Power Use of Your Calendar

Longstreet

Professor of microbiology and infectious diseases
Fair enough. I guess when you asked people to "convince you otherwise," it brought to mind some brouhahas. But you're right, this wasn't one of them.

Also, see my apology above.

Maybe you could submit a chapter to David Allen for consideration in the next edition of GTD, should there be one. You could insist on royalties. Because I gave you the idea, I should get a cut. Just 35% off the top. I'm a reasonable person.
No need whatsoever for an apology! And if I was ever asked to write a chapter on time blocking within the matrix of GTD, I would donate all of the royalties to you, my friend. I don't need the money at all.
 

bcmyers2112

Registered
And if I was ever asked to write a chapter on time blocking within the matrix of GTD, I would donate all of the royalties to you, my friend.
You know what I'm gonna do with it, right? Gonna finally build an arena with a GTD Jell-O pit for Jell-O wrestling. Then we all gonna throw down!
 

Longstreet

Professor of microbiology and infectious diseases
You know what I'm gonna do with it, right? Gonna finally build an arena with a GTD Jell-O pit for Jell-O wrestling. Then we all gonna throw down!
I would be an avid spectator, but I am too old to get into the fray!
 

Jared Caron

Nursing leader; GTD enthusiast
This example isn't a plethora, but perhaps a start. It's from the Getting Things Done book, on how to use the calendar for time-specific actions.

"Time-Specific Actions: This is a fancy name for appointments. Often the next action to be taken on a project is attending a meeting that has been set up to discuss it. Simply tracking that on the calendar is sufficient."

That includes mention of a timed calendar appointment as the next action to move a project forward.
Great example! I think GTD fundamentally changed the way I think about my calendar and I specifically remember this sentence hitting hard. The concept of your calendar as a "time-specific" next action list is paradigm-altering. In my experience GTD is more about concepts and a thought process than rules and precise procedures.

IMHO:

Using the words "time-blocking" is immaterial, and a bit of semantic hair-splitting. If you are managing your commitments, and the things on your calendar meet the 3 GTD calendar criteria, then you are "doing GTD". Any other precise details of your implementation are just personalization.
 

HiTekk JD

Registered
@John Forrister and @Longstreet

I wanted to jump in and add my 2 cents worth to this topic even though it is going a bit stale. In addition to the reference to timed appointments, I have heard David Allen mention a number of times in different recordings that any action that requires an hour or more should probably cross over to your calendar in order to reserve time for that activity. So, while he does not explicitly talk about time blocking, he does acknowledge the value of transferring a next action to your calendar in addition to committed time with others.

I look at a calendar as a budget. It represents the full allocation of hours in a day that you have. The same 24 hours that everyone else has. The question is how are you going to spend those 24 hours. In personal finance, the principal of a zero budget is taught. Where, you know what your income is and you allocate that income monthly until there are 0 dollars unaccounted for. You decide what your money will do, instead of waiting for circumstance, emotion, others demands, or whim to take it from you. Your money is one resource that you have, your time is another. Your time is more limited than your potential money. So, whay can this zero budget principal not be applied to time, like it is for money. I have really been resistant to budgeting my time as well, because I don't want to feel the pain of guilt and shame when I fail to keep those scheduled commitments. So, I have had to get creative to work around this resistance.

First, most calendar apps allow you to use more than one calendar at the same time. And, you can hide the various calendars when you don't need to see them. Second, I have disabled most of my app alerts on my mobile phone except for the phone, the text messages, and CALENDAR. I use the following system.

I have a 'Schedule' which is my calendar only for all day actions, and specific time commitments both specific and relative. These are must do actions. In additional to meetings, doctor appointments, and 'normal' appointments which are time specific, I also add time relative events. If I need to pick up a prescription, I can only do that after work (5 PM) and before the pharmacy closes (8PM). So I place Pick-Up prescription as an appointment somewhere in that timeframe with a alert to both budget the time and create a reminder. Maybe it floats an hour later and that is ok, as long as it happens before the pharmacy closes, and I have budgeted enough time. I also add actions that I expect to require one hour or more to complete. These are also considered relative.

I also have a calendar called "Reminders" which is anything I want to know about on a specific day or even specific time. I turn this on when I am planning my day. I turn it off when I am 'doing' my day. This way, when I am 'planning' I have access to the greatest amount of information for that time period, and when I am 'doing' I have the lease amount of trip hazard for distraction.

So far, none of this strays very far from the GTD model, just separated into two calendars in the app. So this is where I deviate a bit. I also keep a third calendar called "@context" which is the closest thing to time blocking I have been able to come up with to work with GTD. When I plan my day, I first check all my preexisting commitments already 'scheduled.' I budget time for any action that is longer than 1 hour that needs to occur and check for reminders to make sure I am not missing anything. Then, between 8 AM and 8 PM (doing hours) I look for any full hour block that is not already scheduled. I add a one hour '@context' activity with an alert for whatever context I can work in at that time. Like 'Reminders,' I am not obligating myself to do a specific action at that time. My commitment is, anytime I have an hour of unbudgeted time, I am going to LOOK at that specific @context Action list and make a choice. The action of just picking up my phone and looking at a specific list is often enough to have a huge impact on my immediate choices, and reinforce a pointe 'no' to some additional intrusion. And, if I look at the list and decide I should do something totally different that is fine. It is still an informed judgment call and I can live with making that choice. I refer to this as "@context Blocking" instead of time blocking because I am creating blocks around my context action reminders to choose how to spend the next hour based on my predefined work. The cost - this process can take less than 5 minutes a day to create blocks, and less than a minute to react and 'check' the one list when the alert goes off. Trip Hazards - Not checking the @context List when the alert sounds. I really think of Pavlov's dog here. Bell rings, turn over phone. Also, picking up the phone and going down a rabbit hoe in an e-mail, or text message or other alert. I really try to Look at the List, and put it down. This is a struggle personally. The benefits - no guilt associated with any choice, as long as I look at the list when the alert goes off, it integrates my context list into my time budget without cluttering my schedule, and it keeps me conscious of making choices about what to do with time blocks. I may only have two for a whole day, or I may have 6 or 8 depending on what is already scheduled. But, I get as close as I can to a zero hour time budget for the day, and don't beat myself up about choices.

I would love to hear if any other GTD geeks have tried something similar, or struggled with the same issues.

Happy Doing!
 

bcmyers2112

Registered
You are so right. Not. As long as posts are civil, somewhat on topic (tangents are expected), and not spam, I say hurray for posting. I am grateful for the conversations.
I'm glad to hear that, although I assume you know I was joking. I did honestly wonder how much goofing around might be too much, though. I think it would be best for all of us if I try not to push it so far as to find out.
 

John Forrister

GTD Connect
Staff member
I'm glad to hear that, although I assume you know I was joking. I did honestly wonder how much goofing around might be too much, though. I think it would be best for all of us if I try not to push it so far as to find out.
Goofing around is 100% fine. And don't have a concern about pushing it too far. Truly, we appreciate all the participation in the forum. We've only kicked out a couple of people in all the years, simply because they were here to pick personal fights instead of discuss. They'll be happier somewhere else, and we're all happier with our light-hearted group.
 

Longstreet

Professor of microbiology and infectious diseases
Goofing around is 100% fine. And don't have a concern about pushing it too far. Truly, we appreciate all the participation in the forum. We've only kicked out a couple of people in all the years, simply because they were here to pick personal fights instead of discuss. They'll be happier somewhere else, and we're all happier with our light-hearted group.
John, you are the best! The world needs more people like you...
 

Longstreet

Professor of microbiology and infectious diseases
John, did you see my post about a graphic of the 3-fold nature of work? Is there an official one?
 

TesTeq

Registered
We've only kicked out a couple of people in all the years, simply because they were here to pick personal fights instead of discuss. They'll be happier somewhere else, and we're all happier with our light-hearted group.
@John Forrister I know where they went! Politics is the place where people are constantly fighting instead of Getting Things Done! :mad:
 

Deege

Registered
Beyond blocking out time for a specific project, time blocking to plan an entire day has not worked for me. An alternative approach might be achieved with with tags and views. Say one is using OmniFocus, one could set up a bunch of "perspectives" to jump between throughout the day. A perspective for different areas and types of work, including deep work, etc. Time blocking to me is about ensuring things get done (including deeper harder work), and that doesn't necessarily require one to actually block time. If operating intuitively from contexts lists is too loose of an approach or feels overwhelming, perhaps having "perspectives" on top of traditional context lists might might provide enough structure and perspective to ensure one makes the most of one's time. The advantage here as I see it would be that is easy to switch between modes or perspectives such as chores, family or school matters, deep work, admin work, key projects #1, key project #2, etc.) without having to rewrite one's calendar as one's original plan for the day as defined by blocks of time changes as it inevitably does most days. One could in addition block out time on the calendar to work on a given perspective, but I've found that isn't actually needed in practice to ensure one stays focused on what matters. Time blocking a day might provide the needed structure, just seems heavy and unnecessary where more fluid approaches can yield similar results with arguably less work to stay on course.
 
Top