Effexis & Goals To Action Blog

In his excellent book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker says that effective executives follow three key steps to manage their time better:

1. They analyze the way they use their time and think about better ways of using it,
2. They find wasteful and unproductive uses of their time and reduce them systematically,
3. They consolidate their time into large chunks that they can use for their most important work.

Let’s take a closer look at each step and two possible approaches for implementing them. I’ll call the two implementation options the “recording” and “planning” approaches.

Step # 1 – Analyze the way you use your time and think about better ways of using it

Instead of starting with the tasks that you need to do, Drucker recommends that you take a step back and analyze the way you are spending your time.

Are you focusing on important things or are you wasting your time on low value busywork? How could you spend your time in better ways? What would you need to change?

Recording Approach: To implement this step using a recording approach, you would start by using a time log to record and document how you are actually spending your time right now.

Every time you switch to a different activity throughout the day, you would record that in your time log. At the end of the day, you would look back over your time log and decide if you spent your time effectively or not.

After keeping a time log for a few days, most people are very surprised by how they actually spend their time – and how much of it is actually wasted on unproductive busywork or distractions.

You only need to log your time for 3-5 days to get a very good sampling of how you actually spend your time on a “typical” day.

Planning Approach: To implement this step using a planning approach, you would start by identifying the outcomes or projects that you are working toward, and then prioritizing them based on how important they are.

This will give you a better idea of what outcomes/projects you are spending your time on, and which ones represent good uses of your time and which ones do not.

Step # 2 – Find wasteful and unproductive uses of your time and reduce them systematically

Once you have a better understanding of how you are spending your time, you would start finding wasteful and unproductive activities and begin reducing them systematically to “free up” more time for the important stuff.

In this step, you are transitioning from “How am I spending my time?” to “How SHOULD I be spending my time?”

Recording Approach: In the recording approach, you would go over your time log and circle all the wasteful and unproductive uses of your time. You would figure out ways to eliminate the wasteful activities, or delegate them to someone else, or at least reduce them in some way.

Planning Approach: With the planning approach, you would start with your prioritized Master Project List, and figure out which projects really deserve your time and focus, and which ones do not.

You would also identify, write down and prioritize other more important projects that you COULD be spending your time on instead.

By doing this, you are reducing the wasteful/unproductive projects by “starving” them of your time, energy and focus, and shifting that time toward more important projects.

Step # 3 – Consolidate your time into large chunks that you can use for your most important work

This is very important, because as Peter Durcker points out, most people NEED large chunks of unbroken time to do creative knowledge work effectively and productively.

Drucker uses the example of preparing a report. Can you imagine how long it would take to write a report if you had to do it in 15-minute chunks of time?

Well, it would take you much longer than if you could devote several one-hour chunks to the same project.

Why?

Because knowledge work requires you to have a “mental context” of the work you are doing in order to be productive, and this “mental context” usually takes some time to form (as much as 10 minutes.)

In the example of the report, you would need to know where you are in the report (what you’ve already written and what’s left to do), who the audience is, what you are trying to communicate in each section, how the different parts of the report tie to each other, and other information you need to include (facts, figures, etc.)

If you only had 15-minutes to work on the report, you would have to stop working on it and do something else just as you’re getting into your “productivity groove,” so it would be a very inefficient way to work.

Recording Approach: With the recording approach, you would look at your schedule and start moving things around so you can create these large chunks of time to devote to your important projects.

Planning Approach: With the planning approach, you would create these large chunks of time ahead of time by looking at your master project list, deciding how much time to spend on different projects, and scheduling one-hour blocks in your calendar just like if they were appointments or meetings (these are your project blocks).

Then you let everything else fill the gaps between your already scheduled blocks.

In the end, both approaches help you analyze how you spend your time, reduce or eliminate wasteful unproductive activities, and consolidate your time to create large uninterrupted blocks of time.

The planning approach gives you the benefits of analyzing, reducing and consolidating your time automatically as you work the system, but you also get other important benefits like your Master Project List and the one-hour project blocks in your schedule.

Then, you can use a time log to help you analyze, reduce and consolidate your time even further using the recording approach.

Other people may find that starting with the recording approach feels more natural, intuitive and suitable to their working style and preferences. There really is no RIGHT answer that will work the same for everyone.

You may even want to blend the two approaches as you go through each step.

My ‘How To Use A Time Log To Get More Done‘ report shows you step-by-step how to keep, use and analyze a time log. It also includes simple templates to help you get started as quickly as possible.

Let me know which approach you think would work best for you and why.

Coming Soon.

Coming Soon.

Coming Soon.

Achieve Planner provides a convenient way to help you capture new tasks and ideas that pop into your head while you are working on something else.

The Quick Task Entry feature provides a simple entry box where you can capture new projects, tasks and ideas for later processing.

The Quick Task Entry form is available by right-clicking on the Achieve Planner icon in the system tray area and selecting the command from the menu.

You can also use the Quick Task Entry HotKey defined in the general tab of the Options dialog (Tools  ->Options menu item.) This HotKey is available even while working on other applications. The default HotKey is Alt+Win+T key combination.

The following Quick Task Entry dialog appears when you use the HotKey or notify icon context menu.

This tutorial video walks you through the quick task entry process.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

How To Enter Multiple Tasks At Once

If you check the Enter multiple tasks… checkbox, then you can enter multiple tasks (one per line) and use indentation (spaces) to create subtasks at any level.

For example, if you enter the following tasks (replace (Space) with an actual space character):

Task # 1

(Space)(Space)Task # 2

(Space)(Space)Task # 3

Task #2 and Task # 3 will be children of Task # 1.

By default, Achieve Planner inserts the new tasks into a project called “<New Tasks>” (which by default is under the <Inbox> project.) You can also directly specify the parent for the new tasks using the Project button.

The default mode is to enter the task details into the box and then process them later, but if you already know the project where the new task belongs, you can specify it here as well.

This entry box doesn’t distinguish between projects and tasks, but you can make that distinction later during the processing step.

Check the Activate Achieve Planner… box if you want to activate the main Achieve Planner window when you add the tasks. Leave it unchecked if you want to return to the application you were working on after you add the tasks.

How To Add Notes To Tasks When Using Quick Task Entry

You can add notes to the new tasks by using ## to separate the task name from the note text.

For example,

Task 1.1##These are the notes that will be associated with the task.

Note: The Quick Task Entry HotKey can only be associated with a single Achieve Planner main window. If you have multiple files open simultaneously, the HotKey will only work for one of them. If you find that the HotKey is not working once you close all other Achieve Planner windows, invoke the Quick Task Entry from the system tray icon context menu to “rehook” the hot key.

If you want to be able to look at several sub-projects and all their tasks at the same time while you do your planning, then the Outline tab is the best place to do that.

You can use the “zooming” feature (also called hoisting in Outlining applications) to zoom-in on a specific project and only look at it’s sub-projects and their tasks together in one place.

For example, if you only want to see projects in the Work result area, you can use zooming to only view this particular branch of the outline.

1. Select the row of the outline where you want to zoom in by clicking on the row header. This row will be the new root of the hierarchy after you zoom in. In this case, select the Work result area row
2. Select the Outline->Zoom In command.

The outline should now be zoomed in on the Work result area, showing only its children. You can tell when the outline is zoomed because the caption of the outline grid displays the root of the zoom hierarchy.

Zoom: Work (Result Area)

If you want to see more of the hierarchy, you can use the Outline->Zoom Out and Outline->Clear Zoom commands.

• Zoom Out – This command zooms out by one increment to the parent of the current zoom root
• Clear Zoom – This command clears the zoom completely and returns the outline to its normal state

To continue:

1. Select the Outline->Clear Zoom command.

The normal outline should now be displayed once again.

You can zoom to a specific item in the Outline using the Outline -> Zoom to Item… command. This command displays a dialog box that lets you select the item that you want to use as the new zoom root in the Outline and is a handy way to switch from one zoom root to another.

This tutorial shows you how to convert between sub-projects and tasks.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

To convert a Task into a Project (in either the Outline or Tasks tabs):

1. Select the Task(s) that you want to convert
2. Use the Actions -> Convert into Project menu item to convert the task(s) into project(s)

NOTE: When you convert a task into a project, it will automatically become a sub-project of whatever project (or result area) the task was part of.

To convert a Project into a Task (in either the Outline or Projects tabs):

1. Select the Project(s) that you want to convert
2. Use the Actions -> Convert into Task menu item to convert the project(s) into task(s)

NOTE: When you convert a sub-project into a task, it will automatically become a task of it’s parent project. Any sub-projects (or tasks) of the project being converted will also become sub-tasks of the converted task.

This tutorial gives you some examples of how you can use filters to help you find the tasks you want to work on.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

This tutorial shows you how to use bookmarking to help you remember where you left off when you complete a project block and start working on something else.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

When you have done some work on a task and are ready to move on to something else without fully completing the task, you can use the
Actions -> Record Work/Expenses command to help you remember where you left off.

1. Navigate to the Tasks tab and select a task for which you want to record some work
2. Select the Actions->Record Work/Expenses command. This will bring up the Work/Expense Record dialog.



3. Optionally enter how much time you spent on the task in the “Effort Spent” box. This will automatically reduce the effort left by that amount. If the Effort Left is a different amount, you can adjust it as needed.
4. Optionally, enter the bookmark reminder task in the “Follow up action” box.
5. Press the Add button.

The Work/Expense Record dialog provides the following fields:

• Name – Name of the project/task for which you are recording work
• Expected effort – Your original estimate of the amount of effort it would take to complete the task
• Effort to Date – This is the “actual effort” for the task so far
• Effort Spent – Enter the amount of work that you want to record for this task (for example: 30m, 2h)
• Effort Left – Enter your estimate of the amount of work that is still needed to complete the task
• Expected cost – Your original estimate of the cost of the task
• Cost to Date – This is the “actual cost” for the task so far
• Additional Cost – Enter the cost you want to add for this task (or leave blank)
• Follow up action – Allows you to add a “next action reminder task” as a child of the current task to serve as a bookmark or reminder of where you left off

In the example above, after entering the above information, the task list for this project would contain:

Notice that the “Effort Left” field has been reduced from 30 min to 20 min because this is the amount entered into the Effort Left box of the dialog.

In addition, a new child task called “Left at chapter 5” was added to the “Come up with chapter titles” task. This is a next action reminder or bookmark task because its effort values are both set to 0h.

This tells Achieve Planner that it is not an actual task, but just a reminder of where you left off and what you need to do next when you continue working on the “Come up with chapter titles” task.

This tutorial shows you how the Tasks tab supports the structured style of work.

Click Here to View the Tutorial

The state column denotes the current “state” of a project or task. You can use this column to change to state of the item or to mark it as completed (C). Click on the dropdown arrow to see the various state codes.

When you have completed a task or project, you can use the Actions-> Complete Task command to complete the task and record the work that you spent on it.

1. Navigate to the Tasks tab and select the task that you want to complete.
2. Select the Actions->Complete Task command (also available from context menu when you right-click on a task)

Note: You can also complete a project/task by changing its state to (C) Completed.

3. This will bring up the “Work/Expense Record to Complete” dialog.
4. Fill in the effort and cost that you want to add, and optionally provide the next task that you need to do for this project in the “follow up action” box.
5. Press the Add button to complete the task or Cancel to cancel the completion.

Notice that the “Effort Left” box is disabled because you are completing the task, so it won’t have any effort left.

If you enter a task in the “Follow up action” box, it will be placed immediately after the task that you are completing in the task list.

In this case, the Effort and Effort Left fields are initialized to 30 min, which is the default value for new tasks. This indicates that the task is an actual task and not a next action reminder.

How to turn off the Work/Expense Record to Complete Dialog

If you would rather not record work/expenses when you complete a project or task, you can disable this dialog in the General tab of the Options dialog (Tools->Options)

Just uncheck the “Record work/expenses on project/task complete” box and the dialog will no longer appear. Check the box to restore the dialog when you complete a project/task.

When you complete a project/task, the completion date is recorded in the ‘Date Completed’ field available by default in the Completed Tasks view.