Category: Theory

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The Email Inbox as a Mouth

mouth-3d_model_anat_openmouth_web1.jpgThe email in-box is nothing more than a mouth.

Huh?

Well, the mouth is an ideal capture point. It allows for temporary storage of a certain amount of food, and performs its function perfectly as a “staging area” for the process of digestion, and sending essential nutrition to the rest of the body.

When food stays too long in the mouth, trouble breaks out. The teeth, tongue, breath and gums all suffer when bits of food don’t make it out of the mouth. Clearly, it’s not intended to be a storage device.

In much the same way, the in-box was never intended to be a permanent storage area. It was only meant as a staging area, and when it gets abused, a user’s productivity instantly falls. If you have ever seen someone hunt through 4000 emails for a single piece of information (or if you have done it yourself), you know the frustration that comes from being buried by the result of having weak practices. Continue reading “The Email Inbox as a Mouth”

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Professional Un-productivity

20070227overload.jpgAs mentioned before, the task of comparing one worker to another in terms of their productivity has become much harder.

However, the results of examining their in-box can give a good insight into how productive they are. In other words, a person who has an in-box of thousands of items is less productive than one who maintains less than 10 at any time.

(If you are immediately offended by this assertion, then stay tuned…)

What is the reasoning behind this statement?

To put it simply, a “full” in-box is a sign of very low mastery of the 2Time fundamental components.

But, what is the problem with having 100 or 1000 or 10,000 email items in an in-box? Is it even a problem worth considering?

Yes, it’s a problem and here is why. Contained in that in-box is a combination of different time demands:

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Post-Pilot Analysis (3) – Awareness

istock_000002110160xsmall.jpgI noticed during the pilot that the higher belt levels of 2Time were describing systems that were increasingly effective at catching time demands, and preventing them from falling through the cracks.

In other words, they assisted the user in being fully aware of all the time demands he or she had on their hands.

Only when there is increased awareness can a user make powerful choices. The problem is that with a rapid increase in the flow of time demands, it becomes harder and harder to be fully aware of all of them.

The purpose of the higher skill levels is to help a user be aware of ALL the time demands, in a way that doesn’t produce stress. When I am aware of my time demands, there is a peace marked by the following example actions:

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Post-Pilot Analysis (1) – Overcoming My Worst Fears

bow.jpgThe first pilot program using the ideas in the 2Time Mgt Blog was completed last week with a hardy, challenging group of 13 professionals.

It was a great learning experience all around, and I learned a lot from exposing people to the ideas from this blog for the very first time. My wife has been the one who has born the brunt of the ideas I have come up with, and I have pretty much worn her out with all my ideas on this topic.

The biggest fears I had were not realized:

  1. Two days seemed to be enough to get the ideas across.
  2. The participants liked the blend of lecture, questions and practical hands-on work.
  3. The idea of developing your own system made logical sense (Thank God!). Continue reading “Post-Pilot Analysis (1) – Overcoming My Worst Fears”
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2Time for People in Transition

age_8.jpgI just finished leading the pilot course based on the 2Time principles. The two day session conducted here in Kingston, Jamaica seemed to go well, and I learned a lot from the participants and how they worked with these ideas.

One lesson that came home clearly is that professionals look for a new time management system when they are in transition.

For example, when a college student gets their first job, or an employee is promoted or receives a new area of responsibility or gets married or has a baby, life changes. All of a sudden, the volume of time demands that they are committed to completing increases, and overwhelms the system they had before. Continue reading “2Time for People in Transition”

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The Four Hour Work Week: Forget About Time Management

4-hour-work_week.jpgI have just finished listening to the audio book “The 4-Hour Work Week” which I enjoyed immensely, even as I disagreed with some of the points made by the author, Time Ferriss.

One chapter is entitled “The End of Time Management”.

He argues that one should forget all about time management!

Of course, this is more of a fancy title for a chapter than anything else, as he is mostly focused on doing the right things, rather than merely trying to maximize output or efficiency. He pooh-poohs the idea of trying to be more efficient, and looks back at his days when he was focused on working harder and harder, on God-knows-what.

But the truth is, he must have the same problem that the rest of us have, in the 11 fundamental elements. Even though he may only work 4 hours per week, he must still Capture, Empty, Schedule, Toss, etc. because he is subject to the same physical rules that we are, and has the same memory constraints that we do (or soon will, given a few more years of age). Continue reading “The Four Hour Work Week: Forget About Time Management”

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Multi-Sports and the Inescapable Fundamentals

triathlon-pic.jpgI happen to be a part-time, amateur, middle-of-the-pack triathlete.

Since 1997 I have been competing in races that involve a swim, bike and run at a variety of distances, the longest of which was an iron-distance race I did that included a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run.

In this sport, like any of the multi-sports such as the pentathlon, duathlon, biathlon, or decathlon, the athlete comes to learn rather quickly that that there are certain fundamentals that must be mastered.

In the triathlon, an athlete must swim, cycle, run and “transition” (from one sport to another on the fly). In most races, depending on the length, an athlete must also drink and eat.

That’s it for the fundamentals. They are, in 2Time language, inescapable. Continue reading “Multi-Sports and the Inescapable Fundamentals”

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“Email Bankruptcy”

email-bankrupt-investor.jpgI just heard the most appropriate term I have heard in a while – “Email bankruptcy”. According to the New York Times the definition is as follows:

e-mail bankruptcy n.

What you’re declaring when you choose to delete or ignore a very large number of e-mail messages after falling behind in reading and responding to them. This often includes sending a boilerplate message explaining that old messages will never receive a personal, specific response. Continue reading ““Email Bankruptcy””

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Plane Design, Time Management Design

airplane-supermarine_spitfire.jpgIn yesterday’s post, I commented on the way in which GTD® and other systems don’t attempt to give users a way to design their own time management systems.

Instead, they say, “Come use our design… come and adopt our solution.”

It’s a little like flying…

Imagine that you needed an aircraft to fly from place to place, and that there was a company that offered to sell you a plane. They had designed it, and built it, and you liked it, and you bought it. Continue reading “Plane Design, Time Management Design”

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How to Design Your Own Time Management System

I just read an interesting post over at Lifehacker in which the author, Gina Tripani, notes that she has needed to practice a simplified version of Getting Things Done (GTD®) in order to make it work for her. She explains why, and wonders if anyone else is also doing what she does, which is to take elements that work for her, and use them, while not using others.

I responded to her blog with the comment below. After writing it, I changed the tag-line of this blog as I realized something powerful and different about 2Time – it’s built on the idea that we are all different, and need to design our own systems.

I think the focus needs to shift away from teaching people to follow any one system to teaching them how to develop their own system, and find their own enlightenment, so to speak. I use elements of GTD, and other systems also, but I find it an every other system limiting. Not because they don’t work for the system’s creator, but because I am not them. The problem with their approach is that they give the user something like a “perfect recipe”. When a user needs to deviate from that recipe for any number of reasons (as we all do) there is no help… we are on our own. I remember “following” one system a few years ago and actually feeling guilty that I wasn’t doing things the “right” way!A good art teacher does not say — paint like me. Instead, they encourage students to paint for themselves, and they teach them “How”.

I noticed the comment from someone at the GTD site who said that this post is for “those who struggle with full GTD system implementation”. The truth is… there might be 10 people on the planet who don’t struggle with implementing the “full” system… and they all work for GTD… LOL!

The rest of us need help in creating our own time management system, and then more help in evolving it to fit our changing needs over time.

We are simply missing the “How” when it comes to designing our own systems. We don’t know where to start, and we don’t know what the fundamental design principles are. We also don’t know how to craft our habits over time to meet our goals.

I am trying to answer these questions myself — http://www.2time-sys.com