7Breaths

Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:18:00 +0000

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Alexander Graham Bell

Every year l take a word to sum up how I am going to approach things for the year.

This years word is “Focus”.

I’ve given up on time management. This year my goal is focus management. I’ve realised that I can not mange time, all I can do is manage what I do in each moment of the day. So this year I have been exploring how I can manage to focus all my attention on the task in hand.

Things to think about:

1.How do you decide what to focus on?
2.How do you keep focus when there are so many things vying for your attention?
3.How do you maintain focus in the face of interruptions?
4.How do you switch focus to the next task without carrying over thoughts about the last one?

Might wanna do when…

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:47:00 +0000

• I like this idea of keeping a list of possible things to do when you are in certain locations, by city / region / county. So many times I read something about a great venue / restaurant / museum etc in a place I never expect to visit. I'm now going to start keeping these on file somewhere just in case I do end up in the location some time down the line. Could easily keep the information somewhere in OneNote, although yet again I'd prefer to have it in the cloud (come on OneNote - deliver this please). Evernote would be another option I suppose.

• I picked up the idea from GTD Times the official blog of David Allen and the David Allen Company. There are several other list ideas there too.
• What lists do you keep & where do you keep them?

I'm moving on to Tumblr

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Well things have once again been pretty quiet on this blog. In an effort to get myself posting more often I've set myself the goal of posting daily onto my tumblr account, just to get back into the blogging habit. I'll be keeping this blog for OneNote 2010 stuff when it comes out of beta, until then please follow me on Tumblr and get your daily dose of productivity goodness there.
The RSS feed link is here.

Are You Ready for 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Following on from yesterdays post, Michael Deutch has posted the Balanced Score Card Strategy Map over at the MindJet Blog. He has provided a Template which can downloaded and also a great write up on how to use and expand on it. I'd recommend checking it out, along with all the other great resources on his site.

A simple Stategy Map Template

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Here is a simple template I use when I begin my Strategy Mapping. Just use it to spark off ideas which I then add to the map as I go.

Blog Commet Spam

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:19:00 +0000

Lots of spam comment on the blog over last few weeks. Going to change the comment moderation and try and delete the spam. What a pain - thanks spammers for wasting my time, it's not like I've anything better to do.

52 Books in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:03:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone.

As part of my continuing development I'm planning to read a non-fiction book each week over 2009. I have a few on my list already but would appreciate any ideas on books I should be reading this year. Please leave any recommendations in the comments. Many thanks.

Problems with Results Manager & MindManager 8

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:55:00 +0000

I have recently been using MindManager and ResultsManager to track my ongoing tasks and projects and have really noticed a benefit to my productivity. I was really excited to install the new MindManager 8 earlier this week, hoping for even more benefits. I have found MindManger 8 itself great but since installing I have had problems running Gyronix ResultsManager, especially when trying to regenerate dashboards. This caused the MindManager to just hang indefinitely. As these dashboards were the new hub of my productivity system I was stuck.

After contacting Gyronix I downloaded the new beta version of ResultsManager but this did not help. However, today, after some email with Nick Duffill from Gyonix I have a solution to my problem. Following Nicks suggestion I disabled the “Project Task Management” add-in. I am now able to use my ResultsManager dashboards with no problems. Only problem is I have lost one of the new features of MindManager 8. Still hoping for a better solution but at least with this workround I can continue to work productively. Must say what great support Nick and Gyronix have provided.

MindManager 8 - first impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:32:00 +0000

Introduction

I'v been using MindManager 7 (with Results Manager) for a few months now and have been using them more and more to organise, plan and track my projects. A couple of days ago MindManager 8 was released and I decided to download it and give it a try. Thought I would post a few initial impressions of the new features.

New Capabilities in MindManager 8
MindManager 8 certainly comes with some pretty neat features.

Mindjet Player
I just love this.
One of the big issues I've had in the past was sharing my maps with those who don't have MindManager. Well with the Mindjet player you can convert your maps into fully interactive Adobe PDF or Flash .SWF files. This means they can now be shared with anyone with Adobe reader installed or published on the web. I've already used this and the people I have shared with have been very impressed.

Automated Task Management
I've been using results manager to help manage my projects. Unfortunately Gyronix have yet to release a version compatible with the MM8 release. MM8 does have some capabilities to help manage projects, set due dates and dependencies, calculate when tasks are due and colour code where you need to focus - all very handy when running a bigger project.

Staying in MindManager
MM8 comes with an intergrated web browser, map parts which allow real time searches for example in google with the results mapped and editable, the ability to view and edit attached Microsoft Word, Excel, Project and PowerPoint files.
All these features mean you can stay focused on the job in hand, keeping in your map rather than switching between multiple applications. This has certainly speeded up my workflow when comppared to MM7.

Searchable Maps
One of my biggest annoyances with MM7 was that I could not search within maps using windows desktop search. It certainly made me less likely to use MM as a knowledge store, konwing that once things wnet in it might be difficult to find again (compare this to OneNote which is my current Knowledge base). This hwever has been rectified in this release making maps fully searchable by many popular desktop search applications.

Database Linker
This is another really useful addition. You can now link to various databases and extract real time information. As I have a lot of information stored in Access I am finding this of great benefit to get information out and then work on it in a whole new way.

Conclusion
MindManager 8 has certainly made some great strides from version 7. The intergration of the web browser and the ablitly to view and edit a variety of documents from withing a map has certainly aided my focus and workflow these last few days. Linking to and working with my stored data via a mindmap has created some new insights and ideas. I especially like the Mindjet Player, anything that allows me to share the power of mindmaps with others has to be a good thing.

I'm on day 2 of a 30 day trial so I will post towards the end of it on whether I plan to upgrade or not (thinking yes at present!)

OneNote In the Cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:10:00 +0000

I've posted before about using evernote as a capture tool, saying how I liked the ability to access my notes via the web and how this was an advantage over OneNote. Well looks like things are going to change with Office 14. Watch this video, OneNote on the web synchronising with OneNote on a client machine, they also say you'll be able to access it via a windows mobile device. This is just what I'm looking for, hope it gets out soon...

GTD Connect Free Trial

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:33:00 +0000

Just a quick heads up - you can now get a free 14 day trial of GTD connect (h.t GTD Times).
This normally costs $40 a month!! I've signed up to get a feel for it but to be honest it is going to have to be something really special to make me even consider spending that amount a month. I'll post my thoughts later, but for now I'm going to try and make the most of this free 14 day period.

Mondays Done

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:23:00 +0000

First day of the work week over, how did it go?
There are 4 days left - what's the Most Important Thing you need to accomplish this week?

What are you going to do tomorrow to accomplish it?

Pick up the phone

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:40:00 +0000

Just One Call:

Book that gym class

Reserve the seat at the restaurant
Chat to a friend

Discuss with a mentor

Share with your parents

Join a new evening course

Enquire about a new job opportunity

Offer to help out

One call.... Where will it lead? Decide it, Do it!

JfDI - just do it. Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:03:00 +0000

I've already mentioned Nicholas Bate on my blog before, this guy is a real thought leader in the area of personal productivity. Initially only knowing his work from his blog, I've recently been able to read most of his books and they have been a great read.

The first book I read was JfDI - just f******g do it! The title is enough to inspire you to get up and get something done! It's a great strategy guide for personal change, and the f*****g in the title shows his passion for this subject. Here is a brief review:

Summary

Nicholas explains that for change to occur you need to engage 3 areas -

Brain (Intellect)
Heart (Passion)
Gut (Drive)

He realises that all 3 areas need to be working in unison to achieve your goals, something a lot of people seem to neglect.

To engage these areas he leads you through a 12 step process and as you move through these 12 steps you eventually reach a tipping point where change becomes unstoppable.

He focuses on 3 areas - Attention, Immersion, Momentum and applies these to 4 levels of change Brain, Emotion, Strategy, Tactics - this leads to the 12 step AIM 4 BEST strategy.

The first part of the book focuses on a detailed exploration of each of the 12 steps - the concept, things to reflect on, his own examples of applying these steps and finally how to deal with the ifs & buts which may crop up on that step.

The second part of the book then expands on the framework by giving detailed plans of how to achieve 7 desires - these range from loosing weight and being attractive to writing and publishing a book to just being happy.
In the third part of the book he reviews the AIM 4 BEST steps and explores the more subtle areas of each, he also reviews how to apply this methodology for personal and team change and improvement.

Conclusion

I found this a really useful book to help me kick start a lot of projects. By systematically reviewing my goals with the AIM 4 BEST framework I've been able to clarify a lot of issues and formulate a workable plan to accomplish them. Although there were desires in the second section which had no interest for me (I don't smoke for example) just reading through the steps to accomplish these was an worthwhile experience as they just reinforced the general framework you need to use for other types of goals. I think this is where the book really shines - it gives you a framework you can apply to accomplishing anything you want rather than just being a guide to achieving a limited number of goals. If you have things you want but are not moving towards them I would strongly recommend buying this book and applying the AIM 4 BEST ideas.

A week (and more) on Tumblr

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Ask yourself, “Am I achieving a task and forgetting my organization’s mission? Am I making money to support my family — and forgetting the family that I am trying to support? http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/blog/2008/06/03/mission-or-goal/

The next time you hear yourself say, “I’m just no good at …” ask yourself why not. The next time you’re coaching someone, and he or she says, “I’m just no good at …” ask them why not.
If we don’t treat ourselves–and the people around us–as if we have incurable genetic defects, we can get better at almost anything we choose. Why not?
http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/blog/2008/06/09/our-stories-our-traps/

A great quote encapsulates the wisdom we wish to bear in mind, we wish to practice. Plus a great quote inspires us to act, to put into into play http://nicholasbate.typepad.com/nicholas_bate/2008/04/wow.html

“My advice is to never shy away from your problems. If you do, you’re missing the whole point. Grow and enjoy the process, the successful outcome is assured if you just persevere and learn the lesson life is trying to teach you http://www.musclehack.com/how-to-rise-to-every-challenge-and-succeed/

Do something MANAGEABLE, something you can do every day. And get stronger

Adversity introduces a man to himself.

Most of our projects have been done by before. Why do we resist the guidance of precedent?
There is a huge difference between attending to important details and squandering time on minor ones.
http://www.execupundit.com/2008/04/adding-to-burden.html

How much could we all benefit from slowing down, admiring the view and valuing how good our life already is? http://freeflowlife.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/the-happiness-of-a-cat/

Piling on debt is akin to taking steroids.
You might beef yourself up for a bit.
But, it’ll destroy your future in the long-run.
http://learn.trizle.com/posts/1043-how-to-cripple-your-company

First, do no harm

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
– General George Patton

A week on Tumblr - more things to think about

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:13:00 +0000

“No shortcuts exist to achieving greatness; it just takes strenuous hours of putting in your time to become better at what you do.
http://learn.trizle.com/posts/1040-how-do-you-treat-talent

People work better when they are working to a system. People feel more confident when they are working to a proven system. People need systems
. http://www.gaviningham.com/2008/04/16/the-sales-apprentice-2008-sales-training-tips-from-the-hit-tv-show-part-iv/

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
http://www.robinsharma.com/scripts/ic_blog.php?id=424

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

- Disraeli
http://www.execupundit.com/2008/04/quote-of-day_13.html

Time Audits

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:02:00 +0000

I've posted about logging your time before and I think it's a useful exercise from time to time to see where your time is actually going. Dwayne over at Genuine Curiosity has a nice article with some ideas to help do a time audit - I'd recommend checking it out.

David Allen On The Curse Of The Eternally Urgent

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:05:00 +0000

Nice post from David Allen over at the Huffington Post. Great quote "A crisis should be a crisis. Urgent things should be urgent. And they should be exceptional"

Seems to feed in to Covey’s ideas on Quadrant II tasks - Important, Not Urgent - work on these and the Important and Urgent tasks should arise a lot less frequently. Good explanation of it here. So how do you know what to be working on? I like the way Nicholas Bate ( If you've not come across him already I'd advise setting aside a good block of time to read his blog - a real 'thought leader' for me) describes these tasks:

Important
Investing
Interesting

Identify the tasks that fit these criteria and spend more time in Quadrant II working on things that will have the long term payoffs.

Death By PowerPoint (and how to fight it)

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:38:00 +0000

Just came across this on YouTube. How I wish more presenters would think about how they use PowerPoint.
Get back to basics and remember you need

Significance
Structure
Simplicity
Rehearsal

A week on Tumblr

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:18:00 +0000

Here are some quotes I've collected on Tumblr from my week of web browsing - just a few things to think about over the weekend. Check out my tumblr site to find the sources of these quotes....

“ Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity - Charles Mingus

“The energy and anxiety that you invest in putting off an activity can consume more energy than is required to perform the activity.” - Jeff Davidson

“ Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results” - Dennis Wholey

“Don’t tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.” -
James Ling

“ Consider this: every interruption you take trains other people about how to work with you. If they know they can drop something on you at the last minute, they’ll have no reason to think that’s not the way to work with you next time as well. "

Small Things, Done Consistently, Create Major Impact

“ There is no “set and forget” in self-management

“ On Time Management
It can’t be done. You can manage your choices, though. But then you can’t blame anyone; but you are OK with that aren’t you?

“ On work/life balance
It’s the wrong question: get life balance. It’s the work/life balance question which is the real problem. Did the tinker, tailor, baker or farmer have a work/life balance issue? No. Live a life where is little distinction between work and play. A foolish dream? What’s wrong with one of those?

Evernote 3 Beta - My new capture tool

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:47:00 +0000

I've been using the new Evernote 3 Beta as my capture tool for the last few weeks and must say how impressed I have been with it. The main advantage with it is that I have access to my notes wherever I am because of its ability to synchronise seamlessly between my computer, the web and my windows mobile phone. Now wherever I am I can capture a thought and have access to it no matter what platform I am working on. This is a massive advantage for me over OneNote where most of my notes where stuck on my home machine. There is the ability to tag notes and also to mark notes as to-do items - so I may switch to using it as a next action manager, although I have not at present.

If anyone is interested in trying it the folks at Evernote have given me 10 invites for the Beta Program so drop me a line.

Here are some detailed reviews of Evernote which will give you a much better idea of how it works.

100+ GTD links

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:57:00 +0000

Firstly I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, I hope you had a relaxing holiday period and are now ready for another productive year. If you feel the need for a little GTD kick start I'd recommend having a look at this list of 100+ GTD links from the folks over at Bootstrapper.

Things have eased off for me at present so I should be getting some more regular posting done soon.

David Allen in British Medical Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:40:00 +0000

I've just come across this interview with David Allen in the British Medical Journal.

The interview is fairly short, but I enjoyed reading his ideas on work (which should be fun) and 'working' whilst on vacation - "Why would you not want to do fun things on a vacation? ". He addresses why we should be taking breaks from work -

"If you have to take a holiday because you're burning out, you're in the wrong job or you're not working appropriately. If you want to take a holiday because you need a new perspective, fabulous, but what's the value of a new perspective? To see things you haven't seen before, to come up with creative ideas you haven't had before, to see things in new ways. So of course I'm going to have a note-taking device with me on holiday because that's where I'm going to have some of my best ideas."

I'd encourage a look at the whole interview.

Thursdays Blog Recommendation.

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:18:00 +0000

I'll be posting about a blog / website I find useful each Thursday.

My first post is about Jason Womack and his Fit and Effective Blog.

Jason used to work for the David Allen Company as a
Executive Coach/Facilitator. He has since branched out on his own forming the Jason Womack Company and is currently providing Workplace Performance Coaching . In addition to all this he also finds time to take part in triathlons and long distance cycle rides. Jason's attitude to top performance and productivity fits well with my own thoughts on the subject. I like blogs which stimulate and challenge me and Jason certainly does. His focus on Goals, Engagement, Commitment and Focus has certainly given me ideas and inspiration. I'd recommend you check it out, maybe try this post.

Weekly Review Outline

noreply@blogger.com (Rob) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:18:00 +0000

gtdfrk over at Getting Things Done has a post of his weekly review checklist. He wonders about other peoples weekly reviews so I thought I'd post an outline of my current one. I keep this of course in OneNote and have just copied it over, so some formating etc is missing but the basic scheme is still there.

I like to have done all my processing already done before the weekly review. I used to spend so much time emptying my inbox and processing stuff that had accumulated that I found I had less time than I would have liked on the actual planning stage of the weekly review. I therfore try to process my inputs each day during the week and do a final processing several hours before sitting down to do my weekly review which I use for "Planning Not Processing".

Here's whats in my Checklist:

'PLANNING not Processing'

YOU ARE REVIEWING AND PLANNING NOW

PREPARE
Ensure Daily review already done .
Disconnect from the net
Sit & Think
Final Mindsweep and keep open

REVIEW WHERE YOU ARE:

Review previous weeks schedule
Did you keep your commitments
Did you work on all your roles
Did you use your time effectively

Review next weeks schedule
What commitments do you have
Are you prepared for these
Support Material
Agenda

Review Current 90 day goal list
Do all goals have supporting projects
Are you moving towards succcesful completion
Do any more projects need starting this week

Review Project list
Ensure all projects have a next action
Ensure all projects have a role assigned
Schedule time to work on each project
Any stagnating projects
Shedule time
Dump
Someday / May be
Is there a balance of roles during the week

REVIEW WHERE YOU ARE GOING:

4 week Brief Overview
Any commitments upcoming which need work now
Birthdays / Aniversaires
Events
Holidays
.....

Review Someday / Maybe list
Can anything be moved to active
Can anything be dumped

Review Dream list

Read and commit to yearly goals

FINISH

Process the mindsweep
Look at the coming week again
Visualise Successful Action
Reconnect to the net
Relax & Enjoy