What's Your Time Multiplier?

There is an application called TextExpander that allows you to create short-text snippets that can be expanded into larger pieces of text.  I have recently taking on a role where I have had to send the same email repeatedly.  By just typing a few letters, I have the entire content of my email written.  And It is personalized because I have it prompt me for the person's name and company name.  That's just the basics.  You can get even more sophisticated once you master the basics.  TextExpander can be found at https://textexpander.com

Buying three packages of zip ties while I'm at the store is cheaper than making two more trips, so I buy multiples of small, cheap things and store them just in case.

Same goes for buying and stashing pens, lip balm, flashlights, spare keys, pain killers, and reading glasses; and extra cables like Wendii wherever I might need one.

This is related to thinking about your time as valuable and trading money for more of it.

First, delegate to the floor. Carry on with multiplications. See if anyone notices the initial "subtraction". Everyone has 168 hours in a week, and you don't get to carry any over to next week. If one is truly "out of time", Derek Sivers suggests "Hell Yeah or No." My multiplier, though, is about email and tagging. Search IS great, but labels/tags allow for search to give better results. I have dozens of filters created so that even unread messages in my inbox have labels already so when I am done reading one (and I keep 99+% of emails), I archive it and it's already appropriately tagged. As a sysadmin, I received 126000 emails one year from people but mainly from systems sending daily reports. 350 emails every day of the year: I read all of them and took appropriate action. All in 30-45 minutes a day, just like MT suggests: I have (now) two 15-minute email sessions a day, one at 11:15 (lunch at 11:30) and one at 3:45 (out the door at 4:00).

Drucker asked: "What needs to be done?" He was far smarter than I am, so I should ask that as well.

One of my secret weapons is a Gmail label and filter that will send anything that I bcc: to myself into a label marked "Waiting For" indicating that somebody else has the next action step.  This way it's out of my main inbox because it has been processed but is still very easy to get to if there is the need for follow up.  I've been using this for a few years now and it's worked like magic and has saved me untold hours of time in eliminating the need to search through emails.

I set up a couple of IOT outlets attached to a lights throughout my home.  I set the outlets to automatically turn on 20 minutes after sunset (when it is getting pretty dark).

Now I don't have to remember to turn on a light, or worse, have to stumble to my room in the dark.

I use a service called Zapier to automate a variety of tasks.  I have the service connected to my email, task manager, instant messager, office applications, and other things.  I use it to ... (among other things):

• Send a weekly timesheet submission email to my team
• Text me when someone mentions me directly in a group chat in my instant messager app
• Create a slide for each row added to a designated spreadsheet

https://zapier.com/

@Mark Horstman, I thought of how you might benefit from a tool like this when I read about your workflow for publishing Things I Think I Think (Sausage, Legislation, And…  on 18 August 2020).

If you work on a computer as much as I do, you have to learn what the shortcut keys are for your most-used functions.  fo example, Ctrl+C (Copy), Ctrl+V (Paste), and Ctrl+Alt+V (Paste Special) plus shortcut keys for your most-used paste options, such as values (V), formats (F), or comments (C).  If you don't know what any of them are, spend a few minutes hovering over the buttons you use frequently in your favorite programs or google them.  And learn how to make them for ones that aren't already availble (again, google).  I use a snapshot program all the time, so I created a shortcut key to take open the snapshot window tool when I need it.  Also, if you use certain tools in a Microsoft program that are not on the Home tab of the Ribbon, customize the quick access toolbar to add them so you don't have to switch to the correct tab(s) every time you want to use them.

The greatest productivity hack I utilize is Touch It Only Once. This is for those tasks that come due; in which there are optional installments or can be quickly resolved. For example, property tax payments in my area are paid twice a year and property insurance could be monthly, semi-annually, or annually. I found that when I pay the full amount due for the property tax bill or insurance premium the minute I receive the notice; I am never late on either and the whole affair is done for the year in about 5 minutes, no need to set an additional task or reminder for future installments. 

I use the same principle on emails; if the response requires no more than a yes/no or common pleasantries, the email is responded to immediately after reading and properly archived. 

One of the tools I like is something that makes it easy to get to stuff that I do repeatedly.  People have mentioned TextExpander and other variants of storing repeated common text blocks / abbreviations.

Another variant I like is something that lets me quickly jump to a website, application or document from my keyboard - so I don't have to go find the icon or hunt through document folders.  On the Mac, there is the built in Spotlight, though I have gotten used to LaunchBar, which has a bit more functionality.  On the PC, there is the very powerful ActiveWords (any word / phrase can become an action).

With either you get a keyboard shortcut (like Cmd-Space or Space-Space) and then your shortcut or whatever.  Saves me all sorts of time.

And because I just red Friday'sThings today, here are a couple quotes I came across this morning that seem to be relevant to the topic:

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.” — Alfred North Whitehead

“The costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.” — James Clear

I just discovered this new feature in Windows 10.  If you hit Windows Key-V instead of CTRL-V, you get a selection box of items that have been on your clipboard.  This functionality was in the MS Office products, but it looks like Microsoft extended it to the OS.

I have been using Trello and GTD for some weeks now, following this article: https://blog.trello.com/gtd-getting-things-done-maximizing-productivity-....

I am liking it. As for the time multiplier aspect of it, it helps me to save time of remembering things that I need to do by having a place where I can put all that come to my mind at the moment when it comes.

In most Microsoft Office applications, the key combination Alt + Shift +Arrow keys lets you rearrange table rows, bullet points, or even whole paragraphs. This has easily given me back years of my life, as I dont have to fight with copy/paste to restructure information

Online nowadays is a huge help - it saves time and lessens cost! Before this pandemic, I am having a hard time saving money with all transactions being done physically. And when all this online transactions came up and continuously improving - I can say that this part of technology is indeed helpful. (I have been scammed, thankyou!) So yeah I can say that these online transactions do have the essence of a time multiplier because it saves me time to do other important tasks.