Inspiration from the BBC

Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 8:34
Mark Forster in Life Management, Productivity

I have often said that it is structure that controls our actions - and that given different structures we will act in different ways.

So here are two different ways in which I act:

• When I get a rental DVD from amazon.co.uk it tends to lie around for a long time before I watch it. I seldom if ever get up to my monthly maximum.
• When I download a TV programme from BBC iPlayer it gets watched promptly.

Why the difference?

Amazon has no time limit and there is no penalty for not returning a DVD. As long as I continue to pay my monthly subscription they are perfectly happy!

The BBC iPlayer site has programmes available for 7 days after they are broadcast. If you download a programme you can keep it for 30 days before it is deleted automatically. But once you start watching it, it is deleted automatically after only 7 days.

So the result of the BBC’s system is that I never fail to watch the downloads.

My question is: could this 7-30-7 pattern be adapted into a time management system?

Any suggestions as to how that could work?

Article originally appeared on Get Everything Done (http://markforster.squarespace.com/).