached in his thinking, or in other words has collapsed two separate frames of thinking into one, producing a messy, illogical argument, but also a neat, snappy headline.

After all, it caught my attention, got my hopes up and got me to read through it twice (to make sure I wasn’t missing something…)

I do, however, think that one of the real problems with time management is the sin of over-reaching that I am accusing this particular writer of committing.

I also happen to have just read the book, “Bit Literacy,” by Mark Hurst, which as some great ideas in it that work for him.  Unfortunately, I found the same tendency to over-reach, and to prescribe too many specifics to too-broad an audience.

It’s a little like discovering that drinking Welsh’s grape juice is a healthy habit, and then recommending that everyone buy the same product and drink it in the same quantities.

The cure to over-reaching is deeper analysis. There is a more subtle reason why drinking Welsh’s can be found to be beneficial, and it could be true that the same benefit might come to a greater number from drinking plain water.

Getting to the more subtle reasons takes hard work, however, and it’s simply easier to talk and write about “Welsh’s” than it is “hydration.”

Unfortunately, when time management writers prescribe too much there is a cost to the reader, in that he/she tries to follow the prescription but finds themselves failing, and cannot discern the reasons why.  When they find themselves unable to enjoy Welsh’s, they end up giving up on hydration altogether.

For example:

“Everyone else seems to be using their Blackberry Pearl to improve their productivity… why can’t I?”

The answer lies not in the writers, however, but “in ourselves.”  Each of us must come to own the fact that we are using time management systems that were consciously or unconsciously designed by us, and we need to find ways to improve the design, or face being buried by the onslaught of digital information that Bit Literacy so rightly predicts.

Click here to be taken to the article: The Problem with Time Management

[email_link]

What’s the Job of Time Management?

For the past few days, I have been mulling over an interesting article from the December 2008 Harvard Business Review called Reinventing Your Business Model, by Johnson, Christensen and Kagermann.

I found it fascinating because it led me down a path of rethinking the way I am thining about ways that 2Time is being offered to the public.

Specifically, it caused me to ask some fundamental questions about what “job” people are trying to do with their time management systems.  The definition of the word “job” is quite specific in the article — “a fundamental problem in a given situation that needs a solution.”

The article also mentions the four most common barriers that keep people from getting particular jobs done: insufficient wealth, access, skill or time.

I have thought about it a little and have come up with the following answers to the question: “What fundamental problem are people trying to solve with the time management systems that they use?”

Answer 1:   Not Feeling Bad

No-one likes to feel the sting of their inner critic – that little voice inside that points out what they are not doing right.  This voice tells them that they are lazy, or that they are a procrastinator, or flaky, or forgetful or failing to get on top of things. It might also conclude that they are overwhelmed. They try their best to avoid these feelings by using strategies that make them feel productive.

Answer 2:  Feeling Good

For many, getting to the end of the day knowing that they got a LOT done is a wonderful feeling to have.   If they have a sense that they were focused, productive and energetic, then that counts as a tremendous positive that boosts feelings of confidence, and personal power.

Answer 3:  Taking Care of Myself

Exercise is constantly touted as the best medicine there is, and its presence has been linked to a prevention of diseases of all kinds.  Yet, some 77% of adults report that they would exercise more if they could fit it into their daily routine.

Many, whose time management systems don’t work for them, end up not exercising as much as they’d like.

Answer 4:  I Am Getting Better

I think there are a few people who just like the idea of making progress from year to year.  They want to know that they are using better techniques now than they were using a year ago, and that they are simply not stagnating with old tools and stale techniques.

I believe that this is what leads people to purchase iPods and Blackberries when they are interested in using them to become more productive.

—————

These four items are not presented in any particular order, and represent my thinking about what problem people are trying to solve when they consciously think about using time management techniques, tools or tips.

If you have some thoughts on this, I’d appreciate hearing them. Simply leave a comment below.

Thinking for Yourself

istock_000002968326xsmall.jpgI recently read an article that could be applied in all sorts of areas — politics. organizational change, and even person transformation.

I just finished reading it again, and discovered a solid connectionbetween the its thesis and Time Management 2.0.

The article is a fascinating one, as it speaks to the difficulty of creating one’s own self-theory.  It goes further into the notion that a self-theory can only be discovered in practice (rather than in the abstract,) and that it can’t be gained from anyone else… not even for $299.95 (a price of a good program to learn someone else’s self-theory.)

Instead, the article speaks to the challenge of creating for oneself, free from constraints.

There is a joy that exists when one creates in this way, and the authors are right to focus on the process and the results it produces, because people who invent their own time management systems often feel the same way about the process they are undertaking, and the results they produce.

Here is an excerpt:

 Therefore, constructing your self-theory is a revolutionary pleasure. It is both a destructive and constructive pleasure, because you are creating a practical theory–one tied to action–for the destruction and reconstruction of this society. It is a theory of adventure, because it is based on what you want from life and on devising the means necessary to achieve it. It is as erotic and humorous as an authentic revolution.

That’s not a bad way to describe the joy that comes from being put back in charge of one’s own time management system for the first time. There is a revolutionary pleasure that comes from designing one’s own time management system that is a bit easier than coming up with one’s own self-theory.

The article is a pretty dense one, and I doubt that all readers of this blog will find it interesting, but if you like abstract thinking, check it out — The Revolutionary Pleasure of Thinking for Yourself.

[email_link]

Time Management 1.0 vs 2.0 Spells Relief

istock_relief-woman.jpgIt used to be that time management was a problem that needed to be solved.

“I have a problem with time management” is a common complaint that many professionals have.  It leads them to go looking for solutions of an instant variety.  For some it takes the form of a time management system that someone else develops and they adapt.  For others, it comes in the form of a shiny new PDA, smart-phone or a computer. Some buy time management binders with detachable pages that have sorts of colorful refills.

Thankfully, with the advent of Time Management 2.0  we don’t need to fix anything, because it starts with the assumption that nothing is broken.

Instead, everyone has their own system… whether they realize it or not.

Also, they don’t have to chaneg anything, as long as their current system is working for them.  If it’s not, then they can decide that it’s time to upgrade it, and they can do so with a minimum investment, as long as they have a knowledge of the fundamentals of time management.

After the upgrade, they can freeze their system once again, and use it as is, or decide that they want to upgrade it further.

The choice is always up to them.

In 2.0, there is a freedom to build a time management system that fits users’ habit patterns,  rather than trying to learn a set of foreign habits that were developed by someone far away, to fit a very different lifestyle.

With a huge sigh of relief, users are finding that it’s a much easier path to follow.

Time Management 2.0

hands-up-diverse.JPG

One of the definitions of the Web 2.0 phenomena reads as follows:

A term to generally describe web sites and services where the content is shaped partially or entirely by the users (instead of being read-only and published by a sponsoring company)

The 2Time blog is built on the idea that something similar is happening in the world of time management.  There is a migration underway and its taking us away from time management systems that are defined by others, towards systems that are  owned, defined and improved by users.

As such, it is a revolution of sorts… a shift in the way people view an essential component of their lives that is bringing with it a new level of responsibility, power and freedom.

It’s just like the revolution that Web 2.0 ushered in.  Ownership of key content, relationships and communication channels moved away from companies and towards users in a tremendous shift in power in which information-creation was democratized and individuals came to trust their own judgment, and those of many others, over that of established experts.  It has been a gradual but steady deepening of the “Wisdom of the Crowds.”

Well, strap yourselves in, because another quiet revolution is underway: “Time Management 2.0.” Some say that the Web 2.0 transformation was built on tools that were built over a decade ago, but are only just being exploited to the fullest by millions of people.  The same applies to time management, where this “new” term is actually  describing a phenomena that has always existed.

You and I have already been doing Time Management 2.0.  We sat in time management classes, or read books, nodded our heads in agreement, and afterward, went off to do our own thing.  After all, who could follow the prescriptions of someone who insisted that you label your folders this way or that, or used their new term to describe something you already understood, or who tried to redefine everyday words such as “now.”  We listened to their detailed practices and we knew deep down that we could never change our habits to fit their system.  God bless the few that could, but the rest of us were the dunces in the class who just couldn’t measure up by instantly turning over a new leaf. soapboxderby200701.jpg

Instead, we took a little from here and there and made up our own thing… sometimes it worked, but oftentimes we failed, because we couldn’t quite reverse engineer the recipe they were using.  Nevertheless, it still felt better than the feeling of overwhelm that came from reading the latest “1001 Top Tips for Time Management…”  Doing our own thing at kept put us in charge, and made us experience the success that kids sometimes feel when they also “do their own thing.”

The funny thing is that the experts haven’t noticed that we aren’t quite following the way we should.  The fact is, they sincerely believe that their systems work, and do you know… they are right. They DO work… for them.

The rest of us out here don’t need a different or better or smarter guru.  Instead, we need help to design our own system, and we need help in order to make them work to fit our needs, and our unique habits.

And that’s why “Time Management 2.0” is not a new idea, but a phrase that more accurately describes an already existing reality in a way that might help us all to get what we want at the end.  More productivity. Greater peace of mind.  Less stress.  More time spent doing important things, and less time doing trivia things.

But even these words are misleading, as each person’s interpretation of them is individual, and unique.  Therefore, the time management systems that produce them must be different from person to person as well.

This is where time management 2.0 starts — with me empowering myself to master my own time management system that produces the results I want in my life.  That has got to be a close description of what we all want.

[email_link]

What Time Management Really Is

sisterpeace.jpgIn an earlier post I explained that time really cannot be managed, even though we think that it can, and that we have the power to so.. “Time Management” is truly a misnomer.

The term is still widely used both here and in other places, as it’s just too clumsy to use a different word or phrase. In the 2Time way of thinking, I use the term, but I actually apply it in different ways.

In 2Time, “time management” means:

#1 – Peace of Mind Management
The primary goal of a time management system is the production of peace of mind.  Nothing is more important, and every change in a time management system is measured by its impact on this overall measure.   This is one the reasons why time management systems vary from one person to another.  what creates peace for me, might do the opposite for you.

#2 Productivity Management
Unfortunately, there is no peace of mind for working professionals unless they believe that they are being productive.  The problem they have is that there is no agreed-upon way of knowing that they are being as productive as they can be — it’s not as easy as measuring a physical characteristic, such as height and weight.

For knowledge professionals, I recommend the use of proxy measures as a way of tracking their productivity.

Proxy Measure #1: The number of time demands that fall through the cracks.  In other words, how many commitments failed to be completed because they were not properly managed?

Proxy Measure #2:  The number of appointments that are late in starting, or are missed altogether

Proxy Measure #3:  The number of items in a user’s email inbox

Proxy Measure #4;  The number of regrets experienced verbally per day that one “needs more time” or “should be better organized.”

These are simply tools that a professional can use to manage their productivity when they are used together.

[email_link]

One System vs. Another vs. Another

gurus-sik10gurus.jpgI just read an interesting article that compares three systems for Time Management, GTD®, Covey and DIT in  some detail.  What’s remarkable about the article is that I was wondering what the fuss was about.  The article can be found here.

Of course, the three systems must have their differences, and of course there must be pros and cons.  What I could not understand is why the writers involved were not focused less on the systems involved, and more on changing their own habits to create their own systems.  After all, the systems proposed should not be taken as complete, final solutions, even for their inventors.  They were created by their gurus to solve the particular lifestyle challenge that they happened to be facing in their lives.

I think the healthy way to regard the pre-packaged solutions is to follow Ludwig Wittgenstein, who said:

“My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them—as steps—to climb up beyond them. (He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the whole world aright.”

I think that time management solutions are a bit like this philosopher’s elucidations.  They are useful up to a point, but after a user has created their own system using a variety of inputs, and based on a knowledge of their own habit patterns, they actually don’t need the guru’s advice any further.

To be fair, this should include the 2Time Management System!