Workflow is really the ignored stepchild to time management. Whenever these words are uttered together, people’s eyes glaze over and images of technical flow charts pop into their minds’ eyes.
The reality is that workflow processing is at the heart of both productivity and performance. It is these systems and methods that effect the results we all try to achieve. The question is whether we actually use a considered set of behaviors or simply react to what presents itself to your attention at any given moment?
Flow charts and diagrams are used to describe workflow because, just as it’s name implies, work flows and the charts/diagrams track that movement. The value in tracking these movements is the associated ability to identify and assist relative importance to every stage. Additionally, if we know the route work will flow in advance, we’ll have a far better chance of reaching our intended destination – the completion of the effort.
QuietSpacing(tm) is a workflow methodology, in addition to a time management program and a work/life balance model. The heart of QuietSpacing(tm) lies in its workflow schema and the suggestions for best dealing with the never-ending inputs we all receive each day. Through the course of developing this blog and the related book and seminars, we will articulate the method we believe is best-suited for today’s modern working environment.
Join us to see where we’re all going!
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Before addressing the subject of time management, I want to first acknowledge the person who inspired me to launch this blog and the resulting conceptual development for quietspacing.com – Josh de Koning.
Josh is a law firm administrator in Austin, TX. He attended one of my seminars at a regional conference for law firm administrators and subsequently invited me to speak to the Austin chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management. Josh is a productivity aficionado, having studied most of the popular works in the area, including David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” and Sara McGee’s “How to Take Your Life Back.”
During our many conversations, Josh repeatedly encouraged me to “go solo” with QuietSpacing(tm) and make it part of the lexicon of time management programs. This blog and it’s related services is the result of Josh’s inspiration and for that I thank him.
Now, I want to spend a minute talking about the notion of time management. No one can really manage time. It ticks inexorably forward second after second. However, you can manage what you do within the time continuum and that’s the focus of this portion of QuietSpacing(tm).
I will constantly challenge the “old ways” of managing your time and related behaviors with the intent of offering you new ways to look at what really happens during your day and how to best maximize your opportunities. The result, I hope, will be a more effective use of time which causes you to feel more in control of your life and allows you to experience a greater sense of success.
Oh, and you’ll increase your productivity along the way too!
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As my initial post in this category, I want to examine this notion of work/life balance. What I think most people mean when they say that they want work/life balance is that they want to work less. In fact, I’ve never heard someone say they’d like to work more!
Moreover, achieving some sort of “balance” between work and life seems like a zero sum game to me. That is, we want to “work” just enough to equal the amount of “life” we get to live. Somewhat depressing if you ask me. We need a shift in perspective.
What if we look at this whole notion as something that delivers the maximum amount of satisfaction and enjoyment in our lives? That’s what I call “life balance” – a situation where we are actively managing all the demands in our lives to achieve the greatest reward. Frankly, work is a part of life, a large part at that. Therefore, I’d like to think we can enjoy it to a large degree as well!
Try this perspective on for size:
“A master in the art of living draws
no sharp distinction between his work and his play;
his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body;
his education and recreation. He hardly knows which is which.
He simply peruses his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing,
and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing.
To himself he always appears to be doing both.”
Misattributed to Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubriand, when quoted by Yvon Chouinard (CEO of Patagonia) in Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman. Originally stated by L. P. Jacks in Education through Recreation. (Thanks to Greg Moreland, a college buddy and terrific professional magician for the clarification.)
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