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“BREAKTHROUGH” SYSTEM DELIVERS STRESS-FREE RESULTS”

OPStime - The Secret to Perfect Timing for Success

 

Great. Just what we all need. One more “system” to help make us even more productive. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of having to be more “effective.” From laptops and cellular phones, E-mail and day-timers to networking groups and “power prioritizing,” we got all the weapons we need. But ever notice that as our “effectiveness” and “productivity” levels climb, so does our stress?

 

Ever muttered under your breath that we weren’t cut out for such stress, that the demands we put on ourselves today - at the edge of the 21st century - are just downright unnatural?

Thanks to technological innovation, the workday never ends, we’re overloaded with information critical to maintaining our competitive edge, and we’ve lost our joy and sparkle. The casualties: Our health, relationships, and peace of mind. The well-chronicled “voluntary simplification” movement is in high gear, as many middle age baby boomers are checking out of high stress careers, dramatically scaling back lifestyles in order to capture the one thing that has eluded them in their previous well-heeled existence - true quality of life. 

 

“Show me something that boosts productivity and effectiveness while simultaneously reducing stress - and without using illegal drugs - and I’ll take a look!” Right?

 

Well, guess what? Someone may’ve gone and done it. And best part? It’s breathtakingly simple. Meet Robert D. Taylor. Multimillionaire businessman, owner of the largest contracting business in the Southeast United States, and author of OPStime - The Secret to Perfect Timing for Success. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Taylor became intrigued by the same questions that have perplexed many of his fellow businesspeople. Why are we so stressed all the time? Does increased productivity have to mean more stress? And specific to his own business, why did his commissioned sales force sell the daylights out of one group of leads on one day, and the next, with identically profiled prospects, come back virtually empty handed. Not satisfied with the usual “Sometimes-you-eat-the-bear-and-sometimes-the-bear-eats-you” rationale for such fluctuations, he set out to find a more specific answer with real-world applicability.

 

Welcome to OPStime. The perfect marriage of present day business reality with fundamental rhythms as old as the world itself. Taylor discovered that 1960s scientists known as chronobiologists, in their research on biological clocks, had discovered a whole host of biological timing mechanisms including circadian rhythms. Unlike many others, these rhythms operate independently of the individual, while still influencing the body’s overall timekeeping. And more importantly, the circadian rhythms operate on an approximate 25-hour “day,” in contrast to our rigid 24-hour lunar/solar day. As a result, our actual body cycles of performance, while they repeat themselves, show up an hour later each day for 25 days.

 

And indeed, the evidence for the validity of circadian theory has been borne out in a spate of noted studies. When subjects were isolated from sunlight, clocks, television, radio, etc - all trappings of time - and left to their own internal rhythms, in a matter of days, their bodies reverted to the 25-hour circadian clock.

 

According to the circadian rhythms, certain times of the day are better suited to the accomplishment of more intense activities, while others will be most appropriate for more laid-back pursuits. What Taylor has done, through years of research and collaboration with top experts - clinical psychologists, chronobiologists, even marketing and advertising professionals - is come up with a prescription for our fluctuating energy levels. What does this mean to you? Nothing less than a crystal ball of sorts. Using his system - a color-coded chart for every day of a given calendar year - you can see when is the best time to schedule your sales calls, your creative writing pursuits, meditation, conflict resolution, even sex. All with the objective of maximizing your performance in any of those or any other set of activities.

 

Taylor’s own business lent itself beautifully to studying the validity of the hypothesis. And his findings were rather amazing. According to circadian theory, the day is broken into four types of time periods, which Taylor has color-coded: Optimal Gold - the most intense, Excellent Green - close to Optimal but a shade less intense, Moderate Green - perfect for creative pursuits, low-key discussions, etc, and Fair Red - best for exercising, meditating, naps, light administrative work, and the like.

 

When Taylor began sending his salespeople on appointments in the Optimal Gold period, and added data from two years of past calls, he discovered that Gold sales calls yielded a stunning 72% closing percentage. Appointments at the Fair Red end of the scale turned in a dismal 14%, and much to his chagrin, he found that a full 50% of his past sales calls had been made when Red time ruled. By incorporating the calendar into his call scheduling, his organization experienced a 25% increase in sales in one year.

 

Taylor emphasizes the most significant aspect of his findings. “By utilizing the OPStime system, you’re not just boosting your productivity and effectiveness virtually overnight simply and easily, but by definition, you reduce stress by factoring in our universal energy fluctuations. You know when to ‘strike while the iron is hot,’ but just as importantly, you know when it makes perfect sense to go take a nap, work out, or meditate. Minus the guilt.” It appears to be the perfect solution for the 90’s and one of the few enlightened approaches to boosting productivity.

 

Taylor points out that most systems for boosting productivity are results-focused, not human-focused. As he puts it, “The emphasis is on the individual being a slave of a particular system, with the only measure of success being the bottom line numbers. So what if the person is broken down and used up in the process? Such approaches are doubly shortsighted, because they seem to ignore the interaction between the person and the system; an optimally functioning human being will be a heckuva lot more productive than a stressed-out, overburdened one. With OPStime, we work backwards, starting the with the person, and matching the task to the current energy state.”

 

Another interesting revelation of Taylor’s research is that the number of Optimal Gold periods in the six-month spring/summer cycle is much greater than its fall/winter counterpart. People literally hibernate in the winter: sleep more, eat more (think holidays), are less productive, more lethargic. Sound familiar? With the exception of the holiday season slowdown - just coincidence? - the business cycle generally continues unabated. Because we’re fighting our natural rhythms to maintain the same energy level that naturally shows up in the warmer months, we’re more stressed.

 

Is OPStime limited to the salespeople of the world? Hardly. Through on-going study, Taylor and his team are exploring the applicability of his system to an enormous variety of arenas: marketing campaigns, media buying, advertising, personal relationships, sports performance, and a huge number of medical areas: psychiatry, childbirth, PMS, cancer, heart disease, seasonal affective disorder, depression, sleep and eating disorders, and good old-fashioned garden variety stress.

 

Taylor is quick to note that while the system employs concepts new and unusual to most people, his data and results solidly back up his premises. And in addition, he’ll say, it just feels right. “Ever been on vacation, took off your watch, and just let your body just run the show, unencumbered by man-made measures of time? Most people exposed to my system, while they may go through an initial skepticism, are quickly won over not only by the results, but by the fact that it seems to confirm an inner sense they’ve had for years. On some level, we all recognize that there are some sort of cycles at work. Some days, we just feel off, on others we can do no wrong. When we find ourselves operating “in the zone,” we often lament the fact that we can’t “bottle” the experience and call it up whenever we need it most.” OPStime may have captured that essence and slid the cork home.

 

 

Peter Bowerman is a freelance commercial writer and columnist in Atlanta