Steno Notebook Method

I see the Ehow people have used the old URLs of articles written by authors who have elected to remove their content from the site, so I have removed my old posts about the Steno Notebook method as the links no longer point to my work. The original article is hosted on docstoc.

Improve Your Time Management with a Steno Notebook

Triple Task Advanced

As you already know, I am a big believer in the rule of three, which I have written about in several articles and eBooks. It is a concept I stumbled upon while reading an article on the Marines. The Marines have found that by limiting the amount of "things" people deal with to three, it optimizes productivity. I have explored this in goal setting and achievement, time management and generally in business and have found it to be true. I have developed a time management system using the concept, but in my quest to always simplify life wanted to see if there was a way to make it as simple as possible. I call the result Triple Task Advanced.

The basic concept is that if you can manage to get three important things done in a day and do this consistently you will be very successful over time. No one has won a Nobel Prize for always having cat food and never losing a house plant to under watering. Focus on big meaningful goals and the tasks that go along with them and you will be successful; I will write more about this later. Now, this key premise of course can't be proven, it is just based upon my observations over the years having seen successful people who focus on key areas and succeed and also seeing ridiculously busy yet unproductive people flail around. We will first focus on the principals of the system and then get into a few ways to implement it.

The system operates by planning in advance the three most important things you need to get done each day, writing them in a notebook and then working them until they are done. This is in essence a plan your day method which is a departure for GTDers and those using Autofocus and Superfocus. This method prescreens these three tasks, isolates them on a page and has you working on them. For those fans of Mark Forster's work is a departure from the current method he uses in Superfocus and is more akin to a will do list ala DIT.

The rationale for this method is firstly, if you don't plan your day, someone else will do it for you. You will be interrupted by a co-worker or boss. Additionally, for many people the idea of circulating through many lists and tasks is in fact a demoralizing process which leads to overwhelm and reduces productivity. By first planning your day and picking the three important items, you start your day with a list of three things. Three things should not overwhelm anyone. Additionally, the other many lists or tasks are not in sight at least initially, so you have separated the process of doing from screening. Instead of picking a task, doing it and then having to dive back into lists; you stay in action mode for at least three tasks. One very important note is that you must write your tasks as things that can be accomplished in a day or less, since we will be doing this exercise every day. You are writing tasks you will finish, not tasks you will work on. There is a very big difference. So write call architect for resume, not build dream house. The first task can be done in a day, the second one can't.

Mechanically, this system can be done in a simple notebook. One of the rules I try to follow is the rule of writing in one place. It tends to make life easier. If you like it as well, just put your daily three things anywhere in the notebook and keep the notebook open to them until you have them done. Once they are done, you can use whatever method you like to find the next tasks to work on, including adding three new tasks. Note, a spiral type notebook is better, so you can rip out the page with the three tasks at the end of the day if you want to start fresh each day. The key to this system is the discipline to stay working on the three tasks until they are done. TTA is a departure from TT because you do not add tasks when you have dropped down to one or less tasks. In TTA you work to completion of the three important tasks until completion.

If you do not care about writing in one place, just create another notebook for the three important tasks and keep that in front of you until they are completed and then work within the other system and/or notebook which has the balance of the tasks you need to do.

An interesting experiment is to draw a line after your three tasks and note below the line anything you work on before completing the three tasks or anything someone asks you to work on. This list shows you the level of your own focus and the level of interruption you face in your work area. Obviously, if you work on a bunch of other tasks before completing the three important tasks you need to improve yourself discipline. If you are interrupted a lot, you may need to develop work place boundaries on interruptions so you can get what is important to you done.

This method is as much a system as it is a way of building the discipline to focus and block out distraction.

The World’s Simplest Time Management System

We strive for and in fact crave simplicity here at Simple Time Management. If something is too complex, we quickly loose interest in it. Over the years when it comes to time management things have gotten more complex. David Allen’s Getting Things Done also known as GTD was complicated enough even before the Iphone, Droid, Ipad and other gadgets came out designed to “help” you get things done using GTD. Even those who seem to embrace simplicity like Mark Forster have designed some seemingly simple systems like his new Superfocus which appear to be fairly complex. After the launch of Superfocus, there have been dozens of threads and hundreds of posts on his forum asking for clarity on the rules of the new system, which is paper based by the way. So, possibly it is not as simple as it was designed to be if it requires all of this debate. Now, I am not knocking these two fine gentlemen who have done much to advance the productivity of the world and certainly have profited deservedly so for their efforts. My point is always to ask and try to answer the question, is there a simpler way? Can we find a method that provides us a framework to capture and process the stuff we need to get done without having it take weeks, months or years to learn on? More importantly, can we also do this in a manner that actually saves us time because any time management system requires the use of our most valuable commodity which is of course that thing we are trying to maximize, our time?

One thing common to all time management systems is rules. In order to do GTD you must follow its rules. That means you have to make certain lists for Next Actions, Projects, Someday/Maybes etc. You need to sort your actions into contexts. So I need to decide what I could do at a computer or at a phone. You need to do a weekly review to manage all of this. In Superfocus you create lists of tasks based on urgency. Some things go in one column others another. You circulate through the tasks and work on stuff that “stands out”. Unfinished tasks get added to other future columns. If you don’t do stuff when you pass through in a certain way, you dismiss the page, meaning all of the tasks are now gone. Now, I am sure followers of these systems will claim I got the rules wrong and don’t understand the systems, I am just pointing out that all systems carry with them some complexity and overhead to implement.

So, this begs the question is there a simpler way? Personally, I have a much simpler system I use and I have never been happier. It has one rule and one rule only. What is the rule?

Write everything in one place.

​Let’s examine the rule. When you say write everything in one place, what do you mean? Well just that. Everything you have to do, calls you need to return, to-do lists, notes, ideas, project lists all go in one place. Ok, got it what is the place? The place is the paper notebook of your choice. Note, this is a paper system, which in my experience is the easiest, most efficient way to keep track of commitments. The notebook can be an expensive Moleskine or a spiral notebook like we all used in school. Aside from cost, there is actually a difference in how the system operates depending on what you choose. A spiral notebook allows you to rip pages out, a Moleskine does not. So if you are using a spiral notebook, you can rip out notes and place them in files for later use. If you use a Moleskine or other type of hardbound book, you will not be able to file notes. What is the impact of this? Either way if you need to save notes you will need to expend some additional time to either catalog your notes if they are kept in a hardbound book or make files and keep the notes you rip out of the spiral notebook. The choice is up to you. People will naturally ask things like how often and how do we review the notebook. I have always said a time management system does not choose your priorities and limit your commitments to a manageable number, you must do these things. So, given that you are in charge of your life, you will naturally determine how often to review your notebook and also what to work on when you review it. If you need the focus of a daily list, you will write one. If you need to get caught up on lingering tasks, you may start at the back. If you want to focus on recent urgent items, you may work backwards. There are no hard and fast rules because no rule can govern changing circumstances. However, the rule of writing in one place I have found gives me the 80/20. I have captured all that needs to be done in an easy to review system with minimal overhead. This system allows me maximum processing time, because of the low overhead, yet I can trust it because everything is in it.

​Tips/Questions

What do I do at the end of the notebook? You can review it for things you still need to do and transfer them to new notebook. Throw it away and start fresh, which may be therapeutic. Keep it and keep working the items until they are done. You will still only be writing in one place, which is a fresh notebook.

What size notebook should I use? What ever size is comfortable for you and fits in your briefcase, backpack or purse. Lefties may consider a steno notebook or another top bound alternative.

​What else could make me even more productive? Maintain a simple A - Z filing system since a huge cause of wasted time is hunting for things. Also give up hunting for the perfect time management system and use the time to get things you need to accomplish done.

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Jane Wesman on Time Management

I came across this old article from Inc. Magazine on a CEO's simple time management system using a hardback notebook. It is interesting to see how this person also embraces simplicity yet runs a significant organization.

All you need to plan your work is an ordinary notebook

I've never understood the value of a complicated time-management system. I tried one once -- the kind with a loose-leaf binder with a dozen sections for different types of information. With that system, I had to spend so much time prioritizing my to-do list and deciding where things should go that I could barely focus on running my company!

The full article is here.

Triple Task Time Management - My Implementation

There has been an interesting discussion going on over at Mark Forster’s website regarding another simple way to manage time.  If you are a fan of simple paper based systems like I am you will enjoy Mark’s site.  It is loaded with great systems, ideas and a great discussion forum as well.  Mark has been experimenting with a new system he calls Triple Task Time Management, which focuses on only three major tasks or focus areas at once.  Most of my readers know I am a huge believer in the Marine Corp Rule of Three, which states you limit areas of responsibility, tasks or goals to three items.  When this number increases, productivity and focus decreases.  My ebook Desired Outcomes Implementation Technology of course uses this principle as a part of its method to achieve your three top goals.  I decided to see if there was a way to take these ideas and utilize some of the time management principles I use to create a simple time management system around it.

I have designed a new system, which makes use of this principle.  The idea is to have visible list of three tasks which are highly important to you and which you focus on achieving each day.  Additionally, since we all have many more things we need to track and handle, we need a way to ensure these items are accounted for as well.  To accomplish this we have two parts to the system, the Three Task Page and the Capture Section.  Below are the details of how I implemented this system using a simple spiral notebook, like the ones we all used in school.  Please note the way I designed the system requires that the notebook have removable pages, so a moleskine notebook would not work as well.

Here is the method;

I have two "sections" to a single spiral notebook. I am using the last page as my Three Task System, writing three important items to finish during the day.  This page will be ripped out at the end of the day and a new one started as discussed.  So the Three Task Section is always on the last page of the notebook.

I am keeping the notebook open to this page during the day and working exclusively on this page until I am down to one item or less, I then add two more items. I just cross out finished items.  At the end of the day this page is ripped out and a new one started using any unfinished items from it and the Capture Section (discussed below) of the notebook as choices for the new three task list.  Note this page may end up having several more than three tasks listed on it, however the most unfinished tasks is three at a time.

The front of the notebook is what I call my Capture Section. So it is for notes, other to-dos that pop up during the day or exist already, project lists, phone calls to return, waiting for items etc. It is designed just to make sure I do not forget anything and have all that needs to be thought about in one place, i.e. called into a meeting, need to jot notes, messages on the voicemail to take off, idea pops into head.  So the Capture Section goes from page one forward.  The idea behind this section is a complete capture of all of the items I must do, may do, people to call back, ideas, waiting for items etc.

At the end of the day review the capture section along with the three task page pulled from notebook and create a new three tasks page on the then last page.  During this daily review also pull out and file any notes needed and threw away any unneeded pages.  So over time the notebook will shrink as three task pages are pulled out each day and other notes or unneeded pages are removed.

When you have no more pages, use this as an opportunity to prune items from the capture pages and start a new notebook by starting at page one and creating the new capture section.

The only rules I am following for this system are;

Keep the notebook open to the three tasks page and keep working on these items unless you must add to the capture section or the number of tasks is one or less.  You would add to the capture section if you are going to a meeting and taking notes, checking voicemail, have a new idea that pops into your head, your boss calls and gives you a new thing to do etc.

All tasks go first into the capture section so there are no distractions from the current three tasks page. This serves as both a buffer and a review mechanism to select important items from the totality of what you must accomplish.  Obviously an emergency must be handled, but this buffer and review mechanism keeps you focused on what you selected as important to accomplish, not what the world is throwing at you.

Stay on the three tasks until there is only one or less before looking to the capture section to add more tasks.

Make sure the three tasks are in fact actionable tasks you can do in a days time or less, so I am using words like, call Joe, read 3rd quarter report, review lease, make wire transfer to bank.  Again, I am using this as a time management tool not a goal accomplishment tool so long term items are not appropriate; this system will build action muscles.

Write in this notebook only, so all you need to think about is in one place.  I have written about the rule of writing in one place before and quite frankly it by itself can increase ones productivity for reasons previously discussed.

This new system seems to work well for me because I have the sense of peace that all that ultimately must be done is captured and yet I am focused on what I believe to be the three most important tasks are at the moment.

This could also work with an index card, separate sheet of paper or post-it note for the three tasks along with a single notebook or legal pad, however having everything in one place seems to have a nice simplicity and ease to it.  Good luck and let us know if you try this system.

Away or Towards

Every decision you make or action you take is fundamentally a decision to move away from something or toward something. For example, you may quite your job because you hate it and wish to leave it, which is an away action, or you leave because you got a great new job which is toward something new. In my experience, toward moves tend to be better reasons to make a move. I have quit a job even with another job in hand, but had it be just an ok move. The reason being, I was moving away from the old situation, not really toward the new one. The old job had an unbearable boss, with a poor culture and morale and was not as financially rewarding as it should have been. The new situation appeared to be better, but in reality was being filtered or compared to the old situation, which made it look more attractive than it actually was. This comparison coupled with a heaping dose of impatience made the new place seem better than it was. The true comparison should have been to my ideal situation, not a bad one. This comparison in essence set the bar too low. In reality I was tinkering at the margins, not greatly improving my lot.

When confronted with decisions in life, it is important to look at the true catalysts for the decision and use this simple framework to analyze the situation. A quick way to do this is to list all of the reasons you are going from point A to point B. If your list dwells on the negatives of the old situation, you may be making decision that is an away decision. Pause and really take a look at the new situation and make sure the benefits of the new will truly make it worthwhile. Again, if you can exercise patience, you may be able to stick it out longer and generate some better options, so when you make a move, you are doing so because you are truly attracted to something and are making a move towards something. When you are on a roll and making lots of toward moves, you will begin to notice an increased sense of satisfaction, calm and joy in your life. So take the time to ask your self next time you make a decision, am I moving away or towards something?

Incorporate this question into your use of the Desired Outcomes Implementation Program to ensure you are selecting the best desired outcomes to work on and it will make the program even more effective. Good luck.

Plan Board Versus Action Board

One of the concepts popularized by the movie the Secret is that of the vision board. This is a board on which you place pictures of the things you would like to attract in your life. So a typical vision board will have a mansion, sports car, jewelry, nice cloths, yachts, supermodels etc. The idea is that by looking at the vision board, you start to attract and manifest the "things" or what I call Desired Outcomes on the board into your life. Well, most of the things people put on a vision board require money to acquire. I will not comment as to whether or not supermodels require money to attract, but keep our discussion to the stuff like cars and homes. So once you create a vision board do you just keep staring at run to answer the door when the doorbell rings hoping your supermodel has arrived or the universe is coming to drop your Lamborghini off? If you are in fact a realist, you know your need to make things happen. The board will help you quantify what I call the resources gaps in Desired Outcomes Implementation Technology. What are resources gaps? They are simply the difference between what something requires to buy it and what you have now. So if a Lamborghini costs $200,000 and you have $20,000, you have a resources gap of $180,000. A realistic and mature person understand that they need to close the resources gap in order to posses the car of their dreams. Absent luck and the purchase of a winning lottery ticket, the sooner you realize this fact, the sooner you get what you want.

With this reality firmly understood, you can move on to planning for and taking action towards your desired outcomes. In my book since most of the things people desire take money to buy, the plan board should have lots of action steps people are taking in their lives which increase their earning potential and investment savvy. People should put on their plan board; books they are reading to increase their skills, business ideas they are working on, lists of people they are going to call and meet with whom can invest in their ventures, impart skills and wisdom to them and other ways to increase the three Cs. The three Cs which I describe in Desired Outcomes Implementation Technology are Capital, Contracts and Competence. Increasing the three Cs is the day to day path of achieving your desired outcomes. To get this powerful program today and make things happen in your life, click on the link to the left.