A key to doing time tracking is making sure it serves you — and not the other way around.

Too many people make unwieldly large templates that they then feel obligated to fill out. It becomes a chore, like paperwork, and tracking is abandoned.

I re-started time tracking a few days ago after three months off. I wanted to simplify when getting back from tracking from my old template which was heavier.

After a couple days, it was clear I needed to make more cuts and simplify again. Here’s 7.1 -

——————————————-
START OF DAY ROUTINE:
Time Awake/Total Sleep:
Check Calendar:
Check Core Campaigns:
——————————————-
MUST-HAPPEN’S
*
——————————————-
NICE-TO-HAPPEN’s
*
——————————————-
QUICK CHECKLIST:
Time started:
Vitamins, stretch, brush, breathe, posture:
Borderlands, celerity, gratitude, life goals:
Time complete:
——————————————-
ACCOMPLISHED TODAY

——————————————-
TIME TRACKING:

MINUTES:

–> Excellent:

–> Good:

–> Okay:

–> Bad:
——————————————-
SPENDING (ESTIMATE)

Investing:
Spent Well:
Spent Neutral:
Spent Poorly:
TOTAL:
——————————————-
ANALYSIS:
How’d the day go?

——————————————-
END OF DAY:
What are my key life goals? Spend 5 minutes on this.
Email in box, end of day:
Top project(s):
What’s on fire?:
What’s not, but important?:
Write tomorrow’s Must-Do’s:
Make a request of my subconscious:
Time complete:

“To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

After a year and a half of huge gains from time tracking, I got away from the habit. The last time I tracked my time was 19th November 2011 – almost exactly 3 months ago.

Around that time, I started working 17 to 20 hours per day. I know people often exaggerate their hours, but I’m not doing so – I was working basically every minute of the day, and sleeping on the couch in my office.

With that sort of frenzied high-purpose action, and with a fluid set of actions of hiring/managing at the same time, I got away from tracking. The action dictated itself; there was no need to try to control or refine it.

Now, two of my big campaigns have stabilized and will largely run themselves, though they’ll need constant balancing and looking-after. Also I note that I’ve been spending relatively too much time on firefighting, and not enough following up with people on my side.

So, I’m back on tracking. I added some elements to the new sheet

——————————————-
START OF DAY ROUTINE:
Time Awake/Total Sleep:
Check Calendar:
Check Core Campaigns:
——————————————-
MUST-HAPPEN’S
*
——————————————-
NICE-TO-HAPPEN’s
*
——————————————-
QUICK CHECKLIST:
Time started:
Vitamins, stretch, brush, breathe, posture:
Borderlands, celerity, gratitude, life goals:
Time complete:
——————————————-
WHAT ARE MY CORE PEOPLE’S NEEDS?

——————————————-
ACCOMPLISHED TODAY

——————————————-
SPENDING (ESTIMATE)

Spent Well:
Spent Neutral:
Spent Poorly:
TOTAL:
——————————————-
TIME TRACKING:

MINUTES:
Enterprising:
Creative:
Fitness:
Iconography:
Thinking/planning:
–> Subtotal Excellent:

Maintenance:
Reading:
Social:
Relaxing:
Research/learning:
Walking:
Daydreaming:
–> Subtotal Good:

Semi-productive:
General-life:
–> Subtotal Okay:

Surfing/wasting time:
Transit/dead time:
–> Subtotal Bad:
——————————————-
ANALYSIS:
How’d the day go?

——————————————-
END OF DAY:
What are my key life goals? Spend 5 minutes on this.
Email in box, end of day:
Top project(s) I want to close:
Plan tomorrow:
Make a request of my subconscious:
Time complete:

The center tent in the camp – the Commander’s Tent – is often the largest, most spacious, most well-guarded, and the center of attention.

A lot of people see that, and want it.

They say, “I want the largest tent.”

They say, “I want the most spacious tent.”

They say, “I want the most security.”

They say, “I want to be the center of attention.”

But they’ve got it entirely backwards.

Command – at least, good command – winds up in the center tent after having cultivated the ability to serve their entire side’s needs, and thus the commander winds up taking up the burden of command on him. His quarters are the largest to accommodate a variety of messengers, dignitaries, and officers. The high security is because if command is destroyed, the army is likely to collapse and everyone is doomed.

You come into the center of attention by being the most worthy to lead, and leading well. That gets you the center tent.

But — and here’s the damnest thing about it — command is lonely, a burden few understand, and fewer still would want if they understood it. Most of the greatest leaders in history, if you actually read their private papers and sayings, were grateful for the ability to move the world forwards, but also highlight a certain feeling of burden that few can or would try to understand.

And yet — the philosophical, action-oriented person who has the ability to lead, often starts leading. People build around them. Their quarters expand to accommodate more visitors, and slowly the camp becomes ordered around command.

Saying — “Ah! The center! Yes, that looks nice!” misses the point. There’s no chance of reaching it, if you think like that. Rather, you begin to serve, and serve well, you train and discipline yourself, you take care of everyone’s needs. And then you wind up at the center of things, with all the good and ill that entails.

Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman’s “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society” is a fascinating work. It’s required reading for much of the American military officers and law enforcement personnel. There’s many counter-intuitive points in there, including that the vast majority (approximately 80%) of soldiers during the American Civil War and World War II never actually fired with the intent of hitting the enemy.

This paragraph stood out to me -

[In Dr. Jerome Frank's] Sanity and Survival in the Nuclear Age, […] he points out that civil wars are usually more bloody, prolonged, and unrestrained than other types of war. And Peter Watson, in War on the Mind, points out that “deviant behavior by members of our own group is perceived as more disturbing and produces stronger retaliation than that of others with whom we are less involved.” We need only look at the intensity of aggression between different Christian factions in Europe across the centuries, or the infighting between the major Islamic sects in the Middle East, or the conflict between Leninist, Maoist, and Trotskyist Communists, or the horror in Rwanda and other African tribal battles, to confirm this fact.

Start with the water. Build the canal to move the water around.

Building a canal on dry land? You’ll have an empty, dry canal.

Business is similar.

Start by finding a stream of money. Then build supports around it to make the money keep flowing.

Don’t start by building supports around a desert. Nothing will flow.

Find the water first. The canals don’t create the water.

I’ve covered some individual sections, but I’d like to specifically recommend the book. I’ve read better books, and I’ve read more succinct books, but I’ve never read a better and more succinct book.

“Scipio Africanus” by BH Liddel Hart is really wonderful. It looks at the events, analyzes the strategies employed, and puts them in historical context.

It moves fast. There’s no fluff. One of the most impressive pieces of historical writing I’ve read.

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will themselves not be realized.” — Daniel Burnham, via 37Signals

“And if you’ve smoked any weed, had a joint in college, whatever — tell us the truth! This will not adversely affect you, it’s most important to us that you tell us the truth.”

There were two officers at the front of the LAPD Reserve Officer Orientation. The Reserve Officer program was unpaid volunteer police work. You’d get a small stipend for equipment, and “intense paramilitary-style training” as they described it.

I was excited to protect and serve. It was 2009, and I didn’t have much to do after the financial crash wiped everything out. So, I was becoming a reserve police officer. I was thinking I could help out in detective work, I like figuring things out. Or riot duty.

I liked the orientation, and I filled out the required background application. There were questions to tick off, something like this:

Marijuana ………….. Multiple times in last year [ ] Once in last year [ ] Multiple times in lifetime [ ] Once in lifetime [ ] Never [ ]

Hashish ……………. Multiple times in last year [ ] Once in last year [ ] Multiple times in lifetime [ ] Once in lifetime [ ] Never [ ]

Cocaine ……………. Multiple times in last year [ ] Once in last year [ ] Multiple times in lifetime [ ] Once in lifetime [ ] Never [ ]

Barbituates ………… Multiple times in last year [ ] Once in last year [ ] Multiple times in lifetime [ ] Once in lifetime [ ] Never [ ]

Halucinogens ……….. Multiple times in last year [ ] Once in last year [ ] Multiple times in lifetime [ ] Once in lifetime [ ] Never [ ]

Marijuana and hash? A few times in lifetime.

Hallucinogens? Once in lifetime.

Nothing else.

Cool, I should be good… I don’t even drink, I’m the most sober person I know.

I put down my references, employment history, whatever, and clicked submit on the webpage.

And the computer spits out -

REJECTED: YOU ARE PERMANENTLY BANNED FROM CALIFORNIA EMERGENCY SERVICES.

Fuck.

I called a case officer.

“Hey officer, pardon me for being blunt, but what the heck is going on? I had mushrooms once in Amsterdam, but I’m one of the most sober people I know. I don’t even drink, haven’t even had a drink in three years.”

“It’s the hallucinogens… flashbacks, you know? It’s a liability thing. You can’t be part of any emergency service.”

“I wasn’t sure about it, I just marked it and figured I’d mention it on the form so I was honest for the polygraph, and could explain it.”

“Yeah, well…”

“I didn’t have LSD or acid or anything. I don’t think mushrooms even generate flashbacks. I just marked it because, y’know, the recruiting officer said to be honest.”

“Okay son…” he started gently. He pauses, he’s obviously thinking. “Did you, umm, fill it out on paper, or online?”

“Online.”

There’s a pause. It sounds like he’s frowning on the other end of the phone.

And he speaks, “…well, then there’s nothing we can do.”

Oh.

I thought about reaching out to then-Governor Schwarzenegger for an exemption, but I let it go. I probably would have had a different life trajectory if I’d been accepted, I probably wouldn’t have left California a few months later.

I’ve since spoken to a number of police officers, soldiers, and other servants of the public in intelligence, security, and emergency services.

You’re expected to lie on certain things.

I think they see you as a liability if you don’t lie. Things are often off-track a little bit, but if you open up about all of it you can really screw up people’s lives.

At least, that’s my working theory. If I apply for civil, military, police, or intelligence services again, I’m going to write what they expect to see on the application. If they wind up digging around and seeing this blog post, well, you want to tell me with a straight face that that’s not the way the world works?