Productivity in the new age of 'time demands'

Knowledge workers who have mastered a high level of skills in time management understand that the flood of information that we face every day is not the cause of the overwhelm that many people experience. Instead, they appreciate that information is not the problem.

However, it is a fact that we live in an age when a month of The Gleaner news publications contain more information than someone born in 1750 saw in an entire lifetime.

During every waking hour, information is sent to us through an increasing number of channels. It is like a tap you cannot turn off.

This is very different from the good old days of office work. You had your desk, and when the right papers were handed to you, you did your work and passed it on to the next person.

Information was shared either in writing or in live conversation.

Fast-forward to today, and the deluge of information that we face is alarming to many.

But don't blame the information. It is not the websites, social networks, TV channels, newspapers, texts, emails, instant messages, phone calls, or voice mails.

In fact, information and all its channels of delivery are inescapable for most professionals, whose bosses require them to be well-informed and to use the most modern tools.

Instead, the problem lies in something called a 'time demand', which is simply a commitment that you create to do something in the future.

For example, some of the email messages arriving in your inbox are rubbish, and are deleted immediately. A few, however, must be read, and based on the contents, you make a mental decision to act on them later. When you do so, you create a 'time demand'.

When you lie in bed in the morning, thinking about the day ahead, or sit in a meeting and take action items, or create a shopping list for your trip to PriceSmart, you are mentally doing the same thing: giving birth to time demands in almost every waking hour. We humans just cannot stop making them.

What separates skilful professionals from others who are overwhelmed is what they do next, after the mental commitment is made. They apply the following rules and together, they are the key to their peace of mind and clarity of purpose.

RULES TO WORK BY

• Rule 1: Capture mental time demands in writing

Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of Virgin Atlantic and other companies, is a master at this skill. He says: "... It may sound ridiculous, but my most important (tip) is to always carry a little notebook in your back pocket. I think the number-one thing that I take with me when I'm travelling is the notebook."

According to a recent book by Glenn Rifkin: "Mr Branson is known for his ever-present notebook and pen, which he pulls out whenever he chats with employees or customers. He insists that this is a crucial element in his role as chairman, and that by writing things down, he creates a regular list of items for immediate action. Most chief executives, he notes, will chat with employees in the course of their travels but by the next day will remember little of what they were told."

This habit flies against the training we receive in our years of schooling.

We are taught to commit information to memory and regurgitate it to pass exams.

I imagine that as someone who is attracted to this column, you passed your fair share of exams and you have a very good memory.

When it comes to time demands, however, Branson and other professionals have taught themselves to not use their memory, and instead to write down time demands as soon as they come to mind.

If it means getting out of bed to write the time demand down, that is what they do.

They have taught themselves to deal with new commitments by getting them out of their heads and on to paper as soon as they can.

They know that one of the best ways to lose sleep, and to cause feelings of overwhelm, is to try to use their memory as a storage place for new time demands.

A few realise that as they get older, and additional responsibilities bring new time demands, the opportunities to lose track of something critical only grow.

• Rule 2: Store electronic time demands in a safe place

Email messages, Facebook updates, and Twitter tweets are all avenues through which time demands can enter a modern employee's world.

Skilled professionals apply a different rule from most: they store time demands that are embedded in electronic messages in a safe place in their time-management system.

The one thing they don't ever do is allow electronic messages to pile up, because a cluttered inbox causes important messages to get lost, which adds to the feeling of overwhelm.

Many with thousands of email messages in their inbox could testify to the fear they have of time demands getting lost or forgotten.

• Rule 3: Move time demands through their time-management system

Once a time demand is removed from a notebook or inbox, it must be routed through different stations of one's time-management system.

At the end, it feels good to complete a time demand, and to delete it or strike it off a list.

Good systems give their users that sense of accomplishment many times each day while providing them the security of knowing that not a single time demand has fallen through the cracks.

That combination of success and security is addictive, but it cannot be achieved by trying to manage information by itself.

Instead, it comes from the unique insight that we are the ones who originate these time demands, and that we must skilfully deal with them in order to keep our peace of mind.

Francis Wade is president of Framework Consulting Inc. Tweets - @fwade