In the prior post in this series way back on June 30th, I promised to share the game I set up to become like the 11% who get everything done each day. I left off describing the fact that I had a group willing to play together to achieve the result.
My first step was to, share the overall challenge for the group: to increase the match between what is on our calendars and what we actually do at any moment in time.
For Total Task Schedulers, this is a big challenge. If you undertake to manage your tasks via your calendar, you are putting into writing your daily plans and pledging to account for them in a visible way. By contrast, people who make mental plans for each day don’t have to confront their failures in this area, due to the lack of written dates.
I also shared that I wanted to play games which would improve this score. In the group I formed, I shared that we could all play the same game or different games, but the overall idea was to learn, grow and have some fun at the same time.
Reminder: “Being On-Calendar” in any moment means that what we are doing is in our calendar. The opposite is “Being Off-Calendar.”
Game #1 – RandomCheck
The first game I made up is one I had tested for about a month.
The game was simple: to record the times when I was On/Off-Calendar via random check-ins each day. If the times truly were random, then I should be able to generate some unbiased data.
To help me pick random times, I downloaded an app called Randomly RememberMe that provides a notification at random intervals throughout the day/week.
The Game I Played in May
I decided to set up different reminders for weekday mornings, weekday afternoons and weekends. For the weekdays, I set 3 reminders per day, one in the morning and two in the afternoon. On the weekends I cut out the morning reminder.
A few people opted into this game and played it with different levels of intensity at different points. However, as the convenor, I didn’t give myself the option of dropping out. Call it social pressure.
In the next post, I’ll describe the results I realized.