Before the shot clock was modified and installed into the
game of basketball teams would employ a four corners
offense to significantly slow the game down. The offense
was developed and popularized by long-time North Carolina
head coach Dean Smith in the early 1960s. You may be
thinking, "What does this basketball strategy have to do
with me and time management"? The answer is simple. To
become effective at controlling your choices, which
ultimately lets you make better choices, you have to become
an "effective worker". To become an "effective worker" you
must understand and deploy the concept of slowing down to
speed up. Slowing down to speed up allows one to do the
right things, for the right reasons, at the right time. To
summarize an "effective worker" is a results worker versus
an activity worker. This slow down to speed up strategy is
opposite of what most people think about when they think
about time management. For most time management translates
into managing time better so one can get more done in the
time available. The challenge to this logic is you can not
manage time. Everyone receives 86, 400 seconds each day.
Once those seconds are gone you get none of them back.
Therefore time is an irreplaceable asset. With a bank
account if you spend $100 dollars you can put $200 back in
the bank to replace the first $100 and have $100 for the
future. Unfortunately when your 86,400 seconds are gone you
can not replace or get any of them back. The solution for
trying to manage an irreplaceable asset like time is to
become effective. Becoming effective means you know how to
slow down the clock to make better choices in the moment.
The outcome, as in basketball, is you will only make a shot
with the highest probability of scoring. By making a better
choice in the moment one can become more effective. At the
Gulas Group we call this strategy one of many best practice
processes. The return for individuals, teams and
organizations from these best practice processes comes in
when you apply them to tool boxes like Microsoft Outlook,
Lotus Notes, GroupWise or any CRM software program in an
effort to create organizational consistency around planning
and organizing. Let us take a top down view of what
comprises the four corners offense of time management. The
first corner in this strategy is called Do it Now. The
second corner is titled Decide When. The third corner is
titled Delegate and the fourth corner is named Delete/ Dump.
- Do it Now
- Decide When (date Activate)
- Delegate it
- Delete Dump it
The remaining part of this article will review how to apply
one tactic within the four corner strategy that carries the
greatest value to individuals and teams. The four corner
tactic with the greatest value is titled Decide When. To
understand the Decide When tactic in the four corners
strategy one has to think in terms of a 90 degree drawing
of two lines on a piece of paper. On the vertical axis is
all the 50 or so to do's or what I call doable details.
Each doable detail represents an X on the vertical axis
line. Above the horizontal axis line one writes in seven
names of the week Sunday to Saturday. Now instead of
building a vertical what to do list on the vertical axis
line you will slow down in the moment of choice and ask
yourself these questions: what is this doable detail and
when do I need to do it and where do I store it till I need
it For example in the moment of choice on Friday morning I
realize this is a memo that I need to reply to and write to
Steve on Tuesday. Therefore, I move this doable detail to
Tuesday's list. Next I ask where I want to store the
information till it is needed again? Since it is an e-mail
I can insert it into to Steve's contact record notes
section or insert a hyperlink in the notes section. The net
effect is I now have a horizontal when to do list versus a
vertical what to do list. Now think about the power of
using this best practice process of date activating into a
tool box like Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, GroupWise or
any CRM software program. One can get a sense that just
using one of the four corner tactics like decide when, will
allow you to make better choices in the moment, by slowing
down to speed up. At the same time it gives you an
opportunity to rapidly retrieve information from the future
across the horizontal when to do list. This impact becomes
even greater when one applies the best practice process of
prioritizing the when to do list based on importance,
highest values and urgency. Look for more best practice
four corner tactics in future articles.
----------------------------------------------------
Ted Gulas, President of the Gulas Group, specializes in the
development of "Human Capital", by guiding individuals,
teams and organizations to their goals. This is done by re
tooling a critical but often overlooked asset of the 21st
century the "knowledge worker". Since 1989 Ted's
organization is focused in three areas for results;
assessments, workload/time planning and sales development.
http://www.gulasgroup.com
game of basketball teams would employ a four corners
offense to significantly slow the game down. The offense
was developed and popularized by long-time North Carolina
head coach Dean Smith in the early 1960s. You may be
thinking, "What does this basketball strategy have to do
with me and time management"? The answer is simple. To
become effective at controlling your choices, which
ultimately lets you make better choices, you have to become
an "effective worker". To become an "effective worker" you
must understand and deploy the concept of slowing down to
speed up. Slowing down to speed up allows one to do the
right things, for the right reasons, at the right time. To
summarize an "effective worker" is a results worker versus
an activity worker. This slow down to speed up strategy is
opposite of what most people think about when they think
about time management. For most time management translates
into managing time better so one can get more done in the
time available. The challenge to this logic is you can not
manage time. Everyone receives 86, 400 seconds each day.
Once those seconds are gone you get none of them back.
Therefore time is an irreplaceable asset. With a bank
account if you spend $100 dollars you can put $200 back in
the bank to replace the first $100 and have $100 for the
future. Unfortunately when your 86,400 seconds are gone you
can not replace or get any of them back. The solution for
trying to manage an irreplaceable asset like time is to
become effective. Becoming effective means you know how to
slow down the clock to make better choices in the moment.
The outcome, as in basketball, is you will only make a shot
with the highest probability of scoring. By making a better
choice in the moment one can become more effective. At the
Gulas Group we call this strategy one of many best practice
processes. The return for individuals, teams and
organizations from these best practice processes comes in
when you apply them to tool boxes like Microsoft Outlook,
Lotus Notes, GroupWise or any CRM software program in an
effort to create organizational consistency around planning
and organizing. Let us take a top down view of what
comprises the four corners offense of time management. The
first corner in this strategy is called Do it Now. The
second corner is titled Decide When. The third corner is
titled Delegate and the fourth corner is named Delete/ Dump.
- Do it Now
- Decide When (date Activate)
- Delegate it
- Delete Dump it
The remaining part of this article will review how to apply
one tactic within the four corner strategy that carries the
greatest value to individuals and teams. The four corner
tactic with the greatest value is titled Decide When. To
understand the Decide When tactic in the four corners
strategy one has to think in terms of a 90 degree drawing
of two lines on a piece of paper. On the vertical axis is
all the 50 or so to do's or what I call doable details.
Each doable detail represents an X on the vertical axis
line. Above the horizontal axis line one writes in seven
names of the week Sunday to Saturday. Now instead of
building a vertical what to do list on the vertical axis
line you will slow down in the moment of choice and ask
yourself these questions: what is this doable detail and
when do I need to do it and where do I store it till I need
it For example in the moment of choice on Friday morning I
realize this is a memo that I need to reply to and write to
Steve on Tuesday. Therefore, I move this doable detail to
Tuesday's list. Next I ask where I want to store the
information till it is needed again? Since it is an e-mail
I can insert it into to Steve's contact record notes
section or insert a hyperlink in the notes section. The net
effect is I now have a horizontal when to do list versus a
vertical what to do list. Now think about the power of
using this best practice process of date activating into a
tool box like Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, GroupWise or
any CRM software program. One can get a sense that just
using one of the four corner tactics like decide when, will
allow you to make better choices in the moment, by slowing
down to speed up. At the same time it gives you an
opportunity to rapidly retrieve information from the future
across the horizontal when to do list. This impact becomes
even greater when one applies the best practice process of
prioritizing the when to do list based on importance,
highest values and urgency. Look for more best practice
four corner tactics in future articles.
----------------------------------------------------
Ted Gulas, President of the Gulas Group, specializes in the
development of "Human Capital", by guiding individuals,
teams and organizations to their goals. This is done by re
tooling a critical but often overlooked asset of the 21st
century the "knowledge worker". Since 1989 Ted's
organization is focused in three areas for results;
assessments, workload/time planning and sales development.
http://www.gulasgroup.com
