Designing routines

One of my routines has been an early morning routine. I woke up at 5am, got out of bed quietly, went downstairs, made coffee, and fired up the laptop to write a blog post.

I often think back at that time, because it was one of the more productive routines I have had in recent times. But I have abandoned that routine, since it did not fit into my context anymore. My early morning routine was very much atuned to the sleeping rhythms of my wife and toddler. The patterns changed and so did my routines.

I haven’t been creating new routines however. In hindsight though, consciously redesigning routines may have been a smart idea.

One of the things that dropped out of my routines was writing blog posts. I found time to write them, but never again in the same rhythm as when I had a steady routine that incorporated them. And then there was another change. We got pregnant again. And my wife’s body is not happy to be pregnant…

Necessary routine emerged

So a new morning routine emerged. A routine where our son will wake us early in the morning, I get him out of bed and take him downstairs, I make breakfast for my wife and she eats it in bed, I make breakfast for my son and myself. Without boring you with all the details…the routine takes me to my day job and is filled with caring for my family. Waking up early has been out of the question for a while, due to irregular sleeping rhythms.

This routine has grown out of necessity, and is very effective in achieving a good start to regular days. Besides being a necessity it also serves one of my core values, Love, since caring for your family to me is a way to shape love in a practical form on a daily basis. It does not serve any of my other goals though, and that thought has been nagging me.

Time to be proactive

It’s time to take control again, to be proactive and start designing new routines. Things are easing up on a family level, my wife (thankfully) is slowly starting to come back to ‘normal life’. At the same time I realize that in a couple of months time, a baby will throw things around again. So being proactive is going to be a major focus.

Starting to write again

I have missed writing on my blog, but it also surprised me how easy it became not to write. I was kind of habitually not writing. And then this feeling emerges that you need to make that comeback with a bang, the killer post. That sure is a reason to procrastinate some more (I’m not the only one dealing with this though).

But that, of course, is hardly a rational thought.
So here it is: I’m back at writing.
I enjoyed it.
I hope you will.

Language is the source of misunderstandings.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Language is an art. Most languages are, but especially in the Anglo-Saxon world it is highly valued if you are a proficient artist in the beautiful language that is English. Being eloquent and using prose-like languages full of quirks and subtle jokes or references is a skill enjoyed by many. The Anglo-Saxon world is proud of its language and the heritage that’s intertwined with it. More so than other languages, and especially more so than the Dutch (but that’s another story).

However, that same language can be the cause of a lot of misunderstandings. Even between different variants of the same language, British English and American English, a lot of confusion can arise. If an American wants to table a topic for instance, they mean that they want to let it rest for a while and postpone the discussion. The British on the other hand will table that topic if it needs immediate discussion. The same expression, but a world apart. Winston Churchill once said about it: “Two nations divided by a common language.”

Eloquent can be simple as well

Eloquent speech is not from lip to ear, but rather from heart to heart.
~ William Jennings Bryan

Being eloquent doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to use uncommon or unknown (but often beautiful) words. There’s a time and place where we enjoy that kind of language. A time when we indulge in the richness, and wish we could write or speak like that.

But there’s also a time where being eloquent means that you use simple words, and avoid that rich language. As William Jennings Bryan said (so eloquently) it’s not about getting from lip to ear, but from heart to heart.

In theatres, movies and books this relates to conveying emotions from one person to the other. In politics it’s conveying a belief or a cause from one person to the other. Rich language aids the speaker or author in those circumstances by creating a fertile ground for the audience. They can genuinely experience the emotions themselves, or the power of the specific belief, or the necessity of fighting for a named cause.

However, in a business setting (or any setting where you simply want to get things done) getting from heart to heart is something else entirely. Being eloquent in business simply means that you make sure that the other person understands what you mean and what you want them to do. In this setting rich language is a pitfall, because it creates ambiguity err…you increase the chance of misunderstandings to happen. The “table” expression is a perfect example.

In business you simply want to get your message across (effective), with a minimum of effort on both sides (efficient).

Choose simple words and wordings

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
~ Albert Einstein

One of the habits you can adopt is to simplify your vocabulary. Remove unnecessary words and by-phrases and replace words that are prone to misinterpretation. When you’re talking to someone you have the ability to catch misinterpretations as they happen (but even then you might not recognize them instantly). In disconnected communication like email that possibility does not exist. You are simply not there when they read the email. So use simple words and wordings, especially in email!

An example:
Let’s take a look at one of those typical sentences you could come across in an email message:
“I sincerely feel it is part of your set of responsibilities to achieve the desired results within a reasonable amount of time.”

There are multiple problems with this sentence and the message it tries to convey:

• What are the desired results? Is this clear to both of you?
• What is a reasonable amount of time? Hours, days, weeks?
• Do you give the same meaning to “responsibility”? How do you know?
• It might also trigger a response that starts a discussion whether your assumption regarding the responsibilities is correct (Imagine for a second what that response might look like…and how many words it would have.)

The likelihood that this sentence gets the message across is low (ineffective), and the resulting discussion takes a lot of time and thinking power (inefficient).

Now compare it with this sentence:
“Send me the performance report on newspaper sales no later than next Monday at noon. Thanks.”

Simple and clear (and even pretty polite). It gets the message across, is easy to read and will trigger short responses like “Ok.” and “That’s not going to be a problem.” And in case you sent it to the wrong person, you can expect a short answer too: “Not my job. Forwarded it to Charlie.”

Keep it short and simple

I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter.
~ Blaise Pascal

Pascal’s words are wise ones, it takes more time and effort to get the same message across while using less words. So it might look like a productivity hack to skip that additional effort and go with the longer message. Bad idea.

In the bigger picture, you may have won some time writing your message (quite the paradox, long messages take less time to write). But it will also take the receiver more time to read and comprehend it. Even worse: your lack of effort effectively gives the receiver permission to do the same to you! If you are not putting in the effort, why should they? So you can expect long answers back, that take more time to read and comprehend.

So use words sparingly. Every sentence and every explanation that you add to your message might confuse the recipient. Edit your message ruthlessly and strip it down to the bare essential. It’s easier to understand, elicits better responses and as a benefit it also has an aura of authority to it as well.

Simple isn’t always easy

Simple can be a really hard thing to do. I sure as hell don’t master it, just take a good look at this post. I’m not trying to convey emotions, beliefs or causes. I’m just trying to explain a phenomenon I witness around me and a way to deal with it. Yet it could’ve been said in a lot fewer words, without hurting the message. However I do use these habits a lot and I try to be simply eloquent (or eloquently simple?).

Do you recognize this phenomenon? Are your co-workers confusingly eloquent? (I bet they are!)

Photos by kevinzim and Martin Kingsley

During the interview it dawned upon that I could only do this effectively, because I had learned and adopted the GTD system before I adapted it. Starting GTD was a huge job, but still it’s one of the best things I have done in the past two years. It has brought me peace of mind, and it keeps me from forgetting stuff.

10 steps to get started

Starting GTD can be an arduous task, especially to those who need it the most. For those of you who have yet to start (or for your friends and colleagues who should start), here’s how to get past that first hurdle:

1. Read the book
   There’s no starting with Getting Things Done if you haven’t read David Allen’s book. So go to your library, or if you can’t wait buy Getting Things Done.
2. No seriously…read the book!
   You can’s skip this step, it’s essential. You won’t be able to fully comprehend or appreciate the modifications people make to GTD, without knowing the system. So read that book!
3. Buy a lot of manilla folders and labels.
   Buy a lot (no even more than that!) of manilla folders, you need them for your filing system and tickler file. Buy labels too. Buy a labelling machine too if your handwriting is illegible.
4. Block 2 days in your calender.
   Yes. 2 days. The entire day. I know that’s a lot of time for busy people like you, but you’ll regain that time in the weeks to come.
5. No seriously…block 2 days in your calender to start.
   You can have lunchbreaks, but no appointments. You will need your focus!
6. Collect everything and put it in your inbox.
   Physical stuff in a physical inbox, digital stuff in a digital inbox. If you’re anything like me, this will make piles. Huge piles of paper and immense inboxes. Don’t worry about it, that’s where you need it to be right now.
7. Process stuff.
   Start at the top. Follow the GTD rules! But, if you’re really unsure about something, put it on a new pile. This is your purgatory, your easy way out (for now!). By now you’ll be glad you blocked 2 full days in your calender.
8. Making a pile “To archive” is a major pitfall!
   As soon as you have something to archive. DON’T PUT IT ON A PILE! File it immediately, there’s something really gratifying about filling a filing cabinet. And there’s hardly anything more depressing than a huge pile of stuff you need to archive.
9. Read the book again, but this time selectively.
   Going through this 2 day process has shown you which parts you need to re-read. Now you have some experience, and you’ll understand those parts better.
10. Focus on the purgatory pile.
    Don’t procrastinate working through the purgatory pile. It’s still going to be a difficult one. My experience is that whatever lands on that pile is either something that should be tossed away or something that’s not important to you, but possibly important to someone else.

That’s how you start. Keeping it up is another process. In that process you’ll work on applying the GTD rules in processing your inboxes on a daily basis. You’ll work on adopting the weekly review. And you’ll work on adopting the tickler file. And once you’ve adopted those, you’ll keep what works for you, and drop what doesn’t.

But for now, go on and read that book!

Image by Foxtongue.

• The more complex your system is, the more likely you are to abandon it.
• The more complex your system is, the more time you’ll spend maintaining it.
• Working on your productivity system is NOT productive time.
• Simple systems are no guarantee for productivity.
• It’s not about the system.
• No system will make your list shorter, only finishing tasks will do that.
• When you start a task: finish it!
• Writing down tasks you have already finished just to tick them off the list again, doesn’t make you any more productive.
• Finished tasks are not a trophy. Discard them when done!
• It doesn’t matter if you forget a task, you’ll think of it again.
• Write down things to do, as soon as you think of them.
• Not writing tasks down, doesn’t make your list any shorter.
• A short list doesn’t make you productive.
• A large list doesn’t make you important.
• A large list also doesn’t make you busy.
• It’s not about the list either.
• Procrastination separates the urgent from the non-urgent tasks.
• Non-urgent tasks will get urgent, if you allow enough time to pass.
• If you procrastinate a task for a month or more, discard it altogether.
• Failing to discard unfinished tasks separates the important from the non-important tasks.
• If you hesitate to discard a task, get some balls and finish it already!
• If you can’t finish a task in a day, break it down into smaller parts.
• Detailed tasks are only useful in the short term.
• Breaking down projects in detailed tasks for the entire project span is a waste of time. Two weeks down the road you know better ways to do it anyway.
• It’s also not about the task.
• It’s not about the system.
• It’s not about the list.
• It’s not about the tasks.
• It’s about the results.
• Finished tasks are NOT results.

Will you finally get some stuff done already!?

Photo by tracitodd

1. it was a spare time activity (and I did not have a lot of spare time)
2. I couldn’t wait to start todoodling and sudoku calendering
3. it inspired me to re-read Zen To Done again

Although Nick mentions Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and his ideas on productivity, he doesn’t tell you to read Zen To Done. But Nick’s ideas on productivity and the simplicity they radiate, really reminded me of Zen To Done and the message it brings across (in a word: simplify!).

Now I have to tell you that I was already a little biased. At the end of last year I wrote about my switch back to paper, after trying several electronic devices and various online services for dealing with my to do’s, notes and appointments (the Getting Things done stuff).

One of the things I rediscovered is that I really (I mean really!) like to write stuff down by hand. And after some time I found myself drawing more and more in my little black moleskine and little red calender. Now why am I biased because of this? Well the tagline for Todoodlist is: “Technology is great. Pencils are better.”

Todoodlist

The e-book consists of three parts. The first part is a series of essays with funny titles like “Parrots in Space”, “Einstein Shaving” and “Zen Kitten in a Box”. The essays are an introduction to the ideas behind going back to paper and pencil.

Those ideas are presented in the second part of the book. You’ll learn about how to make todoodlists (yes they are special to do lists, and yes they kinda incorporate GTD’s projects and Next Actions), what Sudoku Calenders are and how nice it is to write on a banana. Allthough the last part is better performed with a ballpoint pen, instead of a pencil. All of them are rather simple ideas that make things easier and more fun (Sudoku Calenders are a lot easier than actual sudokus).

The third part of the book deals about how to embrace simplicity using several concepts. To be honest, most of these concepts I was familiar with (so I skipped some parts of that particular part of the book). Some of the concepts I have written about myself, and if you read The four hour work week by Tim Ferriss, you’ll recognize some of them too. Don’t get me wrong, they are valuable ideas and if you haven’t read about it, they’re simply gold.

I loved reading the first part of the book. I started reading it as a relaxing activity in spare time, and that part perfectly fit the need I had. I had some laughs, and some stories to help me in explaining concepts (thanks Nick!). The second part was so inspiring that I often stopped reading to get my moleskine and a pencil to start using it. And the third part I was skimming for the most part. All in all a very valuable e-book, well worth the $14 it sells for.

Zen To Done + Todoodlist = ZenToDoodlist

So it took me over 500 words to get to explaining the title (but you probably figured it out already). Why ZenToDoodlist? Because they are perfect additions to eachother. Zen To Done is a series of habits that will lead to a simple and effective productivity. The 10 habits are:

1. Collect



2. Process
3. Plan
4. Do
5. Simple Trusted System
6. Organize
7. Review
8. Simplify
9. Routine
10. Find Your Passion

In habit 3 Plan, one of the things to do is to plan your Big Rocks for the week. The Big Rocks are the things you really want to accomplish in that week. The same things goes for the daily schedule, but then they’re called MIT (Most Important Tasks). I find myself working with projects (GTD-style) as Big Rocks and the Next Actions in those projects as MIT’s. And the Todoodlist is the perfect tool to divide a project (big rock) into smaller actions and decide on the Next Action. And as soon as the context of these projects and actions is clear, planning them is a lot easier.

Habit 5, Simple Trusted System are my two little moleskines (black notebook and red calender). Black works as my ubiquituous capture tool, and it contains my todoodlists. Red has my appointments (and soon my sudoku notes and glyphies) and it contains my scatter-to-do’s (the random stuff that’s not project related). They simplify my system tremendously (to hand – pencil – paper). The only downside is that there are still two moleskines. So there’s some area of improvement is left…

If you follow Todoodlist closely, you’ll also find several tricks (with sticky tabs) to speed up your review process (I haven’t implemented them yet). Then go back to Zen To Done again and adopt the habits. The most important one: habit 4 Do. After that, look into habit 9 Routine. These will really get stuff done, the others are just there to help you not lose time on stuff that doesn’t matter.

Conclusion

Both Todoodlist and Zen To Done are valuable e-books, well worth the price the authors are charging for them. The combination makes it even more valuable, because they really go hand in hand in creating a simple trusted paper based system that will boost your productivity, simplify your life and inject some more fun into it.

PS: My own e-book Personal Core Values can help you with habit 10: Find your passion. You’ll discover what your personal core values are, and how you can use them to build a personal mission statement.

I was listing the passwords I use online, and it was plain scary. The list is enormous, and I haven’t even finished it yet (scroll down for the list). Argh!

A lot of them share passwords, because my brain capacity is limited (or I’m just too lazy to have different ones for each site). Most of them I use only once in a while, but some of them I use daily. And these are where you can put your passwords to work for you. You can turn them into a fun and productive event, rather than an annoying but necessary event.

Passwords you use frequently, should change frequently as well (how annoying is that!?). And they should be strong passwords too, if you care about the content they are protecting (or to satisfy the IT guidelines). This can sometimes be a real challenge, but with these simple tips you can turn them into assets, instead of a nuisance.

List your goals

This is something I’ve used a lot. Whatever goals you have, use them for your passwords. I’ve used passwords like:

• Finish2ndFloor!
• GrowBlogNow
• Get2500RSS

They’re pretty strong passwords, and when you’re typing them you get reminded instantly of what you want to achieve.

Prevent pitfalls of bad habits

When you log into one of your biggest time wasters for instance (IM, gaming, Twitter, Facebook, whatever), remind yourself that it’s a time waster. Use a passwords like:

• OneHourIsEnough (upper and lower case, not too bad)
• RUsure? (special character added, pretty strong)
• 1h=Q2>1h=Q4 (yay, Covey in action with a very strong password)

Learn spelling

Pick a word you have trouble spelling word and use that as a password. The sheer repetition will make sure you’ll never spell it wrong again.
Examples: Definitely – Opthalmology – Massachusetts – Prolificacy

Learn (a couple of words in) a foreign language

It can be fun to add some foreign words to your vocabulary. Want to know how to say beer in 20 langauges? Just look them up and use them as passwords:

• Spanish:Cerveza
• French:Biere (okay, accents are a problem)
• Italian:Birra

Or use the real translation:

• Merde=Damn
• Giornale=Newspaper
• Freizeit=LeisureTime

Extend your vocabulary

Use a new word and it’s meaning as the password. The trick is to find synonyms here, because the dictionary meanings tend to be long.

• Prolificacy=Fruitfulness
• Defiance=Resistance
• Superfluous=Redundant

Use affirmations

Affirmations are a popular technique to get you (back) in a productive state, or a harmonious state or whatever state you want to be in. In a lot of self improvement books the use of positive affirmations is advocated, but how often are you going to sit and read them out loud to yourself?

But if you use them as your passwords, you will repeat them often. Some examples:

• I’mFinanciallyFree
• IAm@Peace
• MyBodyVibratesWithEnergy

Have fun!

Admitted, it’s only a microhack. It’s not going to massively change your world, make you more productive, increase your IQ, expand your network or whatever. But it turns passwords into fun, and you might also learn something.

The sites I need passwords for:
So far I have: StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, Facebook, Twitter, Twitterfeed (via OpenID), Reddit, Gaia (former Zaadz), MyBlogLog, WordPress.com, How to be an Original (admin interface), WordPress DIY (admin interface), Feedburner, Joe’s Goals, Flickr, iStockPhoto, several bank accounts (4), Paypal, Neteller, Dutch State Lottery, Gmail (google, thanks for sharing passwords across ALL services!!), Lotus Notes at work, Hosting at Argeweb, Hosting at GoDaddy, Cell phone account at Orange (2), Internet Provider, alumni network of former employer, bol.com, Amazon, Text Link Ads, Linkworth, YouTube, Revver, several online poker accounts (pokerstars, partypoker, and the likes) and counting…

Editor’s note: This post is written by Heather Johnson, who writes for Bootstrapper blog.

If you find yourself constantly rushed to finish your day’s work, then you need to start spending your time more wisely. The harsh reality is, you probably have plenty of time to get your work finished. With the following little tips, you will soon be spending that time much more wisely:

1. Maintain a Professional Calendar – Stop scribbling things down on sticky notes and start using a professional calendar. Whether it’s an electronic planner or a bound appointment book, you need to get organized.
2. Stop Overscheduling – Be sure to leave at least a fourth of your day open and free of appointments. You never know what will arise, so give yourself a little wiggle room.
3. Don’t Surf the Net – While you may need to check your email at work or do some other online tasks, steer clear of time-wasting sites. The Internet is one of the biggest drains on work productivity in every office.
4. Socialize Less – It’s both a blessing and a curse when you work with people you enjoy. The more you want to talk with them, the more you fall behind with work. Even if it’s your boss who likes to hang out, politely excuse yourself and stay on task.
5. Learn to Delegate – Are you a control freak at work? Sometimes, it’s okay to let some work go to someone else. In fact, if you are seriously overwhelmed, you must learn to delegate.
6. Be Punctual – Do you routinely slip into work 15 minutes late? Take extended lunch breaks a few days a week? Even if you work at a place that is cool with that, your tardiness could be eating into your schedule more than you realize.
7. Relax – Anxiety causes massive brain drain, which will slow your productivity. If you’re stressed because you’ve fallen behind, then your bad mood will only compound the problem.

By following the above advice, you will quickly start to feel more relaxed and productive at work. This will not only make your life less stressful, it will get you out of the office on time and with a clear conscience.

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for business credit cards offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

I track my goals and habits on a daily basis too. For this I use Joe’s Goals, a simple web app designed to do just that. In this post I’m going to share with you how I use Joe’s Goals.

Setting up an account

This is a breeze! No annoying questions, just an email address, a nickname and a password and you’re all setup.

Configuring your goals and habits

Once you setup your account, you can start configuring your goals and habits. There are two types of entries that you can make, Goal or Logbook. Goals have scores, Logbooks are meant for comments.

I use both types. Goals are meant for checking off on habits I have completed successfully for the day or for checking of on activities that lead me closer to accomplishing my goals. The Logbook-type I use for planning purposes and for making notes on things I have done. And I use them in combination too, more on that later.

As you can see in the images, the setup screens for an entries are pretty straightforward. They have a nice set of options, but nothing too fancy.

• Goal name
  Like it says, this is where the name goes. Choose any name you like, you don’t have to worry about sorting, because you can change the sort order later.
• Tags
  You can put tags in here. I don’t use this feature.
• Weight - goal only
  You can give a score to the checks you put in this goal. Values range from 1 to 10. This is something I use to give relative weight to my goals and habits.
• Type - goal only
  You can choose whether you want the goal to be positive and earning you points, or negative making you lose points. All my goals are positive, because I want to reward myself for doing something I like, not punish myself.
• Target Days
  Use this feature to mark on what days you want the goal to be active. My weekly review habit for instance is only active on Sundays.
• Display Stats - goal only
  Here you can select what stats you want to see in the overview screen.
• Notes
  And finally, this is where you put whatever it is you feel you need to write down. This does not show in the overview screen.

Sorting your goals

Goals and habits are initially ordered in the order you create them. But fear not as it’s easy to sort them later on, when you discover one you forgot. Just click in the upper right hand corner on the link to “sort goals”. There you can sort them by Alphabetically, by Goal Type or Weight.

If you’re like me, you want neither of those orders. For people like us, you can create a custom sorting order by simply rearranging the goals in the list. Scroll down and click on the “Save Custom Sort Order” button in the bottom.

The overview screen

When you trusted all your goals, habits and other thoughts to the program, you get a nice overview of all your entries in a table. The entries are listed on the left, and you get a week’s worth of spaces to mark your progress.

The default view places the current date as the last date in the table. But using the arrow in the top right hand corner, you scroll forward into the near future. By clicking the calender icon, you can choose a date further away.

Some of my tricks

• Injecting Planning: This feature, combined with the Logbook item, is a great way to inject some planning into the table. I use this for my renovation project as you can see. There’s not an awful lot of room for text, so you can’t be too verbose. By putting the Logbook for actuals (a) right below the planning (p) I can see instantly how much of my plan got executed (and consequently whether I need to adjust my planning).
• Divide into sections: Another trick I use is to divide my table into sections, by inserting a Logbook item with no active days. This results in a blue bar across the table. Make sure to give it a clickable title though (like the dashes I used). I have one goal dangling on the bottom of the table, where I brilliantly used the spacebar to give it an unclickable name. I still need to send a mail to ‘Joe’ to get that one removed from the database.
• Declining points for ‘old’ habit changes: As you can see I used the weight function a lot. For the habits section, I more or less have a system for that. The habits that I have been doing for quite a while now get a lower score than the ones that I just started. But some of them are multi-clickable, like the “Drink water” habit. Every glass of water results in a checkmark.
• Extra credit for perfect days: When I have a perfect day with all my habits, I allow myself to check the main habits goal as well, scoring me an additional 10 points. This is one I came up with fairly recently, so I have yet to get the pleasure of putting in a checkmark there!

Now get started!

There are more features to be discovered in Joe’s Goals, and I could write a lot more about it. The truth is that I don’t use the rest of the features, so I’m not going to elaborate on them.

The biggest benefit of using Joe’s Goals is the fact that you’re inclined to check in daily, to score your progress. Doing this on a daily basis will help you build your goals and habit changes into your daily routine, increasing the likelihood of success.

The important thing is to get started. So surf on over to Joe’s Goals and start tracking your progress. Use my tips if they suit you, or come up with your own hacks. But ultimately it’s not about the hacks or the tracking software, it’s about getting serious about change and progress. But this sure is a nifty tool to enable you to succeed.

Oh…and in case you’re worried about forgetting to check-in on a regular basis: you will get an e-mail reminder (after a configurable number of days) to get your butt back to the site and hold yourself accountable!

Christine O’Kelly (Self Made Chick) was put “On Notice” by Dave Navarro (Freelance Folder / Million Dollar Leverage), when he decided to start a 30 trial by putting the lessons of Christine’s e-book into practice. Christine in return shouted out to Dave to “Show her the money“, taking up a similar trial with the time management lessons of Dave.

Both of them are pushing themselves to improve, and openly challenging, praising, questioning and discussing what they experience. It’s a lot of fun to follow and read and discuss along. More great people are following and discussing, like James Chartrand (Men with Pens), Monika Mundell (The Writers Manifesto), Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) and Naomi Dunford (Ittybiz).

eBooks

I somehow missed the fact that Christine published a 26-page eBook “How I Built A Profitable Freelance Business for Under $50 (And How You Can Too!)”. I got my copy, but have yet to read it (probably tonight).

I did download and read Dave Navarro’s eBook “How To Turn Your 24 Hour Day Into a 30 Hour Day”. Sign-up for his newsletter to get your copy. It’s a small e-book as well, but it really rung a bell with me. Dave touches on some points that I had discovered in recent months as well. He talks about not getting started, about keeping focus and eliminating distractions, about keeping yourself accountable for your goals and about having too many goals. So he got my attention!

Now where’s the cash?

Well the C.A.S.H. is a four-step program Dave discusses in his book:

• Clarity – identify your top priority using a checklist
• Accountability – review progress on a regular basis
• Strategy – adjust your strategy until your done!
• Honor – honor the process, by starting over

That’s in a nutshell where the cash is, and how you can find your 6 hours. If you want to know more about it, download the book.

My top priority? Plan my days!

Well, it’s been staring me in the face for a while now. When I used the simple checklists of Dave, they pointed out to me that I’m doing pretty good at my time results management already. My single top priority is to plan my days though. Planning my days is something that I have not been doing, but with a tendency to overcommit and a tendency to underestimate the time needed to complete a task, it’s quite essential.

So I created my own daily sheet to plan my day. Basically it’s a sheet of paper with a timetable divided into 30 minutes segments, with a column for my planning, a column for my actuals and a column for remarks. I’ll put it up for download soon. Update: download the daily planning sheet (pdf) here.

I’ve only been working with it for a day and a half now, so it’s hard to say that I have achieved results with it. I have noticed some thing already:

• It has made me more aware of how I spend my time and on what.
• It works as a focus tool, reminding me when I’m not working on the stuff I planned.
• It’s going to be a great reference to learn about how much time certain activities actually require.

And Dave’s convinced that most people who feel that they overcommit, are actually underplanning. So if I get this down, maybe I don’t feel overcommitted anymore.

I’ll keep you posted!

If you don’t crack the shell, you can’t eat the nut. - Persian Proverb

Cracking the shell is a necessary activity to find the nut and eat it. The same goes for theories and concepts. Applying it to a real life situation is like cracking the shell of that theory. And the lessons you learn are the golden nut of insight you find inside that shell.

Cracking the shell is exactly what this post is about, and the nut we’re cracking is the theory of the Time Leadership matrix (or Eisenhower matrix). In this article, I’m going to present a case study on how to use this technique. I took my own blogging activities as the subject.

Time Leadership – a short recap

Time Leadership is a term coined by Stephen Covey and it’s about taking control of your activities by determining their relative importance and urgency. I’ve written about this concept before when I discussed Covey’s habits and I even made a sketchcast about it.

For a quick recap: The Eisenhower Matrix has two axes:

• Importance
  Do you regard the activities as important? This is defined by you: What’s important with respect to your values, ambitions and goals?
• Urgency
  Is there time pressure to do the activities? Time pressure is often applied by others, or by circumstances.

Combined, these two axes create a matrix with four quadrants:

• I: Quadrant of Stress
  Activities are both important and urgent.
• II: Quadrant of Value
  Activities are important but not urgent.
• III: Quadrant of Deception
  Activities are not important, yet they are urgent.
• IV: Quadrant of Regret
  Activities are neither important nor urgent.

The Time Leadership Matrix for my Blogging Activities 

I’m going to discuss all the topics in the matrix briefly, but for your overview I present the entire matrix beforehand (click for a larger version).

I: The Quadrant of Stress

Upgrading blogging platform to latest version 

Why it’s important:
Having my blog up and running is important to me. The blogging platform is an essential part in accomplishing that, and having the latest release is essential in security.

Why it’s urgent:
I use WordPress as my (self-hosted) blogging platform and most of the releases are security releases. I don’t want my blog to be vulnerable to attacks, so there’s some urgency.

Responding to comments 

Why it’s important:
Interaction with readers, especially the active ones, is important to me. I like interacting about the topics I write about, because I want to learn and grow. And besides that, it’s good for building a sense of community, which in turn helps grow the blog.

Why it’s urgent:
The time gap between the comment and the response shouldn’t be too big, to keep the discussion alive.

Making value comments on relevant articles on other blogs 

Why it’s important:
Learning from other bloggers helps me grow. Adding value content in the comment section lets me add to that learning experience, both for me and others. And value comments are good exposure for you and your blog as well.

Why it’s urgent:
The most effect will come from comments made early on new articles. Being there as one of the first is important in securing the exposure and for setting the tone of the discussion.

II: The Quadrant of Value

Writing pillar content 

Why it’s important:
Pillar content is the foundation for your blog. Quality articles that are well researched and well thought through and add to the main focus of your blog are real assets. They satisfy your writing need, they satisfy your readers, they attract new traffic, readers and links.

Why it’s not urgent:
Quality is far more important than timing in this case. It’s better to post a couple of days later and do it really good, than to post early with less quality.

Tweaking design and SEO 

Why it’s important:
I want to grow my blog. Having an accessible and appealing design of your blog is an important factor in the conversion of first time visitors into returning or even into loyal visitors. SEO work on the other hand, makes sure that search engines like your site, and that in turn makes them send new visitors over.

Why it’s not urgent:
There’s simply no time pressure to do this. Search engines are not going to cross you out of their lists for not doing SEO. And improving the conversion is a nice bonus, but there’s no time pressure in doing it.

Reading relevant blogs 

Why it’s important:
This is important to for several reasons. Other people’s ideas help you grow, they might inspire articles you want to write and they provide context links for further reading for your readers. And by doing so, you add to your network of blogging friends.

Why it’s not urgent:
Relationships grow over time. And it doesn’t really matter to other bloggers that there’s a period of silence every now and then. And if you have plenty of inspiration, you might just be writing instead of reading.

Analyze statistics 

Why it’s important:
Understanding where your traffic is coming from, knowing who your visitors are, where they live can help you to adjust your articles a little to make them even more appealing. But also on a technical level it’s important, what’s the distribution of browsers and screen resolutions. Do you know what your site looks like in those browser/resolution combinations?

Why it’s not urgent:
This is an activity that tweaks and optimizes your blog. It makes things more professional, more appealing. But there’s no real time pressure.

Building strong profile on one or two social media sites 

Why it’s important:
Having a strong profile on one or two social media sites, gives you great contacts and enables you to send a lot of traffic to other blogs and to your own blog every now and then. Sending a lot of traffic to other blogs will often lead that blogger to your site, with a possible new contact, new reader or a link in one of the upcoming articles.

Why it’s not urgent:
You can’t build a strong profile overnight. It takes time to build it, and it has small increments. Nobody will really care if there are gaps in your profile, as long as you’re a sustained and participating member of the community.

III: The Quadrant of Deception

Keeping up to date on the latest and greatest in blogging 

Why it’s not important:
Building a blog and a readership is something that takes time. In the end it’s all about the content of your blog and a sustained rhythm of publishing new content. The latest and greatest often hold promises that are likely to go unfulfilled.

Why it’s urgent:
Well the fact that you want to be up to date implies time pressure. News is only news for a short period of time.

Commenting on other blogs for the purpose of commenting 

Why it’s not important:
Commenting for the purpose of commenting doesn’t really add value. It’s not a bad thing to leave a small comment every now and then, when you don’t really have something to add to the article, but you really liked it anyway. Comments like “great article, very inspirational” simply don’t really add to a discussion, and should be used in moderation. They most certainly won’t make people visit your blog for your insightful comment.

Why it’s urgent:
For the same reasons as described in quadrant 1 (Making value comments).

Most blog memes 

Why it’s not important:
Most blog memes are unrelated or only slightly related to your main topics. Posting off topic is not a sin, but should also be done in moderation. Once in a while there’s a meme though that hits your topic dead on, and it would be a shame not to participate. They can be very beneficial if used in a good way.

Why it’s urgent:
Since you’re asked directly by another blogger, there’s a barrier to say you’re not going to participate. And being early in a blog meme is important, because they will get the most traffic and links.

IV: The Quadrant of Regret

Excessively checking stats 

Why it’s not important:
Looking at stats doesn’t drive visitors to your site. It also doesn’t add content to your site. It also doesn’t optimize your site. And when you look too often and too close, you won’t be able to see the big picture (hint: that’s where the information is hidden).

Why it’s not urgent:
The fact that the traffic is happening now (there’s even a WordPress plugin for watching your traffic live) doesn’t make it urgent. Nobody applies pressure on you to look at your stats so often.

Reading too many blogs 

Why it’s not important:
Having a real interaction with a couple of bloggers and adding value to their sites is beneficial. Following and reading too many blogs makes the dangers of information overload very imminent. Following 100 blogs can give you over 500 unread blog posts in a week, and if you need to divide your time over so many blogs to follow, comment on, build relationships with, you’re going to fail just because of lack of time (I would anyway).

Why it’s not urgent:
Nothing bad will happen if you don’t read all those blogs for weeks in a row. It simply won’t affect your blog, you’re not going to miss out on a lot, nobody will get angry. It does free up time though.

Building profiles on all social media sites 

Why it’s not important:
Most social media sites have a user base with specific characteristics. If the main characteristics of that userbase don’t match with the audience you are targeting, than there’s no (mutual) benefit in building a strong profile on that site. Reddit for instance has a mismatch with my topics, political and news value items do good over there, and I don’t write about those. I have nothing to add, they have not a lot to give me.

Why it’s not urgent:
For much of the same reason that building a strong profile on a relevant site is not urgent as well.

Implications of this analysis

Applying the matrix to these activities is half the lesson already. Placing them in context and discovering that something is unimportant to you, is the first step in changing your behavior. Specific lessons I learned:

• Checking stats is a pitfall for me.
  It’s not a coincidence that I know about that particular plugin in WordPress. I deactivated that plugin and removed it from my WordPress installation recently.
• Most Social Media profiles are in Quadrant IV.
  I didn’t spend time on most of them anyway, but now I can be proud for not spending time on them That was very refreshing, my lack of activity just changed from a nagging feeling into a proud feeling.
• Identifying urgent stuff in Quadrant III.
  This discovery effectively cuts my urgent activities in half, leaving me plenty of time to do the Quadrant I activities better (like responding to comments on my own blog), with probably time to spare for more Quadrant II work.

And those are definitely nuts I’ve cracked the shell, and I hope this helps you in applying this wonderful theory as well. Don’t hesitate to ask questions if something is unclear or if you want further explanation. I’ll be more than happy to answer them or to help you think along.

Further reading elsewhere:

• Scaling yourself by Chris Brogan (he touches on a lot of points I wrote about recently in his post)
• The Curse of the ProBlogger – Time Management and Scaling Yourself Up (Darren Rowse’s take on Chris’ post)