Declaring GTD bankruptcy has gone reasonably well.
The working with Omnifocus website has been a good investment. Good videos, worth the money and has helped me get my Omnifocus mojo bak again
Nebo app looks good for iPad Pro users. Handwriting notes does have a better memory retention than typing (and is less distracting within meetings) but is another app I need to think about workflow
So I'm declaring GTD bankruptcy today.
Planning on adapting my GTD system given the experience I've had with the last 10 months.
Going with the approach set out in 'Creating Flow with Omnifocus - second edition'
I will be speaking at the 2015 Credit Summit
A general reading list for general GTD and management
A great website for practical application of GTD (IMO) is simplicitybliss
Keep People From Feeling Left Out
Social rejection is hard in any setting, including at the office. When people feel excluded, they can't be productive, innovative, or collaborative. As a manager you need to create a work environment that discourages rejection
Nice little post.Applies to both managers and leaders equally.
BBC News - 'Tipping point' for mobile health apps
"We are at a tipping point in computer science where the technology is getting so small... We can then have people monitor themselves without taking any effort," he said.
Professor Gill Rowlands, a GP and clinical senior lecturer at Kings College London, added a note of caution: "I would like to make sure that the applications people use have been quality tested."
.. And check for security risks
In short, sponsorship is about taking calculated risks. Why do it? Because the payoff is priceless.
Amen
In today's complex organizational matrix, no one person can maintain both breadth and depth of knowledge across fields and functions. But she can put together a posse whose expertise is a quick IM away. Some sponsees add value through their technical expertise or social media savvy. Others contribute fluency in another language or culture. Still others may help you advance the organization's goals through their ability to build teams from scratch and coach raw talent. Building a loyal cadre of effective performers can extend your reach, realize your vision, build your legacy, and burnish your reputation
Never underestimate the power of your network.. I had a very telling experience recently where I was able to help out an old colleague by contacting a very good relationship I had with a third party vendor
Why You Should Stop Keeping Score at Work
It’s beneficial, even productive, to make your accomplishments visible, instead of hiding away keeping mental score. Understanding what everyone is doing means that you’re not worried about percentages and brownie points but focusing on getting awesome things done together as a team and aligning the points between individual and collective progress and meaning.
I read this article with a particular person in mind...
Further evidence that you need to celebrate personal and team successes. I'll stress that making your personal accomplishments visible is a crucial behaviour and essential for the 'aligning of points'. So stop keeping scores but make sure you celebrate when you score a goal!
Acronyms such as STP (Short Term Plan) and MTP (Medium Term Plan) exist within nearly every Financial Services company I have worked within.
STP is the short term outlook, usually 12 to 18 months at most. It is this plan than is usually the most relevant measure of 'success' in terms of your personal performance. For example:
For years I diligently tracked my Work performance against these measures weekly, monthly and quarterly. Making sure I was on track, forecasting where I would land and making course corrections along the way as necessary. But not once did I ever do the obvious...
Why not follow the same cycle for my *personal* objectives.
The relentless STP and MTP cycle within my work life is a mirror to the same process I should be going through in me personal life.
So now I do the obvious thing.
As I go through this cycle in work - I go through it in parallel in my personal life
In GTD terms this is a the yearly 40k feet view. What do I want to achieve (what is my personal strategic direction?) Basically - what will make me happy?
This list (Or 'Strategic Direction') is written down and analysed.
(I would show you but it's deeply personal! :p)
How can I ensure that on those cold, dark mornings when it's raining that I'm getting out of bed and making some progress towards those lofty 40k feet dreams? Is this gym session 42 of 60? Is this the day when I'm going to achieve a personal best for "Fran"? Is this the day when a significant other and I are going to move in together? Basically when I go to sleep at night how can I say to myself "yes, today I did indeed inch closer to objective X?"
Ironically I think this sort of measurement is SO much easier in work related situations. Did we achieve impairment target of YM? Yes - in fact we outperformed by 20%. Fantastic!! Big warm feeling. The trick is coming up with something similar in a personal context.
The real trick is this measurement, tracking and forecast is the PUSH and PULL to get me to stumble, at least mostly, in the 'right' direction - especially when I don't want to.
On those really, really dark days. Sometimes a win is a small as "Did I NOT get into a fight" or "Did I at least make it to the gym even if it was a rubbish session". Small steps count some days.
Planning in advance for 'Stress' is productive. This is along the lines of "What if this happens... What would I do?"
This helps with both the 'control' aspect and the 'is that really important to me if I'm totally honest aspect'.
I have some idea what I would do if I lost my job, if I needed to drop everything to look after that friend or if the zombie apocalypse happens.
But I can also honestly say - when it comes down to it, in the total extreme... Who or what is important to me.
If my life was burning to the ground, what would I go back into the flames to save? To me, those things and ONLY those things go into my MTP.
Once a year. I delete my Omnifocus personal projects and start this process again. Its cathartic. If it's important my STP / MTP will end up in a similar state. If it's not important then then it's gone.
You don't care if a business strategy is dropped? Why should you care if a rubbish personal strategy is dropped? This is the time to really embrace that mindset.
In work we ALWAYS have to tell somebody on a VERY REGULAR basis how we're performing. When it's going badly it sucks (I would imagine ;p)
The same discipline should carry into personal STP / MTP.. You REPORT your progress. Good or bad. Probably to yourself but ideally to your significant other (I would imagine ;p). If you deserve a kicking, take the kicking and get better. If you're being a hero, bask in the glory.
Having time once a year to formally look back and RATE the actual performance. What went well, what are the strengths or weaknesses. What areas need to be invested in to stay on track with the longer term objectives?
To me this one is mostly negatives. I rate my end of year performance. What did I do well - great, why didn't you do more. What did you do badly, no excuses but why is that acceptable? What is holding you back (or who?) - why didn't you drop them.
It's not a pleasant process. But I think it's necessary... This is why I sync it to business review periods.
It works well for me in terms of reminding me I need to do it AND it usually gives me a kick up the backside to draw a line in the sand, to stop procrastinating and to make the hard decisions.
And then the cycle repeats again and again... Grinding out results
Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, taxpayer, or larger community. When the existing business is to assume a major change or when planning a new venture, a 3 to 5 year business plan is required, since investors will look for their annual return in that timeframe
"Business Plans" typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals
They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, or a restructuring of the organisation. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures.
Business plans are decision-making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather, the content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan represents all aspects of business planning process declaring vision and strategy alongside sub-plans to cover marketing, finance, operations, human resources as well as a legal plan, when required. A business plan is a summary of those disciplinary plans.
Business plans that identify and target internal goals but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are strategic plans.
Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department.
Project plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project. They may also address the project's place within the organisation's larger strategic goals.
Based in part upon a much better post by macsparky this is a quick post about filenaming and version control if you work in a professional environment with other people.
I recommend using a combination of YYYY-MM-DD something else.extension or YYYY-MM something.extension. The date always goes first. Always
E.g.
The date in the document should be meaningful to you. In many cases this is simply the creation date (don't assume the creation date will always be preserved, especially when working on documents in a work capacity)
Why?
* The four digit year and month eliminators make it easy to sort the files
* When searching for files you probably have some idea of the year and month you created the file
I'm a big fan of a suffexing files with [A-Z]###. What does that mean?
Why?
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