60 minutes more!

 What if you were given an extra hour in your day?

What would you do with it?

Your head is already swimming with projects, from the most ambitious to the most pedestrian: no, you are not alone in picturing yourself spending another 60 minutes under your duvet, not for making whoopee, just to catch up on some sleep.

By the way, if you really want to get the project that is dear to your heart off the ground (you know which one!!), you’re going to need more than 60 minutes!

But you should take a closer look at the quadrant method as revised by Thomas Davies, director of Google for Work.

What is the revised quadrant method?

Those among you who have already taken classes, training courses, coaching and other lessons in organisation are already shrugging your shoulders at the thought of the traditional quadrant method: important/urgent/I know, I know, very urgent! In short, as someone who has experience with this extremely complicated filing system, you no longer know what to do with it any more…

No, what is interesting about the quadrant method as proposed by Davis is its simplicity, and the fact that it can be applied to any activity: professional, a personal project, family…

First step: It is about analysing your actions and sorting them into the 4 following categories:

• Necessary tasks
• Creativity and productivity time
• Constructive team time
• Project-related networking time.

You can carry out this analysis at every level of your daily life. Here are some exemples:

If you are looking for better work-life balance: the constructive team time could mean having lunch as a family, or coaching a child. (For more information on this subject, some good tips are available on our post How to find a good work-life balance? ).

In your working week: do you have time for creativity and productivity to genuinely develop your projects? Hmm, I thought so…

For a project that is dear to your heart: yes, you network, but not in the right place (it says project-related networking…).

This analysis allows you to take a realistic look at the way in which you use your time, and to straighten things out. We all tend to prefer doing what we already know how to do, or to give preference to our routine.

Step 2: Balance in the 4 quadrants

According to Thomas Davies, what is important is the balance between the 4 quadrants. Some periods of activity will occasionally require you to concentrate on a single quadrant, but it is important to restore balance afterwards.

• Too many chores? Delegate and co-organise!
• Too much networking? You are overstretched!
• Not enough creativity? Get outside, take some time for you!
• Not enough time as a team or as a family? Make room for it in your diary!

 If you want to find out more, I recommend reading the excellent article How to Design your Time by Davies. It’s very focused on working in Silicon Valley, but inspiring nonetheless: that man is a star!!