Using Notebooks to create and capture my knowledge

Notebooking enables me to be knowledge-savvy in my work. I am not alone in this vital practice.

Notebooking was a key part of the generative practices of knowledge masters Da Vinci, Edison and Picasso. In modern times, ‘Mythbuster’ Adam Savage is also a prolific notebook keeper. Unlike Da Vinci, Edison and Picasso, he uses digital notebooking. Adam acknowledges that the practice of putting his thoughts and ideas down in list form is pivotal to his work practice.

I write down things I know in digital notebooks because I want to remember them.  I want to revisit what I know, observed or reflected upon maybe months or years after I wrote these down. This is because I want to shape and play with my thoughts, to make sense of them or get a new angle on an idea.

Writing helps me to identify what I know and what I don’t know. Some of my knowledge is half-baked or incomplete and sometimes I write questions to trigger further thinking.

Ideas ordering – keeping the mind clear with notebooking

Writing down ideas is a way to create ordered patterns of what’s going on in mind.

Author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues in his book Flow: Psychology of Optimal Experience that the process of writing creates meaning from the information we receive:

“It is never a waste to write for intrinsic reasons. First of all writing gives the mind a disciplined means of expression. It allows one to record events and experiences so they can be easily recalled, and relived in the future. It is a way to analyse and understand experiences, a self-communication that brings order to them.”

Some of what I know is tacit and writing helps to expose this and find deeper meaning. This is particularly true if I have an audience or function in mind, for example; to inform, educate, or persuade others.

My notebooks are for personal knowledge use. I use them for personal knowledge rather than shared knowledge because they:

• Are a private and precious space – I’m not exposed as I muse
• Include content in the Development phase rather than Production phase
• Record what gets my attention
• Hold my deep and emerging observations about work issues
• Reveal connections I’m making with what I know and what I’m observing
• Help cultivate knowledge within me

Into the digital space – keeping electronic notebooks

I’ve kept physical notebooks for over 30 years. A few years ago I went electronic and implemented MS OneNote to support my notebooking practice.

I made the shift because I desired features that hardcopy notebooks couldn’t provide. These included:

• Input via hand writing, typing or drawing
• Multi-colour content
• Text, graphics, audio, and printouts held altogether
• Search by word
• Ordered and tagged for meaning
• Copied for preservation
• Easy to edit cleanly (erase text, or move text about on page)

There have been many advantages and benefits emerge from having an electronic tool for my notebooking activity. These include:

• Merging personal and professional – my poetry notebook sits alongside my business notebooks
• Less mass and more volume – I can keep adding notebooks and notebook content without a gain in physical weight
• Re-editing and adding layers of annotation – content isn’t fixed so I can change or annotate it, I can insert new things between old things
• Greater connectivity of content – I can use hyperlink feature to make and retain connections between pages
• Better order and organisation – I can set up an order and reorder it as necessary, so the order keeps up with my current thinking
• Quick and easy discovery – I can search by words, even those that are handwritten rather than typed
• Multiple copies in synch – I reduce the risk of loss because I can have a copy with me as well as in the home or office
• Sharing with others – I can allow others access to read and contribute

Learn about how I setup my electronic notebook

In the book Innovate like Edison, author Michael Gleb defined ‘keeping a notebook’ as one of 25 competencies in developing an innovation practice like the prolific innovator, Thomas Edison. Edison kept approximately 2,500 notebooks some of which survive to this day.

And famous inventor’s notebooks can survive to appreciate in other ways: one of Da Vinci’s notebooks was sold for $40 million to Bill Gates.

I wonder if my notebooks will survive a long passage of time. Whether a future someone will ’dust’ them off, discovering something noteworthy or inspirational which will generate new knowledge for them and the world. Do I dare to hope it is so?

 

Helen Palmer is Principal Consultant at RHX Group. She thinks critically about knowledge work, and how to ensure knowledge isn’t wasted. She revels in tackling the big processes of change and learning, so that ideas become impact. With her colleagues at RHX Group, Helen helps teams make better use of their people, knowledge and information.

Fourth dimension of networking – Making it happen (Part 3)

I have shared knowledge about the ‘What’ of my 4D networking practice. This post outlines the details of ‘How’ by answering the question: What enables a savvy 4D networker?

Below is a set of three lists: Practices I do, Tools I use, Mindsets I hold. I encourage you to reflect on these and prepare your own lists.

Practices

This is a list of things I do with my ‘Networking’ time.

• Connect only with 3D or 4D contacts in visible online databases (i.e. LinkedIn)
• 3D & 4D networking, based on my own 4D criteria
• Act thoughtfully and purposefully
• Ask individuals: How can I help you? What is your passion or interest?
• Think proactively: How can I help this person? (Do 4D activities); Who can I connect this person with? (e.g. Utilise my trusted contacts)
• Endorse or recommend people without prompting
• Ask for assistance to meet new people
• Follow-up after meetings to give something meaningful, show appreciation, or spread the word/tell others
• Catalyse discussions (online or in person) with interesting questions
• Being active participant in an Professional Association or Community of Practice
• Schedule and honour regular networking time/activity
• Use digital calendar to manage availability and issue shared calendar entries for meetings
• Keep a record of my contacts and my engagement with them (contact details, personal details, my reflections on initial meeting with them, suggestions for how I can assist them or connect more meaningfully, email correspondence).
• Keep current records so I can do summary reports/analysis about breadth & depth of my activity over time, e.g. who I saw, how many people I meet, number of contacts in my databases, and evaluate performance
• Adapt: Review what’s working or not working and do something again or differently
• Learn from others lessons-learnt, e.g. Mistakes not to make using LinkedIn.
• Consider: What presence will I show up with when meeting with someone?
• Implement 4C’s filter: give varying degrees of attention to interact with individuals or groups
• Observe or imagine what others might value; scan/seek for items and opportunities to share with others
• Write on back of business cards and noting person’s interests & preferences immediately after meeting someone. (This later gets transferred to digital records.)
• Tagging/classifying people into meaningful groups for interaction – makes it easier to execute contact with collections of people.
• Capture valuable information so I can act quickly to share something of value (see Notebook lists under Tools below)
• Prepare or acquire micro-blog (i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn update) content I can publish quickly and constantly
• Do regular micro-blogging to share and mobilise useful or inspiring knowledge

Tools

This is the set of tool I use that enables the practices listed above.

• Contacts database (online = e.g. LinkedIn; offline = e.g. Outlook Contacts – I have both because approx 10% of my contacts are not LinkedIn members)
• Tagging schema to organise contacts in my databases
• Linking micro-blog posting across online platforms, i.e. LinkedIn feeds to Twitter feeds to Facebook
• Sample text for replying to various message correspondence scenarios, e.g. LinkedIn member who I don’t know (i.e. not 3D or 4D contact) invites me to connect with them
• Social media professional profiles with connections so others can learn about me and my network (e.g. LinkedIn – Basic is sufficient, Basic is free; Twitter; Facebook)
• Bio copy prepared for various audiences
• High quality professional colour digital photograph
• Links in email signature of available methods to contact me
• List of my interests, specialities and passions that I can share
• Notebook entries of useful lists: Quotes, recommendations, insights, suggestions, humour, random acts of kindness to do
• Notebook entries with potential & finalised micro-blog content I can publish
• Artefacts/methods to send a surprising delightful message: Quality cards, or notepaper. I also use origami paper made into objects, and handwritten emails using inking on tablet laptop.

Mindsets

These ideas I hold to guide my networking and professional practice. They underpin the practices listed above.

• It’s better to give than to receive.
• Pay it forward.
• For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
• Be prudent and purposeful with resources
• Don’t enable the waste or potential of talent.
• Its okay to say No. It’s okay to stop.
• Its okay to ask.
• Respect others time and energy.
• Honour my own boundaries and limits.
• Aim for effective not efficient activity.
• Leave something better than you found it.
• Its not what I do or say but how I make people feel.
• Make the first approach, take the first step.
• Show up.
• Mean what I say, say what I mean.
• Honour my word and commitments.

May you find meaningful ways to perform better in professional networking.
Please share with me your ways and means!

Helen Palmer is Principal Consultant at RHX Group. Helen likes to experiment and create conceptual frameworks to use in making sense of human activity. She thinks critically about knowledge work and how to ensure knowledge isn’t wasted. She revels in tackling the big processes of change, learning and knowing so that ideas become impact. With her colleagues at RHX Group, Helen helps teams make better use of their people, knowledge and information.

Image credit: iStockphoto

Fourth dimension of networking – Concept applied (Part 2)

Recently, I defined a way to examine value in my professional networks, introducing the concept of Fourth dimension networking.

To better quantify and qualify this value, I defined ways to measure ‘return’ on my networking ‘investment’. I looked at what I received, and what I gave in my networking activity.

Quantifying the fundamentals of networking activity

As I networked, I kept records of the following basic data:

1. No. of individual or group encounters had
2. No. of people in my network (Source: LinkedIn contacts, Twitter followers, blog followers, and Contacts database)
3. No. of people who joined my network in a period of time (I typically only retain 3D connections, i.e. people I have met face-to-face and shared an experience with)

NB: ‘Encounters’ were intentional face-to-face contact, and did not include incidental meetings in coffee shops, co-working spaces or train stations. Some individuals were repeat encounters.

I summarised this data for specific time periods to give me a quick snapshot of how much networking I had been doing:

1. No. of encounters (From 1 Jan – 30 Sep 2012) = 277
   1. Individuals = 205
   2. Groups/events = 72
2. Increase in my LinkedIn contacts (From 1 Jan – 30 Sep 2012) = 180
3. No. of people in my network (As at 30 Sep 2012) = Approx 600
   1. LinkedIn = 408
   2. Contacts database (of people not in LinkedIn) = 54
   3. Twitter = 127
   4. RHX Thinking Blog = 9

NB: Twitter and Blog followers overlap with LinkedIn contacts

4D networking criteria list

Now I knew something about the quantity of my networking activity, I still lacked a sense of the quality of what this activity had returned to me. Enter the 4D networking criteria, where a rating is assigned to a person for the networking activity they have done.

WARNING! These are activities (and the order) are for what I value in/from networking. You are invited to define your own list.

ANOTHER WARNING! This list is written in 1st-person for easy reading. I run a risk that the reader perceives this as self-centric. I have some discomfort in taking the perspective about ‘what I received’ as I believe networking is about serving others; however I have more comprehensive data from which to draw upon regarding my ‘received’ experience.

#1  Created opportunities to catch-up with me in person
#2  Suggested a relevant reading, podcast, event, group, role, contact to me; shared knowledge or insights
#3  Actively encouraged, affirmed or validated me in a contextually relevant way
#4  Mentioned, commented or liked a post of mine or included me in a post
#5  Endorsed or recommended me
#6  Introduced me to someone else because I asked
#7  Introduced me to someone else of their own volition
#8  Invited me to be part of a collaboration, strategic alliance or lead participant in event
#9  Asked how to help me and acted on the answer
#10 Offered me work opportunities/referred me to work opportunities

I reflected on networking activity (of which I had been a recipient) for the period 1 Jan – 30 Sep 2012, making a shortlist of people who rated as 4D networkers. I worked through the shortlist assigning each individual a rating. Where an individual got multiple ratings, I assigned the value of the highest rated activity.

The results:
From a network of approx 600 people, 16 % (i.e. 92 people) engaged me in 4D activities from 1 Jan – 30 Sep 2012.
Of those 92 people (i.e. 4D-network connections):
18 % rated #1-#3
36 % rated #4-#5
28 % rated #6-#8
7 % rated #9
11 % rated #10

I also noted where I first met a 4D contact to determine which groups or events produced valuable connections. Interestingly, very few higher rating contacts (i.e. 8-10) were first established at professional groups or events. Many higher rating contacts were initially made when working together. It seems contacts with whom I’ve had a deeper work experience are more likely to result in further collaboration.

Helen’s 4D networking under the spotlight

The 4D networking examination above was done retrospectively, coming up with list after activities were preformed and not before. It turned out to be easier to specifically recall what I have received, than what I gave.

To get data for my networking activity, I examined a portion of my email correspondence to aid my recall. While I couldn’t create the same detailed summary, I found evidence that I had done all the activities in the list multiple times. From anecdotal feedback, I know what I have done has been appreciated by others, and in some cases inspired them to do the same for others in their network.

What to conclude?

My business partner (he’s a numbers person) looks at the figures of 277 encounters resulting in 23 offers of collaboration/strategic alliance (#8) or work (#10), and calculates that 8% of those encounters were ‘worthwhile’ in cool business terms. In the current economic climate that hasn’t translated into exciting revenue figures.

Networking doesn’t always have obvious returns but that’s not a reason not to do it. It can be resource intensive work, so I recognise I must invest time and energy resources prudently. Knowing what activities are worth doing allows me to better prepare and conduct myself. (More on this to come in the Part 3 blog post on 4D networking)

I invest with faith: My networking actions are seeds sown that are not guaranteed to germinate. Nevertheless, I believe that generous thoughtful actions, though small, cultivate a sharing and caring network culture.

I trust that doing 4D networking activity inspires others to act. Let me know if you are so inspired.

Helen Palmer is Principal Consultant at RHX Group. Helen likes to experiment and create conceptual frameworks to use in making sense of human activity. She thinks critically about knowledge work and how to ensure knowledge isn’t wasted. She revels in tackling the big processes of change, learning and knowing so that ideas become impact. With her colleagues at RHX Group, Helen helps teams make better use of their people, knowledge and information.

Image credit: stock.xchng

Fourth Dimension Networking – A Concept (Part 1)

Many professionals would claim to know and utilise the value of the connections in their network. Yet most invest time, energy and cups of coffee in creating a network, only to let it languish on a forgotten LinkedIn account or as a stack of dusty business cards.

Not all networking is equal and certainly not all networkers are equal. After two years of intensive networking, I’ve developed a schema that outlines how to cultivate a potent professional network.

Fourth dimension networking is a concept that empowers you to realise greater benefit with your network.

Common networking – where most professionals stop

Most business professionals engage in low-impact networking. They meet someone at an event; exchange business cards and basic professional details (i.e. what you do, where you work, what experience and expertise you have); then connect through social media (i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook), with some or no ongoing personal dialogue.

This kind of networking fails to realise the depth of knowledge, networks and capabilities of the people in the network.

Activating your network – become a leader

Your network is a resource of knowledge and action. It could sit latently with unrealised power, or you could assume leadership to activate the network and catalyse that power.

Your network is a collection of people with whom you have a relationship and to whom you can offer your knowledge, experience, skill and contacts.

So ask not what your network can do for you, but what you can do for your network?

Networking taken to the next level – the fourth dimension

The depth and richness of a network can be defined by looking at its dimensions. Network dimensions encapsulate the depth of knowledge held about a person.

Initially, deep networking appears to be a three dimensional concept, where the third dimension reveals the substance of a person beyond a mere name and face. However, there is a fourth dimension to networking that incorporates movement and action, where the capability of people is activated.

Network dimensions defined

One dimension (1D): A name and an email address; often in an email/newsletter list

Two dimensions (2D): A name, a face and some personal details; what you get from a brief meeting where business cards were exchanged

Three dimensions (3D): A name with a face, personal details and a personal sense or experience of a person; the result of a one-to-one conversation or a shared experience like a conference or committee; some bonding has taken place

Four dimensions (4D): Deeper knowledge of a person sufficient to access their stocks of knowledge (e.g. what-is, who-is, how-to, etc), and to participate in their flows of knowledge (e.g. collaboration or conversation); actively contributing to the other and their network; leading and leveraging with action

Uncommon networking – more to the fourth dimension

Fourth dimension networking’s richness is based on how it incorporates action and progressive movement. In this dimension there is purposeful intent to do activity of value to others, to catalyse goodness for and within the network, and to enable doing good with the network.

Within the fourth dimension, there are many levels of practical activity for the savvy networker. I have developed a list of value to me.

Levels within the fourth dimension network: Helen’s List

The items below are ranked and the higher numbers have greater value.

0  Responded/approached me/them of own volition with an explicit intent to keep in touch
1  Created opportunities to catch up with me/them in person to learn about them/me
2  Suggested a relevant reading, podcast, event, group, role, contact to me/them; shared knowledge or insights
3  Actively encouraged, affirmed or validated me/them in contextually relevant way
4  Mentioned me/them in a post; commented or Liked a post of mine/theirs
5  Endorsed or recommended me/them
6  Introduced me/them to someone else because I/they asked
7  Introduced me/them to someone else of own volition
8  Invited me/them to be part of a collaboration, strategic alliance or lead participant in event
9  Asked how to help me/them and acted on the answer
10 Offered me/them work

The levels can be customised and ranked according to personal preference.

A knowledge focus in fourth dimension networking

There is a knowledge management angle to fourth dimension networking: Managing your network with a knowledge focus.

Far more than just an information source, network contacts are a significant resource of rich, contextual and highly dynamic knowledge. The value of that knowledge is unlocked by actions and through relationships that mobilises knowledge for the benefit of all.

A network is a rich knowledge-base of many classes of knowledge: what-is; how-to; why-it-is-so; who-is; who-has; where-is; -when-is; what-happened etc. It can be a significant form of social capital where ‘who-you-know’ is often more highly prized rather than ‘what-you-know’.

A network can be a vehicle for the creation of personal and collective knowledge, as well as the distribution of knowledge that might be applied more widely.

I have consciously and carefully co-created my network so the preconditions for knowledge sharing are more prevalent: trust, respect and rapport through shared values and common frames of reference.

Want to ask me something? I may not know the answer but I’ve got about 600 people I can ask instantly who might.

Where to from here?

I am using this concept to examine my networking practice and the power in my network. In Part 2 of this series, I report on my findings. In Part 3, I share insights about what practices, tools and mindsets are useful for being a 4D Networker.

Join me on the journey of improving your networking performance. Spectators and participants both welcome.

Helen Palmer is Principal Consultant at RHX Group. She thinks critically about knowledge work, and how to ensure knowledge isn’t wasted. She revels in tackling the big processes of change and learning so that ideas become impact. With her colleagues at RHX Group, Helen helps individuals and teams make better use of their contacts, knowledge and information.

Networking Image credit: iStockphoto

Origami: working in three dimensions

My girlfriend’s a viticulturist. Her work product is grapes and wine. I’m a knowledge worker – what I produce is less tangible: content and process (messages, documents and conversations). So when I have a hankering to make something ‘real’, I turn to origami (Japanese craft; literally, ‘to fold paper’). It’s a pastime I picked up while living in Japan.

You might be tempted to think of paper-folding as simply a hobby (to do while drinking my girlfriend’s great wine), but working with coloured squares of paper can have quite an impact on how you think and behave. To my surprise, I’ve found a place for it in my work practice.

Unfold your potential

Origami is not just for children or playing. Scientists and researchers are taking it seriously.

‘Diversifying experiences enhances cognitive flexibility’ argue researchers in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. So why not fold paper in strange and beautiful ways, to expand your usual thought patterns?

A recent article in Business Week explains: ‘Flowers, leaves, wings, proteins, mountain ranges, eyelids, ears, DNA—all are created by folding. Today researchers in robotics, biology, math, and computer science are immersing themselves in [folding] methods. Scientists are looking at how materials and molecules wrinkle, drape, flex, and crease. They’re using folding to design everything from robots to cancer drugs, from airbags to mirrors for satellite telescopes.’
This is a great example of using an art form in a surprising way. Like Jeff Jarvis’s definition of serendipity: it’s unexpected relevance!

Origami and my work

So how does paper-folding bring a new dimension to life at the office? My job is facilitating change and learning, particularly in knowledge and other organisational initiatives. I’ve discovered that origami has a place beyond my leisure time, and that there are workplace benefits from this offbeat form of paper trail:

• Play – you have fun, experiment, create at your desk. It takes only a short time to produce a new piece. You use your hands in a tactile way and develop your hand–eye co-ordination, which is a welcome break from tapping the keyboard and digital work. Play is big as a workplace activity, as is gamification.
• Relationships – you can make friends, build rapport and trust. It’s non-threatening. You can try it one-to-one or in a group. Anyone can do it – it cuts through boundaries. (Side thought: Origami as offline social medium?)
• Object lesson – you learn something new, and collaborate. It’s also about creativity, about choices and detail.

Here’s an example. Before a workshop with dense technical content, we used origami as a fun starter. The aim was to make a set of building blocks, each one folded by an individual and then assembled into a single object. All the pieces had to be right, for the assembly to work. Some people saw the paper and instructions on the table and started without waiting for the demonstration. Others ignored the verbal instructions and raced ahead, failing to fully comprehend what was required. Both approaches hindered successful collaboration, as they resulted in pieces that wouldn’t fit in.

During a business coaching session with an entrepreneur who was overwhelmed by work and needed to step back for a short break, we did origami together. He felt as if he was being productive and learning something new, all the while having guilt-free time playing.

A useful model

I taught a colleague how to do origami during lunchbreaks. She enjoyed it, and she can see links between the creative process and her work. In her own words:

‘I was asked to talk about how I build an academic timetable. I quickly found a connection to origami. Just like the timetable, origami starts with something small that one can’t immediately see as part of a larger entity. I was able to relate different elements of origami (e.g. coloured paper, pattern to follow, building blocks, etc) to timetable concepts. It was the right approach – not everybody knew timetable terminology but they were successful in understanding the process.’

Ending on a happy note

At the end of a consulting session, I’ve produced a folded creation to show my gratitude or simply lighten the mood. I invite the client to choose a piece of paper, and I make a paper swan, a butterfly or a flower as they watch. The unexpected fun and the gesture of a handmade gift enhances our rapport and generates goodwill.

Ready to fold?

For origami paper and instructions in English, I recommend the online store:  www.origami.com.au
For inspiration, see some of the creations in my Facebook photo album.

Helen Palmer is Principal Consultant at RHX Group. She thinks critically about knowledge work, and how to ensure knowledge isn’t wasted. She revels in tackling the big processes of change and learning, so that ideas become impact. With her colleagues at RHX Group, Helen helps teams make better use of their people, knowledge and information.

Organising your time honestly and flexibly (with a digital diary)

Our work time is regulated by hours, weeks, and months. Organising our work activity temporally (that is, by time) is a challenge that can be conquered with a diary (of the datebook kind, not the daily record of experiences). With a digital diary, it becomes easier to manage an emerging or changing schedule, such is the nature of modern work practice that attempts to include inherently changing acts of creativity and innovation.

When I was an employee in a large organisation, our digital calendars were visible (with some concessions for privacy) to other staff members. As a dedicated user of the calendar, I often found others commenting that according to my calendar, ‘You are so busy’. I was bemused and wondered: Were people with empty calendars considered to be ‘not-busy’?

Tom Peters (in his “Mother of all Presentations”) says: ‘You ARE your calendar. You ARE how you spend your time. Calendars NEVER LIE.’

The technique explained in this blog is about making visible how-you-spend-your-time, and enabling flexibility to better manage what, where and when factors of your activity.

Managing your temporal space

From Shutterstock

My diary is my temporal space made visible. It enables me to map my intentions about time. I create and shuffle around blocks of time to firm up what my schedule will look like, while also experimenting with what it could look like. With a digital diary it’s particularly easy to drag and drop entries; and to append extra information to capture the meaning I have given certain entries, for example: Tentative, (In) CBD. Then my diary appears clean, and (re)organised – no whiteout or erased pencil lines in sight!

Putting entries in my diary gives me a schedule to follow for the day. While my days might not have a regular routine, I am assured a degree of order as important things needing my attention are factored in.

Many of my entries are not appointments with others, but simply an entry for me to work on a specific activity. Rather than work from a general To-do list during the day, I work from my calendar schedule of activity. Many of these activities have an associated and specific To-do or next-action list which is my exclusive focus during the allotted time.

Entries in my diary are an agreement with myself about what I am going to focus on, and help me to focus on one thing at a time. I’m not a fan of multi-tasking, but on occasion my thoughts are scattered and I free them from the leash, within a boundary of ‘Planning’ time or ‘Admin’ time – simultaneous chaos and order!

Making diary entries also enables me to more accurately forecast how much time activities will need, particularly those that are spread over multiple days, and to ensure sufficient time is reserved. In addition, I can better evaluate when to sequence individual activities in context of other things, e.g. other activities, my location, and my anticipated energy level or attention capacity.

While not an Activity per se, I’ll often add entries to my calendar for deadlines or time-sensitive milestones. Because I am following my schedule for the day, it’s handy to have time-sensitive things co-located with my actions, in case I need to re-evaluate action priorities.

If you are following an Activity-Time Budget, you could assign colours to each Budget category and apply these colours to the items you have in your diary. With a quick glance you’ll be able to see how well your projected budget matches your actual budget. (See Calendar 2 below.)

Being honest about your time

Every day we have activities that use time (and attention and energy) but are not typically accounted for in our calendars. Some examples of ‘invisible’ use of time: travel (on foot, by train, parking the car); general administration (filing, processing correspondence/incoming email, paying bills, etc); reading (correspondence, articles); preparation for meetings; processing note; preparing task-lists; lunch breaks; etc. (Hopefully you’ve created your own Activity-Time Budget that allows for such time.)

Start to put this time in your calendar. Particularly when entering linked activities. For example, after creating a Meeting entry, add Travel time to either side of the Meeting entry. Or, when creating a Meeting entry, add entries for Prep/Reading time and Note Processing time in close proximity to the meeting entry. See examples in Calendar 2 below.

There are two screenshots of my sample Calendar here. Calendar 1 is the typical calendar of most people, and reflects the events or appointments I have that involve other people – often because the appointment is linked to their calendar, or because it’s important to be ‘on-time’ for these. Calendar 2 extends Calendar 1 showing the activity of ‘invisible’ time, as well as colour coding to align with an Activity-Time budget (and no, I haven’t explained my colour coding – it’s meaningful only to me.)

Calendar 1 (Partial)

Calendar 2 (Complete)

Scheduling serendipity (or Planning for the unplanned)

While I am advocating filling a digital diary with entries, I am not advocating filling every waking moment with scheduled activity. Leave space for the unexpected that might better deserve your attention, or for spill-over when you’ve underestimated the amount of time needed or things have emerged with unanticipated complexity.

You might need to schedule ‘contingency’ or ‘open’ space in your calendar, simply so you (or others if you are sharing a calendar) don’t mistake it for Free-to-schedule-any-Activity time.

Dov Frohman (with Robert Howard) in the book, “Leadership The Hard Way: Why Leadership Can’t Be Taught—And How You Can Learn It Anyway“, advocates scheduling ‘day-dreaming time’ where you engage in “loose, unstructured thinking with no particular goal in mind”. An approach they recommend for dealing with complexity and ‘fuzzy’ problems.

One of my students shared this technique: she schedules a calendar entry called ‘Lucky Dip’ – the time is reserved but the activity is unknown. She has a bag in which various activities, both delightful and necessary, are written on strips of paper. When the appointed time arrives, she dips into the bag without looking, selects what she will do, and does it.

Another type of time you might consider scheduling is disconnected time, i.e. time when you don’t access the internet, read your email, look at Twitter or other social media sites. A practical way to support day-dreaming time!

Organising your temporal affairs effectively means you can utilise your time wisely and for greatest benefit. Effective use of time requires knowing what you spend your time doing, as well what you don’t spend your time doing. Hopefully the suggestions in this blog can help you better align your reality with your intentions.

Helen Palmer is Principal Consultant at RHX Group. She thinks critically about knowledge work, and how to ensure knowledge isn’t wasted. She revels in tackling the big processes of change and learning so that ideas become impact. With her colleagues at RHX Group, Helen helps teams make better use of their people, knowledge and information.

Managing your Attention capacity with 4Cs Attention Filter

An important personal resource for knowledge workers is Attention. It can be difficult to decide what gets attention and what doesn’t. In an information-rich world, there is more and more competing for your attention.

The merchandise of the information economy is not information; it is attention.
~ James Gleick

Quick and confident decisions about your Attention can be particularly difficult when you want to be open to what is emerging around you. Common advice to minimise overload is “Just say No”. However, a simple “Yes” or “No” doesn’t work when things aren’t black or white but rather shades of grey.

Attention is a precious resource not to be squandered on trivial things that don’t matter to you – things that are distractions, or noise that unwittingly caught your attention. By setting meaningful boundaries, you can create criteria to aid purposeful decision-making about what is worthy of your attention.

What kind of attention to give

The 4Cs Attention Filter can be helpful for organising your attention by defining the type of attention to be given. The Filter categories are Committed, Contributing, Curious and Cease. Three of the Cs are shades of grey for when you want to say “Yes – with limits” and the fourth C is the classic “No”.

COMMITTED - Things that get ongoing deep attention; things to which you have a strong and pervasive commitment; things where the buck stops with you; things where you are actively scanning for new information.
CONTRIBUTING – Things that get momentary deep attention; things to which you have some strong attachment, however, you can care about with little or no responsibility.
CURIOUS – Things that get light and occasional attention, mostly when something crosses your path, not things you are actively pursuing.
CEASE – Things not worthy of any attention at all.

Think of the Filter as organising ‘Things I am interested in’ rather than ‘Things I am doing’, that is Topics rather than Activity.

Here’s an example of how my Filter is currently set for vocational or professional interests.

This is a reflection of where my interests currently lie; it isn’t a reflection of the depth of my competencies. With this filter, I can quickly make decisions about which meetings and conferences I attend, which groups I belong to, which blogs and books I subscribe or read, which conversations I contribute to, and to which people/conversations I’ll give priority.

With the Filter set, things that attract my attention pass through the Filter and stick to the category to which they match and therefore get the type of Attention associated with that category.

The 4Cs Attention Filter is not intended for planning or organising an action list, though it may contribute to setting some scope for an action list. For a technique to organise and prioritise your activity, look out for upcoming blog.

Determining your Attention Capacity

Your capacity for purposeful Attention is a factor of breadth and depth. To use a scuba diving analogy: the oxygen you have available in your tank is a factor of how deep you dive as well as how long you dive. Deeper dives require more oxygen than shallower dives, even if the duration of the dive is the same. With a finite underwater oxygen capacity, a diver makes life-dependent decisions about how many dives can be made and to what depth.

So it is with your attention capacity. You need to factor how many things you will give deep attention (i.e. Committed) in relation to the breadth of things to which you will give attention.

Set limits for each ‘Yes’ category about the number of things to which you can purposefully attend. Typically there will be less items in categories characterised by deeper attention, i.e. Committed, and Contributing. To get started, a useful rule of thumb might be 3 things in Committed, 4 in Contributing, 10 in Curious.

The Limit is designed to help you maintain a sustainable Attention load. Be sure not to add items to a category without first considering what must be subtracted from that category.

What kind of attention you have been giving

Check where your attention is, and has been going, with a quick audit. Of the things that currently have your attention, in which Attention category do they fit?

Look at your list. If you have been feeling overwhelmed, you may have too many things in the Committed category which need a depth of attention you can’t give. Or maybe you have too many things across all categories which need a breadth of attention you haven’t got.

To reduce your attention load, downgrade items to another Attention category, either permanently or for a defined period of time.

To control attention means to control experience, and therefore the quality of life.
~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Attention is a precious personal resource. So manage it in a sustainable manner, and be sure to spend it on what matters to you.

Helen Palmer is Principal Consultant at RHX Group. She thinks critically about knowledge work, and how to ensure knowledge isn’t wasted. She revels in tackling the big processes of change and learning so that ideas become impact. With her colleagues at RHX Group, Helen helps teams make better use of their people, knowledge and information.