In This Episode…
Another week has passed (where is the year going) and once again it is time to reflect on what has happened in the podcast and in my thrust towards even greater levels of personal productivity. This week has been another week of progress but also of flexibility. In this episode I cover the following:
- A quick overview of the podcast episodes of the week.
- How I have progressed the points to improve from last week.
- How my weekly and daily planning approach has faired under increased pressure this week.
- Why having the ability to adapt in the face of a new reality is a good thing.
- Why it is important not to blur outcomes for a specific activity.
- How being behind on my plan for the month is not a bad thing at this stage of the month.
Episode Show Notes…
00:32 – Let’s start with a quick overview of the podcast episodes this week:
- On Monday in episode 192 I revisited my rationale about why I wanted to deal with my approach to handling emails. As you will hear if you listen to the episode, it isn’t about what you might think.
- In Tuesday’s episode i talked about how a plan rarely survives first contact with reality. Sometimes when you are working your plan, you need to be flexible enough to adapt that plan to meet emerging needs not anticipated before.
- On Wednesday I did an episode about accountability. I shared the inspiring example of a coaching client of mine who had taken complete accountability for her commitments. I then shared a bad example of accountability which I am embarrassed to say was me!
- In Episode 195 on Thursday I reflected on why I still wasn’t dealing with the e mail challenge I had set out to address at the beginning of the week.
- Friday’s episode was called The E Mail Audit I Didn’t Want To Do That Gave Me Insights On My Behaviour I Didn’t Want To Hear. This was a meaty episode that took me deep into my e mail inbox and dug up some issues I knew were there but had avoided dealing with.
- On Saturday I finally drew a line under my email dysfunctionality and committed to sorting it out.
05:26 – Here’s how I have progressed on my commitments to improve after last week’s review:
- I have done a really good job of keeping my commitments to myself this week. Each day has had that added bit of bite to make sure everything gets done.
- Last week I kept getting easily distracted by YouTube and had committed to managing that better this week. On the whole I have done this but noticed that when my direction was less defined, I was more likely to be distracted.
06:35 – Here is what has worked well for me this week:
- My monthly/weekly/daily approach to planning my focus continues to work really well. The planning sheets are doing their job, my daily process is working well and the results are clear.
- Each day has had an extra bit of bite in my effort and I have followed through far more effectively on my daily commitments.
- Being flexible enough to adapt my plans in light of new information worked well. I managed to put in place a resource I needed but had not planned for.
- I finally got round to dealing with or at least starting to deal with my e mail challenge. I was reminded of the benefit of blocking out a big chunk of time to work on something (Deep Work).
09:51 – What could I do to make things even better?
- I still need to increase my levels of discipline around the distraction of YouTube. This might be difficult as the Green Bay Packers meet the 49ers in tonights championship game. I’ll either watch every celebratory broadcast of their victory or I’ll wallow in the misery of hearing the pundits explain how they lost…we’ll see what happens!
- When I am on a task, I need to be very clear on the outcome and not allow it to morph into something else midway through.
- Sometimes it is a good thing just to walk away from a task for a while if little or no progress is being made.
12:07 – A summary of my progress:
- I am behind on my current plan for the month because of the deviations to deal with emerging needs.
- However I feel I have made significant progress in improving HOW I run my business because of those deviations that will continue to pay dividends into the future.
Until tomorrow…
