I used to think that keeping a to-do list was a common thing but actually it is very uncommon. What’s even less common is to have a to-do list that isn’t just a numbered list of things to be done one day.
Stress is produced in our lives when we don’t know what to do. The pressure of having a big project is different to stressing about the project. Pressure is a challenge that draws us up to higher levels. Stress is when our minds are overloaded because of that pressure – but I believe you can have pressure without stress! Stress comes when you don’t know what to do with your project.
The most common mistake with a to-do list is to just make a hope list or a project list. While you should keep a project list of things that you are working on, and a someday list for things to be done one day in the future but not necessarily to be done, the main to-do list is where your very next actions go. This is also called your “Next List”.
For example, “Clean the car” is not a task, it is a project, and therefore writing that down in your to-do list isn’t helpful, it’s daunting. Rather you should write down “Pick up vacuum cleaner to clean car”, and “Purchase car cleaning products.” This way you have the next action and relieve stress.
A to-do list is at it’s most powerful when every task:
Is the next tangible and achievable action on the project (how do you tick “Go on holiday”, except when you’ve come back? Rather have “Investigate flights to Spain”)
Is actionable and begins with a verb and thus is an action (this forces you to make it an action, “Investigate flights to Spain” and not just a statement, “Flights”)
Is measurable and has a due date (setting a deadline for the task to be produced, like “Investigate flights to Spain by Tuesday” as opposed to it lingering in production perjury)
Tasks without these things are less likely to be done and more likely to be procrastinated over because they require extra thought before they are done (meaning you still don’t know what to do.)
The to do list is the backbone of your day. It is your runsheet that your day is played off. You will keep four lists that your tasks are organised around:
Next List. This is where all your next tangible, actionable and measurable actions go.
Project List. Here you keep a running list of the projects that you are actively working on, as opposed to projects that have been archived. If you have too many projects here then your alarm bells go off.
Someday List. All the things that you want to do one day that don’t require a deadline.
Waiting For List. Finally, you have a list for all the things that you are waiting to hear back and/or have delegated to others.
Having these four to-do lists means you really need a to-do manager that you can access online, on your phone, on your iPad, on your computer and so. I use Action Method which organises my tasks either according to the project that they are in, or in a flat Next List view. Action Method also allows me to delegate tasks from within the programme.
Labs
What practical help do you need right now with running a to-do list? Let us know so that the Friends here can help.
Perhaps the largest time suck in the world of emails is responding to emails to get more information. This is unfortunately because most people’s emails stink. We save all of us time and energy, and focus our own minds too, when we write smart emails. Poor emails are rude – they are forcing others to make your badmin their admin. SMART emails are:
Specific. They make a specific request or provide specific reference information. They are also brief and to the point, without wonderings and meanderings. No mind farts, which is when you’re only thinking for the first time while you’re typing. If the email is your thinking space, then you must re-read it to ensure it is short and to the point. Aim for no more than 5 lines.
Measurable. They use numbered points so that each point can be responded to if further information is required, the same points providing a way to measure the set task or reference.
Actionable. They highlight what is expected of the reader with this email. If a response is expected, it is made clear with: who needs to do it, what they need to do, and by when with a due date. If it is for reference, this is made clear and for what reference it shall be needed.
Readable. They use double spaced paragraphs because the eye needs whitespace, use bold to highlight main points, use numbered points, use plain fonts in black to make them universal, use correct English – not text language - to save people having to be ghetto to understand what they are saying (this is plain politeness), use a different email for each subject and use the subject as a subject, not the actual body of the email.
Time-aware of others’ time. They only respond to the people who need a response, respond to every email that is received to confirm receipt so that people aren’t waiting to hear back from you while you mull it over, make decisions where decisions need to be made rather than long chain emails, and follow the rule of three – only three emails on a topic or it gets deferred to a phone call or meeting.
Make it your policy that if your email will be going into someone else’s inbox, that they aren’t demotivated when they receive email because it’s lame, but are please to receive it from you because they know that you write SMART emails that give them all they need. Keep people happy by writing SMART emails.
Your Leading Thoughts
As you know I love a good framework – so perhaps I’ve missed a vital point by trying to be too smart. What points would you add?
We need to get things done. And there was a point in my life 2 years ago when the book, Getting Things Done literally saved my life.
I want to break down the 5 pillars of productivity in preparation for a seminar I’m given on this on Sunday at The River Church. (If you’re in the neighbourhood, you are welcome to come – 2:30pm this Sunday.)
Before we begin: productivity vs creativity and the creative’s problem
Ahead of discussing the 5 pillars, I want to make an observation on the problem that we are trying to solve. Most of us have too much on our plate. We are inundated with ‘stuff’ and struggle on a daily, weekly and yearly basis with getting the things done that we need to and/or want to.
Of course, in the end, most stuff comes about right. But I wonder whether we reach anywhere near the potential that we could if we were more organised.
Further more, whilst everything might be alright in the end, the stress levels that we are living at with the weight of responsibility that most of us have crushes and paralyzes us. So whilst we might get to the end of the year with the stuff done that we needed to, it is with the price of exhaustion and the neutering of our creativity.
Yesterday Esko Kilpi challenged me that we should not use the word productivity for humans, but rather the word creativity. My good friend Robin Dickinson also talks about developing a strong NO and not filling out time with so much that we aren’t focussed on the present. Both of them would say that productivity – trying to squeeze more and more out of your day – is a foolish and inhuman pursuit and we should rather seek to have creative whitespace in our days.
Whilst I certainly don’t fall into the other side of the ditch – working 18 hours a day is not working smart – I am working in an environment where I have a lot to do and oversee and my days are on the fuller side as opposed to the free side.
Furthermore, anyone who is ‘creative’ knows that creativity requires discipline. And productivity requires creativity. The two are intrinsically linked and I wonder if it isn’t just a semantic game playing them off against each other.
The 3 values of this balanced life
Thus my premise for productivity, revolves around some core values that are a healthy balance of creativity but also reality:
Integrity. That you become a reliable person, to others and to yourself, and that you do what you say you will do.
Efficiently effective. That you become efficient, giving the time to tasks that they require in order to give you time for creativity, and that your creativity and thinking time is effective. This also denotes control and mastery of what of you do.
Healthy. That you have balance between work and play (not just work, not just play), between enjoying rights and managing responsibilities, and that you enjoy a clear mind. This is freedom.
I think that whether we call it productivity or creativity, these three are good qualities that span all spectrums.
The end of December is always an enjoyable time for me as I focus on the coming year and my priorities. Whilst it’s true that if you want to do something, you should do it, the New Year is helpful in providing a distinct time for reevaluation and refocus.
The trouble with New Years’ Resolutions is that they have a lot of bad PR – namely that they aren’t worth the hot air they’re spoken by – and whilst we have ever intention of starting on January 1st with a whole new outtake on life and a brand new daily routine, we all know in the back of our minds that it won’t last.
What I want to share with you today is a simply mindset change that will help you achieve the change you want to make in a year, without experiencing resolution cut-out or just plain burnout from the 52-part routine your day now consists of.
1. Your Vision For The Year
Every year I have a vision for the year – an overall statement that will guide what I do. Last year my vision for myself was “a leader of teams, not a doer of things”, as I was the bottle neck for way to many projects because I was the one doing all the work. Instead, I had to make 2010 about being a leader of teams and not a doer of things if I wanted the projects to become significant.
I find a vision is more helpful for an overall year that a list of 50 monthly goals, because the vision helps you make quick decisions (does this fit in with my vision for the year?), and also is more a guiding vision than a list of objectives that, if they aren’t fulfilled, can discourage your greatly.
2. Change Your Mindset: The Vision Is For The End, Not The Beginning
Once you have your vision statement – mine for 2011 is “Fatherhood” – then here comes the most important shift that will change the way your approach this year.
Rather than making the vision about what you must be from January 1st, your vision is actually what you want to have integrated into your life by December 31st. In other words, it’s not about making 10 immediate changes to your work habits and setting wildly outrageous goals for exercise, family time, professional achievements and spiritual development on a week by week basis. Instead, it’s taking the pressure off and relieving this intensity by setting a picture that you want to move towards, rather than a marker that you must already be at. The vision is for the end, not the beginning.
If you think about this, this is just common sense. I can take a year to fully integrate a new routine in my life, but I am unlikely to get it into my life tomorrow. This is what the Apostle Paul was talking about in Philippians when he said “not that I have attained on been made perfect, but I press on towards the goal.”
3. Work Backwards In Quarters
Once you’ve got your vision as where you want to be by the end of the year, work backwards and set an objective for each quarter.
Too often we set a vision but then never layout a path to get there, and the mistake I’ve made is by setting the vision and then having a few key objectives that I didn’t make time sensitive, and as we all know when it comes to getting things done, you need a due date.
Now I’m not saying that these objectives become to-dos on our to-do list. But what I am saying is they are timed and measurable markers to help us move towards our vision. So my first of 4 objectives is to “have a daily routine for my life, for life”, by which I mean a daily routine that I can be happy with for the rest of my days and works at my optimal level, with room for adaptation. This is my first objective, so of course, it’s tied to the first quarter (due: end of March!)
By having this overall quarterly aim, I am still avoiding the intensity and weight of a totally changed life from day 1. In fact, it’s not even an intensity per month, but per quarter. I also think that if your vision needs more than 4 quarters to get to, it’s too big for the year.
Once you have your objective, you can then break it down into some smaller goals to help you get there. But don’t make too many – we want to keep this simple as you already have enough complexity in your life.
4. Develop A Daily And Weekly Routine
I recently taught a group of leaders that I mentor about daily and weekly routines and was surprised to find how none of they really had one. So whilst I am indeed talking to early adopters and suspect many of you do, I will still go over how I suggest it’s done.
First thing is that simplicity is the key. I have no interest in creating more work to manage my work. I need a routine that is basic, adaptable and easy to complete so that I don’t get discouraged.
My daily routine goes a little bit like this, which Chris Brogan posted this week – so have a watch:
The key points to add in addition to Chris are 1] I have a set bed time and wake up time as my body loves this, 2] I know what food makes me feel better in the morning, so I eat that! 3] I have a rule when I can use a computer from – in order to force me to disconnect, and 4] my daily routine is more basic than this, but the idea of sectioning time is what I want to get at here.
My weekly routine is even more basic. On a Sunday, I mind map the projects that I am doing on my iPad (I’ll discuss this another time), and based on that mind map, I allocate slots of time to work on those projects in my diary, like appointments with myself. This leaves no whitespace in my calendar and thus that time can’t be taken up with other things like meetings and so on. It also means I have made that commitment with myself, and then can make commitments with others based on what I can get done in those time slots. This means I have accountability with my teams.
5. Get Things Done
If you haven’t read Getting Things Done, then rather than buying the book, you can read this summary by Olivier Roland. This is the very summary that changed my life two years ago. There’s also a fuller summary here. It’s important that you have a daily system for the work you do, and whilst I would assume you as an early adopter do, there are so many people that don’t that I don’t want to assume.
Over To You: Your Leading Thoughts
I always ask for your thoughts to build to this post, as there’s more wisdom in the comments than in my brain! I’m keen to know:
How do you plan for your year? How have you learnt to make every year count?
What is your vision for this year?
What tools can you suggest others here use that you have found indespensible?
Also, I’m so passionate about productivity and being efficient and effective that I’m really keen to help with any questions that you have – so please, ask away.
I put this out on the Like Minds blog this week. It’s a fabulous talk by John Cleese on creativity, mainly about how to be more creative by setting boundaries in space and boundaries in time.
He makes the following 6 points:
Sleeping on a problem helps creativity.
The unconscious mind works creatively even when you’re not creatively engaged (John tells a great story to illustrate this.)
Interruption breaks creativity, and it’s hard to pick up the flow again.
We don’t know where we get our ideas from – we don’t get them from our laptops – they come from our unconscious. If you get in the right restful mood (not being busy), you are not going to have any creative ideas. This really resonates with me and my over busyness.
You need to create a “tortoise enclosure” by: creating space and creating time. This creates an oasis that is separate from ordinary life. Boundaries in space, boundaries in time.
Most people who don’t know what they are doing have no idea that they have no idea what they are doing. This explains why so many people are unfocussed.
I want to focus on what John says about creating an oasis that is separate from ordinary life, set by boundaries in space and boundaries in time.
Do You Have Space?
Here’s my dilemma. I have no space like this. I am “balls to the wall” as the saying crudely goes, and I consider myself as being quite creative in this tight space. I wonder how much more creative I could be. I must be wasting a lot of time without having this time to focus and think clearly.
Likewise I’m sure this is true of many people – do we have time to reflect? I’ve written a lot about this, but just don’t seem to be able to get this right. I would say that my problem is one of delegation – I have too much to do myself but struggle passing it down the line. The catch 22 is of course, if you don’t delegate, you don’t get time, but you need time to delegate!
Harmony is achieved when the inner me and my outer actions are in-synch. It’s almost the opposite of GTD thinking where different aspects of me get scheduled and prioritized. Imagine the body try to schedule your breathing or your pulse??
Your Leading Thoughts
I need you help here today as I have got to sort this out:
Do you have creative space? How do you build it? How do you keep it?
How do you effectively delegate in order to create this space?
I love Mike Myatt’s blog. A leader’s leader, Mike has a wealth of leadership experience and insight that he boils down into quick but prudent lessons everyday. I remember speaking with him on the phone at the beginning of the year, and it was clear to me that whilst Mike works with top companies and is a revered figure in leadership theory circles, he walks his talk. The very fact that he time for a phone call with me also speaks volumes about him.
One of Mike’s main things is focus. This isn’t just a singular focus on one thing, but it’s about adjusting focus as a balance between near sighted and far sighted. He famously says that “It’s not leadership or management, it’s leadership and management. It’s not strategy or tactics, it’s strategy and tactics”, which gives you an idea about this approach.
It is on the subject of focus that I clipped this article of his that demands some treatment from the Friends here at our blog. In his post, “Ideas Don’t Equal Innovation“, Mike lays out 15 elements to measure what you could do against what you should do. We have no shortage of ideas today and thus the defining characteristic of strong leaders, particularly in the digital space, is a focus that is not deterred easily by what they could do. We’ve certainly all been in that place where we’ve been governed by could instead of should.
Mike’s 15 Filters
1. The idea should be generated within a solid framework for decisioning. It should be developed as a solution to a problem or to exploit an opportunity. The idea should be in alignment with the overall vision and mission of the enterprise.
2. If the idea doesn’t provide a unique competitive advantage it should at least bring you closer to an even playing field.
3. Any new idea should preferably add value to existing initiatives, and if not, it should show a significant enough return on investment to justify the dilutive effect of not keeping the main thing the main thing.
4. Put the idea through a risk/reward and cost/benefit analysis.
5. Whether the new idea is intended for your organization, vendors, suppliers, partners or customers it must easy to use. Usability drives adoptability, and therefore it pays to keep things simple.
6. Just because an idea sounds good doesn’t mean it is You should endeavor to validate proof of concept based upon detailed, credible research.
7. Nothing is without risk, and when you think something is without risk, that is when you’re most likely to end-up in trouble. All initiatives surrounding new ideas should include detailed risk management provisions.
8. Adopting a new idea should be based upon solid business logic that drives corresponding financial engineering and modeling. Be careful of high level, pie-in-the-sky projections.
9. Any new ideas should contain accountability provisions. Every task should be assigned and managed according to a plan and in the light of day.
10. Any new ideas being adopted must lead to measurable objectives. Deliverables, benchmarks, deadlines, and success metrics must be incorporated into the plan.
11. It must be detailed and deliverable on a schedule. The initiative should have a beginning, middle and end.
12. Ideas need to be incorporated into strategic initiatives and not constitute disparate systems. They should be incorporated into integrated solutions that eliminate redundancies, and build in tactical leverage points.
13. Ideas should contain a road-map for versioning and evolution that is in alignment with other strategic initiatives and the overall corporate mission.
14. A successful idea cannot remain in a strategic planning state. It must be actionable through tactical implementation.
15. Senior leadership must champion any new idea being adopted. If someone at the C-suite level is against the new idea, it will likely die on the cutting-room floor.
Your Leading Thoughts
I don’t want you to discuss all 15. You might want to clip this for later, but there’s too much here for you guys to take time out now to spend a length of time discussing, instead:
Pick 2 out of the 15 that are issues that you have faced recently and have had victory in. Share your story and your lessons so that we can learn form your practical implementation of these points.
Every Sunday I share an inspirational video and this week’s is a 2 minute inspiration blast from my very good friend Robin Dickinson.
The best bit about this inspiration video? It isn’t telling you what you need to do that you aren’t already doing. It’s telling you what not to do that you are already doing: do the boring stuff.
I love this. Robin basically says that the business is in the boring. Once you’ve got the idea and made the sale, now you must deliver, and delivering isn’t as fun. I certainly have struggled with executing the boring on a regular basis, and have suffered greatly because of it. I continually find myself restless, looking for new things to tweak because I don’t want to knuckle down and deliver.
Obtaining vs Maintaining
In our attention age we have two problems that have strengthened the hold of boredom as an influencer on our lives:
We are so used to multitasking and being distracted that the focus on mantainence is increasingly unnatural to us (and thus needs to be learnt.) Remember that it’s easier to obtain than maintain.
The saying that “you can do anything you put your mind to” has created a youth culture in particular that thinks, “I can do anything I put my mind to and don’t really need to fine tune my skills because I can do anything.” What they forget is that you have to put your mind, and everything else you’ve got, to do anything of worth. Thus we have a complacency and an atitude that considers itself to be above the boring. Again, they’d rather be obtaining (having fun) than maintaining (sharpening the saw).
We need a major shift in our thinking to overcome this detrimental habit:
Getting Clear On Results And Rewards
We need to get smart about what our results are, so that we can stand being bored because it gets my results. I would say that when I haven’t done what was boring but necessary, it was because I wasn’t clear that it was necessary for my end results. We must focus! This also requires a challenge to know what does hit our bottom lines, and filter everything by that.
Secondly, we need to know what our reward is: that being bored by getting my results empowers me to have time for what I really enjoy. If I can get into the mindset that the boring empowers me to have the fun, then perhaps I’d stop working 18 hours a day.
Respect The Boredom
Robin’s best quote is that he “respects the boredom.” I think I should take that same atitude, and get some healthy respect for the boring but profitable things that work, albeit without glamour. I know what many of those things are, and I feel the results when I do them. It’s just bad that often times emotion takes over and pushes the important underneath the interesting.
Your Leading Thoughts
Robin’s already got a conversation going on about this subject on his post “the secret money power of boredom“, so please join in there.
If you’d like some tips on overcoming this issue in your own life, Robin has some great tips that I highlight on this post on maintenance.
Our culture has created a hatred of boredom that is detrimental in my opinion. What’s yours?
1. Sort out my to-do list every morning
2. Start at 7 every morning.
3. Review my 99 day goals every week
4. Review my stats every week
5. Keep my CRM system up to date
6. Bring my laptop to meetings and be productive when waiting for people before meetings.
7. Do the GYM at least 3 times a week at lunchtime. The GYM helps me think and makes me more productive.
8. Avoid the laptop 1 day a week. You are more productive with 6 days work not 7.
9. Group my tasks by context, if I’m on the phone I try to do the phone calls all at once.
10. Make sure I’m doing 1 to 9
I’d say those are pretty good - although point 10 is blatant cheating.
Your Leading Thoughts
Dont’ worry about 10. What are your top 3 productivity tips?
Whenever I talk with too much certainty about what I’ll do then, and then, and then, I know that I’ve become arrogant and lazy.
One of the gems from the Like Minds Summit back in February was short term execution with a long term goal. In other words, it was “there’s where we want to be, but let’s execute this first.”
So, essentially, there’s no “then,”, there’s only “now.”
Your Leading Thoughts
Do you have similar traits when you get too confident and become complacent? (Or is it just me?)
When did you learn that execution was more important that ideas?
In our discussion recently on “it’s easier to obtain than maintain“, we looked at how we deal with the everyday ‘boring’ work, considering most of us are type A, driven, motivation fuelled people.
One comment really stuck at as having a lot of gold in, from my dear friend Robin Dickinson. (It’s not the first time. He’s been doing this for a year now…)
Before I quote the comment and share my thoughts on what he said, it’s important to point out in the spirit of curation that Robin’s blog is the best self-focus and business development blog that I engage with, and also a model community for many to follow on what Robin and I call the ‘comment driven blog’.
Robin has innovated a few things on his blog. First of all, the comment driven blog post as mentioned above, 2 minute ‘Black Chair‘ videos, and more recently, the start of the Sharewords community through a blog post that has had over 1,000 comments. This blog post is in my opinion an internet phenomena, and a shining example of a value-based approach towards social media (and one that I follow.) I thoroughly recommend that you subscribe in your RSS and get acquainted with Robin on Twitter.
How A Master Maintains
The point is that Robin is someone who continually obtains – but is also the best I know at maintaining. So when he left this comment, and with such focus, I listened. Here it is (original link):
“what practical skills and tips have you learnt to keep things maintained?”
Quick list, in no particular order:
* Have a long-term plan (3-5 year horizon);
* Know what really pays the bills and stick to it;
* Have a life outside of work;
* Pace yourself;
* Know when and what to automate and delegate;
* Max-min key processes: design for maximum result for minimum effort;
* Measure and track key business indicators;
* Take full control of and responsibility for the numbers – the finances;
* Understand WHY you are doing what you do – have a solid rationale;
* Understand how to achieve and stay diamond focused on what really works.
My takeaways: there is balance here. Practically, I can see that Robin splits his days between obtaining new and maintaining the old, and I can see that when it comes to maintenance, he maintains the fun stuff and he maintains the essential and sometimes boring stuff too. The real winner is that he harnesses the power of a habit that has a strong focus.
Your Leading Thoughts
I’ll be honest with you – my daily routine has become a bit unbalanced as of late. When I’m in balance, I find I am far more productive, but out of balance I work harder but find I punching a lot of air and tend to be unfocussed and less productive even though I am working more.
How balanced are you? How so you balance obtaining with maintaining?
And how can we help each other to become more balanced?
I used to think that keeping a to-do list was a common thing but actually it is very uncommon. What’s even less common is to have a to-do list that isn’t just a numbered list of things to be done one day.
