KaizenTip 116: Take Control in Two Minutes

This week's Kaizen Tip comes to you from Kaizen's Justin Collinge.

You're standing at the salad bar in the supermarket with the plastic pot in hand.  The alluring colours, textures and smells providing a hint of the promised tastes spread out before you.

Where do you start?

According to a friend of mine there is a real art to getting the best out of this moment.  It begins before you begin - by taking two plastic cartons - apparently the firmer double container allows you to pack more in than if you have a flimsy single one.  Then, perhaps after providing a very shallow bed of rice, it's vital to start with the big ingredients - maybe an egg in each corner and a stick of celery down the middle.  Once you've chosen all the big things - the smaller items, such as kidney beans, grated cheese - can fit around them. 

Similar to the old "Jar and stones" story, this is a good metaphor for the 'busyness' of our lives.  I was recently challenged by a colleague asking me whether I'm putting the "big things" into my diary - writing my book, creating an online resource, setting direction for the next couple of years, and so on.  In the past, I've tended to deal with the urgent and immediate - allowing the 'big things' time whenever I can squeeze them in - of course now I realise now this is a mistaken strategy.  As Stephen Covey says in "First Things First":

 "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing".

These days, however, if you looked at my diary you would find it full - and it's mostly "big things" that get my full and focused attention.  I can't tell you the difference this has made to my productivity and sense of progress.

Time management is one of those areas where technology can either help or hinder.  Many of us are familiar with the "tyranny of e-mail" to describe a working day full of people expecting instant answers.  David Allen, in his book "Getting Things Done", suggests some useful ways of breaking that tyranny:

• apply the 2-minute rule to everything.  If something urgent arises that can be done in two minutes - do it straight away.  If it is going to take longer, then don't allow it to distract you from what you were doing.  Schedule it for attention later.
• get rid of all old e-mail.  Delete it or file it for 'action' or 'reference' but finish each day with an empty inbox.  Never open an e-mail without doing something with it - there's rarely a good reason to read an e-mail more than once.
• Fill in your diary wisely.  According to Sally McGhee, author of "Take Control of your Life", a task is 75% more likely to be completed if it is scheduled in your calendar.
• when something crops up that needs your attention at some point write it down - the 'to do' list in Outlook works for some people.  For when I'm out on the road, I've started using www.dial2do.com - a service that allows me to speed-dial them, record myself a reminder and a text or e-mail arrives giving me a tangible record of what I need to remember.
• use categories.  Your e-mail system will give you the option of apportioning categories to different types of e-mails.  This can help you to 'chunk up' from a myriad of things demanding your personal attention to a small number of projects that you're managing - and it allows you to decide which project has the highest priority right now.

Now, on to the fruit counter - just how many pineapple cubes can I fit along the bottom - and do you think they'll notice me cutting the kiwi to fit in the spaces left?

Call to action:

• put the 2-minute rule into action today and notice if it helps
• turn your Blackberry or e-mail off for an hour - see if anybody really notices
• contact us for personal coaching on how to take back control of your life and destiny