Anyone Tried Simpleology?

http://www.simpleology.com/

It is Mark Joyner’s project. It combines time “management” tools with goals achievement and training. Of course you can’t manage time.

The idea was here is where you are X and this is where you want to be Y, now list everything you have to do to get from X to Y and leave out everything else. Now focus on those necessary steps and cut out all distractions. Keep it simple.

It got over being simple a long time ago and they have even changed the names of what they call some of the features, but I found it interesting and helpful in its early form.

Take one idea. You do a brain dump first thing in the morning. Put down everything on your mind, money problems, taxes, project deadline at work, anniversary present you have to buy for your spouse, whatever is on your mind you put on the list. Now you can forget about it and go on with your major goals and life plans since you have it down and can go back to it later. It frees up the mind’s resources to focus on one item at a time in a more laser like focus.

You used to could set alerts, make plans, even do systems and procedures, but I am not sure what it is like now, I think it is on the 5.8 release currently.

I like the idea of a “dashboard” you go to with resources in one place. I like the idea of a place that is a platform with training. Have money problems and money projects? Put it down in the goals section and take the training on money and project management.

I keep trying a few times a year to go back to it, but it is not intuitive to me and they keep changing it and making it so frustrating.

You should see how many up sells he does, page after page, if you want to take advantage of some bonus or offer.

best.

I probably didn’t do the original version justice in my description, but the mind dump is well accepted as a technique to free your mind up. You don’t have to worry about missing things like deadlines and what not since you have them down on paper (or in this case down in the software) to refer to. Sort of a security blanket. I am one of those that worry to keep things from slipping by, although I am much better than I used to be. We also often count worry as activity, which it is, just not productive. So we can feel we are doing something by worrying (magical thinking, not logical) and that wastes effort we could put where it would work.

Something like this:

So what is on your mind?
Write it all down.
Look it over and pick what is appropriate to work on today.
Do the same tomorrow and allow yourself the freedom to not think on those things again until in the morning or whenever you set your review.

Much like we put our bill due dates on a calendar so we won’t forget and to free us up from worrying or checking on every bill every day.

In industry we found planning paid back on average about a tenfold return in productivity. So a little time spent this way can be well worth it.

It sounds like you do much the same Bruce in you write things down so you won’t forget them and free up your mind to do what is pressing. Just a different approach to the same task, keeping up with things.

When things are gaseous and without form I feel overwhelmed, but when listed one, two, three on a list I feel in control.

I remember being sent to a time management course by my company, which is ridiculous, since we can’t manage time.

This guru that was earning no telling how much told us to write down the top three things we needed to do that day and no more. That was enough for me.

I got up and walked out, although I did come back since there was no where to go. I typically used a yellow legal pad and wrote down 25 things for the morning, then after lunch I transferred any that were not done to another page and continued until I had 25 more. My goal was to do 50 planned tasks a day and cover anything that came up as it happened. 40 or more completed planned tasks was common and I fought the fires as they occurred. Three things a day wouldn’t cut it. I did more than that on the phone on the way to work.

best,

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Bruce Hoag

I think it is wonderful when we have these micro disagreements, all conversation they say is based on disagreement, since if one person says Harvey’s has the best hamburgers and the other person agrees there is not much further that conversation can go, but if the second person says, “I don’t know, have you tried Hamburger Sallies? They make a pretty good bacon and cheddar burger with onion rings on it,” then you have the basis for a conversation.

However you keep track of things I don’t think it matters what you call it, making a list, doing a mind dump, putting things in folders or on a lazy Susan. In every case it is a process of putting things where you can find them later.

I think, but do not assert, that we can agree that keeping up with things is important.

Probably a lessor number of people would agree that making a list such as a shopping list or a to do list or putting things in a folder for future reference or deadlines on a calendar would relieve us of a little stress, being a sort of security blanket we can turn to in time of need for that information and with less stress allow us to focus on things one at a time and those that are at hand without worrying about things falling through the cracks.

I can only speak for myself, but I can hardly remember five things to pick up at the store without a list by the time I get there, but if I have a list I can literally keep up with a countless number of things (which is what it seems like when my wife sends me shopping) I can also say that the fear of disappointing my wife by not getting something she wanted or needed goes away when she hands me a list and I don’t have to drive to town repeating “hair spray number 8 Hold, butter, jelly, trash bags, paper towels, chopped almonds, brown sugar, chocolate chips, carpet cleaner and so on over and over” (which I can now relate to you days after the trip because I still have the list) as I drive to town I can go on to think about my business, my grandchildren, the green field I pass that is still green in winter and the sun peeking out behind a cloud, or maybe even another Christmas present for my wife that tolerates me and my little idiosyncrasies.

In my work with hoarders I found that in some cases they didn’t want to move things because they kept up with things or you might say ordered their lives by location. The bills might look scattered across the kitchen and dining room to you and me, but to them they were in plain sight and being ever present kept them from failing to pay them on time. An empty butter wrapper reminded them to get butter at the store and broken things were reminders of the ones that gave them to the hoarder, an emotional connection that they felt they would lose if they threw them away. Did their methods work? To some extent I would have to say so, but of course it caused problems in their lives and they got to where their lives just didn’t work for the clutter and baggage. However understanding them and how they thought and they ordered their lives helped me help them. They weren’t slobs or lazy, they just looked at things differently. If I could find a better way for them to accomplish their goals without the mess then I could make a difference. Trust was the first step.

Photo books, videos and remembrance drawers replaced broken things someone had given them that they kept to remind them of the dear loved one. A grocery list replaced butter wrappers and empty ketchup bottles. I can’t say that I would enjoy making this my life’s work, but it was interesting to see why many hoarders hoard, it wasn’t like you might think at all. It often started out as a way to keep things and to have some measure of control in your life.

More of my ramblings,
best,

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Mark Rhodes, Bruce Hoag