Research that Remains to be Done

The work we do here at 2Time Labs is driven by research. Due to the lack of time spent studying time management in academia, I often have to go searching in adjacent fields of study to come up with suitable evidence. It’s an ongoing process that’s often pretty tedious. What’s worse is that once a particular piece of research has been completed, more often than not the researcher moves on to something unrelated.

As a time adviser, it means that your field remains cluttered with bad ideas that just don’t work. For example, I just saw a video with a time management coach boasting that she was great at multi-tasking. Her 2 minute video has received 85,000 views on YouTube since September alone.

I have tried to bring some order to this unattractive state of affairs, and have described the hypotheses that underlie Time Management 2.0 in the Prezi presentation below. None of these hypotheses have been conclusively proven directly, but the major ideas have been supported by related research in other areas.

If all this academic/research talk appeals to you in any way, come join us over at a new group I have started on LinkedIn for academics and researchers:  Time Management for Academics and Researchers.

Take a look at the interactive presentation below – switch over the full screen viewing after starting it up, and use the arrow keys to move from one slide to another.

 

Our Premier Training Opens

Our landmark program is now open for registration to all consultants, coaches, trainers and professional organizers. In addition, you can find out how well you rank in a brand new time management fundamental: “Flowing.”

Click here to be taken to the information page for this course, the very first step in using the 2Time Labs content in your professional practice.

A Brand New Game

One of the major upgrades that we’ve made to MyTimeDesign Plus is to add in 2 simulations that radically cut the time it takes to learn some essential lessons in Time Management 2.0

Here is a link to one of them — Brenda Returns from Vacation.   <The link has been closed to give exclusive access to MyTimeDesign Plus participants.>

In this particular game, you have the opportunity to assist a young professional who has just returned to her first day at work after her vacation, and must navigate a mountain of stuff that has accumulated on her desk and in her Inbox.

As you help her make some crucial choices, you can see the impact that they have on her day, and you can play with each choice as often as you’d like, just to see what what happens next.

It’s a new way to deliver training, and we have never seen it used in relation to time management before now.

It’s part of MyTimeDesign 1.1.Plus+ which is currently open for registration here.  (The Free program is closed for registration at the moment.)

Open House for 2Time Labs Begins

We just swung open the doors to our Open House, and we’re offering a brand new product!

Of course, we are still offering our free program – MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free.

But in addition, we have also done some major design work on our Plus program, and renamed it MyTimeDesign 1.1.Plus+.  By beefing it up with some of the latest e-learning technologies, topics and fresh content we believe it’s simply the best personal productivity program on the Internet.

What keeps our programs fresh are their reliance on the newest findings by researchers, many of which have only been made public in the last twelve months.  We’re not about telling you stuff you already know, in boring formats that you are tired of.

We want to make it worth your while to take our programs, in other words, and never have reason to say “I already knew all of that.”

But the only way to know for sure whether this is true, or just hype is to jump in the middle of our training, and try it out for yourself.

Click here to get immediate access to MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free (http://free.mytimedesign.com) and look for the chance to grab the discount to enroll in the Plus program.

 

 

 

getting closer to the September launch of the 2Time Labs Open House, and the public offers of MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free and MyTimeDesign 1.0.Plus+. MyTimeDesign 1.1.Plus+.

Since we first wrote this update, we decided to put in place a major upgrade to the Plus program. In the past, it consisted merely of add-on Lessons to the Free program, but so much has happened

Stay tuned to this space for periodic updates on the progress that’s being made to upgrade the Plus+ product with the very latest in thinking, and implementation using online tools.

Just don’t forget to add your name to the early notification list below, as we plan to cap the enrollment at a certain limit that we can handle comfortably.

New Product!

I have some good news about the MyTimeDesign group of products.

I have completes the creation of MyTimeDesign 1.0.Plus+ even as I make a radical change in delivery for MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional.

As you may know from prior posts, I currently offer MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free to the public three times per year at absolutely no cost to the user.  It’s a do-it-yourself program that covers 7 lessons delivered either in weekly segments or all at once.  It is designed as the best introduction to the introductory ideas included in Time Management 2.0, and gives users a chance to assess and upgrade their approach to time management at their own pace, covering the 7 Essential Fundamentals.

Since developing 1.0.Free, I have made some major enhancements to all my programs, and have focused on putting them all in a follow-up program called MyTimeDesign 1.0.Plus+.  While these lessons cover the 4 Advanced Fundamentals, plus the very latest thinking and methods in changing one’s habits, it won’t be free, unfortunately.

It’s also be a do-it-yourself program, and you can find out more information about it by clicking here.

At the same time, I have decided to make a few changes to MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional.  While the content won’t change, I am going to provide those who take it with a lot more direct coaching, in order to facilitate the speed of their habit changes.  With my help, participants will be able to take some tremendous shortcuts — the kind I use when coaching executives — and thereby save a lot of time by focusing on the critical elements of their approach to time management.

Everyone’s approach is different, so they’ll benefit from some help in honing in on the weak spots, and implementing changes that will yield the greatest overall benefit.

There will also be a price change… but that has hasn’t been finalized.  Currently I’m coaching a couple of partners from professional service firms using this approach, and I’m using the approach from MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional to help them make some big changes.

It’s been an exciting journey so far, learning what’s needed and coming up with ways to provide it that are economical, and make sense.  If you have any feedback on the direction in which I’m headed, let me know!

Starting the Year Off with Time Management 2.0

I have decided to make some changes in 2011 to the way I offer the MyTimeDesign programs.

The biggest change is that I’m offering MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free to the public three times in 2011: now in January, and then again in May and September. These seem to be the natural starting times for making life changes… at the start of the year, summer and the new school year!

I’m also going to offer MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional to those who have started or completed the free program, as it appears to me that they would gain the most from having me as their coach as they complete all their learning in Time Management 2.0.

If you’re interested in learning more about the program, I have a short video set up at the information page for MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free.

Webinar Recording and Questions

I have created a brand new Facebook page to help me answer the questions I couldn’t get to on the webinar last night (sorry about that guys!)  The technology just wasn’t cooperating at all, and I had to revert to a backup recording I made at the same time, in order to have something I could share.

After you listen to the clip, bring your questions over to my Questions page on Facebook.  You should be able to see it from outside Facebook by simply clicking here.  As you notice, I am now “The Time Management Guy!”

While this page will be advertised to the public eventually, I’m going to wait until we have gotten all the questions answered from the webinar.

Here is the recording of the webinar — just a warning, there were a couple of gaps when I realized that there was a problem with the connection. It’s an hour long.

After you’re done, remember to fill out the box on the right for early notification, and also to send me your questions to the Facebook page.

Tackling a Meaty Subject by Video

Somewhere in all the excitement of launching MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free and MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional I carved out some time to address an issue that I has been growing in my mind — the “Weekly Review.”

It’s a simple idea.

Take some time out of the week to survey all the time demands that are in your time management system.  Shuffle the items around until you’re happy with them, and start the week off on the right foot.

However the problem is that the weekly review has turned into a burden for many people, and a tedium that they find themselves shying away from given the smallest  excuse.

The problem isn’t their attitude, or lack of discipline as some would posit.  Instead, it lies in the way they do their “listing” and their “scheduling.”  Strange huh?

Well, it’s  a meaty subject that is well worth the effort to understand because the result is that if you take my recommendations to heart, you’ll want to start to upgrade the way you manage your schedule.

Follow this link to be taken to “Fixing the Weekly Review Permanently.”

P.S. Remember that I’m closing the doors to the store on Thursday, February the 12th at mid-day.  In the meantime, stay tuned to hear about the bonuses I’m putting in for those who register before then.

Come Take the Classroom Tour

OK, I am a bit excited about this!

I am almost at the end of pulling together the MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional classroom.

It was custom made by my team, and is intended for one thing only:  to make it easy for participants to upgrade their habits during the course of the program.

The key word is DURING the program… and I offer a variety of options to help participants devise their own habit support structure.  But here… take a look.

What do you think?  (The video is just short of 10 minutes long.)

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What Will These Programs Look Like?

iStock_000000385270XSmallOne of the questions I struggled with was how to break MyTimeDesign into manageable product offerings that would have the impact that I wanted, while enabling it to continue.

While I love blogging at the 2Time blog, one thing that I learned from the classroom and online programs is that it’s possible to learn a LOT more from focused training than from reading 400 posts.

But I also learned that most people required specialized support to be successful in changing habits permanently.

As I was trying to figure out what to do, I downloaded a free audio-book entitled “Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson.”  I listened to it over and over again, mulling over its potent message.

To cut a long story short, I decided to create a 6 week version of MyTimeDesign that I could offer for free.

Essentially, it’s a portion of the same content that I offered in MyTimeDesign 1.0 early in 2008.  Back then I sold it for US$99, and it included audios, videos and text, covering the first 7 fundamentals of time management.

Plus, it gave access to an online forum, where users could support each other in upgrading their time management systems.

How can I afford to offer this program for free?

Well, in Chris’ book I heard that line repeated – “information wants to be free.”  I also realized that the actual habits that are recommended in MyTimeDesign are not ground-breaking… they are repeated all over the internet in tons of lists of  “10 zillion Time Management Tips” that can be found with a simple Google search.

It told me that the key information (in the form of tips blogs, ebooks, audios and videos) was already free and more or less already saying the same things.  (An online survey I recently did confirmed this finding.)

What I am offering in the MyTimeDesign programs is something different — a way to use these 10 zillion tips tips without getting lost.

In other words, MyTimeDesign offers an upgrade path… a way for you to to get from where you are today, to a destination that you set for yourself.  You define where your upgrade will take you, based on the information in the program.

Rather than offering you the “perfect set of habits,” MyTimeDesign is provides intelligent assistance to effect an upgrade.

I imagined that there are 3 groups of people who might be interested:

Group #1

I imagined that for those people who are super-highly self-disciplined, just finding out that there is an upgrade path would be enough.  They would implement it themselves.  Before last year, I think I would have put myself in this group. Now…I don’t,  and  I can only admire them from afar!

Group #2

I also imagined that those people who are completely new to time management (what MyTimeDesign calls “Level 1 White Belts”) would be blown away by the idea that they already have a system, and that it can be upgraded whenever they want with the right approach.  They would move up a notch by simply obtaining a new level of awareness.

Group #3

Lastly, I perceived that there was a big group in the middle.  They would benefit the most from having a supportive environment that’s required to make major habit changes over time in order to upgrade their time management systems.  They are the ones who would end up making the biggest changes, and undergo the most profound transformations as they undertook the right changes at the right time, rather than trying to wade through 10 zillions tips, or implement a whole new system from scratch.

All this thinking led me to the following decisions:

  • Offer MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free to the public at no cost and gear it towards the needs of people in Groups #1 and #2.
  • Invent MyTimeDesign 2.o.Professional at a price, and gear it to the needs of people in Group #3.

My hope is that enough people will decide to upgrade MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free to MyTimeDesign 2.o.Professional to make the entire effort a profitable one that is sustainable.  As a result, “Free” will be ad-supported.

In other words, I want to have a business that produces enough valuable results for the customer that enables the thinking I have started to continue that pulls from the best of the research that exists.

What would be different enough about MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional that would make anyone interested in it? Tune into my next post…