Overall, I agree that time management does not work for everyone in the same way. I certainly hate Outlook yelling at me 10 times a day about doing X and attending Y. Thankfully, I am in a position where I am not obligated to live by Outlook and can choose my own system.
I wrote a super simple webapp http://untodos.com/ (mostly for myself) that is pretty much the opposite of every time/schedule management app out there. I don't care about the preciseness of the tasks, I care about the priority. Inside my mind, I can't visualize 4:15pm-5:45pm Friday next week. The only time horizons my mind intuitively understands are today, soon, and whenever. My app and now my life is designed around that principle. After years of being burdened with feeling stressed and overworked, I think I finally have a handle on my busy schedule now and I know my stress is much lower.
My biggest gripe with traditional time management method is that you lose sight of the big picture and only concentrate on the small urgencies. We forget the important due to the urgent. If writing a book is one of your life goals, where does it fit on a calendar? I know where it fits on mine, in the "whenever" section. Once a day, I go over my "today", "soon" and "whenever" sections and move things around as I deem necessary.
I feel my view of managing my time is more encompassing than compartmentalizing. I am one person, I don't want "buy groceries" on a separate list from "meet clients" because both happen within hours of each other anyway. My life is one life, why have separate types of calendars and events. I thought deeply about what actually matters to me and realized that all I care about a task is whether it is "work/chore" or "fun/relaxing." As long as I have a bunch of fun tasks interspersed between my regular chore todos, I can manage my time well.
I guess the key lesson about time management is that you have to know yourself and figure out what works best for you. For some, it's Outlook, for some it's GCal synced with iPhone using RememberTheMilk app merged with iCal feeds from your fridge. And for some like me, it's just a no-deadline, no-reminder list of tasks with varying priorities. Find what works for you and grow with it. And if something doesn't work, don't blame yourself and personalize the stress as being caused by your inefficiencies but rather seek a system that fits your personality.
Your "work/chore/business", "fun/relaxing/pleasure" dichotomy seems to be universal. I can look at any task on my to-do list and instantly put it in one of those buckets. Probably anyone with a to-do list can.
Why is this?! Assuming this ability is universal (and not just something chime and I are good at:), there must be an innate psychological reason. Possibly even a "simple" reason.
I will venture a guess: real or imagined self-threat is always associated with failure to complete a "work" task. This is never true for an individual "play" task.
> My biggest gripe with traditional time management method is that you lose sight of the big picture and only concentrate on the small urgencies.
The Stephen Covey's method ("7 habits" fame) specifically deals with this issue. I highly recommend you to read the book "First Things First", but basically it's about scheduling the big stuff first (literally blocking chunks of time in the calendar), and only deal with the today/soon/whenever tasks on the remaining time. It's not as simple as that, you need to read the book to actually apply it effectively, but I can tell you that I've been following it at least for the past 5 years and it has been extremely effective for me.
Neat little app. I like the simplicity. Haven't quite figured out how the personality quirks/fun factor stuff fits into it all yet though.
Off topic: Oddly enough, I looked at the info about you and have actually run into your site before through your other project Sched. Cool personal page. I actually emailed yesterday regarding the Developer API on there to see if we could use it on our music festival site. Hope to hear back!
Untodos is remarkably charming and friendly. I especially like how it teaches you to use it, sort of like Portal. I've already moved all my todo stuff over to it.
Does it have an API? Being able to use it easily from a cell phone app would make it perfect, and I've been looking for a project to learn the Android SDK.
I've tried a to implement GTD a few times but am never able to stick with it - Its an interesting system and the only one that I ever tried to implement.
I called David Allen's company to see how much the 'coach' would cost so that a couple of my colleagues and I could get started, but it was way too high for me to consider.
I always revert back to moleskine & 3x5 notecards.
This actually isn't too bad - It's basically a rehash of the things you'd expect, but with some personal commentary.
I think the big thing about time management is it all comes down to this uber-productivity philosophy. Works well for getting "stuff" done, but sometimes being productive means having a terrific idea when you're out on a hike.
For me, time management is simply about getting all the cruft (bills, etc, etc) out of my life -- and enabling me to be free the rest of the time... So, I think a lot of these productivity kicks are probably really useful -- they just take it too far.
The problem I have with most time management techniques is that I'm a writer. Sometimes sitting down and trying to write for an hour is like trying to bleed a stone, some days it just isn't going to happen.
I've noticed I can easily get 3,000 words done in a few days without a problem, but the extra 2,000 words before I finish a chapter tends to screw me up. Suddenly I'm doing two jobs at once, I have to finish one story line but tie it to the next. I also hate the advice of 'you should write n words a day no matter what', because it's inherently useless advice. I don't write unless I'm writing something I know is half-way decent, I don't believe I should write simply for writings sake.
I don't think any programmer here would add an extra 500 lines of random code 'just cause'.
The only time management advice that I took to heart was "If it takes less than 5 minutes, do it now, don't schedule it." It is amazing how much stress it saves, particularly with my SO, and it takes about as much time to do it as write it down
This is a wonderful system focusing on goals, priorities, proper breakdown of tasks, stress management, relaxation, maintaining focus, etc. It gives a wonderful breakdown of how to manage planners, and this system has been working for me for years now. Hope you find some value out of this!
I have recently been wondering if all of this multitasking I was so proud of is a prime reason that time seems to pass too quickly... You mean it's almost April already?
I have been working at purposely slowing down, doing a more thorough job. My clients and friends seem to appreciate having my full attention. So does my wife :)
And I still get enough done that I am satisfied. Maybe it is because I am not having to do things over so much?
[+] [-] chime|17 years ago|reply
I wrote a super simple webapp http://untodos.com/ (mostly for myself) that is pretty much the opposite of every time/schedule management app out there. I don't care about the preciseness of the tasks, I care about the priority. Inside my mind, I can't visualize 4:15pm-5:45pm Friday next week. The only time horizons my mind intuitively understands are today, soon, and whenever. My app and now my life is designed around that principle. After years of being burdened with feeling stressed and overworked, I think I finally have a handle on my busy schedule now and I know my stress is much lower.
My biggest gripe with traditional time management method is that you lose sight of the big picture and only concentrate on the small urgencies. We forget the important due to the urgent. If writing a book is one of your life goals, where does it fit on a calendar? I know where it fits on mine, in the "whenever" section. Once a day, I go over my "today", "soon" and "whenever" sections and move things around as I deem necessary.
I feel my view of managing my time is more encompassing than compartmentalizing. I am one person, I don't want "buy groceries" on a separate list from "meet clients" because both happen within hours of each other anyway. My life is one life, why have separate types of calendars and events. I thought deeply about what actually matters to me and realized that all I care about a task is whether it is "work/chore" or "fun/relaxing." As long as I have a bunch of fun tasks interspersed between my regular chore todos, I can manage my time well.
I guess the key lesson about time management is that you have to know yourself and figure out what works best for you. For some, it's Outlook, for some it's GCal synced with iPhone using RememberTheMilk app merged with iCal feeds from your fridge. And for some like me, it's just a no-deadline, no-reminder list of tasks with varying priorities. Find what works for you and grow with it. And if something doesn't work, don't blame yourself and personalize the stress as being caused by your inefficiencies but rather seek a system that fits your personality.
[+] [-] davidbnewquist|17 years ago|reply
Why is this?! Assuming this ability is universal (and not just something chime and I are good at:), there must be an innate psychological reason. Possibly even a "simple" reason.
I will venture a guess: real or imagined self-threat is always associated with failure to complete a "work" task. This is never true for an individual "play" task.
Thoughts?
[+] [-] felipe|17 years ago|reply
The Stephen Covey's method ("7 habits" fame) specifically deals with this issue. I highly recommend you to read the book "First Things First", but basically it's about scheduling the big stuff first (literally blocking chunks of time in the calendar), and only deal with the today/soon/whenever tasks on the remaining time. It's not as simple as that, you need to read the book to actually apply it effectively, but I can tell you that I've been following it at least for the past 5 years and it has been extremely effective for me.
[+] [-] gstar|17 years ago|reply
I'm going to build something simple around this idea for our office.
[+] [-] larrykubin|17 years ago|reply
Off topic: Oddly enough, I looked at the info about you and have actually run into your site before through your other project Sched. Cool personal page. I actually emailed yesterday regarding the Developer API on there to see if we could use it on our music festival site. Hope to hear back!
[+] [-] sketerpot|17 years ago|reply
Does it have an API? Being able to use it easily from a cell phone app would make it perfect, and I've been looking for a project to learn the Android SDK.
[+] [-] coglethorpe|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] visitor4rmindia|17 years ago|reply
I've been using GTD for the past four years and I can honestly say it has really improved my handling of time and tasks.
Additionally, it has really really reduced my stress levels because I know I haven't forgotten anything and I never miss anything important.
[+] [-] sgoraya|17 years ago|reply
I called David Allen's company to see how much the 'coach' would cost so that a couple of my colleagues and I could get started, but it was way too high for me to consider.
I always revert back to moleskine & 3x5 notecards.
[+] [-] jwilliams|17 years ago|reply
I think the big thing about time management is it all comes down to this uber-productivity philosophy. Works well for getting "stuff" done, but sometimes being productive means having a terrific idea when you're out on a hike.
For me, time management is simply about getting all the cruft (bills, etc, etc) out of my life -- and enabling me to be free the rest of the time... So, I think a lot of these productivity kicks are probably really useful -- they just take it too far.
[+] [-] electromagnetic|17 years ago|reply
I've noticed I can easily get 3,000 words done in a few days without a problem, but the extra 2,000 words before I finish a chapter tends to screw me up. Suddenly I'm doing two jobs at once, I have to finish one story line but tie it to the next. I also hate the advice of 'you should write n words a day no matter what', because it's inherently useless advice. I don't write unless I'm writing something I know is half-way decent, I don't believe I should write simply for writings sake.
I don't think any programmer here would add an extra 500 lines of random code 'just cause'.
[+] [-] russell|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] esila|17 years ago|reply
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596007836/
This is a wonderful system focusing on goals, priorities, proper breakdown of tasks, stress management, relaxation, maintaining focus, etc. It gives a wonderful breakdown of how to manage planners, and this system has been working for me for years now. Hope you find some value out of this!
[+] [-] ryanwaggoner|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coglethorpe|17 years ago|reply
- Write blog post
- Put paid link to one site in.
- Do internal SEO to other post with paid link
[+] [-] raintrees|17 years ago|reply
I have been working at purposely slowing down, doing a more thorough job. My clients and friends seem to appreciate having my full attention. So does my wife :)
And I still get enough done that I am satisfied. Maybe it is because I am not having to do things over so much?
[+] [-] josefresco|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] josefresco|17 years ago|reply
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