Just a quick post from me today, but I wanted to tell you about a really great tool I've found to keep your GMail account under control. Its called Boomerang.

I'd heard about Boomerang before, but up until now had dismissed it as something that I didn't need. However, now I've had a deeper look at both Boomerang and my e-mail inbox, the features in Boomerang are really appealing to me.

So, What Is Boomerang

Boomerang connects into your GMail account or is installed as an addin for Outlook and enables you to apply GTD to your emails. Here are just some of the features:

• Defer an incoming email till later. If the email is something that you don't need right now, but you will at some stage int he future, then you can hit the boomerang button and it will dissapear from your inbox and magically appear when you specify. A tickler file for your inbox.
• Delay sending an email. Not sure how often I would use this, but if you wanted to send an email later on (for instance, you want to send a birthday email), but you know you won't have time to write it on the day it needs to go, you could write it now and defer sending it.
• Follow up reminder. There is an option to boomerang hte message back to your inbox if you don't get a response within a certain amount of time.

Ways To Use Boomerang

• So, just some of the ways I have come up with to use Boomerang:
• Work as a tickler file for tickets you have booked weeks in advance of needing them
• Remind you that you are waiting for a reply to an email you have sent
• Send emails at key times to people in different time zones

Summary

I'm really excited about Boomerang now I have had chance to install it. I need to do a big clear out of my inbox, but Boomerang coupled with heavy use of filters should hopefully keep my email inbox to zero.

I am forever losing track of emails. Now I really will be able to fire and forget, and then get reminded that I haven't had a response from a question I asked, so I can keep on top of my correspondence.

I won't need to spend an hour searching my email for all my travel and accommodation plans before I go on holiday.

If you use either Outlook or GMail, you really need to check out Boomerang and see how it can work for you.

The post Get to Inbox Zero with Boomerang appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

There are plenty of articles out there on how batch processing can increase your productivity 10 fold.  Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger has covered it, Michael Hyatt has covered it.  Everybody tells you how batch processing is THE way to handle your tasks.  This isn't always the case though.

Krispy Kreme Portsmouth by Julia Manzerova

Please don't get me wrong.  I'm not about to say that batch processing is bad.  In fact its not.  It's a very good tool to use.  Its just not ALWAYS the best tool to use to get the job done efficiently.

What Is Batch Processing

Also known as Batching.  Basically, batching is the grouping of tasks of a similar nature together.  For instance, say you were decorating your house and you needed to paint 5 rooms.  You may go round and mask off all the rooms first, then do the undercoat on the woodwork, then do a coat of emulsion in them all, then do a coat of gloss in each of the 3 rooms and so on.  This is batch processing.

The theory is that it increases your focus by removing distraction - once you get into the rhythm of masking off rooms, then you work more effectively at that task.

Why Batch Processing Isn't Always Good

Batch processing sounds good, right?  Well, yes it is, in some situations.  However, take the above example.  All 3 rooms are out of action until you have masked all 3 rooms, under-coated all 3 rooms and so on, until you have got that final coat of paint and tidied up in the first room.  Lets look at that in a diagram.

Lets say, hypothetically, that it takes an hour to do each task.  And lets simplify the say that the following tasks need to be done:

1. Mask off paintwork
2. Paint gloss work
3. paint walls

[caption id="attachment_596" align="aligncenter" width="413"] Batch Processing[/caption]

In the above diagram, all the masking is done first, then all the gloss and then all the walls are painted.  If it takes an hour to do each task, then it will be 7 hours before any of the rooms are ready to be used.

Alternatively, by not batching each of the jobs:

[caption id="attachment_597" align="aligncenter" width="431"] Not Batch Processing[/caption]

In this instance, the first room will be done and ready to be used after just 3 hours.

Whether to Batch Process

Now, it could be argued that with the above example, that the overall time taken to do all 3 rooms would be less, because each task has taken less than 1 hour due to the benefits of batching.  That is something you need to take into account when deciding whether to batch process or not.

Any repeatable task can be batched.  However, before doing so, weigh up the pros and cons and look at the big picture.  Some examples of when not to batch process are:

• You are starting a company selling widgets - by putting together one widget and selling it, your first money is coming in sooner.  If you make 50 widgets by batch processing them, you will have to wait until all 50 are made before any money comes in.  In this instance you may want to look at an optimum batch size.
• Somebody in another team is waiting on your work before they can start theirs.  By completing one item of your work and passing it on, they can start their work while you are doing item number 2.  In this instance, you are batching as part of the bigger picture, not just focussing on your part.
• Responding to emails - throughout the day, you respond to each email as and when it comes in.  Instead, you could batch process your emails at the end of the day - that way, you are not getting distracted every 30 minutes by another email.  This is an instance where batching is good.

I hope that this helps put batching into some sort of context.  Why not provide some examples of batching and when you decided not to batch in the comments below.

The post The Myth About Batch Processing appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

I've done a lot of thinking lately about what works for keeping me productive in the workplace.  All seems to be working quite well.  I started capturing all my notes and actions in one place, At the end of each day I process that days notes and the first thing in the morning I decide my 3 Most Important Tasks.  I have also looked at how to craft an ideal next action item.

The next area of my life I need to tackle is my life away from work.  I am going to keep the same methodology as I do for work, but I need to look at the tools I use to capture, process and review.  I have created a shortlist of items for now, but I am still open to suggestions.

I discussed a bit about my requirements back at the beginning of this series.  In a nutshell, Either digital or analogue is ok, and I can rely on an internet connection at home, but not necessarily when I'm out and about.  I don't want to have to rely on a computer, but I can rely on my Android phone or tablet.

List of tools:

Pen and Paper

The classic approach.  There is something very romantic about a nice pen* and a moleskine notebook*.  The feel of the nib as it draws across the paper.  And as it is permanent, you take care over what you are writing.

This is also the approach I take at work, so it is familiar.  As I make a subtle change to how I work with one system, I can carry that over to the other.

The downside is that it is something else to carry around at the weekend.

Wunderlist
(web | Android | iOS  | Windows | Mac)

http://youtu.be/PhYruJX4ek8

Wunderlist is both simplistic yet powerful at the same time.  It is a basic list app available for just about all platforms out there (certainly for the ones that I use).  I can have as many lists as I like.  Within each list, each list item can contain a further checklist (ideal for projects), notes, due date and a reminder.  You can also attach files to each item too.

Your list is stored in the cloud and then syncs to each device you use it in, so should I forget my phone, I can still access it from the web.

I'm not sure this will work at work though, due to IT filter policies and the rather old copy of Internet Explorer that we currently have installed.

You can also email tasks to wunderlist too, but only from the email account that is connected to your Wunderlist account.

I really like the simplistic nature of Wunderlist though.

Remember The Milk
(web | Android | iOS)

Remeber The Milk is a freemium app, with more control over your lists than Wunderlist.  In addition to the features that Wunderlist has, you can add tags, locations and more.  This could be useful if I decided to use GTD contexts such as @phone, @computer etc for my tasks.  As I have decided not to do that for now, then this is irrelevant.

I like the locations feature though.  This allows you to set a location to a task, for instance the drycleaners for your "pick up drycleaning" task.  Then, when you are near the drycleaners, the app will remind you.

You can also sync with your MS Outlook tasks.  However, you have to pay for premium membership for this.

ToodleDo
(web | iOS)

For even more customisation, there is Toodle.Do.  I used this service once before and for the ultimate in control over your list, then this is it!  You can assign priority, folder, context, due date, start date, status and more.  What is good, though, is that you don't have to use these features and you can turn them off completely.  You can also filter on each column and

Apps are available for both Android (albeit third party) and iOS, as well as the web interface.

What I didn't like about this, the first time round, was the complexity.  Its great being able to control all these features, but it just gets a bit overwhelming.  With great power, comes great responsibility and all that!

Any More?

Right now, I think I'm leaning towards Wunderlist for its simplistic approach.  The simplistic task management approach is really appealing to me right now as I don't want tos pend my time managing my todo list, I want to spend the time clearing items off it.

However, I'm not going to make any final decisions just yet.  Are there any other suggestions that anybody has for me to look at?  If there are, I will update the post.

The post Rebooting My Personal Productivity System appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

I've been struggling recently with my to do list.  I've tried GTD, and recently I discovered Leo Babauta's essays on a modified approach to GTD. I much prefer this more laid back, simplistic approach to task list management. However, I've been struggling to knock items off my to do list.

by Emily Raw

One of the main reasons for this, I believe, is the quality of the item on my to do list. Some items are simply too generic and too big to get done in one day. By the time I've got through the day and struggled to knock off one item off my MIT list, let alone three, it's quite disheartening.

I clearly need to make some changes to my to do list items, so after a bit of research and thinking, here is what I am proposing I do.

Differentiate Between Projects and Actions

My to do list essentially started off as a dumping ground for all the notes that I had collected through the day that needed me to follow up on them.  This works quite well and I don't feel I need to change how I handle that.  Scanning down my list at the moment, I have items like:

1. Reply to email on panel buckling
2. Check initial stress dossier / report
3. Verify sandwich panel analysis method

These are all tasks that need completing.  However, item 1 is a standalone action.  It only has one step to it.  Items 2 and 3 are much bigger tasks.  The stress dossier is an 800 page report.  And the sandwich panel analysis method I know would take about a week's work.

These items are projects and can be broken down into several steps - e.g. Check chapter 1 of stress dossier.  This is a much more manageable task to handle in a day.  It could even be broken down further, for example, to "check first 10 pages of dossier".

Marketing Professors David Gal and Blake McShane looked into the psychology of checking off smaller goals and they found that completing smaller subtasks motivates individuals to complete the final goal.

So, in future, when I am processing my daily notes, which I do at the end of each day, I shall look at the stages needed to complete each project.

First Task Board by Alan Dayley

I should also note down that I will not be putting "big ticket" projects on my to do list.  Items such as "Show A350 Leading Edge To Be Structurally Sound" is not an item for my todo list.  That belongs ona  completely different list, which I will deal with in a later post.

Only Actions Make it to my Most Important Task List

So, now that I have broken down my larger projects into more manageable chunks, it is only my actions that will make it onto my Most Important Task (MIT) list.

Its important that I have MITs that I can focus on straight away, rather than staring at it pondering what the action I need to do to complete it is.

Each Action Should Contain a Verb

A verb is a doing word.  Similar to only having actions on my MIT list, by describing what I need to actually do, I can get straight on with the job, without sitting there for 10 minutes pondering what to do.  The pondering should be part of my inbox processing job.

It may be at the beginning of the day, whilst I am declaring my MITs for the day, that I do some further processing to tweak my actions - I may have an urgent task that needs completing, but a lot of meetings that day, so I change one of my actions in order to delegate that task.  Either way, when I set up my MITs, they need to be rock solid and ready for me just to start doing.

Be Aware of My Time and Energy Quota

And speaking of busy days, I have had a number of days recently where everything has come at once.  For instance, the other day I had a podiatrist appointment first thing in the morning, then I was at a client's offices the rest of the morning, so I lost half of the morning for doing work at my desk.

I've also had days when I've not slept too great, so my energy levels haven't been wonderful (particularly with the recent heatwave we've had here lately).

I need to be aware of this when setting up the remainder of my day.  Pick off the smaller tasks that I know I can fit in.  When my energy levels are low, pick off the mundane tasks that I don't need to think too hard about.  Ask myself if I can delegate any of the work.

There are a lot of ways of doing this, such as scheduling it on my calendar, noting down energy levels required for each task, limiting the time required for each action.  However, these are all adding complexity to a system that I want to keep as simple as possible.

Summary

I've got a few bits to take away there, so I shall start actioning them over the next week or 2 and see how I get on.  I shall also have a think about whether I want to do something more formal with managing time and energy levels when deciding my MITs.

The post The Perfect To Do List Item appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

I've been building up my productivity system for a couple of weeks now. Following a read of Leo Babauta's Zen to Done, I decided that this could form a good foundation for my to-do system. Check out this post for details of what I planned to do.

If you couldn't be bothered going back to that post, in summary, Zen to Done is a simplified version of GTD, with the focus on building a set of habits that stick.  Sticking with the habits is what I struggled with, the first time round. Leo recommended taking on only one habit at a time and so I chose the collecting habit. This worked very well for a few days, but then I had a big long list of notes that was stressing me out.

I decided that I needed to go against Leo's advice on this and build in some more of the system sooner. I needed to get my actions out of my list made up of meeting notes, phone notes, general ideas and to-dos. I decided to take on a few more of the habits that I need to build. So, I added in the following:

• At the end of each day, I process that day's notes to pull out any actions that I need to take care of. These go in a big list at the back of my notebook.
• At the beginning of each day, I decide on 3 Most Important Tasks (or MITs as Leo calls them). These are 3 tasks that I want to get done that day.

This is similar to the system that Leo uses and has been working much better. The information is flowing much freer and I feel much more in control. I can still sense some areas of resistance, but for now I am happy that I have got something in place that is working. I shall carry on with these three habits for a little while whilst I get into a habitual routine with it. Then I will start adding in more habits.

One thing I have found, though, is that I am not completing my three MITs a day. Possibly because my MITs are too big. There are several ways I could handle this:

1. Carry them over to the next day - whilst this isn't a show stopper in terms of my workload (I've already accounted for when they are going to finish), I don't want to be leaving unfinished items on my todo list for each day. Psychologically, this is failing (even if I tell myself it's ok).
2. Do fewer MITs each day - again, this isn't ideal. Sometimes I have struggled to do even one of my MITs.
3. Break my MITs down into smaller MITs - some of my to-do's have been horrendously huge. Review a 400 page document for example. There is no way I could do this in one day.

Option 3 sounds like the ideal option, but I'd like to do a bit more research on what other people have found to be the best way to set tasks. I will report back on this next week.

The post Handling My Actions At Work appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

I've been discussing habits a lot recently. It's become incredibly apparent to me that it is habits that have been the reason that my previous attempts at improving my personal productivity have floundered. I need to build some good habits, but what are the best ways to do that?

I've dug into a lot of the research on psychology of habits. If you want to build a good habit, then keep reading.

Start with Small Habits and Build On Them

One of my favourite writers on Habits, Leo Babauta, suggests starting small and building from there. For instance, if you want to eat more healthy, then get into the habit of eating one piece of fruit a day. Once you have ingrained that into your daily routine, build it up to 2 pieces of fruit.

If you take on too much change in any one go, for instance by immediately changing all your unhealthy chocolate and crisps for apples and oranges, you will find it a struggle and you will reject it at the slightest obstacle. Whereas, if you switch out just one packet of crisps for an apple, you will slowly build a solid foundation for your healthier habit.

This builds on the theory of micro quotas and macro goals. We often tend to thing big and aspire to huge goals. However, these can often be intimidating elephants to eat! So break down the goal into smaller chunks. Goals and quotas are defined thus:

• Goal - What you want to accomplish. For instance, you might want to write a book
• Quota - This is the minimum amount of work that you need to get done each period in order to get it done.

So, for instance, you may want to write a book. Wow, that's quite a big task. A typical book is about 80,000 words. However, if you can write 500 words a day, which should take you about 30 minutes, you will have written a book in under 6 months. When you look at it like that, its not as scary as you first think!

Also, by setting yourself a low commitment, often you will be motivated to carry on. For instance, I have recently been trying to build up my fitness by cycling. I have been building up my mileage on each trip following a knee injury. My last journey, I set myself a target of 10 miles. However, as I was approaching my 10 miles, I was feeling pretty good and that I could (and wanted to) do some more miles, so I took a detour and ended up doing 13 miles in total. I didn't have to. If I had carried on and only completed 10 miles, I wouldn't have been disappointed.

Similarly, I have set myself another goal of writing 1000 words a week, as I would like to develop my writing and communication skills. I quite regularly write far more than 1000 words for various websites and at work, but sometimes I'll get busy and I will only do my minimum 1000 words.

The 21 Day Habit Myth

There is a common belief that you can form any habit in 21 days. Or sometimes 30 days. Numerous books spread this myth with titles such as "We Can Make You Rich/Thin/Pretty/Anything You Want to Be in 21 Days". Their research often goes uncited as to where they get this mythical figure from.

Researchers from University College, London, conducted a study using 96 volunteers to study how long it took them to form a solid habit, with the final figures ranging between 18 to 254 days. The conclusion gleaned from that research is that the length of time it takes to build a habit depends on the individual. We aren't all the same, so just as one productivity method won't fit everyone, neither will every habit forming method.

Decide Why You Want to Form a Habit

You need a motivator and you should keep your motivation in mind regularly. The last thing you want is to end up just carrying out your habit for the habits sake.

For instance, if your goal is to build a business buying and selling antique widgets, you may then build a habit of going to widget markets every weekend. However, if the price of widgets drops significantly due to the market being flooded with new widgets, you need to re-align your motivation as to why you are going each week. It could be that you enjoy your widget collecting, which is fine, as long as you are aware of that. However, if you are still going because you have become robotic with your habit then you need to give yourself a kick.

Use Triggers For Building Your Habit

Triggers can be a significant key for building habits. For instance, I bet the majority of us have a bed-time routine - lock windows and doors, turn lights downstairs off, put PJs on, wash face, brush teeth etc. Thinking in logical terms, this is an "If.... Then...." routine. For instance:

If Bedtime
Then lock windows and doors, turn lights off etc

The same could apply to habits you are trying to build. Have a look at what habit you want to build and what triggers would be good. For instance, I book my hours every morning at work, as soon as I boot up my computer:

If just booted up computer
Then book hours

This is a similar principal to Pavlov's Dog. A trigger incites a reaction, so we use that to our advantage in building a habit.

Recognising triggers can also be effective to stop you breaking habits. For instance

If I feel too tired to go out cycling
Then I will have a drink and some sugar and go for a shorter ride

Chances are that I will end up doing a longer ride. After all, the secret is to just get started.

Identify Obstacles

There is an interesting phenomenon known as the "What The Hell" effect. Basically a minor setback makes you think "Ah, what the hell, its not worth it". These minor setbacks and frustrations can be habit killers and make you completely abandon ship.

Take for instance my cycling goal. At one point I was cycling once a week into work quite regularly. Then the cold weather started. And my bed was nice and warm. I still needed to make sure my tyres were pumped up, go and find my cycling clothes, prep my lunch and bag it up. So I rolled over and thought "Ah, what the hell, I can cycle tomorrow". But I didn't. I was just using all those minor details as an excuse.

If I had identified that as my "What the Hell" moment, I could have countered it by doing my prep work the night before. Then in the morning all I would have to do would be get up and put on my clothes. And so that's what I do now.

So, hopefully I can use some of these tools to build my productivity habit.

What tools do you use to build habits?

The post How to Build a Habit That You’ll Stick To appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

Following on from last week's post, I've done a lot of reading. I've been reading Leo Babauta's book, Zen To Done.  I've been skimming back over David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. The conclusion I came to last week is that in order for my organisation system to stick, I need to build solid habits. In order to do that, I can't just jump straight into a full new system, where everything is new.

The general consensus is to build 1-2 habits at a time in order for them to stick.

It's overwhelming and it's too hard to focus on your habit changes if you do too many at a time. Instead, focus on one at a time, and adopt the system in phases. - Leo Babauta, Zen To Done

SO, WHERE DO I START?

That's the big question! I think the first thing that needs to be done is to clear the decks. That will be one of the biggest stress relievers. Get everything out of my head and onto paper. It doesn't have to be sorted for now. If it's not sorted and organised in my head, it's going to be in no worse a state if its in a big list on a piece of paper.

This will be a chance to organise all my inboxes and make sure they stay clear. A chance to get my thoughts out onto paper and keep my mind free for concentrating on the job at hand, rather than worrying about trying to remember what it is that I need to remember. Now I've written it down like that, it sounds crazy that that is what the majority of us do, we use our brains to try and remember what it is that we need to remember.

We use our brains to try and remember what it is that we need to remember.

MY FIRST HABIT TO TACKLE

I've already covered how my life is pretty much split into two, between work and my personal life.  Both will require separate systems unfortunately. But in a way, that is a good thing. It means I can experiment on which methods work best more easily. Split-testing if you like.

For ease, I'm going to start off concentrating on my work system. Initially, I think I will get the most benefit from that. It is also possibly the easiest to organise. I have limited constraints on what I can and can't use (pretty much limited to paper/pen, MS Office programs or plain text). There are also only limited areas that I go - around the office building and customer sites.

So, as I need to be able to carry my capture system with me wherever I go, I am going to try the pen and paper approach. I will set up a notebook and jot everything down in it that comes my way.

I have set up a legend so that when I am inputting notes in, I can see at a glance, whether it is an action, an idea or a general note:

Again, this is something that I will evaluate over time. I will document how well this works as I am going along.

INBOX TO ZERO

The other part of my kick off will be to assess my current inboxes. These are any source that I receive my information from. So, a quick assessment of my current situation:

•  E-mail
•  Telephone (I don't have voicemail)
• Face-to-face meetings
•  Post
•  Memos

These should be pretty simple to combine, by using the notebook:

So now I am essentially down to 2 inboxes to process:

•  Notebook
•  E-mail

INBOX OVERFLOW

One of the problems with only taking on one habit at a time and by doing the collection process first, is that I am worried I will let my notebook overflow with information. When it comes time to take on the second habit of processing, it will be a mammoth task that I will procrastinate over. For that reason, I need to do at least some minimal processing.

For ease of future manipulation, I will simply carry any actions from my e-mail into my notebook, so that all my notes are together. That will buy me a reasonable amount of time to address how and where I should store my action and project list going forward, whilst still keeping items in a semi-organised state.

Each day I will set aside some time to process my inbox, rather than checking it adhoc and get actions into my "system". I will note down any obstacles I encounter and they can be addressed in future posts.

However, my key focus for now is going to be on building my collection and clearing habits. Next week I will discuss how I intend to build these habits using tried and tested methods.

The post First Stage of my Productivity Habit appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

Now that I've set out my requirements for how I need to manage my information, I now need to settle on a system that meets these requirements.  In the past, I have always been drawn towards David Allen's GTD methodology. I presented a brief introduction to it a few months ago. If you want to read more though, I highly recommend reading the book.  Before I start crafting my own system, it would be good to look at why my previous system hasn't worked, so today I shall look at why the GTD system hasn't worked for me in the past.

Good Points about GTD

Firstly, what appealed to me about GTD.

• Next Action approach - David suggests that you only need to be reminded about the next action needed to be taken for any particular task. You're not project planning, you are simply doing the next action required in order to move the project on. Once you've completed that, you scratch that Next Action off your list and add the next Next Action on.  I like this approach. It's not planning, its just enough to kick you off with completing your task.
• Storing Next Actions by context. David recommends setting up lists based on context - for instance @phone, @computer etc. Then, when you are at your phone, you look at your @phone list and you can see immediately who you need to call and make all your calls in one go.
• Mind Like Water mentality - Because you store all of your Next Actions in your GTD system, it is suggested that when something urgent comes in and you have to drop what you were originally doing, you can pick it straight back up, because you can see at a glance what the Next Action against that particular project was.
• Keeping all your inboxes empty - Processing everything in your inbox (be it email, voicemail, physical in-tray etc) regularly and keeping it empty. Touch every item once and decide what the action is and whether to do it, defer it or delegate it. This is very much a systems approach, which again, appeals to the geek in me.

Why GTD Didn't Work For Me Last Time

So, that's what appealed to me. Why didn't it work? Well, several reasons that I can see.

• I struggled to decide on what the Next Action should be for some of my incoming items. I let this resistance get the better of me, so rather than clear the item out of my inbox and into my system, it sat in my inbox. Then my inbox got clogged up.
• I struggled to find the time to do the Weekly Review that David suggests is necessary for GTD. It worked well at first, but then work pressures built up and I would postpone it further and further. Eventually it just didn't get done one week. And then the next. Guilt got the better of me and I hid from it. Slowly my system disintegrated.
• Seperating out work and personal systems - In some ways this worked, in others it was more complex. Due to limitations at work on what computer software I could use, I ended up using 2 different GTD tools - one for home and one for work. In hindsight, I think things would have worked much better had I just kept one tool, consistent across both.

Moving On From There

I think that some of the key reasons behind these failures is that I struggled to build and keep the habits required.

Reading through the GTD book again and the sudden change in lifestyle from chaos to organising everything and going to a weekly review is a huge cultural change. There are a lot of habits to change - how you handle your inboxes, regularly reviewing your system, looking up your lists when you are in a position to tackle a particular context.

Habits are vital in order for something to run smoothly. The natural human tendency though, is to fight change. This makes jumping from one system to another hard work. I think this is one of the key reasons why my attempts to order my system failed.

David Allen tells you how your system should work and what you should do with your system, but he doesn't cover, in enough detail, how to change from chaos to GTD in a way that will work for the majority of people.

As this could be a habit building thing that I need to overcome, I have turned to Leo Babauta. For those of you who have followed my Sunday Muse posts, you may recognise the name from some of the articles I have recommended. Leo writes over at Zen Habits and has spent a lot of time studying and writing about habits.

I've discovered that Leo has written a book entitled Zen To Done (available as a Paperback, e-book or an audiobook), which describes itself as being "a system that is at once simple, and powerful". I like the emphasis on the simple, so I will try and give that a read, as well as dig a bit deeper into Leo's site to learn what I can about how I can use habits to get into a system that will work for me.

I know I can build habits that work. I've managed to build a writing habit. For some time now I have kept to writing at least once a week on this site. That was just one change though. Perhaps I need to build things one step at a time.

Hopefully I will be able to review many of the key articles on Leo's site before next week's post, as well as Zen to Done. I shall report back then on my findings.

The post My Experience with GTD appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

I've been allowing myself to get disorganised again.  I've tried a few different ways of organising my life over the years.  Some have worked, but I've let myself fall of the wagon.  Some I've just resisted right from the offset.  At the end of the day, we are all different, so whilst, for example, GTD or the Franklin-Covey system may work for some people, it won't work for everyone.

I'm going to start from scratch again and sort out a system for keeping my life under control.

Over the coming weeks I am going to look at what my particular requirements are, before looking at how I can meet those requirements.  I may take a deeper look at systems I have used in the past, such as GTD and why they didn't work for me.  I'll look at what tools I can use to look after my system and then finally I will trial the system and report back on how it is going.

Why Do I Need A System

There are many aspects to my life:

• Work
• Family
• Jobs around the house
• Looking after this website
• Social Life

It may not sound like a lot, but keeping track of all my different to-dos is an added stress that I don't need.  Especially when I'm out at work for 9-10 hours a day.  I need the ability to see at a glance what I need to do and to be able to jump between different jobs, in different areas of my life, whilst still maintaining momentum.  David Allen describes this as "Mind Like Water".

Then, just taking the sheer number of things to remember.  Every day tasks such as cleaning, washing, ironing; work tasks such as writing reports, preparing agendas for meetings, running that quick analysis that you said you would do for your boss; jobs around the house, such as all those DIY tasks you have spotted, putting various items you want to get rid of on eBay, trimming the hedges; website tasks like writing this week's article, promoting posts in order to build links to the site, responding to comments, tweaking the design; and finally social life tasks, such as picking up a birthday card, arranging a get together with friends you haven't seen in a while etc.  And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Keeping that many tasks in your head just adds to the stress.  You expend energy just remembering it all, let along trying to do it.  Our brains aren't designed for that.

I'd like to build a system where I can keep all my tasks and lists in one place.  A place that I can reference whenever I want, wherever I am.

Defining the Moon on a Stick

In the past I have just jumped in head first into systems like GTD, based on inspiring articles I've read, exciting new tools I've seen or just what looks cool.  This time round though, I'm going to approach it like I would any Engineering problem and start by defining the problem and the requirements.  Only then can I evaluate tools and define a system that meets my needs.

Location

I need to be able to access my system wherever I am.  I could really split my locations down into 3 areas:

• Work
•  Home
• Out and About

Each location has different quirks that I will need to consider:

Work: Regular access to a computer, but very limited on what can be installed on it.  Also, incredibly limited internet access.  Data access on my phone is variable, but most of the time data access is only GSM, so slow.

Home: Internet access is fine 99% of the time.  But I'm not sat at a computer all day, so viewing my list on a computer means turning a computer on, which is an added obstacle.  I don't always want to carry my phone with me around the house, but I do have a tablet that tends to be lying around downstairs.

Out and About: Internet access is unpredictable.  Around cities its fine, but in the towns and villages around where we live, it can be very sketchy.  I definitely won't have a computer with me and it's not very likely I will have my tablet with me.  I am more likely to have my phone with me though.

Inboxes

When I say inboxes, I bet 75% of you are thinking I am referring to e-mail.  However, in this instance, I am referring to any channel that brings information into my life.  In this instance, the inboxes I currently have are:

• Work E-mail
• Personal E-mail
• Website E-mail
• Work telephone
• Mobile telephone - voice
• Mobile Telephone - text
• Face to face
• Post

I also have my own information that I need to put somewhere.  For instance, research I carry out on the internet, notes from meetings or training courses, ideas I may have throughout the day.  I need to be able collect all these together and put them into my system somehow.

Special Lists

There are certain lists that fall outside of the usual to-do lists.  And some of those lists have further requirements:

Shopping: A list of all products that we need to buy for our weekly shop.  I need to be able to share this with my wife so that we can both add to it and either of us can use it to pick up the shopping.

Wish lists: A list of items that I am thinking about buying

Packing Lists: When we are going away, it is often easier to write a list of things to take before actually starting to pack.  I can refer back to older lists when packing for similar trips in the future also.

Things to do: A List of places I'd like to go and things to do.  I'm always seeing things I'd like to do.  Having a list of these in one place would be good, so I don't forget about them.  Almost a bucket list, but not quite.

Additional Requirements

I'd like to have all my information in one place.  The only exception I'd have to this would be that I am happy to separate out my work system from my personal system.

Backup is also important.  If I lose, or forget whatever medium I have my system in (phone, paper etc), if that should get damaged, I need to be able to get back up to speed as fast as possible.

Speed of getting items into my system is important.  If something is to tedious or too slow, that will be a resistance to me, so I will likely stop using it (as has happened in the past).

Access of information should be as efficient as possible.  I need to be able to see at a glance what I need to do and what the most appropriate task I should be doing is.

What Next?

So going on from here, I will start to evaluate my requirements and brainstorming/researching options to help me meet my requirements.  I've tried, where I can, to separate out the requirements from the potential solution in order to remain impartial.

Then I will start to evaluate each solution and build my system from there.

If you have any questions or suggestions then please add them to the comments below.

The post My Productivity Journey :: Requirements appeared first on Babbling Engineer.

At some point in our life, we all make mistakes. The difference between those that succeed at life and those that don't, depends on how we handle our mistakes though.

When you are learning is when you are most likely to make mistakes. The fact that we are constantly learning is a topic for another day though. Some people take making a mistake as being a personal failure. I was like that for many years. I felt stupid, like I wasn't capable. It stopped me wanting to do certain things again, for fear of failing again.

The reality of the situation though, wasn't that I was stupid or not capable. More often than not, mistakes were made due to rushing, pressure from other people or my mind being on other things that were vying for my attention.

It took until I was much older and working in industry before I realised all this though. And this is partly why I have taken an interest in self improvement.

We all make mistakes. It wasn't just me. In most Engineering workplaces now, there is a formal checking process to try and capture mistakes. This is one of the jobs that I currently carry out. The hardest job, I find, isn't checking the work itself (although that has its moments). The hardest part is communicating the errors to the analyst.  Nobody likes being told they are wrong.  But that is another subject for another day.

What to Do When You Make Mistakes

Obviously, that is dealing with capturing mistakes before they matter. But what happens if something slips through the net and is found at a later date. This happened to me recently. Here's what you need to do:

Risk Assessment

What are the risks of the mistake. Is it critical? Is there a way to recover the mistake without it having an impact on the final outcome? And who needs to be made aware of the mistake. In the case of a structural analysis on an aircraft, there is often conservatism built into the analysis, so it could be that the analysis can be pulled back and the structure is still acceptable.

Hold Your Hand Up

This is the most important step, but often the hardest. Face up to the mistake. Don't sweep it under the carpet. People will be happier that the mistake was spotted and something bad prevented from happening, than it be hidden away until it was too late. You may even get brownie points for not only spotting it, but also being brave enough to face up to it.

At the end of the day, if you point out a mistake that you have made, you are showing that you are putting the project/team ahead of yourself. You will get a heap of kudos for that. As well as the warm fuzzy feeling of doing the right thing.

Correct Your Mistake

Now for the easy bit (unless you get tied up in bureaucracy, red tape and budgets). Make your mistake right and get things back on track. Once the mistake has been corrected and nothing bad has happened, people soon forget that the mistake happened in the first place.

Learn from Your Mistake

One of my favourite quotes is from Batman Begins.  Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler says to Bruce, when he is at a particularly low point:

"Why do we fall, sir? So that we might learn to pick ourselves up."

So now you have fallen, look at why you fell. Look at how you can pick yourself up again. And also look at how you can prevent yourself falling again. This is how we develop as a person and how we develop our skills. On a larger scale, it also improves the processes within our Company.

Summary

So don't be afraid or ashamed when you make mistakes. Take them and make the most of them. They have already happened - we can't do anything about that. But we can use them as a stepping block to improve from.

The post What to do When You Make Mistakes appeared first on Babbling Engineer.