Back in 1962, or thereabouts – when the Smith-Corona mechanical typewriters were still being programmed into young people – I got my first exposure to Back-Timing.
Today, understand, in an age where performance is optional, the Education system doesn’t teach much about PUP – Performance Under Pressure. Back then? Oh, yeah.
So the way it worked was this: You would sit down at the assigned typewriter. Load it with a sheet of paper. Make sure the tabs were set correctly. Feet on the floor. Posture erect. You know – the rules that no one follows today.
The teacher would come around, put an exercise (face-down) on the desk. And would return to her position at the front of class. “This morning we have a 2-minute exercise. I will set the BACK TIMER for two minutes. When it begins, turn the paper over, place it in your copyholder and time until the timer rings.”
Then you’d sweat for two minutes, fat-fingering every other word and eventually counting (after the “ding!”) that you had gotten only 70-words (three of them misspelled) down onto the S/C. Eighth grade misery was what it was. Nowhere near the fun of the advanced math classes.
Another Back-Timer
My second encounter with Back-Timing was in my early broadcasting days. 1968 at KRKO in Everett, WA. Hosting “Garrett’s Graveyard” – an overnight DJ, commentary, with lots of Led Zeppelin, and early top-40.
Back-Timing here was much different. I was spinning records. Just before the “top-of-the-hour” though I would read a few news headlines and end by picking up a UPI network feed.
Back-timing this – so the very last part of the weather “in the Jet City it’s 47-degrees” for example – didn’t step on the Network. That was a BIG no-no in serious rock ‘n roll radio.
Early on, I discovered a back-timing hack for this problem – and I’ve used it off and on in studio work for more than 40-years. The station had a very nifty Frieze Audio-Pilot in the audio chain. Essentially, it has two-speeds of automatic volume control. The slow one would follow signals through a very wide range. The faster system would do fast compression (20-50 db, in fact) on the averaged signal.
By very slowly turning down my microphone (while reading the headlines and weather) the Audio-Pilot would bring down my average audio level (applying more boost in the AVC) and listening, no one was the wiser – because the apparent volume was unchanged.
BANG! When the network news hit? It was 20-30 db hotter than me and it sounded smooth and I never stepped on the network. The program director (fellow named Russ Rebel) was very impressed. (Russ was a deputy sheriff when he wasn’t doing the morning show and later maced me on the air, but that’s a whole other 3-drink story.)
Is There a Point?
Hell yes there is. Aren’t you paying attention?
One of the most powerful tools in your time-engineering arsenal is learning to back-time major events in your life.
Two quick examples:
Cooking Breakfast
Handle all the items that take the most time first. On a typical morning?
- Egg pan goes on the stove first On low, takes a few minutes to be perfect but not too hot.
- Bacon goes in the microwave 3 to 2 1/2 minutes, depending on brand and thickness.
- Toast goes down immediately.
- Then as the microwave dings the bacon is done, the eggs are ready to turn out and the toast pops.
Being a time-engineer you have already got a thermos of hot coffee so in 10 seconds from plating, you’re ready to eat.
Write a Web Column
I try to limit myself on writing time. When you’ve been a “production writer” for over half your life, this is easy. You know (generally) what your Deliverable will be (1-2 pages in a memo, for example). So you block the time for tomorrow. Now, if there is information you don’t have, it’s assigned out with hard deadlines to the people who work for you. Or – in modern times – you tell your AI (assistant mode) I need a report on (fill it in) by (pick the time.)
Now, when the hole comes up on your calendar that you have saved for this project, you have everything you need. Files, comments, spredsheets of supporting data. (Or AI has made up the best “Dog ate my homework story” that ever lived.)
And Example from Today
I had a 15-minute hole in my calendar so I went to the house to have a mid-morning cup of tea with my wife. As I put on my jacket to wander back to the operating position in my life, I paused – maybe all of 10-seconds for the back-timing and event-stacking plan.
- There was a bag of trash to take to the burn barrel. (We live in the woods and there’s not even a building department of out here.) By doingd this now, I could stack several events into Flow. That’s how you “make time.”
- Once I got to the shop, a computer hard drive that was rolling onto backup would be done. And the latest software updates would be ready to install. Microsoft will give you an estimated time for their updates and you can get a good sense on others. This is back-timing at it’s finest.
The idea orf back-timing is easy to remember with a simple Sports or Driving analogy.
If you like sports? “What is on-deck that could turn into a Rain Delay in my Life?”
Picture yourslef a NASCAR or Road Racer? Ask “What are the coming speedbumps and can they be fixing themselves while I have tea?”
Back-timing can be something as simple as the eggs and the bacon showing up done together. But back-timing works on things like construction sites. No point having the concrete mixers lining up for a big pour if the fomrs aren’t done yet.
This is another Time-Tool you can use in a massively extensible way.
Until next time, then?
George