Time delay: using technology to become efficient with your time

alancleaver_2000 Flikr http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/

Since I started at school, I had to fight my procrastination. Sometimes it almost feels like a disease; one is treatable, but just never seems to go away. From my bad procrastination I decided systems like GTD, calendar and scheduled and blocked all the time, reminders for important tasks and due dates "dinging" from everywhere. What I found that if I'm on top of my game and choosing to be productive, I easily fall back into the pit where there is no time delay, never "essence".

I've read quite a few books and essays on psychological consequences and the causes of delay. Something interesting that has stuck with me — the book procrastination by Jane b. Burka (not an affiliate link) with the "procrastinators" perceive and interact over time. According to Burka, there are two ways that we do and understand time: objectively and subjectively. The purpose of being "measured by a clock and calendar, and predictable where both subjective time is measured by our own personal understanding and is out of time.

As you can see if your personal subjective, not objective time lining up in the world, you can have some serious questions, especially when your boss, your professors and your spouse tend to build everything from objective time.

I have this problem with objective time and after reading through the delay decided to break his, using several different techniques when it came to my "time management skills, or lack thereof.

Some bright person once said, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it", and that is quite true with your time. The first thing I had to do to figure out how I'm using my time track almost everything. For example, I found myself being late for work in the morning and always blamed it on something external; as winter weather, traffic, how long it took to produce gas in the first half, etc, it wasn't until I started keeping track of how long it actually took me to take a shower and get out of the House did I understandthat I need to get about 20 minutes earlier. It sounds silly, I know, but someone who thinks they understand when and where it goes, it takes thoroughly monitored in real world, to understand it.

You can track your time in different ways, but some of the best applications that I've found for Android and iPhone are great when you're on the run and you want to get some quick statistics for planning. There are a ton of options on both platforms, but in the free category I'd go with eternity and time Lite for iPhone and aTimeLogger record time-schedule and time tasks application track for Android. All these offers the user the ability to track multiple actions, create your own categories and reports and statistics, they can use to help you understand just where there is time.

You can also track the use of your time on your PC or Mac with RescueTime. RescueTime monitors what applications you primarily spend their time and can give you a realistic view of where your time machine.

One of the most elusive ways that procrastinators time and not abuse their subjective time synchronization in objective time underestimate how long it takes to complete a task. I told my many software project managers past and present that, when they ask software developer, how long will it take to get that done they tend to multiply their responses to two or three to set realistic expectations. Many of us are confident (sometimes too) and not realistic time constants.

This is where to start a task or project blocking time immediately and then the rest of it is a great way to balance time. The idea is simple, when a task or project, in order to complete, to jump in and start working on it for 25 minutes. This allows you to understand how big of a task or the project is to make realistic forecasts on how long it will take to complete. This is a subjective time synchronization with an objective time. Then you can lock the project time.

Time locks, the idea of blocking a certain number of times on a calendar for a task or project around forever and works well if you have a realistic picture of how long something will take to complete. After running your task or project, take your favorite calendar application and start a "block" time in your schedule to complete the task. Usually if I think something will take 2 hours, I blocked 2.5 total hours. This gives me some stops and starts. I also propose blocking of only 50 minutes at a time to prevent burning. It seems that 50 minutes and 10 minutes of rest/game where you are in the working period is ideal.

When it comes to common timers for PC or Mac, I highly recommend FocusBooster. This is an Adobe Air, technology challenges, Pomodoro time but you can use it to set your working hours on a task or project. For calendars, I must confess that I only use Google calendar for all my calendar needs, everywhere I go, and it can sync for just about any device I want. This is not to say there is a bunch of good options calendar there, it's just that Google Calendar meets all my needs to date.

Understanding how to synchronise your subjective and objective world can save a lot of pain in your personal and professional life. But if you're anything like me you will need help in how to understand where the time goes. Hopefully, if you understand the difference between your "internal clock" and the real world, track how long it takes you and think how long it would take more realistically accomplish something, and plan accordingly, you can say goodbye to tape out of your time.

Chris is a developer, writer, tech enthusiasts and husband. He is studying, MIS and computer science from Penn State Behrendt. Chris was also interested in personal productivity and creativity and how to use technology to get more things done. Check out his technique of writing at androinica.com where he writes about Android.

View the original article here