Episode 38 - David Allen said that anything with more than 2 steps is a project. But what if they've got 10 steps, 20 or more? We've found a simple solution to help you manage everything from a trip to the shops to a full-blown project.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:



• Planning a party, running a website or a blog, having a family - these are all projects
• Why projects can be a problem to get hold of
• Action lists are not the best solution to them
• 'Spirally' bits
• How Trello can help
• Why Piggly Wiggly was different - according to the Smithsonian
• Projects are messy - Trello keeps it all together with you
• The great stuff that people do with Trello - have a look at their examples
• Taiichi Ohno and his visit to Piggly Wiggly in 1956
• How he went on to develop Kanban and 'Just In Time' for Toyota
• Read more from Six Sigma
• How SIMPLE Trello is
• Or it can be more sophisticated if you need it
• If you can fill in a post-it note, you can use Trello
• What Joel Spolsky says about Trello
• Go and try it for yourself at - Trello.com

Mini Episode – Just a few words from me rambling a bit about the podcast, moving house and how lucky we all really are to have the problems that we have.

Episode 37 - In this final episode on managing your focus and attention, we look at dealing with the stuff that comes up in your day and give you some great techniques and solutions to help you get it done well.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:

• What\'s led to this episode:
• Episode 34 - How to say \'NO\' to reduce your workload
• Episode 35 - How to decide what\'s important when prioritising
• Episode 36 - How to use 5 key tools to plan your day:
• A notebook (or somewhere to dump your \'mind\')
• An Action list
• Buckets
• A Calendar
• A Routine
• BUT DON\'T WORRY IF YOU HAVEN\'T LISTENED TO THEM - OR PREPARED...
• There\'s loads in this one you can use either on its own, or with the structure
• How does your day look? Are you a canoeist, a balloonist, or a cyclist?

PLANNING THE DAY

• This should take 5 minutes once you\'ve got your template ready
• I use the questions from Peter Bregman\'s 18 minutes model:
• Review your Action list – what will make this day highly effective?
• What can I realistically accomplish in my areas of focus? (From EP35)
• What will leave me feeling productive and successful at the end of the day?
• Then pick 3 things from your Action List and put them into your calendar for today as they are now things which MUST happen on this day
• How you do this is up to you, but the key is choosing 3 \'Important\' things to do today
• If you have more than 3 things, or you\'re not sure which ones to choose use:
• The Urgent/Important Principle - A detailed explanation here from Mindtools.com
• Urgent = It\'s got a deadline (usually someone else\'s!)
• Important = It will help you make progress on one of YOUR bigger goals
• Ideally you want to pick 3 things which are \'Important\' but not \'Urgent\'
• Eating the Frog
• Choosing the right energy levels
• Planning in breaks and movement
• Setting a chime every hour to check we\'re on course. When it goes off...
• BEEP! STOP! Take a deep breath. Then…
• Am I doing what I most need to be doing right now?
• Am I being who I most want to be right now?
• Recommit to how you\'re going to use your next hour

DOING THE DAY

• Scenario 1 - You are presented with a single simple action to complete
• Can you fully do this action, completely within 2 minutes?
• Is it a single item which does not have loads of others behind it?
• If so - do it as soon as you are presented with it
• This is the 2 minute rule
• Use this rule with discretion - don\'t just default to doing everything as it comes along
• Solution 1 - If that action can be done completely - apply the 2 minute rule

• Scenario 2 - You\'re presented with a number of tasks and/or some will take more than 2 minutes
• Stop and think about what each thing means to you - what do you have to do?
• What is the \'action\' you have to do to fully complete this task
• Break it down into multiple actions if needed
• Write each action down in a sentence with the \'action\' word at the front
• E.g. \"OUTLINE the Redman report\" or \"CALL the garage to book the car in\"
• If you have a system - put it in there. If you don\'t - park it by putting it onto a list
• Solution 2 - Break the task down into a doable action - and put onto a list OR use your notebook/action list/buckets to put it into your system

• Scenario 3 - Being presented with 2 or more things which want your attention NOW
• Use the Urgent/Important Test again
• The phone is ringing it\'s your son\'s school
• The boss wants a response to an email within 10 minutes
• A colleague is asking for some help with a task
• We decided that the school call was \'Urgent\' AND \'Important\' - so we did this first
• The boss request - that was \'Urgent\', but not \'Important\' (in our test) so we did this next
• Jane\'s request was \'Important\' but not \'Urgent\' - so we planned to help her later today when we had time
• Solution 3 - Use the Urgent/Important principle to sort out the order, and ditch anything which is not \'Urgent\' AND not \'Important\'

• Scenario 4 - BEEP, BUZZ, FLASH - Electronic communication
• E-mails, text messages, social media notifications - how to streamline them
• Turn the notifications off - you need to know what the content is, and if it\'s \'Important\'
• Notifications make EVERYTHING seem urgent - so turn them off
• Then set aside \'check-in\' times for your electronic communications
• Set expectations - explain to people if they want you urgently they CAN call you
• Respond to communication within an agreed reasonable time - 3 hours / 6 hours etc.
• Remember you are trying to protect what\'s \'Important\' to you
• Unsubscribe from companies who send e-mails you don\'t want to read
• Avoid getting into communication about trivia
• Set up a regular catch up with people
• Work through your inbox using the same steps:
• What is the action?
• 2 minute rule
• Urgent/Important
• Put it onto an Action List - or into your system
• Solution 4 - Turn notifications off, set expectations, use the process

THE END OF DAY REVIEW

• Take 5 minutes to ask yourself some key questions. I use Peter Bregman\'s:
• Did I get it all done?
• How did my day go? What were the successes? What were the challenges?
• What did I learn today? About myself? About others?
• What do I plan to do – differently or the same – tomorrow?
• Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback with?
• Use this time to recount what you want to do again or differently while it\'s still fresh in your mind
• Over time you will build up some really useful insight into how you work, and how you can develop yourself
• Remember - \"Don\'t waste time comparing yourself to anyone else; the only person you should try to be better than is the person that you were, yesterday.\"

Episode 36 - In the second of our series on managing your focus, we give you the structure to help you set your day up to be efficient, manage your focus and attention, and win at life.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:

• Don't wish your life away just trying to get to the end of your day
• Demand a high quality of life DURING the day
• 5 Tools and Techniques to bullet-proof your day and make progress towards what\'s important
• Some of it comes from - David Allen\'s GTD
• And some from - Peter Bregman\'s 18 Minutes
• And the rest is from mw
• We look at the 5 tools in a simple \'manual\' way first
• A Notebook
• An Action List
• Buckets
• A Calendar
• A Routine

1) A Notebook - Or something to dump your \'head stuff\' into...

• Stop waking up at 2 am because you\'ve just remembered things
• The journey my Fisher Space Pen took

INTERACTIVE LISTENERS - DECIDE ON HOW YOU ARE GOING TO ENSURE YOU CAN WRITE DOWN ANYTHING THAT COMES TO MIND AND GET IT OUT OF YOUR HEAD

2) Action List - Stop being woolly...

• What's wrong with a to-do list? I let you in on the secret
• The actual to-do list I was referring to (actually, it's a good article)
• \'Write Blog Post\' is the wrong thing to have on your list
• A better version could be:

1. Decide on Blog Post Subject
2. Write first paragraph
3. Write second paragraph
4. Write third paragraph
5. Review and edit post
6. Choose an image
7. Upload to WordPress
8. Post on Twitter

• Start with an \"Action\" and keep it simple

INTERACTIVE LISTENERS - IF YOU HAVE YOUR LIST FROM LAST WEEK, RE-WRITE THE ITEMS ON THERE INTO ACTIONS. A VERB OR ACTION WORD FIRST - AND KEEP IT SIMPLE.

IF YOU DIDN\'T DO IT LAST WEEK INTERACTIVELY, PRACTICE WRITING OUT SOME TASKS AS AN \'ACTION\'

3) Buckets - Where you put the stuff ready to do it...

• Choosing categories to batch your work. GTD calls them \'Contexts\'.
• Deciding on your buckets. Consider:
• Where do you do your stuff?
• Who do you do it with?
• What items or devices do you need?
• What are your different frames of mind?
• What do you tend to do when you've got high/low energy?
• A good resource for inspiration is - Simplicity Bliss
• My buckets:
• Errands/Shopping - Things to buy, dry cleaners, groceries (we use Wunderlist for this)
• Home - Clearing garage, painting, housework
• Agendas - Things I do with other people, work, family, everyone
• Quick Jobs - Firing off e-mails, reading memos, updating calendar
• Calls - Self-explanatory
• Downtime - Where I put articles, website links or pamphlets for later reading
• Brain Dead - Cleaning things, tidying, clearing out
• Full focus - Stuff I have to pay attention to, writing reports, reviewing complex data, meetings. Often these will be things I will use the Pomodoro technique for
• Routines - Regular repetitive tasks. Things I do every day/week. All my repeat things are in here, from daily meditation to clearing e-mails to zero. My 18 minutes actions are here
• Review - The weekly review, along with any regular reports and info I get, which doesn\'t need full focus but is also not a \'quick job\'
• Someday Maybe - Things that I don't need to do soon but which I want to keep on the radar because they may become live tasks at some point. Be careful, as this can easily become a 'dumping ground\' so must be cleared out weekly
• You need a physical representation of each bucket with the relevant jobs or actions physically inside them. You can use Expander Files, Filing Cabinets, In-Trays, A book divided into sections, Even actual buckets!
• Note - if you are doing this with pen and paper, it's important to keep a copy of the full action list somewhere ready for your weekly review. You are ensuring that each action is ALSO in one bucket.

INTERACTIVE LISTENERS - DECIDE ON WHAT YOU\'RE GOING TO HAVE AS YOUR BUCKETS AND HOW YOU ARE GOING TO PHYSICALLY SET THEM UP

4) Calendar - Where the good stuff happens...

• Golden rule - only put 2 kinds of things on a calendar:

1. Things that HAVE to happen at a fixed date or time
2. Blocks of time for your focused work like - Thinking Time, Weekly Review, Full Focus Time

• Don't put actions on your calendar unless they have to happen on a fixed date or time
• Leave some gaps in between to allow things to move - plus buy yourself some white space

INTERACTIVE LISTENERS - HAVE A LOOK AT YOUR CALENDAR NOW, AND BLOCK OFF SOME TIME FOR YOUR FOCUSED/REVIEW/THINKING TIME. AIM FOR UP TO 1/3RD OF EACH WORKING DAY IF YOU CAN. BUT EVEN AN HOUR A DAY IS STILL GOOD.

5) Routine - How you make sure it all happens...

• Daily routine - I use Peter Bregman's 18 minutes daily structure
• We\'ll cover this in more detail in the next episode, but the key parts are:
• At the start of your day, spend five minutes asking yourself the following questions...
• Review your Action list - what will make this day highly effective?
• What can I realistically accomplish in my areas of focus? (From last episode)
• What will leave me feeling productive and successful at the end of the day?
• Pick 3 things from your Action List and put them into your calendar for today as they are now things which MUST happen on this day
• Set a chime or beep to go off every hour (on a watch, device or your Time Sergeant)
• START YOUR DAY
• When you hear the beep or chime, pause and check in with yourself:
• BEEP! STOP! Take a deep breath. Then...
• Am I doing what I most need to be doing right now?
• Am I being who I most want to be right now?
• Look at your calendar, deliberately recommit to how you are going to use the next hour
• At the end of the day, take five minutes and consider these key questions:
• Did I get it all done?
• How did my day go? What were the successes? What were the challenges?
• What did I learn today? About myself? About others?
• What do I plan to do – differently or the same - tomorrow?
• Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback with?
• Weekly Review - I use a version of David Allen's Weekly Review from GTD. It looks like this:
• Grab the full Action List, Notebooks, any loose documents, Calendar, your Buckets
• Review the notebook since last week - are there any items which need transferring to the Action List (I make a star in the corner of the page, makes it easier for next week)
• Look at last week's calendar, this week's and next week's - Is there anything I\'ve missed which needs transferring to the Action List? (quickly review in your head meetings you had, calls etc.)
• Look in each Bucket - Are the Actions in the right place, do any need putting onto the calendar as they now have to happen on a fixed date, can I dump any, do any need moving into the Someday Maybe Bucket?
• In your head, walk around every physical location you regularly visit - are there things which need turning into actions?
• (We haven't covered electronic stuff yet - but at this stage, I would also look at all my emails and check to see if they have a clear Action if needed)
• Look at the Action List - Am I writing things as clear simple actions?
• You look at the bigger picture on what\'s important in regard to your Purpose and Areas of Focus (from episode 35) - Am I doing the right things to support these, what are the actions?
• During the review, you scribble notes and then transfer them into Actions (of course!)

INTERACTIVE LISTENERS - FAMILIARISE YOURSELF WITH THE DAILY ROUTINE. COPY MY LIST HERE FROM THE WEEKLY ROUTINE AND PLAN TO PUT YOURS IN YOUR CALENDAR

·       

• Holy Moley, there's a lot there - but it's worth doing because the benefits to you include:
• You become more flexible - you can handle change
• Life is easier to handle if you are mobile
• Your frame of mind becomes calm - regardless of the amount of activity
• You no longer feel like you're reacting, but you are in control and agile
• Focus - Attention it all comes easily
• No more panic attacks at 2 am (or any other time)

Episode 35 - The first episode in a series of 3 where I share with you my trusted system for managing my activities. In this episode, we work out how to define what's important to you, so you can make the rest of the system work really well. This is an interactive episode - you will need some paper and a pen if you want to work this out for yourself.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:



• Time Management doesn't work - you can't manage time!
• Why can we only ever do one thing?
• Stop trying to manage the time and start managing what you pay attention to
• You don't need to feel anxious any more about what you haven\'t done
• You can apply this to work, home, family or life in general
• No apps in these episodes (almost)
• Steve in the Field makes a brief appearance - and of course, a poor choice!
• Why you need a filter to decide on what's important to YOU
• The four levels which will help you decide on importance:
• Level 1 - What\'s the point or purpose
• Level 2 - What are the different areas
• Level 3 - What is the stuff - the detail
• Level 4 - What should I do right now
• Whatever you\'re reviewing, start at Level 1) The point or purpose
• Job - What is the point or purpose of your job?
• Why does that role exist?
• Some answers could be:
• To grow a business, to make people's lives better, to pay the bills!
• Vocation - What is the point or purpose of the vocation?
• Where is the value of that vocation to society?
• Some answers could be:
• To make society better, to remove suffering, to help disadvantaged people
• Parent - What is the point or purpose of being a parent?
• How would you define aims which might be bigger than you?
• Some answers could be:
• To prepare children to be great adults, to help children learn to make a contribution, to ensure children feel loved and secure

NOW COME UP WITH 2/3 'PURPOSES' THAT APPLY TO YOU!

• Then it's time to look at Level 2) What are the different areas?
• Job - What are the broad areas you focus on in your job?
• Some answers could be:
• Marketing, Sales, Developing People, Recruitment, Customer Engagement, Networking
• Home Maintenance - What are the areas you look after or need to plan for?
• Some answers could be:
• Gardening, Decorating, Housework, Plumbing

NOW COME UP WITH 10-20 'AREAS' THAT YOU FOCUS ON OR WORK APPLICABLE TO WHAT YOU'RE REVIEWING

• Now it's time to look at Level 3) The detail, the stuff, all the tasks you get involved in
• Job - What are all of the tasks and activities you work on, everything you can do with your hands, arms, legs, brain, and mouth - physical things you can do
• Some answers could be:
• Meetings, presentations, complaints, producing reports, appraisals, interviews, phone calls, writing reports, raising invoices, creative activities
• Parent - what is the stuff that fills your day?
• Some answers could be:
• School runs, parent/school meetings, making lunch, homework, bedtime stories, dealing with accidents, cleaning.

NOW COME UP WITH THE ENTIRE LIST OF ACTIVITIES AND TASKS YOU GET INVOLVED IN. THERE'S LIKELY TO BE LOADS, SO TAKE SOME TIME OVER THIS. RE-VISIT THE LIST A FEW TIMES. THERE'LL BE STUFF YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN!

• Lisa and Steve had a bit of a chat at this point to see how she got on
• NOW! Put your Level 3 list (Activities) to one side; you'll need it for next week
• Grab your list for Level 1 - think really carefully. Are you happy about your 2/3 things you've got for Level 1?
• Grab your list for Level 2 - the areas of focus.
• Look at them, consider them against level 1 purpose, and ask yourself this question - which ones are most likely to positively support Level 1 stuff? What are 3-6 areas of focus that, more than any others, support Level 1?
• Put a star by the side of the 3-6 areas of focus you’ve chosen
• Then rewrite each one an ACTION starting with a verb like 'grow, build, sell, develop, gain, create' etc. etc. Bring them to life!
• Here are some examples:
• Instead of 'staff development', you could write: 'Develop my staff to a high standard'
• Instead of 'marketing vacancy' you could write: 'Find a great candidate for the marketing vacancy'
• Instead of 'networking' you could write: 'Create 5 new relationships through networking which will grow my number of customers'
• THESE are your priorities for the next 12 months
• These are the things which you will use to measure whether any individual task, or request or meeting is important
• You will use these as a reference for the next episode, but in themselves, you've just decided for yourself what's important to you?
• Doesn't that feel good?!!!
• Don't be Steve in the Field at 3:25 on a Friday!
• If you've struggled with any of this or need to clarify any parts - feel free to contact me (all the contact links are below)
• Some of the elements of my process come from the excellent work by:
• David Allen - Getting Things Done
• Peter Bregman - 18 Minutes
• LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT STEP IN STP036

Episode 34 - We start a series of episodes on managing your time and priorities even better. This time, we're looking at a simple way of reducing the amount on your plate in the first place: Saying 'No'.

Some of the USEFUL stuff in there is:



• Who Evette Huntley Flindt was
• Why we're interested in her firstborn son
• What he says about choices
• Why it's sometimes easier to say 'YES'
• Kenny Nguyen, CEO of Big Fish Presentations, and why he thinks we should consider 'NO'
• His video about it from the TED stage
• An article by Kristin Wong in the New York Times - May 2017 on the subject
• Carl Richards also has a view in this article from 2016
• Leo Babauta writes great things about goals, habits, simplifying and productivity
• His blog, which has been listed by Time magazine in their best of top 25 blogs - Zen Habits 
• The article Leo wrote - The Gentle Art Of Saying No
• The headlines (but we really recommend you read the article)
• Value your time
• Know your priorities
• Practice saying no
• Don’t apologize
• Stop being nice
• Say no to your boss
• Pre-empting
• I'll get back to you
• Maybe later
• It’s not you; it’s me
• The question you should ask every time: "Why should I say no?"