Home » Education

The ABCDE Method

11 Comments

18 Like

Like 18

Pin It

Ranked #8,912 in Education, #203,859 overall

In Search of Lost Time

If you have trouble getting everything done, than you're just like the rest of us. It's one of the paradoxes of postmodern living that while technology has evolved to a point unthinkable one hundred years ago, we seem to have less time as a result. Yes, efficiency has grown in leaps and bounds, but it hasn't brought the do what you want, when you want it lifestyle, 19th century utopians were envisioning.

The causes of this paradox are complex, and getting into them is well beyond the scope of this lens. What I want, is to share a technique of time management that has saved me hundreds of hours so far. It's called the ABCDE Method and I first read about it in Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog - 21 More Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.

If you already know about the ABCDE Method, then this article isn't for you. So you can move on to reading some other useful lens; still, if you feel like it and the Method has been useful to you, drop me a line at the bottom of the page. If however you have not heard about the ABCDE Method before, or you're not sure what it does, keep reading, because this lens might turn up to be one most important things you ever read.

The Importance of Time Management

Often, the problem is not that there isn't enough time to do everything, but that there are so many things to do, we simply don't know how to get started. Sometimes I would start working on a task, then remember I have something else more important do, go do it, return to doing the first thing and remember I forgot an important phone call I had to return. Now, that's crappy time management!

The shuffling back and forth, and all those fake starts ended up costing me a lot, in both time and effort. Even when I wouldn't forget anything, I would often discover at the end of the day, that while I managed to do a lot of things, there were still important tasks I haven't gotten around to. You see, what I didn't know, is that the trick isn't only remembering everything and working on one issue at a time. It's also about prioritizing.

“There are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days before Saturday.”

So, What's ABCDE all About?

The ABCDE Method involves a subtle shift in perspective. Instead of thinking how to do the biggest number of things in the least amount of time, it focuses on the consequences of not doing something. The unspoken assumption is that you would want to take care of the tasks that carry the largest penalty for not doing them, ahead of those that can be safely put off.

It's natural that when we start the day we first want to get the little things out of the way. Then they won't keep bugging us and we quickly get that rush of satisfaction we feel every time we get something done. The problem with this thinking is that more often than not, the little things aren't the most important.

Geting Started

Before anything else take a pen and paper or open a new word document and make a list of everything you have to do. I do this before going to sleep each night, and it rarely takes more than two or three minutes. If I forget anything I can always come back and add to the list whenever I remember.

Now, you have your list? Good! For the sake of clarity I'll create a list of what I think are some typical tasks one might come across any day.

Important!

To do:

Reply to the email from a potential buyer for one of my domain names

Finish my lens on Tips for Effective Dieting

Watch the episode of Lost I recorded today

File my tax return. Tomorrow is the last day

Read How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes

Work on my PowerPoint presentation for the project at work

Pay the utilities bills

Go to the Monster Truck Rally with my husband Jim

Return your the phone call of my friend Karen

The ABCDE Method

Watching Lost and talking to Karen, while they might take the least amount of time, are not the most important items on our list. To establish the degree of urgency let's consider the penalties not doing a task carries and let's assign it a rating in accordance. The ratings the ABCDE Method proposes are as following:

A is for something that cannot afford putting off. The consequences of not doing the A items would be serious so you must do them.

See if you can spot the A items on the above list.

I would say they are the taxes and work project, but like most things this involves a value judgment. Just make sure you're clear what carries the direst consequences for you, if you fail to do it.

B's are tasks you should do, but aren't as critical as A's. The result of not doing them is that someone will be inconvenienced or unhappy, but without serious consequences for you.

The B's on the example list are probably replying to the email and returning Karen's phone call. It's best to reply to buyers right away and it's not nice to miss returning phone calls, but if it were absolutely necessary, they could probably wait another day.

C items are those it would be nice to do, but carry little or no consequence to being left for another day.

Reading Leil Lowndes's book, watching Lost and working on your Tips for Effective Dieting lens fall in this category. All of us fat slobs will have to manage one more day without you.

D stands for delegate. Is there anything on the list you don't necessarily have to do yourself?

The husband, Jim, can probably manage to pay the utilities all by himself, thus freeing you for bigger and better things.

E comes from eliminate. In this category include the things you do for no good reason and are actually better left undone.

Monster Truck Rally's fall here. You hate them and you're only going because Jim is a huge Monster Truck freak. He can have a better time going with his friends and you can squidoo all the while.

More Prioritizing

The second part of the ABCDE Method is deciding which tasks in each category are more urgent. Take the A's for example. The tax return and work presentation are both important, but the tax office closes at five and you can work on your project well into the wee hours of the morning if need be. So, on your list, put an A1 in front of the tax return and an A2 in front of the presentation.

Similarly a potential buyer might think you unresponsive if you take too long in replying, but you've known Karen a long time and she will understand any delays. So put B1 and B2 in front of those.

C's are always big value judgments. Let's assume you're really curious about How to Talk to Anyone, so you'd put a C1 there, a C2 in front of your new lens if you're anxious to work on it and a C3 for Lost.

D and E are easy because there's only one of each, but if there would be more, the process described above would also apply.

Now that we're done, write a new list in the order of importance, with the rank of each item in front.

Important!

Prioritized list:

A1 File my tax return. Tomorrow is the last day

A2 Work on my PowerPoint presentation for the project at work

B1 Reply to the email from a potential buyer for one of my domain names

B2 Return your the phone call of my friend Karen

C1 Read How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes

C2 Finish my lens on Tips for Effective Dieting

C3 Watch the episdode of Lost I recorded today

D1 Pay the utilities bills

E1 Go to the Monster Truck Rally with my husband Jim

The Benefits

Now you know that when you get up tomorrow, the first thing is to start doing your taxes and work on it until you're finished. Then work on your presentation and when you're done for the day or feel like you really need a break, shoot off an email and give Karen a ring. If after all this you have any time left, you can enjoy yourself reading and squidooing. And you don't have to dread the Monster Rally's anymore.

I have described at length the whole process, but the actual thing hardly takes a few minutes everyday. After you do it for a few weeks it becomes reflex and from that point on it takes no effort whatsoever. And the difference it makes is truly humongous. Of course, it matters how disorganized you were in the first place, but for a messy slob like me it saves somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour and a half each day.

Assuming I averagely save an hour a day, that means 30 hours a month. If I would work 70 hours a week, that would make 10 hours a day and the concrete result of this simple technique would be that my month would have three more work days. That's a 10% increase in time. Another way to look at is that if you live to be 70 (and hopefully much older), 10% of your time would be 7 years. Would you knock off 7 years from you life for no good reason?

Eat That Frog - On paper, audio and Kindle

If you found the ABCDE Method helpful and you have an interest in time management, please consider reading Brian Tracy's book, Eat That Frog - 21 More Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. It contains a lot more in the same vein and it makes for a delightful bedtime read. If you care to buy it, I've placed bellow links to Amazon just for that purpose.

About Brian Tracy

Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations.

Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined.

Brian Tracy has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 4,000,000 people in 4,000 talks and seminars throughout the US, Canada and 40 other countries worldwide. As a Keynote speaker and seminar leader, he addresses more than 250,000 people each year.

He has studied, researched, written and spoken for 30 years in the fields of economics, history, business, philosophy and psychology. He is the top selling author of over 45 books that have been translated into dozens of languages.

He has written and produced more than 300 audio and video learning programs, including the worldwide, best-selling Psychology of Achievement, which has been translated into more than 20 languages.

He has traveled and worked in over 80 countries on six continents, and speaks four languages. Brian is happily married and has four children. He is active in community and national affairs, and is the President of three companies headquartered in Solana Beach, California.

Bio from Brian's website

What do you think?

Leave me your feedback and suggestions.

Reply

managproject May 11, 2010 @ 12:24 pm | delete

As project management not a too much trouble-free job. We require to be learned about project management prior to launching real arrangement. It one is a nice lens about project management.
Thanks.

Reply

ddixonart Oct 29, 2009 @ 8:14 pm | delete

I make a list, and the top "A" item is always "Don't lose the to-do list!"

:)

Reply

daria369 May 7, 2009 @ 12:15 pm | delete

Great help to many...

Thank you for joining one of my groups! See more and add your lenses to link plexos at: http://www.squidoo.com/all-inclusive

Reply

aj2008 Apr 23, 2009 @ 5:59 am | delete

Very good lens.

Reply

spirituality Apr 22, 2009 @ 12:42 pm | delete

You really make great lenses - 5 stars :)

Reply

yunsongchen Apr 21, 2009 @ 4:08 am | delete

very pretty lens:) 5 star! ^_^

Reply

LeanneChesser Apr 20, 2009 @ 3:48 pm | delete

Great lens! 5 stars.

Reply

dannystaple Apr 20, 2009 @ 11:35 am | delete

A good lens. I actually am going to try the technique. I already do lists - but never really got priorities or dealing with new stuff quite straight. This works nicely.