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05 May 12
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Collins decided years ago that a “big goal” in his life was to spend half of his working time on creative work — thinking, researching, and writing — a third of his time on teaching,
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30 Mar 12
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30 Dec 11
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08 Nov 11
Clint RodenfelsCal Newport talks about his Fixed Schedule Productivity methods and applying ruthless methods to cull unproductive activities.
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Collins decided years ago that a “big goal” in his life was to spend half of his working time on creative work — thinking, researching, and writing — a third of his time on teaching, and then cram everything else into the last 20%. The numbers on the whiteboard are a snapshot of his current distribution. (He tracks his time with a stop watch and monitors his progress in a spreadsheet.)
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- She’s up at 6 and by 8:30 she’s at the computer.
- The first 1 – 2 hours of her work day are spent doing what she calls “routine processing,” which includes checking calendars, clearing e-mail inboxes, and cementing a plan to follow for the rest of the day. As Saunders describes it, this morning routine prevents her from wasting time deciding how to start, and it frees her of the “compulsion” to be checking e-mail throughout the day.
- She continues with an hour of sales calls. This is often the most dreaded activity for the solo entrepreneur. But by having a regular place in her constrained schedule, she avoids pushing it aside.
- The rest of the day follows the schedule she fixed in the morning: usually a mix of client assignments and at least one business development activity.
- By 5:30 she’s done.
Here’s a typical day in Saunders’ life:
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The Fixed-Schedule Effect
Collins, Saunders, and Simmons all share a similar discovery. When they constrained their schedule to the point where non-essential work was eliminated and colleagues and clients had to retrain their expectations, they discovered two surprising results.
First, the essentials — be it making sales calls, or focusing on the core research behind a book — are what really matter, and the non-essentials — be it random e-mail conversations, or managing an overhaul to your blog template — are more disposable than many believe.
Second, by focusing only the essentials, they’ll receive more attention than when your schedule was unbounded. The paradoxic effect, as with Collins’ bestsellers, or Saunders and Simmons’ fast-growing businesses, you achieve more results.
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I’m ruthlessly results oriented. What’s the ultimate goal of a graduate student? To produce good research that answers important questions. Nothing else really matters. For some of my peers, however, their answer to this metaphysical prompt was: “work really long hours to prove that you belong.”
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I batch and habitatize. Any regularly occurring work gets turned into a habit — something I do at a fixed time on a fixed date. For example, I work on my blog in the afternoon after lunch.
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I start early. Sometimes real early.
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I don’t ask permission. I think it’s wrong to assume that you automatically have the right to work whatever schedule you want. It’s a valuable prize that most be earned. And results are the currency you must spend to buy it. So long as I’m actually accomplishing the big picture goals I’m paid to accomplish, I feel comfortable to handle my schedule my own way. If I was producing mediocre crap, people would have a right to demand more access.
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20 Feb 11
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29 Jan 11
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19 Jan 11
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09 Dec 10
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03 Nov 10
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23 Oct 10
misternonkiHow an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finishes by 5:30pm
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15 Sep 10
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29 Aug 10
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11 Jun 10
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25 May 10
Justin MaresFixed schedule productivity. Definitely something I should do next year during school to keep the grades up and accomplish everything else that I want to.
productivity timemanagement lifehacks management career efficiency study hacks imported
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06 May 10
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29 Jan 10
Kazutaka Goto「Fix your ideal schedule, then work backwards to make everything fit」
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05 Jan 10
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24 Dec 09
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23 Dec 09
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Fix your ideal schedule, then work backwards to make everything fit — ruthlessly culling obligations, turning people down, becoming hard to reach, and shedding marginally useful tasks along the way.
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“Choosing how and when I respond to requests has had a dramatic impact,” Saunders notes.
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Collins, Saunders, and Simmons all share a similar discovery. When they constrained their schedule to the point where non-essential work was eliminated and colleagues and clients had to retrain their expectations, they discovered two surprising results.
First, the essentials — be it making sales calls, or focusing on the core research behind a book — are what really matter, and the non-essentials — be it random e-mail conversations, or managing an overhaul to your blog template — are more disposable than many believe.
-
Second, by focusing only the essentials, they’ll receive more attention than when your schedule was unbounded.
-
- Dramatically cut back on the number of projects you are working on.
- Ruthlessly cull inefficient habits from your daily schedule.
- Risk mildly annoying or upsetting some people in exchange for large gains in time freedom.
- Stop procrastinating.
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I’m ruthlessly results oriented
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Anything that got in the way of this goal was treated with suspicion. This results-oriented vision made it easy to keep the middling crap from crowding my schedule.
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You can get away with telling people to expect a result a long time in the future, if — and this is a big if — you actually deliver when promised.
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If a project gets out of control and starts to sap too much time from my schedule, or strays from my results-oriented vision: I drop it. If something demonstrably more important comes along, and it conflicts with something else in my queue, I drop the less important project.
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If something is hindering your production of the important results in your field, you have to ask why you’re keeping it around.
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I check and respond to work e-mail only a couple times a day, and never at night or on weekends.
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Any regularly occurring work gets turned into a habit — something I do at a fixed time on a fixed date.
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Habit-based schedules for regular work makes it easier to tackle the non-regular projects. It also prevents schedule-busting pile-ups.
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On certain projects that I know are important, I don’t tolerate procrastination.
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I think it’s wrong to assume that you automatically have the right to work whatever schedule you want. It’s a valuable prize that most be earned. And results are the currency you must spend to buy it.
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: I know I have a never-ending stream of work, but this is when I’m going to face it.
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12 Dec 09
Raistlin MajerePut another way: I’m no slacker. But with only a few exceptions, all of this work took place between 8:30 and 5:30, only on weekdays. (My exercise, which I do every day, is also included in this block, as is an hour of dog walking. I really like my post-5
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11 Dec 09
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10 Dec 09
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07 Dec 09
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Peter van der Reijdenfixed-schedule productivity
productivity lifehacks gtd management work career time toread timemanagement for:@twitter
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30 Nov 09
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27 Nov 09
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wey wang1. Choose a work schedule that you think provides the ideal balance of effort and relaxation.
2. Do whatever it takes to avoid violating this schedule.
sticking to your ideal schedule will require drastic actions.
*Dramatically cut back on the number ofproductivity blogs management life gtd philosophy work time efficiency mit schedules freedom
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26 Nov 09
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sacha van StratenGuidance on using fixed-schedules to manage your time
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25 Nov 09
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vikramsjnFix your ideal schedule, then work backwards to make everything fit — ruthlessly culling obligations, turning people down, becoming hard to reach, and shedding marginally useful tasks along the way.
time management time-management life work work-life-balance balance mit entrepreneurship efficiency deliciousExport20110319
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24 Nov 09
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23 Nov 09
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Creative 53%
Teaching 28%
Other 19% -
Collins decided years ago that a “big goal” in his life was to spend half of his working time on creative work — thinking, researching, and writing — a third of his time on teaching, and then cram everything else into the last 20%. The numbers on the whiteboard are a snapshot of his current distribution. (He tracks his time with a stop watch and monitors his progress in a spreadsheet.)
-
When they constrained their schedule to the point where non-essential work was eliminated and colleagues and clients had to retrain their expectations, they discovered two surprising results.
-
First, the essentials
-
are what really matter, and the non-essentials
-
are more disposable than many believe.
-
Second, by focusing only the essentials, they’ll receive more attention than when your schedule was unbounded.
-
- Choose a work schedule that you think provides the ideal balance of effort and relaxation.
- Do whatever it takes to avoid violating this schedule.
-
- Dramatically cut back on the number of projects you are working on.
- Ruthlessly cull inefficient habits from your daily schedule.
- Risk mildly annoying or upsetting some people in exchange for large gains in time freedom.
- Stop procrastinating.
sticking to your ideal schedule will require drastic actions. For example, you may have to:
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Meghan LaffertyHow an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finishes by 5:30pm
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22 Nov 09
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21 Nov 09
N. P.Learn extremely detailed tactics from Cal Newport, an MIT post-doc, on how he's written 3 books, a blog with over 50,000 readers/month, a half-dozen peer reviewed papers -- and still stops working at 5:30pm every day.
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20 Nov 09
Gordon HerdInteresting article on "aggressive time management".
productivity gtd work time_management career efficiency tutorial howto management for:@twitter
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