Category Archives: Plans & Organisation

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June 1, 2013

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#blogjune, Plans & Organisation, Research, Travel

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The challenge that is #blogjune

A bit of planning with a cuppa

You just can’t count on things to go according to plan. But that doesn’t negate the need to have one, at least in the form of a rough draft, in almost every area of our lives. #blogjune this year is no exception.

This will be my second time participating in this challenge. I missed it last year as I tried really hard to focus on achieving some sort of balance in my life. This year I think I’m better equipped, emotionally and mentally, to cope. I’m not saying this challenge is overly onerous. No, there were just some things I needed to deal with, and still am - high expectations. I grapple with this all the time. I wouldn’t say I’m a perfectionist, though many probably would. I’m close to it. And perhaps I was one, once upon a time. I think I may be forgiven though. You can’t go through years of competitive gymnastics without developing some perfectionist tendencies. Where the difference between first and second place at a national championships is often less than a minor wobble on the beam, can you blame me? Really?

The last time I participated in #blogjune, I had grand plans. This year, the last few days I’ve had a small notebook beside me where I’ve written a few words when an idea for a blog post came to my mind. I’ve collated those ideas into some themes and I’ve somehow wound up with a month planner with a blog post idea for each day. Have I learnt anything?

The difference this year is that I’ve lowered my expectations for earth-shattering, article type, 500 words long blog posts every day. I have a ‘rough draft’ and a bank of ideas to draw from. I’m going to allow myself to deviate from my plan if something pops into mind on the day that I just have to get out. That’s okay. My plan is really a back up plan, a sketch of the kinds of things I’d like to cover, but not necessarily need to for this challenge. The worst thing that could happen is that I have a lot of ideas to go on with after #blogjune is done. Cool!

#blogjune can be random. I like that. Randomness is part of my charm. :)

I’m looking forward to participating in this challenge and contributing to strengthening our sense of community across the profession. #blogjune is about getting to know one another too. And that’s the beauty of its randomness.

You might find I will post to my much neglected travel blog, which I haven’t attended to since late last year. I’d really like to revamp my efforts here. Not because I hadn’t wanted to, but #blogjune is simply a great excuse to have to write about one of my loves - travel. So when I do, I’ll be sure to create a little blog post here, pointing you to it.

Part of the reason why I signed up for #blogjune this year is because I have a jam packed month and I’d like to share this journey. I’ll have a lot of material to draw upon. I’ll be wrapping up my research project with analysis and reporting, I’m travelling to Melbourne to present at RAILS (Research Applications in Information and Library Science), and I’ll take the opportunity to look at how I’m going with goals and my focus areas for the year.

I’d like to wish everyone all the best for this challenge. It is a challenge. But there’s support. We’re all here. If you miss a day, don’t stress (and I’ll try not to as well).

Many thanks to @flexnib for coordinating this year.

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February 19, 2012

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Plans & Organisation

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Planning Sessions - a summary & final thoughts

For my final ‘Planning Sessions’ post, I’d like to share some final thoughts, benefits I’ve experienced and describe how my planning tools come together in the form of the ‘Weekly Review’.

In my first planning session, I identified five tools to use to assist my planning and keeping on track.

  • Diary
  • Task manager
  • Year Planner
  • Quarterly Planner
  • Checklist

At this point, I haven’t completed the quarterly planner, I’m feeling little need to do so. Perhaps I don’t need one? Though I suspect I’ll do a planner for the university semester.
For the other four tools, they’re serving their purpose beautifully. And I’ve been strict with myself to stick to the purpose for each tool. The result is not only minimising clutter, but I also know which tool to go to retrieve information about something. For example, I don’t record my exercise in my diary, it goes on the checklist. When I’d like to know how I’m tracking with my exercise goals, I don’t need to sort through appointments and due dates to find this information. I can view my progress with a glance at the checklist.

Possibly the single most important part of maintaining my capturing and processing system has been the ‘Weekly Review’. Last week I had a brief thought to do away with my ‘weekly review’ because I had other things calling for my attention. My recommendation is to ignore those urges. I kept my ‘weekly review appointment’ and glad I did. The ‘weekly review’ keeps me on top of my commitments and provides me with a clear idea of what I need to do. I’d fall behind and induce feelings of being overwhelmed if I missed a ‘weekly review’. It is a process where all the tools and their functions come together. The general process involves going through each ‘inbox’ and deciding each item’s next action (or inaction). Tasks are input into the task manager. I identify, from my year planner, which projects I’m currently working on and their next action. I then go through each task and assign a due date.

A challenge I’ve faced in developing trust in the system is recording tasks, ideas, etc as soon as possible, when it comes to mind. If something is on my mind, my mind isn’t clear and restricts thinking and ideas. When something is on your mind, before it starts to bug you, write it down, capture it in the system. Even if it’s a scribble on a piece of paper and placed in a physical in-tray. Come to the ‘weekly review’, the item will be dealt with.

By going through the process of planning and setting up a system, I’ve certainly honed my personal learning environment (PLE) tools used for capturing and processing - naturally I’ve stuck with what’s handy and meshes with how I like to record and retrieve things.

So here’s an idea: Record or pay attention to what you grab when writing down an idea or task. Do this for a week or two. Do you always have Evernote open? Do you grab whatever scrap of paper you find? This exercise will help determine which tools work for you and will be handy to incorporate into your processing system.

Final thoughts….

Plans and planning is guided by a direction or goals. I’ve discovered two approaches to planning. One is to plan to prepare for opportunities, the other is to plan towards set goals. So it doesn’t matter if you have set goals or not, planning is useful to everyone.

Planning doesn’t mean to imply being rigid or taking a rigid approach to following plans. Instead, I believe planning is key to being flexible. By knowing what projects are happening, commitments, essentially the big picture, at any one time actually allows for flexibility. Since implementing my planning tools and system I’ve identified an opportunity I’d like to take on. I can refer to my year planner, be reminded of my priorities and focus areas, and perhaps find a way I can work it in. Or I won’t be able to. But by having a planner, I can save myself from, well, myself and re-affirm where my energies are to be directed.

Remember, the only constant in life is change.

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February 7, 2012

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Plans & Organisation

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Planning Session 4 - the Checklist

There are two more posts in this “planning session” series which has detailed the process and approach I have taken to organising and planning the year ahead - the checklist and a summary, pulling all the planning tools together. I would’ve liked to have shared my thoughts on goal setting, but I’m still trying to work the process out. It’s been tough. After a three hour session, I’d made progress but I need to re-think my approach. Suffice to say, there is no one method, template…..any right or sure way to set goals. I have short to mid term goals, absolutely, however these are yet to make it to a piece of paper or be well defined enough to be able to tackle each element of them.

In this post, I will focus on the development of a ‘checklist’ I now use to tick off regular tasks, including habits I wish to establish.

I may have said this before, but not only am I a visual person, I’m also results driven. I like to see progress being made, as well as seeing when to celebrate successes and little wins. I didn’t want to clog up my task manager, this would be too overwhelming. I didn’t want to set aside a block of time for regular tasks and habits in my diary or calendar, such as exercise. I found last year this didn’t work for me. I became immune to those scheduled time blocks, I ended up booking appointments over the top, studied, etc. Self imposed due dates also became useless to me. I set too many tasks for myself and saw the due dates rush past in a flurry. No wonder I felt swamped, guilty (for not exercising or completing a task), trapped and buried in ‘have to’s’.

Primarily, the idea behind the checklist is habit development. Other uses include regular tasks, such as blog posts, professional readings, and also drawing my focus to the projects I’m currently working on. I initially thought to create a fortnightly checklist, but have now opted for a monthly. I’ve used (Kikki K) A4 monthly planners. A spreadsheet or table would also be effective, they were in my undergrad years. :) The purpose of the checklist is to visually see progress, and also see when it is not made or identify which area (or habit) is falling behind.

I’ve noted my goals on the bottom of the planners. One of them is to do physical exercise four times a week, three times as a minimum. By not ‘booking’ in exercise, I free myself to achieve those three to four workouts at any time during the week. If I don’t feel like exercising one day, no matter, I have the week to complete my quota. Flexibility in my schedule is also realised and achieved this way. I am satisfied when I see the ‘ticks’ at the end of the week and end of the month.

I can say, more than a month in using the systems I have put in place, the plans I have made and the tools I have used, it’s all working for me. I can elaborate more on the benefits of my planning sessions in my summary post. So for now, here are some additional resources for establishing habits.

5 Steps to create a new habit - zenhabits

How to not change a habit: 7 common mistakes - The Positivity Blog

What rituals do you include in your work life? - The Bamboo Project

A compact guide to creating the fitness habit - zenhabits

The two-headed beast of successful habit change - zenhabits

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January 29, 2012

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Plans & Organisation

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Planning Session 3 - Clear out!

I can’t stand clutter. Organised desk, organised mind, I say. Clutter is almost a reflection of one’s state of mind. It certainly rang true for me last year. At a point of total chaos, my study area reflected much what I was thinking and feeling about the (more than) plateful I had going on.

Well, planning session three, for me, was to attack my study area with utmost brutality. I simply could not begin another year with remnants scattered about the place. I was determined to head into this year with increased clarity and freedom in my mind.

I can tell you it was liberating. I felt the weight of last year’s workload and items I had neglected come off my shoulders. Now I want to spend time in my study. I have set up my area with what I need handy, according to how I like to work.

I’m a big fan of ‘Getting Things Done’ and I highly recommend grabbing a copy of the book, or you can even download a bunch of helpful PDFs from David Allen’s website for free to get you started.

First of all, emptying inboxes had to begin with identifying all inboxes. Where do all the ideas, tasks, filing, readings, etc end up?
My inboxes: -

  • Google Reader (I have Instapaper too, but I’ve created an RSS feed from my ‘Unread’ folder to my Google Reader)
  • Evernote
  • (physical) In-Tray
  • Gmail
  • University (study) email
  • Task manager
  • Twitter favourites

Next, is to go through each of these inboxes and process EVERYTHING.

  1. Determine what the item is.
  2. Decide what needs to happen with it.
  3. If the item requires an action, or a series of actions, either enter into the task manager or write it down. Place a note on a post it and stick on the physical item.

DO NOT place anything back where it was before.

For physical items, such as scanning to do or statements to file, I grouped items into piles of similar tasks. I have a ‘To Action’ folder, a ‘To file’ folder and an ‘Inspiration’ folder on my project files rack for the physical items (courtesy of Kikki K). The key outcome of this process was each item’s next action was determined. When I go to my ‘To Action’ folder now, I don’t need to think about what items are or what needs to be done. I can just DO IT! A similar system can be applied to email inboxes and Evernote. I now ‘clip’ items directly to an ‘Inbox’ notebook and ‘empty’ this notebook on a weekly basis as part of my review. I also now use the task manager ‘Things’ and am finding the tagging function useful to apply contexts to my tasks. If a task doesn’t need to be completed immediately, I enter the task into my inbox in ‘Things’, then apply scheduling and tags, file into a project, at my weekly review. The most important thing here is the task’s entry into the system.

After the initial clear out, getting rid of stuff I didn’t require anymore (I must say a shredder was very helpful!), I then had a look at all the items needing to be actioned. As a general rule, if an action took less than two minutes, it got done right there.

I don’t employ every part of the GTD system, just bits and pieces integrated into my existing system of organising myself. Part of implementing GTD is being able to trust the system. If systems and consistent processes can be put into place, then I believe you can trust items to be captured and dealt with more effectively. When setting up a system, it is important inboxes are handy and easy to process.

Here are some other tips and hints to clearing out and planning: -
Getting Things Done FAQ by zenhabits
Get all inboxes to zero, and have fewer inboxes by zenhabits
5 Ways GTD helps you achieve your goals by zenhabits
7 Steps to achieving your goals by Alexandra Samuel

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January 21, 2012

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Plans & Organisation

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Planning Session 2 - the Year Planner

In the first planning session, I recommend grabbing pen and paper and write down everything - projects and commitments - known to be on during the year, as well as ‘nice to do’ things. From here, I started to map out my commitments and projects on a year planner. Here’s a snippet of what it looks like (I’ve highlighted the current week)

I suppose you can grab one from a newsagent or wherever, but I love a good Gantt chart, and the flexibility to create a planner in a format I like and makes sense to me.

In the year planner, I divided my list, brainstorm, scribbled projects and commitments into four areas - professional development, personal development, professional involvement and finance. Someone on Twitter asked me where fun and family would fit. I’ve listed these as a priority, so they’re a given. Plus I wouldn’t like to take a project approach my family and fun time. That’s just not how I roll. The year planner is for projects and commitments to my personal and professional development.

I then started to insert my commitments and projects into these areas on the year planner. I placed the commitments and projects I definitely know about on the planner first. Now from the last session, prioritise the things that would be nice to do. I recommend not plotting everything written down from the last session on the year planner. Or if you do this, like me (oops) I got a bit carried away, look at what you’ll have on at any given time and delete the things you know will not be realistically achieved. I thought about how I’d prioritise or push things aside when time came to the crunch. Which projects/things will I not invest the time? Which ones will I likely drop first?

I spent a lot of time on my planner. I fiddled with project duration, start and end dates across the year. I realised I couldn’t start learning mandarin in at least the first six months of the year, so perhaps I could look for courses then begin in the second half. Again, learning mandarin is a ‘nice to do’ and if at re-assessment at three and six months time I find I still can’t realistically dedicate the time, then it’s off the agenda. It’s time will come.

The year planner is a rough guide and will be refined when I do the quarterly planners. The year planner is a glance, not set in concrete, but a great way (I’ve found) to see the year in a bigger picture to effectively manage time and the things that just ‘pop up’ throughout the year.

I have highlighted my focus areas in the year planner, the things I will put above all else, as a reminder. I need reminding. When life and time tends to run away, it’ll be nice to be reminded of the areas of my life I have committed to improving or have prioritised.

Another lesson I’ve learnt through this process, and indeed from last year, is that I can’t have everything improved all at once. I can’t work on everything. Some areas will benefit others and some will be building blocks towards others.

I have decided not to work on my quarterly planners just yet. These I will do last, after my ‘repeating tasks’ checklist and goal setting. Zooming into and refining projects in the quarterly planner will likely come out of the goals I set and the habits I wish to develop.