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?

Photo courtesy of han s’

This thought comes from Scott Gould's thinking blog for thinking people. Scott is also on Twitter and Facebook.

Robin’s Thoughts on Maintenance

Since getting back from our time away over August, I haven’t stopped. I wrote a blog post about being relaxed, refreshed and re-envisioned when I got back from the holiday, but boy does it seem like a distant memory! The good thing is that I delivered on what I said I’d would.

I have, however, learnt a valuable lesson over the last 3 months (I seriously can’t believe how quickly the time has gone) – a lesson not learned through success, but through burnout: if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.

I think a lot of people can identify with being so busy that you can’t fit it all in. However the temptation when you are like this is to try and solve your busyness by working very hard and clearing your plate. All this does, though, is tire you out, meaning you are less effective the following day, and less able to handle the work.

The actual key, is to solve busyness by taking time to prepare. If you make this time a priority, then you are able to work smarter because you have prepared. Sure, you don’t do as much to get rid of all the tasks that make you busy, but your preparation enables you to deal with the busyness more effectively that if you were worn out. It is like an investment of time that yields more time.

So, this month I have slowed down, enjoyed breakfasts like the one above, and as Stephen Covey would say, taken the time to sharpen the saw.

The actionable point: take time out every week to reflect and prepare, even if you can’t. Make it a greater priority than all the other deadlines – because it is this time out that enables you to meet the deadlines.

This thought comes from Scott Gould's thinking blog for thinking people. Scott is also on Twitter and Facebook.

If You Fail To Prepare, You Prepare To Fail

When you’re living on the ground, you can’t see the wood for the trees. This is the place of straws that break the camels back, the little things that make you snap. You are so focussed on the next hour of your life that you loose balance, becoming obsessed about the tiniest things that have flared up emotionally into massive issues. That’s why David Allen in Getting Things Done talks of getting off the runway to the 10,000, 20, 30, 40 and 50,000 feet levels.

When I take my head out of the sand and begin to soar with the eagles a bit, I get perspective. I see beyond the temporary. I see beyond the current hour, and see its place in relation to coming days, weeks, months and even years. I even see the current hour’s place in relation to eternity. But taking off from the ground often requires help. You need other people to fly with you, who’ll help you fly and get perspective when you don’t have the energy too yourself. These close friends, mentors, and teachers are people who have perspective themselves and are wise, hence their voice carries weight when they speak into your life, as well as a current of air that can lift you up. As the Proverb says, “He who walks with the wise will grow wise.”

When your head is down, these people not only help you lift it up, but they remind you that the journey is the adventure – so soak up every moment of it, rather than wasting away looking to a distant ‘someday’.

My best bit of advice for getting perspective? One of my favourite preachers, T.D. Jakes said “if you have a problem that can be solved by money or a holiday, then you don’t have a problem.” How about that for perspective?

Image courtesy of extranoise

This thought comes from Scott Gould's thinking blog for thinking people. Scott is also on Twitter and Facebook.

Perspective

It’s weeks like this, where you have to manage multiple things at a high stress and time pressure, that easily break your daily routine and to-do system. Normally at this point I’d have scrapped my system in favour of trusting no one with any delegated tasks and therefore working 48 hour days to get everything done. The house becomes messy, the office a tip, and I obsessively cut out everything else in order to check off every last task.

Not this year. Thanks do an integrated GTD system, and more specifically, Remember The Milk.

A big part of GTD is context. The idea is to create lists based on context – office, home, phone calls. Now because I list every project with a hastag and then the task, i.e. ‘#Touch – Print off posters’, I have set up a smart list that searches every task with ‘#Touch’. The result is I have a list dedicated to every task for this project, rather than sifting through my ‘Next’ or ‘Waiting For’ lists. I can see everything I have tagged as ‘delegated’, who I’ve delegated it to, as well as ‘video’, ‘dtp’, etc, so I get a great 20,000 to 30,000 foot view on the project.

Along with Evernote as my external mind, I have found my system (I’ll share more details with you later) has stayed solid and helped me delegate and manage far better. Did I tell you I’m also writing a viral campaign proposal this week?

This thought comes from Scott Gould's thinking blog for thinking people. Scott is also on Twitter and Facebook.

Keeping Your Head When Everyone Else Is…

When started working at church at 19 I had no office experience. And although in my melancholic, creative nature there is an obsessive and meticulous organiser within me, unfortunately I have historically had a nasty habit of never implementing a system because I could never get it ‘perfect’ enough.

From 19 through to 25, despite the public successes I had, the lack of organisation, mental clarity, and ability to lead and to delegate was killing me.

Let me paint the picture for you. I could start a massive youth initiative, but I couldn’t keep it organised. I could start a great TV programme, but I couldn’t continue running it after the start-up energy drained. I could sit and share great ideas, but couldn’t implement them. I could start many, many things, but I could never finish them.

It is a curse and a form of mental torment to have potential, be a thinking person, see beyond the normal things, but be hindered from getting what is in the nebulous of your potential within you, out of you.

After I got thrust into business it was by need and by chance that I discovered this article on Getting Things Done. I cannot begin to explain how after just one read it transformed my thinking. Years of struggling with organisation, leading myself and others, etc etc, I would estimate were cut down by two thirds in my life through reading the book by David Allen. How?

1. Order. You no longer have bits of paper or to do lists in your mind. Everything goes into a system and you work according to its order. New tasks go in the inbox. Your next tasks go in the ‘Next Actions’ list, and so on. This gives you:
2. Trust. Because the system has an order you can relax your mind because you trust the order to work. I now know that if you email me a task, it will get done. I no longer accept tasks that are given to me audibly – only written, because then I trust my system will handle it. What this does require, though, is:
3. Immersion. You need to fully do the system and find ways to work it into all the tiny little areas of your life. Otherwise, you slip back by leaving emails in your inbox, or letters on the sideboard. But, if you do immerse yourself, then you get:
4. Mental freedom. Your mind is RAM, not hard drive space. You store your tasks in your system, not your memory. So all the mental power you were using to remember (and often forgetting) what you need to do is now freed up to actually process what you need to do. This gives you:
5. Authority. Because you have a system for delegation, for reporting, for getting things done, you have new found authority in every area of your life, which gives your more mental stamina and power to delegate with confidence.

I’ll be posting my thoughts and experiences about GTD, and my setup in particular, in the coming months. As for now I want to emphasise the need for a system to every reader, and especially every Christian who wants to be in ministry. God is a God of order  (1 Cor 14:40), and Jesus counsels us that no one should build what they cannot finish (Luke 14:28-30). Running your to-do list, diary and filing is a foundational part – and something I teach to everyone who works with me or wants to learn from me.

And by-the-by, if you’d like to attend a GTD workshop in Exeter (and the surrounding area), then let me know!

Updates

1. David Allen (aka GTD Guy Himself!) retweeted this post, which is very special for me considering how much he has impacted my life this year. Props also to @mickmel  @pastorhudson   @creativescott  @singfiel  @chadbrannon  all for retweeting that retweet.
2. There is now a hashtag on Twitter for an Exeter and surrounding area tweetup – #GeeTeeDeeUp – although as of writing this update, it’s just me going on about it

This thought comes from Scott Gould's thinking blog for thinking people. Scott is also on Twitter and Facebook.

How GTD Rescued Me