graphicdetails;67671 said:
Just curious, but why do you need a 2-minute timer? I know about the 2-minute "rule" for putting something on next action vs just doing it, but why would you actually time it? If it takes longer than 2 minutes, isn't the task already done by the time you realize it?
I use a timer often because I am very bad at figuring out how long any given time unit is. I'll time myself for 2 minutes so that I don't look up an hour later when I've finished what I thought was a simple task. When the timer beeps I stop and add it to my action list. I also do 15 minute times for some tasks I hate to do, just to get me started. And I'll do bursts of boring work, usually in 30 minute segments. My trick is I do 30 minutes of boring stuff, 15 minutes of play or reading for fun, 5 minutes to go drink some water and go to the bathroom and back to 30 more minutes of the task I am avoiding.
I also use a count up timer to actually time tasks I am procrastinating on, usually housework. I say ok I'm going to really clean the stove top and hood screens and I'm going to time it to see how long it actually takes. I found that some tasks I was sure took an hour actually only take 15-20 minutes. I document the time on the task so I know that if I have a 20 minute stretch I can get it done rather than procrastinating because I hate to start something and not finish it.
I'm using a time up counter a lot right now as I try to come to grips with how long it actually takes me to process complex e-mails. I've got 11 in my inbox right now, and today my goal is to really process each one. Some have been there since 15 April! My initial estimate is that it will take 12-15 minutes per e-mail to actually process it, that is really make the decisions on what the next action is and whether I need to add it as a project. so I'm going to time it and see what it actually takes. I've got both the workflow diagram and the advanced workflow diagram printed out and will take each e-mail and go explicitly through each step of the process. I think I'll use the simpler workflow at first and see if I can clear the inbox that way. The timer will be to document how long it actually takes so I can see how much time I have to allocate to this task in future.