foundational library | hands-on courses

Time is not a force to be managed, but a dimension to be shaped.

And sculpting Time into forms that bring out your best is not a matter of discipline in the punitive sense. It’s a discipline in the sense that it is a branch of study – the study of You, you and your relationship with Time. To skillfully shape time to your liking, you must become a Time Disciple.

Foundational Library

Step 1
How To Get Out of the Quicksand of Overwhelm: The Missing Emergency Handbook
You probably know how to respond to many types of emergencies – from earthquakes and tornados to first aid and fire prevention – but you don’t know how to respond to the emergency of overwhelm. This handbook is that missing set of instructions – the stop, drop and roll – for getting yourself out of the quicksand of overwhelm and back on solid ground.

If you feel like you are slipping under, this is the step you need to take before you can become a Time Disciple. Because you can’t improve the way you organize your time and activities or develop better systems for your work or life when you’re busy trying not to drown.

Grab the rope.

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Step 2
The Way of the Time Disciple
Otherwise known as “The Big Book of Time”, this is the comprehensive guide to everything a Time Disciple needs to know: the properties of Time, developing self-awareness, managing energy, the elements and techniques of shaping a day (and larger containers), making peace with maintenance, unplugging, navigating and responding to change, and more. [coming Spring 2012]

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Step 3
The Time Disciple’s Guide to Finishing
Once you understand the elements of a container and how to arrange them properly, once you know how to skillfully navigate beginnings, middles and endings – you can finish anything. From big projects that are your passion to small odious tasks, from work that can actually be completed to maintenance that can only be finished for now – this guidebook shows you how to get it done. [coming Spring 2012]

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Step 4
The Time Disciple’s Guide to Systems
The key to effective efficiency (and profitability and sanity) is to stop reinventing the wheel and making it all up as you go along. This guidebook shows you how hone your most frequently used containers and document the arrangement of their elements and stages. Once refined, they become spaces you can step into and move through with ease – spaces that deliver consistent results. [coming Spring 2012]

Continuing and Supplemental Guides

The Time Disciple’s Companion
This the day planner that is designed around the way your brain thinks and the way Time actually works. It’s a flexible system that allows you to put what you’re learning from the Foundational Library into practice on a daily basis. [coming Spring 2012]

Hands-On Courses

Spring Studio Bee!
Join me for a day-long communal work party to inaugurate the Atelier’s virtual studio and celebrate the first day of Spring.

Learn and practice the basic techniques of crafting your optimal conditions for doing, get a boost from the energy of the group and the season – and get things done (and have some fun while you’re at it).

[ If you liked Bite the Candy, you'll love a Studio Bee. ]

details & registration

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Master Classes
A Master Class is an opportunity to immerse yourself in a single aspect of time management and/or systems development. And with focused attention comes Perception. Completion. Resolution.

coming soon:

Mastering Email: Clear your inbox and develop systems to keep it that way at the same time.

Wish I would offer a master class on a specific topic? I want your suggestions! Please send them to: hello [at] thirdhandworks [dot] com.

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A Studio Intensive offers a different sort of opportunity for immersion.

It’s an opportunity to synthesize and practice the principles and techniques of the Foundational Library over a full quarter. It’s a chance to apply what you’re learning in real time, to the real ups and downs and twists and turns of everyday life.

An Intensive isn’t about theory. It’s about application.

In addition to the basics, each quarter we’ll explore specific aspects or themes of the Foundational Library through a combination of Studio Bees, Salon conversations, Master Classes and online discussion.

The pace and rhythm of the Intensive parallels that of the Companion – with an emphasis on creative productivity during Fall and Spring quarters, and recovery and preparation during Winter and Summer quarters.

When you enter the Intensive, you enter the smithy. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and do the dirty, sweaty work of shaping Time to your liking.

12+ weeks:  $1147

- opens Fall 2012
- details coming soon