Time Management | QuietSpacing

Leveraging Leadership Time – The Waterfall Effect

Sunday, January 8, 2012

(Author’s Note: The following is a Cliff Note style summary of my keynote presentation and upcoming book titled The Waterfall Effect: Six Principles for Productive Leadership.)  

Time is every organization’s most valuable asset. Yet it is a non-renewable resource; once gone it cannot be recaptured. Thus, leaders must leverage their time to remain productive.

The Benefits of Leveraging Leadership Time

Leaders who focus on the right objectives, people and activities are leveraging their time. The result is called the Waterfall Effect – the cascading benefit that flows down through the organization and out to clients and customers.

How can leaders best leverage their time in today’s always-on, frenetic world? How can they ensure that they’re making the best use of this precious, non-renewable resource to deliver the most productive leadership possible? How can today’s leaders reproduce the Waterfall Effect over and over?

DMV – The Model of Efficiency?

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Going to the DMV ranks near the bottom of things people like to do. We wait until our license plates or our driver’s licenses are nearly expired before we drag ourselves down to the local office, expecting the experience to be both miserable and interminable. Those fears, coupled with our general fear of the unknown, make a trip to the DMV something just slightly more fun than getting a root canal.

Bureaucracy-phobic

Such was my state of mind a few weeks ago as I approached our DMV branch office with the title to my new (old) car in hand. The mission: to get the old Montana title converted to a new Nevada title. Simple enough.

Time Management Ain’t Sexy; It’s Vital

Monday, November 28, 2011

Telling people I work in the time management field produces the same result as telling people I was once a lawyer. They make a polite remark about my choice of endeavors and move on to another, more interesting subject. The only difference is that no one has ever felt compelled to tell me their favorite time management joke.

There’s a blessing in that last bit.

Seriously, though, I know speaking on time management doesn’t sound exciting. It pales in comparison to things like, “I do product design for Apple.” or “I’m in marketing at Nike.” I get that, but unfortunately I possess a driving need to find better, faster ways of getting things done. In the bio I provide those tasked with introducing me at speaking engagements it says that at age thirteen I found the quickest way to vacuum the family store so I could spend more time fly fishing. It’s true. I’m afflicted. I’m okay with that. Let me tell you why.

What is Time?

In conversations about QuietSpacing® – my time management methodology – and the related programs I conduct, I often explain to people that the overarching principle of all my work is this:

Time is a limited, non-renewal source with an undisclosed expiration date for each of us.

Live Simply, Work Passionately

Friday, August 19, 2011

Over the last eight months, I’ve been wrestling with a combination of Bright-Shiny-Objectisis and existential/professional angst. The root of the problem was a sense of restlessness. The restlessness arose from twelve years of involvement in Outdoorplay and seven years of QuietSpacing® efforts. Done enough times, all things lose their luster. Such was the case with these two endeavors.

I kept getting distracted by new and exciting topics – simplicity, lifestyle choices, Tenkara fly fishing. Instead of focusing on my core business of developing solid content to help my clients solve their time management struggles, I was drafting tables of contents for new books and making lists of authors to read and people to follow.

Manage Time Better. Enjoy Life More.