This is a bit of a heads up. 2Time Labs is launching something new – Schedule U.

And yes, it’s a school to help people who want to schedule everything!

At the moment, there’s not much to see, but you can sign up for early notification at http://ScheduleU.org

As the first school of its kind we’ll be breaking new ground, which has made us very busy putting in stuff behind the scenes that will positively impact the way you use your calendar.

Stay tuned… by visiting the temporary page and adding your email address.

Francis

In my books, I have raised the following questions: Can Time Be Managed? Does Time Management Exist? Is the Phrase “Time Management” a Misnomer?

These are more than esoteric issues.

Each year, people invest millions of dollars, hundreds of hours and  thousands of research pages on this niche. More often than not, they ignore the question. A few acknowledge it with a wave of the hand, usually answering it with a short quote, retort or nifty replacement.

Up until now, no-one has labored to answer it.

This special, free report may be a one-of-a-kind – the first attempt to tackle the question from multiple angles, using the lens of a variety of disciplines.

Join me as I explore them all and prepare to be challenged with findings that challenge your everyday use of common words and concepts.

Download your complimentary copy below.

Top productivity today means setting up ways to manage specific kinds of information.

In the prior article on the Interrupted Self (part of The Notified Self), I described the need to set up interruptions so that you never run late or miss a task or appointment altogether.

In these two articles on the Warned Self and Informed Self, I take things a step further.

You also need to set up alarms and alerts that tell you when a part of your overall system is broken. Furthermore, you need new ways to deal with the deluge of data you are being fed on an ongoing basis. It’s grown to the point where you cannot data-mine all of it for useful insights, even if you think it might hae some answers.

In Perfect Time-Based Productivity I introduced these ideas via the practices of Interrupting, Warning and Switching, and these articles take a big step forward to create one result – The Perfectly Notified Self.

I hope you find these new articles to be useful. The provide some evidence that I need to get into my book to update it with the latest research.

There’s no way to achieve long-term professional success without learning how to convert critical behaviors into habits. It’s a skill that’s not taught in the workplace, even though it’s key to accomplishing all worthwhile goals. How can you develop this ability?

Let’s start with a definition. A habit is an action that is initiated without conscious effort or motivation. If you have ever found yourself turning your steering wheel for home only to realize that you are supposed to be going in the opposite direction, you may understand their power. They require little energy to get started, making them a powerful ally. Of course, some can also become life-threatening enemies, causing us to focus on them exclusively.

That’s a common mistake.

For example, in my training I make a big deal about the negative influence of smartphones and their pervasive ability to turn people into dangerous users. For many, the act of purchasing a mobile phone is a precursor to, and predictor of, practices such as texting while driving.

However, there is a flip-side. Anyone can harness smartphone power to develop beneficial habits. Unfortunately, according to a recent University of London study, mobile apps and PC programs which are supposed to help us consciously build new habits fail to do so. They ignore existing research, rendering them impotent. Their failure is instructive: here’s what we can learn in our attempts to develop positive new habits.

1. Repetition Isn’t Enough
Habits aren’t formed just because we engage in the same practice over and over again. While repetition is important, habits also need cues and triggers that initiate a specific behavior.

Cues and triggers are defined as specific events which lead to the habit being executed. For example, your decision to retire for the evening sets in play a number of sequential behaviors that occur even when you are tired and can’t think clearly.

Furthermore, when developing long-term habits, it’s much better to link them to events rather than the clock. This feature is one your doctor exploits by assigning your medication for mealtimes rather than clock-times. Therefore, to keep a habit in place, you need to be a good builder of these events.

2. Cues and Triggers Sometimes Don’t Work
There are times, however, when events aren’t enough. When you are learning a brand new habit, you may not know which events to use. In these cases, using a planned reminder such as a smartphone alarm can be effective in, for example, learning to take a 10:00 AM morning break. But, there is one catch.

While this tool is effective in the beginning, it’s a short-term crutch. In the long-term it presents a danger. According to the research, over-reliance on timed reminders can interfere with permanent habit formation. They are helpful, but become harmful later on.

Fortunately, there’s a more effective technique to use. Instead, turn on a reminder to help you notice which event occurs at the same time. For example, when the mid-morning alarm goes off, you may notice that the break coincides with a hunger or thirst pang.

After a while, you could wean yourself off the alarm, paying attention to the pang: your new trigger.

3. The Use of Rewards
The final piece of the puzzle is the role of positive reinforcement. Someone who wants to build new habits needs to become a smart cheerleader, rewarding him/herself appropriately. However, herein lies yet another catch.

In general, intrinsic rewards (such as a sense of personal satisfaction) are far better than extrinsic rewards such as a financial incentive granted by your manager. The question is, how do you tap into intrinsic rewards on a regular basis, given their intangible, ephemeral nature?

One key is to treat external rewards as dangerous distractions that may take your attention away from the joy inherent in the task. The other is to allow time for reflection (e.g. by journaling) so that you can stay present to positive inner experiences.

These insights imply that managers need to be cautious in their application of rewards. When tempted and distracted by external “Big-Ups”, many employees are prone to lose track of intrinsic motivation entirely. This is a recipe for trouble, putting all their satisfaction in one basket: their company’s.

It’s far better to train employees to be self-reliant on their own habits. Unfortunately, most companies don’t deliberately teach this skill and waste time in crafting manipulations. In the long-term, they never work as well as positive habits which are intrinsically motivating, especially when they happen to drive value to the bottom line.

The originalarticle can be found here.

Ever since the completion of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, I have known that I left some gaps in its coverage of the 11 Fundamentals.

If you have read the book you may have noticed – I have lots of detailed experience from classes teaching the 7 Basics, but little to show from teaching the 4 “Advanceds.”

It’s no accident. When the recession came on, I had to cut the NewHabits-NewGoals training into a single day from two. The end-result is that Switching, Interrupting, Warning and Reviewing have not been taught live for some time. So, my own learning in these areas simply has not kept pace with what’s happened in other areas.

Until now.

After thinking about it for some time I got a bit inspired to define a new end-point – The Notified Self. It’s a destination for most of us where we are perfectly supported by our ecosystem of devices, which are giving us the alerts, notifications, updates and interruptions we need to run our lives.

I’m hoping it will do a couple of things: one is to build on the fine start  given by the Quantified Self movement which has focused on data collection and analysis. The other goal is to help developers invent apps and devices that empower rather than overwhelm us. This isn’t an easy goal and I am hoping that a deep dive into this topic in this article on Medium will help: How to Organize Your Notifications to Accomplish the Perfectly “Notified Self”.

Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments.