“Do we have a shortage of time? No, we don’t. Time is the medium in which we exist. To complain about a shortage of time is like a fish in the sea complaining that it has a shortage of water.” — Mark Forster
Mark Forster is the author of “How to Make Your Dreams Come True” and the best-selling “Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play”. In his latest book, “Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management”, he teaches us how to get everything done by doing it tomorrow. Here’s how:
Trick Your Reactive Mind Into Doing What Your Rational Mind Wants
Often, what we decide to do and what we actually do are two entirely different things. We may decide to exercise five times a week, skip dessert after dinner, keep an organized desk, focus on one thing at a time, eat slowly, and so on, but we end up doing the exact opposite. Mark Forster explains that we have a rational brain—which is busy making plans—and a reactive brain–which basically reacts quickly to one stimulus after another, mainly perceived threats and pleasure.
Whenever there’s a conflict between the rational and the reactive mind, the reactive mind usually wins. Our rational mind may plan to exercise every day, but if it’s cold out the reactive mind may perceive this as a threat and cancel that day’s jog. Our rational mind may plan to diet, but if our reactive mind spots a piece of chocolate cake in the refrigerator, it grabs a fork and digs into it.
The way to succeed is to set up structures to support the carrying out of the projects you’re trying to achieve. The aim is to make it easy to do the right thing. Forster explains how to create several of these structures in his book.
One way for the rational mind to take control of the situation is to trick the reactive mind, which—fortunately—is not very bright. For example, if you have to write a report the reactive mind may perceive this as a threat: it may be difficult, it might take you out of your comfort zone, it might be a lot of work, it might mean you don’t get to do things you’d rather be doing, and so on. So you trick your reactive brain into thinking that you’re not really going to write the report, you’re just going to gather the necessary materials and set them down on your desk.
A few minutes later you tell your reactive brain that you’re just going to work on an outline for fifteen minutes. Then you can continue to work on the project in timed bursts, usually lasting between twenty and forty minutes. Getting your reactive mind to work on a report for twenty minutes is a lot easier than getting it to “write the report” with no limits set to make the task appear easier and more manageable.
The basic idea is to move from the Stimulus – Reaction approach of the reactive brain, to the Thought – Decision – Action approach of the rational brain. Again, the way to do this is by setting up the proper structures.
Seven Principles of Good Time Management
The book lays down the following seven principles of time management:
- Have a clear vision to bring clarity and focus to everything you do. Your vision allows you to decide what to do, as much as it helps you to decide what not to do. This is because once you choose a course of action you’re rejecting all other alternative courses of action.
- Do one thing at a time. Establishing limits is an important way to get things done, and one important limit is to do one thing at a time. Forster explains that most unsuccessful people don’t sit around doing nothing all day; instead, they try to do so many things at once that they never get anything done. It’s much more effective to focus on one task, and when you’re done, move on to the next.
- Little and often. It is more effective to exercise five times a week for forty minutes each day than it is to do nothing for two weeks and then exercise for four hours. At the same time, it’s more effective to work on a report for a couple of hours each day than it is to leave it all for the weekend before it’s due.
- Define your limits. We’ve already discussed setting the limit of doing one thing at a time. Another limit is to work on clearly defined goals with clearly defined boundaries. Still another is to give yourself a definite period of time in which to complete tasks instead of leaving it open-ended. There are many ways in which you can set limits to make sure that you get things done.
- Closed lists. A closed list is any list that has a line drawn on the bottom so that nothing more can be added to it. For example, deal with your email in batches once a day instead of checking your email each time a new message comes in. Another example is to create checklists for tasks that you carry out repeatedly so that you can clearly see which steps you’ve taken and how many more you have left to complete the task.
- Reduce random factors. Interruptions, or random factors, are the main reason people don’t complete their work during the day. Although you can’t get rid of all random factors, the goal is to eliminate as many of them as possible.
- Commitment v. Interest. Nothing much is likely to come out of an interest unless it turns into a commitment. There’s no limit to the amount of things you can be interested in, while there is a limited number of things you can be committed to.
Dealing With Backlog
The first step for dealing with backlog is to put it where you can’t see it. If you have lots of unfiled papers put them in a file—or a box if necessary—and place them out of sight. If you have a backlog of email, place all of the backlog in a folder labeled “backlog” so that you have an empty inbox. The aim is to close off the backlog and isolate it from new stuff coming in.
The second step is to create a system for dealing with the new stuff so that it gets dealt with effectively instead of simply creating more backlog. The reason a backlog was created in the first place is because you either don’t have systems for dealing with incoming papers, emails, voicemail messages, and so on, or the systems that you have in place are not efficient. For example, maybe you don’t have a central place to collect all of the papers that come in and they end up all over your home or office.
Routine work should be handled by simple and effective systems. Pinpoint why the backlog is being created, which is the malfunctioning system that is causing this to happen, and fix it.
The third step is to start chipping away at the backlog little by little.
Three Possible Causes of Time Problems
Forster explains that there are only three possible causes of time problems:
- We are working inefficiently.
- We have too much to do.
- We have too little time in which to do it.
If you work in a distracted, unfocused, fragmented way, you will not be processing your work well. Forster provides lots of tips in his book for increasing your efficiency at processing work.
If you have more work to do than you’re capable of doing then you simply won’t be able to do it properly. Work comes from the commitments that you’ve taken on; so if you have too much on your plate you need to go through your commitments and eliminate those which are not in line with your vision. Before taking on any new commitment realize that you’re going to have to make time for it by letting go of previous commitments.
Not having enough time is about over-scheduling: not taking into account things such as travel time, underestimating how long it will take you to complete a task, leaving out steps that you must take in order to complete a project, and so on.
Leave It For Tomorrow
Ideally, all your work should be left for tomorrow. The reason is that these items can be planned. Your goal is to never react to anything immediately unless it’s a genuine emergency, or it’s the nature of your job and your organizational system is designed to respond immediately. An example of the latter is firefighters.
At the same time, never do anything the same day in which it comes in unless there’s a significant downside to leaving it for tomorrow. If something is labeled “immediate” or “same day” it becomes random; if it’s labeled “tomorrow” then it’s planned. That is, you should collect all incoming work items during one day and action them the following day. Of course, for items that can only be done further down the road—such as “call Tom” and Tom won’t be available for two weeks—then you schedule it for the proper day two weeks ahead.
Projects and Tasks
Tasks are things such as: call the insurance agent, buy birthday present, arrange interview, email the statistics, and so on. Projects are a collection of tasks leading to a desired result. A task can be turned into a project by breaking it down further.
The first step for any project is to ask: “What needs to be done now?” From this question you’ll probably get a list of at least a few individual tasks. Write that list of tasks under tomorrow’s date and close the list (draw a line underneath it). Then the next day you have a closed list of tasks to complete as one batch.
You can recirculate tasks in the following way: if you have to write a report you can list “work on report for two hours” under tomorrow’s date. Since the report won’t be done after two hours you write down the same thing for the day after that, and then again for the next day, and so on until it’s done. This is the principle of “little and often”.
The Current Initiative
Choose something that is important to you—such as working on that big report or chipping away at your backlog—and have it be the first thing you work on every day. You do it before you check your email, or your voicemail, or your papers, or your list of tasks. Even if it’s just for twenty minutes, but do it first. Whatever your initiative is, if you work on it everyday it will progress.
Conclusion
For further explanation of the items outlined above, and for more tips on getting more done by doing it tomorrow, read Mark Forster’s excellent book, “Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management”. In addition, if you visit Mark Forster’s web site you can download the instructions for “The Autofocus Time Management System”, something new Mark’s been working on, for free.
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