The picture above shows one of the dashboards (tasking) from one small section of a group of systems I’ve developed called – rather awkwardly perhaps – the Calendoo.

Running a business – or just life sometimes – is a bit like conducting a symphony, and with the right tool, you can turn chaos and multiple lines of effort into harmony. This need to create order (and more importantly progress) from a multitude of options is what I call now the Calendoo.

This has developed from a simple to-do list and calendar in an email 2 years ago, into a mature system of now so much more than that; around 30 different sub-systems including tasking, systematic information / knowledge-seeking (based on my experience in the world of Intelligence in his previous career), client management, self-education, time-focus, follow-up, resource catalogue, prioritisation, security management, fitness, health, business financial management and overview, KPI overview, progress reviews, property portfolio dashboards, strategy assessment, strategy simulation, personal achievements tracker etc. It is in effect a second brain. This means you don’t just manage time; you master it. It is continuously developed and evolved on a daily-basis, based on all of the information that I hoover-up from the highest-quality experts in a multitude of fields – property, social media, business, entrepreneurship, fitness, ethics etc.

The group of systems has only one purpose – to make the best humanly-possible use of work time – in the most holistic possible sense.

The tool forces you to; eliminate/defer tasks, prioritise, to create sub-system branch-off tasks to automate repetitive tasks, to develop SOPs that naturally eventually lend themselves to outsourcing instructions to others, to systematically research different topics to assess them for viability and much more. This helps you squeeze every drop of potential from your precious time. It is based on the principles that you and/or your team (a) only have so many minutes in a day (b) you need to gain knowledge (c) you need to make decisions (d) you need to execute in order to effect the world (e) everyone has an OODA loop (Observe, Orientate, Decide, Act) (again borrowed from the military) that needs to be fed and sped-up (f) you need to identify and solve problems quickly (g) you need to protect what you have and (h) you need to know what is going on in your business world.

Married2Property Partners are a property company that aims to create social good through property.

These articles are written by Darren de Wal based on his 12 years of experience as an active Property Investor, and 16 years getting to a senior leadership position as an Officer in the Royal Air Force. They are for the benefit of those with a general interest in Property, as well as those wishing to start out investing themselves.