Page 78 - Time Management

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Rocks, Blocks, Goals, and Clusters
stamps out only once, for
example. More important,
organizing and assembling a
you’re not letting the semi- Clustering The activity of 63
group of tasks that have
chaotic flow of incoming something in common. For example,
bills dictate your behavior. tasks might be grouped together
Clustering works espe- because they’re all small, requiring lit-
tle time and/or effort. Gathering
cially well with outgoing
together documents that need to be
phone calls. You assemble
photocopied and copying them all at
your list of phone calls to
the same time is an example of clus-
make the night before, tering. So is returning all phone calls
then make them all during during the same hour or researching
one block of time, prefer- several topics at the same time.
ably when the people
you’re calling are likely to be in and not barraged with calls
from others.
Clustering also works in reverse. Phone calls, for example,
tend to stream in most heavily at certain times during the day.
You should be prepared to receive them and to shape the rest of
your daily schedule accordingly. Typically, the blocks of time
between 10 and 11 a.m. and between 2 and 3 p.m. see the
greatest amount of business telephone activity. Pareto analysis
indicates that 80% of all calls generally come during 20% of the

Leak-Proof Clustering
Personal productivity coach David Allen warns that lists
work only when they’re “leak-proof.” For example, if
you cluster all of the documents you need to take to the copier but
overlook one, you’ve totally defeated the purpose of clustering.That
single extra trip to the copy machine can render the entire strategy
ineffective.
So when attempting to cluster your phone calls, for instance, try to
be certain you’re listing everyone you need to call.The more complete
your list—the more comprehensive the collection of items you’re
clustering—the more effective the strategy will be.You might also con-
sider asking your assistant, if you have one, to hold your calls during
certain times, promising to have you return them at a more conven-
ient time.