S5 FAQ
Do the Turtle Sheets have to be blue?
ANSWER: I recommend the color blue as it psychologically a soothing color. In addition, if all office personnel maintain consistency, the system functions more efficiently due to everyone recognizing the Turtle Sheets. However, if you must select another color, you will still be able to experience a ‘Chaos Free’ life.
Does the Turtle include my electronic work to do?
ANSWER: Of course. Work received electronically is just another channel of work coming to you. Each electronic item received that is a Turtle needs to be printed and prioritized within your Turtle stack.
NOTE: “One cannot serve two masters.” Having your paper and electronic Turtles separated destroys your ability to keep your work centralized and prioritized – THE CORE CONCEPT OF THIS PROGRAM.
If I have a verbal request do I fill out a Turtle?
ANSWER: Yes. Immediately upon receiving a verbal request, grab a Turtle Sheet and fill in the information. The value?…NO sticky notes or small scraps of paper, but most importantly, you have NO possibility of forgetting the details of what is expected of you.
What if I have a verbal request that results in a Pending?
ANSWER: As a verbal request, this requires a Turtle Sheet. However, because it is a Pending item, for the present time, it will be placed in its proper Pending location (P), (PHA) and calendared for your follow-up. NOTE: There will be, at times, the instance where a portion of this particular job CANNOT be worked on, (Pending) however there are other areas of this same job that CAN be worked on, while awaiting Pending information.
Do I have to have a Turtle Sheet for every task?
ANSWER: No. If an item/task is self-explanatory, contains all of the necessary information. Keep in mind that if you should receive an item/task on a sheet of paper smaller than 8½” X 11” and it contains all of the needed information, it can simply be stapled to a Turtle Sheet for expediency.
Does the Turtle Stack need to be prioritized at all times?
ANSWER: Yes. If you are following the program it will automatically stay prioritized with the least amount of energy. Having said this, circumstances and situations may come up during your workday that may cause a shift in your prioritization. This is why you invert and re-prioritize (if necessary) your Turtle at the beginning of every workday.
Does the Turtle really replace all of my ‘To Do’s’?
ANSWER: Absolutely, as ‘To Do’s’ provide virtually no support information and have no system of prioritization. More importantly, your Turtle is a centralized system containing ALL of the work that you CAN do.
Do I have to make a copy of the Turtle Sheet for work delegated to others?
ANSWER: It is a good policy to do so as the Turtle you are giving to another becomes a Pending for you. The copy is for you to review when this Pending becomes due.
If I am in and out of my Turtle all day long, why can’t I have it on my desk?
ANSWER: For the sake of focus and concentration provided by a ‘Clear 180’. While this may seem unnecessary to maintain on a conscious plane, it will prove to be essential on the more powerful sub-conscious plane.
What do I do with completed Turtle Sheets?
ANSWER: They will end up in one of three locations – Archive, Home file or Trash. NOTE: Ask yourself if the completed item needs to be retained for governmental or documentation purposes.
Do Turtle project completion dates have to be put on the calendar?
ANSWER: So long as your Turtle Stack is prioritized according to the completion dates, no calendaring is necessary. However, when a Turtle item requires large blocks of time to be worked on, then calendaring would be akin to your making an appointment with yourself to support its completion.
Is it okay to put the start and completion dates on my calendar for some of my important Turtles?
ANSWER: Absolutely! That is also a good way of scheduling ‘Turtle Time’ for your bigger projects.
Where do you put a Turtle sheet for a large project when it has tasks on it that are both Turtle’s and Pending items?
ANSWER: Keep this Turtle sheet in on your Turtle stack in the accurate priority and cross off items that have been completed. Log the items for follow-up onto your calendar and use the location symbol of ‘T’ for Turtle.
What happens when a Turtle turns into a Pending?
ANSWER: This means that you have gone as far as you can go and now must await someone or something outside of your control in order for you to continue. The item is held in its appropriate place (P), (EP), (PHA), (H), (T) and calendared for follow-up.
If an E-mail Turtle has no attachments and I don’t need to reply to it, can it be deleted?
ANSWER: In this case, once printed, and not requiring documentation or further follow up then delete away!
How do I manage long term Turtles in regard to prioritization?
ANSWER: The range of time for a Turtle item is not the issue. So long as you are acknowledging ‘Estimated time for Completion’; ‘Completion Date’; ‘Start Date’, this along with each of your steps (‘Notes’ section), being sequenced and time-lined, a long term Turtle is treated no differently. Simply follow your time-lines.
When an Electronic Turtle (ET) has multiple e-mails going back and forth how do I keep them organized?
ANSWER: Simply make a single sub-folder for these under ‘ET’.
When clearing out a completed item from my ET folder, should I be deleting this along with all associated messages?
ANSWER: Only if there is no need for documentation.
Some of my Turtles or Pendings over the course of one day will, for certain, begin and end on this one day. Would it be okay for me to keep them in my ‘In box’ for this day?
ANSWER: This could become an incredible ‘Slippery Slope’. My concern is the tendency for you to lose control of your Turtles for prioritization should these situations not be resolved in one day. This method is extremely conducive to procrastination along with the re-establishment of accumulating e-mails that you have spent a great amount of time, energy and focus in purging.
The only way that I can see this working for you is to place a Turtle Sheet in your Turtle Stack (prioritized in its correct place), to complete all of your E-mail Turtle Items and any incomplete Pendings before day’s end.
What is the purpose of my Turtle Holding Area (THA)?
ANSWER: To prevent thick and bulky items from making your Turtle stack large and unmanageable. The Turtle process is designed to streamline your workflow and enhance efficiency. An overly large Turtle stack will diminish the intended results. Further, the psychological impact of managing an oversized Turtle stack is contrary to the intention of the Program…which is to reduce stress.