I’m Back with a New Work Flow!
Hello, Internets! Just as promised, I'm baaaaaaaaack!
I honestly missed writing quite a bit! Taking the break was the right decision but I'm very glad to be back. Thank you all for being so supportive of my mini-hiatus.
First things first, I have a confession to make. When I started this blog, I promised that I would share with you how I organized things, and that I would let you know when I discovered that something isn't working. This is one of those times.
At the beginning of the year, I set a new process flow:
- Priorities were identified and SMART Goals were RANKED
- Success Metrics would be TRACKED weekly
- I assigned different goals for every month of the year. In January I would focus on this. In April I would focus on that.
Well, here we are, in July. More than six months of the year have drained by. Don't get me wrong, I have managed to accomplish a few things.
First and foremost: I have a frickin' BOOK (Wasted Talent Book One, currently at the printer). So much of my energy has gone into this, it's not even funny. It was worth it... except that it took way WAY longer than I was hoping it would. Thinking back I don't think I could have worked harder, but it's just depressing when I think of the sum-total of time I spent on this book.
I got frickin' MARRIED. Again, another thing that I am kind of bashing my head against the wall at how long it took. Wayyy too much time, money and energy. But I only had to do it once and it is over now. The day was great and I am so happy to have Trevor and just be married to him. (Should the unthinkable happen to our marriage - I'm just going to elope next time 
)
I suffered through a FLOOD and a MAJOR RENO. Our kitchen was completely torn apart, walls were ripped out and rotated, floors were redone. I couldn't wash a dish for two months. When you live in less than 800sqft, any little disruption makes a HUGE impact, especially on my poor little control-freak brain. The kitchen reno was happening either way, the flood just expanded the work-zone farther than we were hoping. But it's done! Done done done! The apartment is vastly improved.
These three major things took up way more time and energy than I was predicting, and as a result all of my "timelines" are thrown out the window. I also completely failed on the weekly tracking thing. I have a few things that were tracked automatically, like traffic, and other things that I've been tracking week-to-week, like chores and whether I worked out, but I haven't saved those records. I initially built a Google Doc to track it, but I just don't spend that much time on Google Docs.
When I evaluate my current standing compared to the goals I set at the beginning of the year, it's depresing. But I decided, rather than being depressed about how "behind" I am on everything, I'll develop a new way of doing things.
NEW PROCESS
- Still using ranked priorities and SMART goals
- Not going to obsess over tracking metrics. I am still looking for a way to track metrics that will fit suitably in my life, but for now I'd rather spend my precious energy DOING rather than TRACKING.
Here is the biggest shift:
- All of my goals are now divided into "habits" and "projects"
HABITS are something that need to be done repeatedly: every day, week or month (like working out, or writing a blog post, or getting dressed nicely.) Success is determined by how OFTEN and CONSISTENTLY you do it.
PROJECTS have a defined beginning, middle and end. Success is determined by whether it's done or not (1/0).
It's a pretty clear division, but when I set my goals at the beginning of the year, habits and projects were all mashed together with varying priorities.
HERE IS THE NEW RULE
- You can only build (or break) one new habit at a time.
- You can only tackle one project at a time, and you need to focus on it until it is DONE.
I'm not going to dwell so much on the "when". (such as, in April I will learn to ride my bike to work (I didn't) or I will finish my book by March (yeah, whoops.)) The "When" will always be "as soon as possible". When you finish one habit or project, you move onto the next most important one. Immediately. The order and priority is what concerns me.
So that's that.
I'm very excited by the new set of goals I have to tackle now that these huuuuge major ones are out of the way, and I'm glad to start posting again.
I'll let you know how this goes.
Weekly List Review – part 2 of 3
How to Schedule Your Work Week.
Last week, I told you about a strategy to organize all the different projects and responsibilities you have going on in your life. Now that you have all the "next steps" that you need to do written down for every project, it's STILL paralyzing. There's so much to do, and you will still be stuck trying to decide what the most important thing you should be working on is.
This week, I'm going to help you break that giant binder full of lists into ONE LIST of actions that you are going to tackle this week.
** Note, this strategy is best for your WORK DAY, when you have eight full hours to dedicate to the tasks. I use a different strategy to plan my PERSONAL LIFE and PERSONAL GOALS, which I'll go over in part 3. If your work is more flexible (if you are self-employed for example and are free to mix up personal chores and professional obligations) your resulting system might be a mix of the two strategies.
Perfect Project Planning
We all have things we'd like to do: things for work, things for the family, things for professional development or personal satisfaction. Often these tasks can be grouped together into "projects".
A project is a series of actions executed to achieve a certain goal.
This is the process I usually follow to plan my projects. It involves setting a deadline and then working backwards, figuring out everything you need to do and when. As an example, let's use "Planning a trip home for a family reunion".
BIG ROCKS
This story was told to me in a time management seminar. It really stuck with me, and I looked around for a good video or summary, but I couldn't find one. So I drew it out really quickly (and I mean REALLY quickly, like over my lunch break kinda thing, so I apologize for that). It's kind of a third-hand story, and it originally belongs to the Highly Effective Stephen R. Covey.
Short Term Goals: Conflicting vs. Reinforcing
More than once when I've hit a brick wall on my goals, I've realized that I'd set myself up for failure. My goals were in complete conflict, and were unrealistic.
When setting short term (priority) goals, you must keep in mind that there is only one of you, and only so many hours in the day. If one goal is to compose a concerto, and the other is to create a christmas album, and they both need to be completed in the same amount of time-- you might run into trouble. Chances are you have only so many hours in the day that allow you to focus on your music - and you're forcing yourself to split that time between two goals! Making progress on your concerto means you've neglected working on your Christmas album.
Goal Setting 3: The Plane Crash
This is the third in a series of Goal Setting excercises.
The first two excercises (Bucket List and Ideal Day) have been pretty fanciful and fun, this one is a little darker. This excercise is about finding your PRIORITIES.
Imagine you're in a plane, and it's starting to crash. You're facing an abrupt and unexpected certain death. As it hurtles towards the earth, you think to yourself, "This is it! My life is over! I really wish I had _______!!"
That's your plane crash goal. It's the #1 thing that you must work towards accomplishing next, because it'll be your #1 regret if you die tomorrow. When you accomplish your #1 goal, run through the excercise again, the next most important thing will pop up.
Hilight this goal as the MOST IMPORTANT one. Make sure you are moving towards this goal in some small way at all times, regardless of what other short-term priorities come and go. There will always be something "urgent". But at the end, only your plane crash goal will matter.
(If you're having trouble visualising your plane-crash goal, my mind usually turns to it as I'm in a turbulent airplane -- which is the origin of the excercise. If there is some other situation that instills fear of death for you, you can go there in your mind instead).
Prioritizing: Five Questions You Should Ask Yourself
Car Garden in Toronto, Ontario
1) If I DON'T do this right now, what is the worst thing that could happen?
- Really step out of your current situation and look at your tasks as if you were an outsider. If you don't get enough money to pay the rent on time, you'll get evicted. If you don't finish your essay on time, you'll lose some credit towards a grade. If you don't submit a piece to an online contest, some person on the internet might be a bit disappointed. Now, in hindsight, getting evicted because you skipped work to finish that piece for the online contest would seem pretty silly. When you're emotionally wrapped up in the contest, it can seem like a really tough choice to make, but really boil things down to THE WORST thing that will happen. If you finish your shift at work, then your essay, you might still have time to submit something to the contest (bonus)! But if you did things in the opposite order, the consequences are much more severe.