Chapter 12
Neat and Uncomplicated Tools to Manage Your Time
In This Chapter
- No need for guilt and anxiety
- Technology time traps
- Speakerphones, headsets, and two-way recording
- Simple technologies, affordable prices
A lot has been written about new technology, making the most of your online time, and how to not get left in the dust by all the techno-twits out there. The only time you have to adopt a new tool or technological device is when: (1) your organization or boss requires it, (2) your clients already use the technology, or (3) you’ll gain a strategic competitive advantage.
Don’t Race Ahead of Yourself
In the mid-1990s, mass advertising suggested that tapping onto the Internet was the be-all and end-all. While there’s no denying the awesome power of online information, it’s important to keep things in perspective. “Driven by our obsession to compete, we’ve embraced the electronic god with a frenzy,” says Bill Henderson, leader of the Lead Pencil Club. “Soon, blessed with the fax, voice and e-mail computer hook-ups and TVs with hundreds of channels, we won’t have to leave our lonely rooms—not to write a check, work, visit, shop, exercise, or make love. We will have raced at incredible speeds to reach our final destination——nothing.”
Look around your office and your home. Have you been caught in the trap of gathering information or acquiring an item far in advance of your ability to use it? Have you bought any technological items in the last two years that you simply don’t use? I’m talking about hardware and software, instruction manuals, scanners, additional printers, adapters, cassettes, videos, CD-ROMS, phone systems, fax machines, and who knows what else.
Time Out Don’t acquire new techno-tools you can’t use, let alone benefit from. In the mid- to early 1980s, major personal computer manufacturers launched vigorous campaigns to convince everyone that buying a computer was essential to your livelihood. Though they would soon be correct, they made it seem as if computers were essential to your career years before they actually were.
Ten Times the Advantage
Peter Drucker, the noted sage of management, made the observation that for new technology to replace old, it has to have at least 10 times the benefit of its predecessor. I don’t know how he arrived at that figure, but who am I to doubt Dr. Drucker?
All technology holds the potential to either help you be more efficient or further slide you into the morass of the overwhelmed. In his book Technopoly, Dr. Neil Postman says that the introduction of any new technology into your life brings both benefits and detriments. The manufacturers, advertisers, and dealers are adept at helping you focus on the benefits—especially in the rare case that you happen to become one of the world’s expert users of the system they’re offering. How often, however, do you actually read about the downside of acquiring new tools and technology in your life?
Upside and Downside
Consider the car phone: If you’re the parent of three children, it can give you great comfort to call them on the car phone after school. Car phones, indeed, can be wonderful tools. The newest models offer voice commands that enable you to “Call Joe Smith,” “Call home,” “Answer the phone,” or “Hang up the phone.”
Some car phones have built-in fax and data communications that allow for transmissions from your car. Some connect to your horn, providing a security feature. Others allow for emergency dialing. Nearly all have some type of anti-theft alarm. A growing number offer wider display screens, brightly lit for easy use at night, speed dialing, speed re-dialing, and one-touch dialing.
But there’s a downside, too. By adding a car phone to your automobile, what else have you added to your life that perhaps you didn’t want? (Note that more than half of these developments have an impact on your time.)
- The ability of anybody to reach you at any time
- Disturbance of one of the last sanctuaries that you had
- The need to change your brochures and business cards to reflect your car phone’s number
- The potential for driving less safely
- Added expense as you engage in unnecessary conversations
- The new-found annoying habit of making one extra call before reaching destinations—to make sure that plans haven’t changed
- . . . Thereby leading to heightened insecurity and anxiety
- Another invoice to examine at the end of the month, and another check to write
- Involuntarily opening up your percepters to notice other ads about other cellular phone systems
- The annoying feeling that your system is insufficient and that you need more range, more power, and less cost per call
It seems paradoxical that a device created to make you more efficient or save you time holds nearly equal potential for doing the opposite.
The Revenge Effect
“The Revenge Effect is the curious way the world has of getting even, defeating our best efforts to speed it up and otherwise improve it,” says Professor Edward Tenner of Princeton. The failure of technology to solve problems, Tenner says, can often be traced to the interaction between machine and man. Freeways, intended to speed travel, lead to suburbs—urban sprawl out instead of up, so commuting times climb. Computers make it easy to copy and print files, so you end up copying and printing many more files, and your paperless office fills up with paper.
You Set the Rules
When you view each new technological tool as both beneficial and detrimental, you’re in a far better position to stay in control of your time. With a cellular phone, you could make the purchase with predetermined rules of use, such as only making calls to loved ones and for crucial appointments, limiting calls to under three minutes, and not listing your car phone number on business cards or brochures. Or, you might employ other ground rules.
A Stitch in Time Consider both the benefits and the detriments of the time-saving technological tools you operate. If you never become a master at using everything that tool provides, you’ll gain still greater benefits if you’re able to eliminate some of the detriments that may arise.
The crucial element is that you define your personal set of rules for using the tool.
Many types of “neat tools” follow. Some represent sophisticated technology, and some are rather simple. Each represents great potential for you to win back your time. With your own rules of use, you’ll feel better about how and when you use the tool, and you’ll avoid potential time traps.
Talk Your Way to High Productivity
To be more productive in your office and make maximum use of your travel time, use a pocket dictator or voice-recognition technology. I’ve used dictators to capture notes, offer immediate thank-you’s to people I meet, and produce whole books—yes, even this one.
If you are already proficient in using your own personal computer, lap-top, or notebook computer for word processing, there still are many advantages to becoming skilled in using portable dictation equipment—particularly if you have other staff members who can transcribe your golden words. By using portable dictation equipment or voice-recognition technology, you can approach your productivity potential. Few things in life will have this type of dramatic impact on your ability to manage your time.
Have Dictator, Will Travel
Portable dictation equipment allows for mobility. You can dictate almost anywhere. Microcassette recorders accommodate up to an hour of taping on each side. If you compose directly on a word processor, you may be able to type between 40 and 80 words a minute. With a little practice, you can dictate at 100–140 words a minute. When you type while you are thinking, your mind races ahead of your fingers. Many of the ideas and phrases you compose in your mind are lost.
Once you become familiar with the ease of operation and the pure joy of finishing written items in one-third of the previous time, there is no returning to old ways. With dictating, you can handle whatever you wanted to write but never found the time to actually do.
Your Master’s Voice
Voice-recognition technology (let’s call them VRTs, for short) available as of this writing enable you to speak into the system’s headset and dictate at a slightly slower speed than you’re used to talking. In 20–40 minutes—depending on the system and how adept you are at it—the software “learns” your voice pattern and from that discerns what words to throw on the screen as you speak.
With practice, you’ll soon be able to speak at a normal speed and spend little time “training” the system—perhaps five minutes or less. In fact, systems will be available soon enough where no training is necessary and anyone’s voice can be interpreted.
Chronos Says In a few years, you won’t have to talk to use VRTs. You can simply don a headband, issue thought commands, and have the computer diligently obey!
Gettin’ Better All the Time
VRTs are convenient when it comes to dictating brief letters and e-mail responses, creating lists, and developing other documents that are not voluminous. As the mighty microchip continues to decrease in size and become more powerful, VRTs will be ready right out of the box and have awesome capabilities, such as discerning 300,000 or 400,000 words instead of 20,000 or 30,000, have automatic syntax and idiom checkers, and, in general, take the pain out of composing new text much like word processors took the pain out of making corrections to text. The instruction booklet—if there’s one at all—could be four pages or less. Perhaps you’ll just need a single card.
Don’t See What You Get
Much as with dictating equipment, you’re better off not looking at the screen while you’re using a VRT system. Continual monitoring is only going to hamper your progress. You’re better off composing your memo or letter, letting the system do its job, and then seeing what you have. If the wrong word was inserted here or there, or you want to make a correction, do it afterward. If you attempt to compose on the fly, your progress may be uneven.
Pause at Will
Dictating in 20- or 30-second blocks what may have previously required 2—5 minutes to write negates the need for visual review. If you are able to file and extract materials readily—and if your desk is well-organized, and if your shelves are neat (you followed all my advice!)—, chances are, you’ll be good at dictating with portable equipment.
How to Overcome Mike Fright
Dictating expert Jefferson D. Bates recommends the following steps in overcoming the fear of speaking into a microphone:
- Pick a subject you know well.
- Jot down a few ideas on the subject in outline form.
- Study the words for a few moments while the ideas sink in.
- With the microphone in place, close your eyes and take several deep breaths. (This helps put you in a creative state of mind.)
- Imagine you’re talking to a close friend or associate, anyone you feel comfortable with and trust. Picture that person in your mind.
- Start talking. If you still have hang-ups about getting started, take something you have written earlier and start reading it aloud into the mike. When the words are flowing smoothly and easily, close your eyes and keep talking.
Look Ma, No Hands!
Whether you use the telephone five times a day or all day long, simple, inexpensive technology is available to immediately double your phoning efficiency. If you need both hands free to take notes or maintain better organization during a phone call, the typical phone receiver is not practical. Speakerphones aren’t much better, and the sound quality is dreadful. Cell phones free your feet, not your hands. A far better solution? The telephone headset.
Headsets are provided by a variety of communications and telephone equipment companies and generally entail a set of light-weight earphones with a long prong bending toward the mouth. This ear-and-mouthpiece set is attached by a cord to a desktop dialer. With many competitors in the market, you can shop and compare.
Brother, Can You Stand to Save Some Time?
A major benefit of using a telephone headset is mobility. When you wear a headset, your hands are free to take notes, shuffle papers, or open file drawers. Yet, the sound quality of your voice equals or exceeds that of a traditional handset phone.
While talking to someone on a headset phone, for example, you can use your computer more conveniently, address an envelope, or just relax with your arms free. Headsets have evolved from large, heavy “earmuff” equipment to extremely light-weight pieces contoured for a comfortable fit.
Far Less Fatigue
An advantage often cited by headset users is less fatigue. If you make and receive many phone calls, a most efficient way to handle them is to reserve a specific block of time—say, two hours in the afternoon to return and generate calls. Repetitive phone use, however, is tiring. A telephone headset alleviates this strain. Ten to 15 calls used to be drudgery. Now, I mow them down with no fatigue! You can move around a bit, stretch your neck and back, and combat the tiring feeling of sitting in one spot.
Finally, using a headset helps you to minimize distractions. While you’re wearing earphones, you don’t hear a lot of the background noise that is typical of regular phones. You’re not likely to hear phones ring in the next office, and you’re less tempted to divert your attention.
Not Created Equal
All headsets are not equal. The simplest models sell for as little as $49.95, while the most elaborate can climb to $300 or more. Some are versatile enough to be plugged into a hand phone, allowing fairly instant conversion when you need it. Some are specially designed for high-noise environments, with earphones that insulate you from outside noise particularly well. Headband and mouthpiece designs vary, as do warranties and service policies.
Here are some suppliers. I suggest first getting their catalogs.
- GN Netcom Incorporated, 10 Victor Square, Scotts Valley, CA 95066; phone 800-995-5500 (a full-line supplier)
- Plantronics, P.O. Box 635, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-0635; phone 800-544-4660 (a full-line supplier)
- Ziehl Associates Inc., 115 Meacham Avenue, Elmont, NY 11003-2631; phone 516- 437-1300 (offers Cradle Mate and other telephone headset accessories)
Cord-Free, as Free as the Wind Blows
Some vendors offer headset models that are cord-free. One such model enables you to move up to 100 feet from your desk and still maintain a clear, solid connection with the other party. You’re hands-free to write, open cabinets, flip through books, pick up materials, check equipment, or even straighten your tie—all while listening intently to the other party.
Look for models that offer noise-canceling microphones, which automatically filter out background noise so that your own voice transmits clearly.
Headset in the Air
Along the same lines of donning a headset, if you fly frequently, you might want to consider a new generation of active noise-cancellation headphones. The Sharper Image version is designed to generate “anti-noise” waves, which neutralize the irritating drone of an airplane engine and surrounding cabin sounds. With less distractions, you can get more work done, hence be more in control of your time.
Say No to Noise
If you fly from say New York to Los Angeles non-stop, at the end of your flight, you’ll actually feel rested and relaxed. Noise does a number on each of us, often in ways we can’t discern. Some models of noise-cancellation headphones allow you to use a two-prong adapter so that you can listen in to the in-flight music or programs offered while receiving the benefits of hearing less engine and cabin noise. In fact, you can hear every word of the programs being offered.
Lightweight Batteries to Save your Head
Many systems run on simply AAA alkaline batteries. The systems are lightweight and pack easily. They’re also affordable, at under $100. If you fly at least 20–30 times a year, noise-cancellation headphones could be a godsend for you.
Keep in mind, however, that noise cancellation headphones do not diminish all noises around you such as other people talking to you, an announcement over the plane’s public address system, or a radio or ringing telephone. This is because the anti-noise waves that they generate are geared toward plane engine and cabin sounds.
Speakerphones Come of Age
A variation on the theme of using a telephone headset is a high-fidelity speakerphone. Traditionally, speakerphones have been less than useful, particularly for executives.
Out with the Old
The obvious problems, if you’ve previously attempted to use a speakerphone for any quality conversation, are many-fold:
- When you speak, it sounds as if you are at the bottom of a well (hellooooo down there . . .).
- If the other party begins speaking before you finish, you lose a syllable or two of what you or they said.
- Because your tones are not crisp and clear, the other party is not sure of what you said, even if he actually heard all the words.
Time Out!
Typical speakerphones operate using a half-duplex mode, meaning that the conversation can take place only one way at a time. This makes conversations seem awkward and “clipped.”
- The other party may feel other people are in the room listening to the conversation, or that you’re preoccupied with some other matter and speaking to him as a secondary activity.
All the above combined to render use of the speakerphone as inappropriate and ill-advised. Are you getting the picture?
It’s a New Generation
Full-duplex speakerphones have been available for several years, but with price tags exceeding $1,200. That’s not exactly a sum you’d plunk down tomorrow, but read on!
The best of the duplex systems offer high-fidelity stereo speakers and noise-canceling microphones. So you can speak hands-free and have it sound as if you were on your good old phone with your good old handheld receiver. Now that prices for some units have dropped under $400—and undoubtedly will drop someday to under $100—speakerphones are a neat tool of efficiency whose time is about to come.
As with most electronic gadgetry, a variety of options are available. With some speakerphones, you can rest your telephone headset on a platform and then speak and listen as you normally would; no special hookups or lines are necessary. Most models have a mute option and a hold option, some have caller ID, and some have re-dial capability.
Advantages? Let Me Count the Ways
The beauty of speakerphones over that of cordless headsets are fairly obvious:
- No weight on top of your head.
- No fatigue.
- No looking like you’re a Martian when others pass your office.
- Free and complete range of motion. You can scratch your head, you can take your glasses off and on, you can keep the pencil behind your ear.
The drawbacks are few:
- You have to stay within a recommended distance.
- If you move around while speaking, the other party may get the notion that you are on a speakerphone.
- Background noise in your office may also be transmitted.
Still, when your hands are free and you can engage in conversation with somebody 12 blocks or 12,000 miles away, you’re going to be much more efficient.
Two-Way Phone Recording Equipment
Some people have used two-way phone conversation recording for years as a means of keeping a log of conversations to help document highly complex transactions.
I’m all for reversing any perception among anyone that using two-way recording is anything other than a marvelous timesaver. As a speaker and author, I find it convenient to be able to record conversations, both ways, with the touch of a button. When a meeting planner is giving me essential information over the phone, my ability to capture those words on tape can mean all the difference when it comes to delivering a dynamic program. There’s no way I can take notes as fast as I can capture the meeting planner’s words via taping.
Let the Sparks Fly
When I’m interviewing someone for a book, letting other people simply talk—at whatever speed they wish—facilitates effective conversation. The sparks fly. I ask a question, they answer. Later, when I review the tape at my own speed, I am able to glean the essence of what they said—not what my half-baked notes reveal or my even less effective memory recalls. Often when reporters call me and they’re not armed with two-way recording equipment, I volunteer to tape the conversation for them and mail them the tape.
With two-way recording I can give a lot more information in a lot shorter time. It’ll be higher quality information, and it will flow in the manner in which I intended.
How About You, Buddy?
Undoubtedly there are countless instances where you could tape-record a conversation, play it back, and be more effective at what you do. This could include conversations with coworkers, clients, suppliers, and so on.
The Ethics of Two-Way Recording
While legally you don’t have to tell the other party you’re recording the conversation, you may feel that ethically it’s best to do so. I eliminate this potential dilemma by simply saying to the other party at the outset, “Let me capture this on tape,” or “Do you mind if I capture this on tape?” Only a handful of times in hundreds of recordings has anyone said, “I’d prefer not,” and I’ve respected that.
Otherwise, I’ve been able to capture conversations from mentors giving me advice, peers brainstorming with me on a problem, and the aforementioned meeting planners and journalists.
Any consumer electronics store carries a vast array of phone systems with two-way conversational recording capability from which to choose. Most models sell for less than $100, and so there’s really nothing to stop you.
The Least You Need to Know
- Buy portable, expandable, flexible technology.
- Each tool designed to increase your efficiency carries the seeds of both great benefit and significant drawback.
- You learn most technologies when you need to—no need to feel anxious by advertising designed to make you feel inadequate.
- Adopt new technology when your organization requires it, your clients use it, or you see strategic, competitive advantages.
- Simple technologies such as dictation equipment, headphones, and two-way telephone recorders can also benefit you greatly.