How Can I Make More Time? Improving productivity in business

Posted by BrettJarman under Self-Development
From http://www.selfemploymentmastery.com 4156 days ago
Made Hot by: SJC on July 12, 2013 5:48 am

I'm often asked by clients and others, How can I make more time, I don't seem to have enough. The whole time problem is more about how we think and feel about it.

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Written by lyceum
4151 days ago

Brett: You are welcome! I learned about the crow epistemology from my philosophy studies. You could check out www.egosoletrader.com/workflow and search on my blog. It has been a long journey... ;) Talk to you soon again. All the Best, Martin.

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Written by BrettJarman
4151 days ago

Hi Martin.

In my original draft for the item I did explain why I chose 7 but didn't include it in the end. In short, 7 is the the magic number mainly because that easily fits within the scope of how much information most of us can hold at any one time.

As a general rule, we can remember 7 plus or minus 2 (i.e. between 5 and 9) items quite easily then beyond that most of us get into a bit of a brain fade (memory experts excepted of course). For that reason, 7 items seems 'manageable' for most people and thus a good target to aim for.

Of course, if the nature of your work is that you have lots of quick tasks then more could easily be accomplished.

To answer your question about GTD, yes, I am a GTD fan which you probably picked up from the distinction between 'tasks' and 'projects'. The seven task target doesn't arise from GTD though (at least not that I recall) but the mix of task types, as opposed to 'most urgent', I would have originally picked up from GTD.

Do you follow GTD yourself?

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Written by lyceum
4151 days ago

Brett: Thanks for reply! The number 7 has to do with the crow epistemology and how much we could keep track on at the same time, as you describe so eloquently.

Yes, I am fan of GTD too, but I am developing my own personalized kanban method that I call F.I.X IT! It is a mix of low and tech tools. I will follow the "stuff" process described in David Allen's books, but with a twist, incorporating tools like Eisenhower matrix, personal kanban, etc. But right now I am in the organizing phase, "setting up the right buckets"... ;) So much paper, so little time! LOL

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Written by lyceum
4151 days ago

Brett Jarman: Is 7 the "magic" number for the task list? Have you been influenced by the GTD methodology?

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Written by BrettJarman
4151 days ago

Wow. Sounds interesting Martin. I wasn't familiar with the crow epistemology so thanks for bringing that to my attention. Best of luck with your F.I.X IT! method. I look forward to hearing about it.

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