Always check email in the morning, Part 1
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
3w ago
After learning more about our brain, how it is wired, and its impact on our productivity, I changed my mind about trying to ignore my email until later. I discovered that it requires exceptionally strong willpower and a huge loss of personal energy to resist the urge to check email in the morning before I buckle down to work on that important, but not always delightful, priority of the day. And do you really want to expend that much energy before you start your day’s work? Roy Baumeister, an American psychologist, and author of the book, Willpower, says we only have a finite amount of willpowe ..read more
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Time is real, but how can you manage it?
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
1M ago
In my last blog article, I indicated that the work environment has changed since Alan Lakein wrote his book about 50 years ago. In fact, our working environment is changing quite rapidly, but little has changed in the way we manage our time. It’s time we took another look at what still works and what doesn’t work. I also mentioned I would discuss time itself. Theoretical physicist professor Lee Smolin, one of the founders of the Perimeter Institute for a Theoretical Physics in Ontario, Canada has spent a lot of time concluding that time is an illusion. Albert Einstein had already concluded som ..read more
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New time management strategies are needed.
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
2M ago
Over 50 years ago, time management consultant, Alan Lakein, wrote a book called How to Get Control of Your Time and your Life. It was an immediate success – a bestseller that is still available on Amazon and receiving some excellent reviews. At the time, I was  owner of an association management company called Harold L Taylor Enterprises Ltd., and I booked Alan Lakein to present a workshop on time management for one of our association clients, the Canadian industrial Management Association, later to be renamed the Canadian Institute of Management. Lakein was time management in motion, and ..read more
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“Serial multitasking” reduces performance.
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
3M ago
Our brains are not wired for multitasking (working on two or more activities at the same time.) Attempting to do so reduces our energy level, puts a strain on our cognitive resources, increases stress on our body, and possibly damages the memory regions of our brain. In addition, it reduces our personal productivity. And in some cases, it is a high-risk behavior – such as texting while driving. When we attempt to multitask, we are sharing our attention with two activities, switching back and forth between one task and another. If you monotask, you don’t switch at all if you can complete the ta ..read more
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The battle for your brain.
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
4M ago
Marketers, for one, are great fans of brain research, and books like Why We Buy, by Paco Underhill, Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom, and How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer give plenty of examples of how this knowledge is applied to increase sales. Expensive wine tastes better, but tests show that cheaper wine bearing high-priced labels taste better as well. Taste is in the brain. When it comes to understanding the brain, there are a few non-brainers. For example, our brains are wired to be sociable. So, little contact between shoppers and employees results in lower sales. I think that’s a big one fo ..read more
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Technological distraction
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
5M ago
Oliver Berkeman, in his 2023 book, “Four Thousand Weeks,” says that surveys reliably show that “We feel more pressed for time than ever before.” He even mentions that a Dutch team suggested back in 2013 that busyness might be understated since many people are too busy to participate in surveys. There could be more truth than humor in that statement. One thing that increases busyness is the frequency of distractions in this digital world of social media, smartphones, and electronic communication. Researcher Dr. Gloria Mark, in her 2023 book, “Attention Span,” says that most people spend a large ..read more
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Is your way of working really working?
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
5M ago
In the book called The Power of When, author Michael Breus sheds new light on when to schedule our writing projects. We know that prime time is the time that we are at our peak energy level and alertness. Most of us believe that we should schedule our priority activities during this time interval of 90 minutes or so. But prime time varies with the individual. We are not all on the same circadian rhythm. Some of us are larks or early birds, some are night owls, and others are somewhere in between – frequently referred to as hummingbirds. So far, all this makes sense. But Breus points out that d ..read more
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Rejections are the battle scars of writers.
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
6M ago
I think I would have been more successful in my writing career if I hadn’t had the grandiose idea of submitting material to the top paying publications such as Reader’s Digest, Saturday Evening Post, and Chatelaine. Few things are more de-motivational than rejection. In my teen years I accepted only my mother’s biased assessment. I think being able to accept rejection and criticism is an important factor in becoming a successful writer. In a previous blog article, I mentioned that one magazine editor suggested I should start writing fiction articles when I had something to say – to experience ..read more
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Keep your writing short, simple, and understandable
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
6M ago
This article is a follow up to the last blog article titled “Keep your communication clear and concise.” It offers more examples of brevity in writing by eliminating needless words. Take the example of someone setting a “new record” in pole sitting. I have never heard of a record that was not new. So, trash the word new. Similarly, a flight attendant tells us to “Take all your personal belongings with you when you deplane.” Do you have belongings that are not personal? Would deleting the word personal confuse anyone? Our daily conversations are overflowing with superfluous words. But you need ..read more
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Keep your communication clear and concise.
Taylor in Time Blog
by Harold Taylor
6M ago
It’s the message in your email, the story in your novel, and the information in your article or nonfiction book that is important to the reader. So, make them as clear and concise as possible. One way of doing this is to avoid converting verbs into nouns. Free the verbs to do their job of moving the action forward. For example, don’t say, “We failed to reach an agreement.” That takes three times the number of words as saying, “We disagreed.” That’s a waste of the reader’s time. And nouns are boring. Verbs engage the reader. That’s important in today’s world of distractions. Here are a few more ..read more
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