03/09/2000   English German
  Edition # 20  
San Francisco, 03-09-2000

A New Kind Of Calendar
Figure [1]: The Franklin Planner in Use

Michael Recently, I attended a full-day course on time management at Netscape, which I had signed up for. The company "Franklin/Covey" offers courses where you learn how to use their calendar system. You learn how to manage your time effectively, prioritize tasks, and distinguish between important and unimportant matters to achieve more in less time. It was an impressive presentation.

Typically American, the course was not just some boring lecture but was filled with, yes, I would even say, moving moments. For instance, when the instructor asked us to anonymously write on small cards what we would do if we had more time. Later, after we had almost forgotten about the collected cards, she played a video that illustrated how short life is and how important it is to focus on the important things. When the video ended, the screen went dark, but the music continued, and she began reading the contents of the cards. There were things like "If I had more time, I would climb Half Dome in Yosemite Park." "If I had more time, I would create the most visited website in the world." "If I had more time, I would travel all over Europe with my family." "If I had more time, I would write a science fiction novel." One of the cards was, of course, mine, and you can guess which one. Anyway -- I was moved.

And I liked the calendar so much that since then, I've been running around with a planner larger than A5, writing everything, yes, everything in it. It's really clever, this thing; I actually accomplish more now and forget nothing because everything is in the calendar. The essential point is that you don't separate personal events from business ones, so a wedding anniversary or a birthday gift is just as important as professional matters. For those interested: You can order the stuff at http://www.franklincovey.com , it's not exactly cheap, but very well made. Of course, it's only suitable for people with self-discipline who don't shy away from sitting down at midnight to check off the task list of the past day and go through the tasks for the next day, as well as creating a weekly plan with the most important goals once a week. Angelika also jumped on the bandwagon and is demanding the same calendar, which is only available in a specific store in San Francisco. Unfortunately, she hasn't yet added this task to a corresponding list due to the lack of a calendar system, so this project is still awaiting completion, but she's working on it... (Note from the newsletter editorial team: On Angelika's birthday on March 2nd, a small calendar was on the gift table...).

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