The Single Best Time Management Tip Ever | BNET

By Dave Logan | April 26, 2011 I spent most of my life at war with time–and time usually won. I’d read every book and taken every course along the way, and with a few exceptions (like David Allen’s excellent Getting Things Done), most of it seemed to rehash common sense. The feeling of being overwhelmed and underproductive was relentless.

T he big breakthrough came when I was first teaching at USC and a student with severe dyslexia asked for help. Not knowing what to do, I turned to an expert on learning disorders. She advised that I let the student take the exam in my office, giving him short breaks every 20 minutes. The student did very well, surprising us both, and I was intrigued. After years of working with 20-minute segments, the Multiple Put Down technique was born. I’ve used it to write four books, a dissertation and thousands of speeches.

Here it is: work on a task in 20-minute increments, with absolute focus, and then put it down, over and over, until you’re done. In this case, the gold is in the details, so please follow them exactly:

1. Alert your brain that a task is coming that will require its recall, creativity, and brilliance (yes, your brain is brilliant–thank your parents). Then let some time pass–a day, perhaps.
2. When you’re ready to start, set a timer for 20 minutes, such as the stopwatch feature on an iPhone. Set your cell phone to airplane mode, turn off your email, and silence all other distractions. Then hit start on the timer.
3. During the 20 minutes, you must focus on that task without interruption. And unless the building burns down, do nothing but work on that task until the timer goes off. You may hit the wall, but keep going. The vast majority of people find they can work on that task “in the zone” until the timer goes off.
4. After 20 minutes, you have a choice: keep working or take a break. If you keep working, reset the timer to 20 minutes and go through the process again, without interruption until the next 20 minutes are up. If you decide to take a break, it can be short (such as refilling your coffee cup), medium (returning a phone call) or long (going into a meeting, or working out).

That’s it. You pick it up and put down over and over, hence the name “Multiple Put Down.” Some data, my own experience, and reports from the thousands of people who have learned the technique is that you are much more efficient–often finishing a task in 30-50% of the time it would take if you worked on it in one sitting. Even better, the quality of the work is far superior than if you followed your mother’s advice of “start early and just get it done.” There are other benefits, too: less stress, reduced frustration, and a general feeling of being brilliant. Multiple Put Down will save you hours and it can be even more powerful when combined with a Life Repair Day.

There are several advantages to the Multiple Put Down technique. The first is that your brain is brilliant at running processes in the background, but is awful at multitasking. While you’re driving to work, in the shower or answering email, your brain will be working in the background on the task, so that when you’re ready, it’ll drain through your fingers, into your computer or notepad, for about 20 minutes. The break allows your brain to restock the supply of brilliance. Each time you go through the process is a “productivity unit.”

Here are some tasks that are perfectly suited for Multiple Put Down: writing a report, preparing a pitch for a client or boss, figuring out how to solve a tough problem. Fans of Tribal Leadership might be interested to know that the book was written in 1106 productivity units.

If God wanted us to live in outer space, we wouldn't have balancing systems in our inner ears

When the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon, many assumed that this was the first step toward permanent colonization of the moon and journeys by astronauts to other planets. From today's perspective, though, the space race was like the races to the North Pole and the South Pole. Once explorers had reached those destinations, the world lost interest.

Another parallel is ocean exploration. Back in the 1960s, visions of colonies on the moon competed with plans for domed cities on the ocean floor that gave a new meaning to the phrase "real estate bubble." Scientific exploration of the ocean depths continues to produce marvelous discoveries, like whole ecosystems that have evolved to take advantage of the heat and emissions of undersea volcanic vents. But the year 2000 came and went and millions of homeowners are "underwater" only in metaphor.

The parallel is not complete, of course. The poles and the ocean depths are far more hospitable to human life than near Earth orbit or the moon or Mars. Astronauts have learned that prolonged weightlessness does terrible things to the bones and the circulatory system. If God wanted us to live in outer space, we wouldn't have balancing systems in our inner ears. (more...)

33 miners in Chile will be stuck for months....but they are HAPPY?!!?

"Patience and faith. God is great and the help of my God is going to make it possible to leave this mine alive."

COPIAPO, Chile — For 33 men found alive after 17 days trapped deep in a copper and gold mine, the toughest challenge now may be preserving their sanity during the months it may take to carve a tunnel big enough for them to get out.

Chileans were euphoric Sunday after a narrow drill broke through 2,257 feet (688 meters) of solid rock to reach an emergency refuge where the miners had gathered. The trapped men quickly tied two notes to the end of a probe that rescuers pulled to the surface, announcing in big red letters: "All 33 of us are fine in the shelter."

"Today all of Chile is crying with excitement and joy," President Sebastian Pinera said at the mine.

And where many were beginning to give up hope, the scene above ground became a celebration Sunday night, with a barbecue for the miners' families, roving musicians, lit candles and Chilean flags making the barren landscape seem festive.

But rescuers said it could take as long as four months — until around Christmas — to carve a second shaft some 27 inches (68 centimeters) in diameter, wide enough for the miners to be pulled up one by one(more...)

It's virtual meditation

Too busy to breathe? Too frazzled for fun? Meditainment's for you. The strange thing is, writes GAYLE MACDONALD, it actually works

'Imagine you are the navigator of a canoe, gliding down a river on a warm sunny day," says a honeyed voice. "You are looking forward to arriving at a destination that is all your own. There is no need for any haste. This place is always here for you."

Ah. Forget virtual reality. This is virtual relaxation. I am not actually in a cedar-strip canoe, floating down a river. Instead, I'm sitting at my computer, headphones on, eyes clamped shut. The chirps of birds and the sound of water lapping against my boat is all, literally, in my head, the brainchild of a British Web designer named Richard Latham.(more...)

Workers 'stressed out' by e-mails

More than a third of workers say they feel "stressed out" by the number of e-mails they receive in the office and the pressure to respond promptly.

Scottish research found some workers are viewing their inbox up to 40 times each hour, leaving them tired and frustrated - as well as unproductive.
"E-mail is the thing that now causes the most problems in our working lives," said lead researcher Karen Renaud, a computer scientist.

"It's an amazing tool but it's got out of hand."
Experts suggest a simple stress-beating strategy: check your e-mail less often.
The advice is to set aside two or three dedicated e-mail reading times each day.

'$100 laptop' production begins

Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production.

Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines.

Getting the $100 laptop to this stage has been a turbulent journey for the organisation and its founder Nicholas Negroponte.Since the idea was first put forward in 2002, the low-cost laptop has been both lauded and ridiculed.

Intel chairman Craig Barret famously described it as a "$100 gadget" whilst Microsoft founder Bill Gates questioned its design, particularly the lack of hard drive and its "tiny screen".

Professor Negroponte's response has always been the same: "It's an education project, not a laptop project."

The view was shared by Kofi Annan, ex-secretary General of the UN. In 2005, he described the laptop as an "expression of global solidarity" that would "open up new fronts" for children's education.And as time passed, even some of the critics have changed their stance. Earlier this month, Intel, which manufactures what was considered a rival machine, the Classmate PC, joined forces with OLPC.(more...)

Statue of Christ Redeemer among new seven wonders of the world

Lisbon, Portugal: The Great Wall of China, Jordan's Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer, Peru's Machu Picchu, Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid, the Colosseum in Rome and India's Taj Mahal were named the new seven wonders of the world on Saturday.

They were chosen according to a tally of around 100 million votes cast by people around the world over the Internet and by cellphone text messages, the non-profit organisation that conducted the poll said.People from every country in the world voted by internet or by phone message for the world's top architectural marvels, according to New7Wonders, the nonprofit organisation conducting the balloting.

The Colosseum, the Great Wall, Machu Picchu, India's Taj Mahal and Petra have been among the leaders since January.

The Acropolis and the Statue of Christ Redeemer recently received a surge in votes.