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What is a Time Demand?

Francis Wade

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Do You Have a Lot of Stuff To Do Coming At You Each

Day?

Vacations to takeEmail messages

Phone callsTweets

Facebook updatesVoicemail

Text messagesInstant messages

RSS feedsLinkedin messages

Written notes to processFeedback on prior work

Time to restReplies to requests

Kids’ activitiesNewspapers to be read

Websites to browseMeeting requests

New projectsDocuments to be read

Calls to returnFiles to be put awayPhotographs to sort

Books to readChannels to visit

Calls to makeChores

New Year’s Resolutions

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Do You Expect It to Stop? Ever?

Vacations to takeEmail messages

Phone callsTweets

Facebook updatesVoicemail

Text messagesInstant messages

RSS feedsLinkedin messages

Written notes to processFeedback on prior work

Time to restReplies to requests

Kids’ activitiesNewspapers to be read

Websites to browseMeeting requests

New projectsDocuments to be read

Calls to returnFiles to be put awayPhotographs to sort

Books to readChannels to visit

Calls to makeChores

New Year’s Resolutions

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Many People Are Resigned… to a Permanent State of Overwhelm

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Unfortunately… Getting Out of Overwhelm Isn’t Easy

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It Has Many Causesand They Are Complex

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In Other Words…Forget About Finding a List of

5 Simple Tips or Tricks that Will Solve Everything

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Why Does This Complexity Exist? Where Did It Come From?

How Can It Be Banished?

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No-One Knows.

All We Know Is That In Order To Handle Stuff, We Put in Place Complex

Habits

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Too Complex to Be Banished in a Single Slide Presentation

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Different Question:How Can Complexity Be Reduced So That Something

New Can Emerge?

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Here’s a Start

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Consider… It’s Not Just “Stuff”

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Instead, Underneath All That Stuff is Something Called

a “Time Demand”

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A “Time Demand” is an Individual Commitment to Complete an Action in the Future

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A What?

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Individual Commitment – In Response to a Trigger, Your Mind Responds by Making a Personal Promise…

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Complete an Action– a Promise That Requires Future Time, in which You’ll Undertake a Specific Task

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So What?

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What We Call “Stuff” is a Mixed-Up Blend of Triggers and Time Demands

Stuff = Triggers + Time Demands

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Triggers: Specific Events that Prompt the Instantaneous Creation of New Time Demands

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Such As: Getting a Bill in the Mail, Listening to a Podcast Filled with Ideas, Attending a Meeting with our Manager

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When We Unravel “Stuff,” We Start to See the World Differently…

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Some Facts About Time Demands

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Time Demands Are Created by You and I.

We Are Responsible for Each and Every One.

But, Triggers Occur Naturally and Can’t Be Stopped.

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Time Demands are Discrete and Finite in Number. They can be Counted

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Time Demands are Inescapable

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Each Day, We Use Tools to Track Time Demands: Personal Memory, a To-Do list or a Schedule

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We Hate It When Time Demands Slip Through the Cracks

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We Feel Anxious When We Believe that We Might Fail to Complete Important Time Demands

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We Often Set Up Capture Points to Collect Potential Time Demands When We’re Not Available: a Mailbox,

Email Inbox, Voicemail

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We Like to Complete Time Demands. Doing So Brings a Sense of Satisfaction

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Incomplete Complete Time Demands Prey On Our Minds According to Researcher

M. Ziegarnik

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Incomplete Complete Time Demands Stop Preying On Our Minds When We Store Them Safely, According to

Researchers Masicampo and Baumeister

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In the Moment Time Demands are Created, We Often Tag Them – Mentally or Otherwise

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Potential Tags: Start Time, Deadline, Duration, Urgency, Importance, Resources or

Participants Required, Location / Context, Emotional Payoff, plus more.

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While We Can’t Manage Time, We Do Manage Time Demands All Day Long

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Sometimes in Life, the Number of Time Demands We Must Manage Overwhelms Our System

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And We Need an Upgrade

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But That’s Another Topic for Another Day!

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Thank You

Much more on time demandshttp://www.2time-sys.com/big-ideas-time-demands/