balance

Before You Can Select a System for Your Lists

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Success No Responses »

May 182012

Readers have asked for specific suggestions for tools–electronic and paper–for tracking and managing their Effectiveness Habits lists. An we will be looking at several very good ones in upcoming posts.

Before you can select one, you have to answer these three questions to know which tools will work best for you.

How do you want to record your current and potential tasks throughout your day? Recall the idea of hoppers from Effectiveness Habit #1: Get It Out of Your Head. Make a quick list of common places in your life where you might receive or think of current or potential tasks. For each, jot down how you would prefer to capture those tasks. At your desk, for example, would you want to write the idea on a piece of paper and toss it into a desk tray, type something on your computer, type something on your smartphone, or jot something in a notebook? What about while you are in a meeting, on your commute, on the shop floor, at the soccer field, in bed, or at the grocery store?
Do you prefer Paper or Electronic? For your lists, which do you think you would prefer? For taking notes in a meeting, which would you prefer? Or, perhaps, you’d rather have a hybrid of both?
If electronic, which type(s)? Mac, Windows, Linux? Notebook or desktop? Apple, BlackBerry, Android, or Windows phones or tablets?

Once you know the answers to these questions, it becomes easier to narrow the choices of good tools to select from.

Ciao,

Mike

Paper or Electronic?

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Success 5 Responses »

May 172012

Reader Debbie Fletcher asked, “Do you have a mechanism or system that you use (or can suggest) to support the approach that you are recommending? I’m looking for something paper based rather than electronic. … It is quite possible that I may have to move into the 21st century and do it all electronically somehow.”

Yes, there are several good systems to support the Effectiveness Habits and your lists. As Debbie notes, one of the first factors to consider is “paper or electronic?” Both can work very well. And both have some downsides. Here’s an overview of the pros and cons of each to help you decide.

	Paper	Electronic
Pros	Easy – no special training or equipment needed Portable – a paper-based system is always on, usually easy to carry and use most anywhere, and is “wireless” Natural – many people love the aesthetic of pen and paper; many attest to doing better thinking when they use paper and pen. Some say they are faster writing with pen on paper than typing.	Smoothly integrated with email, texting, etc – easy, in many electronic systems, to capture current and potential tasks from your emails, texts, and other electronic sources. Easy to maintain – you can copy, manipulate, expand, and move information on electronic lists very easily; no need to rewrite. It is also easy to share tasks amongst team members. One less thing to carry – if you already carry a smartphone, you needn’t carry much else to have your system with you.
Cons	Difficult to expand – fixed pages in notebooks and fixed areas for writing information make it hard to expand information Lots of rewriting – unlike the cut/copy/paste/move/re-categorize features of an electronic system, manipulating information in a paper-based system implies rewriting. Hard to search – a stuffed, tagged, and well-loved binder or stack in a paper system is pretty much impossible to search.	Requires hardware, software – though there are plenty of great, free apps, you still need to pick one and to get the hardware Can get quite complex – first, there are hundreds of apps and sites to choose from; second, apps can have complex sets of features and user interfaces. Can be less portable – some of the best apps for managing your lists work very well on your desktop and may not sync with your phone or tablet. Apps on your smartphone or tablet are harder to work with for your daily and weekly refreshes.

More about specific paper and electronic systems in upcoming posts.

To your continued success,

Mike

Beware Artificial Urgency

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Success 2 Responses »

May 162012

Artificial Urgency is what you do to make some tasks stand out in your lists because you fear you won’t get them done otherwise. Artificial Urgency tactics include

Putting due dates on tasks (doables or outcomes) that you haven’t really promised to anyone. “Oh, I better get that done. I’ll flag it as due today.”
Marking tasks as high priority, flagged, starred, or urgent. “Geez, I gotta remember to do this. I’ll mark it ‘high priority.’”

Because we tend to make too many things due soon and mark too many things urgent, these tactics lose their meaning and power. We end up going numb to them. Perhaps the only thing that Artificial Urgency achieves is increasing your sense of guilt about what you are not getting done and about your productivity.

Of course, due dates and urgency flags can be useful if used well. Mark an item with a due date only if you have made a promise to someone that you will get the task done by a certain date. Example: “Complete TPS report by Wednesday evening as promised to Carol.” And feel free to have up to one task per day marked as urgent.

How, then, should you stay on top of all the doables and outcomes that you would normally festoon with due dates and flags/stars/or priority numbers?

Easy. Do your daily and weekly refreshes. You will easily stay on top of things by scanning and updating your lists at least daily.

Make sense?

Trouble Getting Started with Your Effectiveness Habits?

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Success No Responses »

May 142012

Many of you have told me, “I want to start using these effectiveness tools but I haven’t gotten around to it just yet.” If you are in this situation, here are some tips to help you get started.

Give yourself a break. Treat the act of using these tools as just another habit to build. The best way to build any new habit is not to force yourself. Instead make a strong commitment to the habit then observe yourself in the act of initially not doing the new habit. Soon the dissonance between your commitment and your observations will help you very naturally adopt the new habit.
Choose how you will start building your set of lists: using the “core dump” method or “accretion” method. Either works well.

In the core dump method, you start with everything. Fill pages and pages with each and every task, potential tasks, idea, and dream. Then you use Effectiveness Habit #3: MOD It to transform that written mass into your core set of lists.
The accretion method is similar but you start quicker with just the now-most-important tasks, potential tasks, ideas, and dreams. You still use Habit #3 to build your core lists. Over time, you can add more and more tasks, ideas, etc. until everything is in your lists.

Get assistance. Partner with a friend who will help you stay on track.

To your continues success!

Mike

Your Lists

Success 3 Responses »

May 142012

When you adopt the Effectiveness Habits, you end up with a set of interrelated lists. Here are the most important ones.

Hopper	One list or at most a few lists where you record actual and potential to-dos throughout your day. Can include your email inbox. MODding the items in your hoppers converts them to items on other lists such as doables and outcomes.
Outcomes	A list of things you are committed to get done and that take more than one step to complete. Includes a description of the outcome your seek and/or how you know you’ve achieved it.
Doables	A list of concrete, discrete things you can actually do. Examples: “Call Rebecca to schedule next off-site team meeting,” is doable. “Build next year’s budget,” is probably not doable; it probably is an outcome that will be completed in several steps. “Stimpson report” is also not a doable because it’s a not concrete, discrete: what do you want to do with or to the Stimpson report? Take it somewhere? Edit it? Review it?Doables can be sorted (even into separate lists) by what David Allen calls, contexts or the type of the activity. Examples contexts or ways to subset doables by type: email, call, file, read, computer, and errand.
Back Burner	A list of doables and outcomes that you want to remember and that you choose not to work on right now.
“Know why”	A list of your personal, family, and/or organizational vision, mission, and goals. Include a list of the key accountabilities for your main work role. See Habit #5: Know Why.

Use this list to help you build your set of lists.

The Catch

Success 2 Responses »

May 122012

Today’s note is about a basic tool called The Catch. It is a tool that most of us really need and don’t use. And if we did use it, it would change everything.

So why do we need this tool? Because we all have a strong habit of tolerating–even welcoming–bad feelings.

The Catch is about becoming aware that you are feeling bad despite the habit to tolerate that bad feeling. This awareness opens the door wide.

When you feel bad, you are thinking about something(s) you do not want. When catch yourself when you feel bad, you open wide a door to thinking about what you want, feeling good, getting more done with ease, and being happier overall.

You can most easily Catch yourself by noticing the sometimes subtle and always unwanted physical feelings such as weightiness, tension, or numbness in your chest, back, head, neck, arms, legs, hips, etc.

Try it for a day. Or if a day is too much, try it for just an hour. See how many times can your catch yourself feeling bad and how many times can you catch yourself feeling good?

The Four Lenses of Success

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Success No Responses »

May 122012

Success for you or your organization is simple. You need only look through four lenses described below to see where you have trouble and where you can focus. These lenses act as both a road map to success and a diagnostic.

Lens	What’s needed for success	Signs of trouble
What	A clear, complete, common, and compelling goal. (Because success is always an outcome.)	Fuzzy, incomplete, competing, or uncompelling, goals.
We	Win-win relationships with all who matter. (Because you can never do it alone.)	Tension, politics, lose-win, or win-lose with any who matter.
Can	Higher-”buzz” thinking, beliefs, attitude that support you, your organization, your goals. (Because your thinking creates your world.)	Lower “buzz” thinking, beliefs, attitude that detract.
Do	An easy flow of action to get things done. (Because success is always an outcome.)	Pushing, avoiding, lack of results, drained energy.

Every one of these daily notes/posts addresses something in one or more of the lenses. Notes about The Effectiveness Habits, for instance, are mostly about the “Do” lens. Look for more to come from all four of the lenses.

Meanwhile, try using the above table as a diagnostic. For someone or some organization you know, apply theses lenses to their situation. Can you see where they are well focused (if at all) and where they may be having trouble (if at all)?

The Effectiveness Habits: an Overview

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Success 2 Responses »

May 102012

For quick reference and review, here is a list of the seven Effectiveness Habits with brief descriptions and links to detailed descriptions of each.

1	Get it Out of Your Head	Write down every current and potential task so your mind won’t have to remember everything.
2	Feel Good. Then Act.	When you pause to feel better, your actions and the results you want come with much more ease.
3	MOD It	Transform your Habit #1 mass of tasks, ideas, and potential tasks into Meaningful Outcomes and Doables.
4	Act Naturally	Neither pushing nor avoiding, scan your list of doables to choose the very best thing to do.
5	Know Why	Know the big picture and know why that big picture is compelling so you can put daily work into a meaningful context.
6	Refresh	Refresh your system of lists daily and weekly so it stays reliable and so you continue to feel in charge.
7	Cultivate Access to You	Dedicate regular time to discovering and accessing your deeper, who-you-really-are self for ease.

And, rounding out this list, the article describing How to Build a New Habit.

So, what would you like to do next to become more effective with more ease?

To your continued success,

Mike

Resistance to Discipline

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Hiring, Organizations, Strategy No Responses »

May 102012

So, have you built your system of lists yet? Have you adopted more than one of the seven Effectiveness Habits yet?

No?! I’m shocked.

Actually, I’m not shocked.I expected you to find it hard if not impossible to add these time management/effectiveness tools to your life. Here’s why…

Most of us will resist new procedures or tools such as the seven Effectiveness Habits. That’s because we tend to see any discipline as an imposition and as an affront to our personal freedom.You will resist suggestions, systems, and procedures from me and others because they appear to be a restriction on you. If you catch yourself thinking things like, “It’s too much,” “I can’t change,” or “I’m overwhelmed,” then you are very likely in a resistance to discipline.

Luckily, if you see value in the seven Effectiveness Habits or any other tools, you can bypass that resistance and adopt the tools. Instead of seeing them as limitations on your freedom imposed by others, see them as habits you freely choose to adopt for the benefits they provide you.

“Freely chosen, discipline is absolute freedom.” Ron Serino

So, now, which of the seven Effectiveness Habits will you freely choose to adopt today?

How to unstick the lingering “to dos” on your lists

Can: Clear thought, Do: Natural flow of action, Success No Responses »

May 092012

You may have an item or two on your to-do list(s) that seem to just sit there, gathering dust, and not getting done. Every time you scan your to-do list(s), you pass right over them. Frustrating, aren’t they?! Here’s the good news: there are just 3 reasons why they are might be stuck. And there is an easy fix for each reason.

It’s fuzzy. You haven’t decided what this item means to you. An example of an item like this might be, “terms and conditions on the Olivier contract.” All this says is that you want to remember something about those Ts & Cs. But is this something you want to file, do, or delegate? Take the time and decide what this item means to you. (see Effectiveness Habit #3: MOD It)
It’s not doable. You may have decided that the item is something you want do. But if it is not broken down into a specific, physical step, you will ignore it on your list. Restate this item as either a physically doable step (e.g. email, call, errand, read, etc.). Example: turn “Wilkinson Offer” to “Outline Wilkinson Offer.” Or, if it is an outcome (something that takes more than one step to complete), then record the outcome on your list of outcomes and pick a very next doable step for it. Example: turn “fix the terms and conditions on the Olivier contract” into an outcome called, “Fix the Ts & Cs in the Olivier contract” and have a next, physical step of, “Call Linda to ask what she thinks the Olivier Ts and Cs need.”
It’s not important. Other things are and have been more important to do first. Reassess if this item is really important now. If it is not, move it to your “back burner” list.

To your continued success!

Mike

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