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Task management of the highly productive · Inside Strategic Relations

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  Speaker 1: If you want to accomplish more each day, you can
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  Speaker 1: benefit from some of the research I've been doing lately. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this research builds on task management, not as to do
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  Speaker 1: lists and keeping the labor side straight, but fully understanding
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  Speaker 1: the priorities and obstacles that you have when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to achieving specific goals. I'm just to hit with inside
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  Speaker 1: strategic relations. Let's chat a little bit about task management.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to cover some highly technical topics. I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to describe tasks in the context of your activity and movement.
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  Speaker 1: But the most important thing to understand is that the
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  Speaker 1: things you do each day either contribute to the outcomes
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  Speaker 1: you desire, they are neutral, or they detract from the
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  Speaker 1: outcomes you desire. And it's not better disciplined. It's not
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  Speaker 1: better tracking, it's not better executive function to get these
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  Speaker 1: things done. It's understanding the interconnectivity between where you want
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  Speaker 1: to be and where you are right now. See a
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  Speaker 1: lot of times when we make to do lists or
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  Speaker 1: we capture action items in a meeting minutes, not everything
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  Speaker 1: needs to get done now in the corporate environment, because
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  Speaker 1: you're getting paid by the hour, or you're going to
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  Speaker 1: get paid a certain amount, whether you work or not.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of folks will create these to do lists
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  Speaker 1: to justify their existence. So you see this a lot
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  Speaker 1: of bureaucracies. There's fifteen forms to fill out, and if
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  Speaker 1: somebody seriously thought about it, they can probably consolidate that
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  Speaker 1: into one form. There's the order in which the forms
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  Speaker 1: need to be filled out. There's duplicate information between forms,
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  Speaker 1: and very often if you had a kind of a
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  Speaker 1: proxy form to fill out, you could have pregenerated that
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  Speaker 1: information in all the other forms. There's information retrieval systems.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of ways to get the information. But
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  Speaker 1: because there's no incentive for optimization, bureaucracies very often get
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  Speaker 1: slower and slower and slower as the layers of laws,
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  Speaker 1: rules and regulations come along. Now, fortunately, as individuals and
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  Speaker 1: in what we do in our daily lives, we can
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  Speaker 1: change that. We can make it differently. In fact, there
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  Speaker 1: are sometimes why I just decide I'm not going to
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  Speaker 1: do anything on my to do list because something else
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  Speaker 1: more important came along, and so in bumping something because
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  Speaker 1: something else more important came along, or we've reached a
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  Speaker 1: certain milestone and now it's time to shift gears and
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  Speaker 1: just instead of doing things. We're just evaluating what to do.
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  Speaker 1: We have this thing called task management. Now your note
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  Speaker 1: taking applications can capture tasks. There's all kinds of tools online.
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  Speaker 1: It's a multi billion dollar industry of helping people track tasks.
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  Speaker 1: But a couple things always happen. First off, you can
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  Speaker 1: always identify more things to do than you actually have
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  Speaker 1: resources to do them.
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  Speaker 2: You can list all kinds of tasks.
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  Speaker 1: That maybe you don't have the skills to do, or
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  Speaker 1: tasks that you don't need to do, but at the
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  Speaker 1: time it really felt important.
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  Speaker 2: And all these things go right down the line.
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  Speaker 1: And the solution for that is a project management methodology.
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  Speaker 1: Now I'm not going to go down into the best
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  Speaker 1: practices of project management, but I will tell you that
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  Speaker 1: if you package like tasks together, you very often can
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  Speaker 1: see a pattern and then tie that pattern to a
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  Speaker 1: desired outcome.
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  Speaker 2: So the spitballing, the.
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  Speaker 1: Brainstorming activity that creates all these tasks is often rooted
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  Speaker 1: in some unfulfilled desire. Now I wrote a program about
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  Speaker 1: what do you want? How do you get it? And
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  Speaker 1: it's a step by step analysis of you. It's something
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  Speaker 1: you sit down and do by yourself, or you do
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  Speaker 1: it with your spouse or you do it with your family,
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  Speaker 1: but it essentially defines clearly what it is that you want. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let's say you have five key things that you want
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  Speaker 1: to accomplish in your life of the next five years. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this isn't necessarily goal setting because over the next five
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  Speaker 1: years is a long timeframe, so we might narrow the scope.
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  Speaker 1: This is a project management methodology or approach. We might
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  Speaker 1: narrow the scope into one or two key activities that
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  Speaker 1: we want to accomplish in the next year, and then
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  Speaker 1: everything else is kind of in the parking lot per
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  Speaker 1: se in the corporate language, that we might consider but
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  Speaker 1: we're not dedicating resources to. And then we can define
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  Speaker 1: for those individual goals what is the necessary milestones along
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  Speaker 1: the way. So, if you want to earn two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty thousand dollars a year and you want to
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  Speaker 1: do it within the next five years, it's going to
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  Speaker 1: matter whether you're in college today or you're a seasoned
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  Speaker 1: career professional. It's going to matter whether you have any
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  Speaker 1: subject matter expertise and if that subject matter expertise is
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  Speaker 1: relevant to any specific market. Because the factor influencing your
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  Speaker 1: earnings beyond inflation is the demand in the marketplace and
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  Speaker 1: an employer's ability to monetize what it is that you do,
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of people just say, well, I'd like
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  Speaker 1: to earn a million dollars a year, I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: be a billionaire. Without that dive that context, all you
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  Speaker 1: have is another task in your rolodex, in your note
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  Speaker 1: taking application, on your phone, on some list somewhere that
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  Speaker 1: kind of nags because you start to wonder, well, why
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  Speaker 1: haven't I achieved this?
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  Speaker 2: This is what I want, why don't I have it?
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  Speaker 1: So a project management methodology transitions from where you are
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  Speaker 1: in the mindset that you're in and the obstacles that
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  Speaker 1: you're facing, to some kind of written plan that moves.
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  Speaker 2: You towards a goal or outcome.
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  Speaker 1: Now, a lot of times folks have done this in
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  Speaker 1: the past, and they've written their to do list, and
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  Speaker 1: they take a separate sheet of paper and they write
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  Speaker 1: down the key outcomes they like to have.
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  Speaker 2: That week, and then they start working.
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  Speaker 1: And they realize that they don't want those things, and
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  Speaker 1: so they sit down and do the exercise again three
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  Speaker 1: days later, and they make no problem. Another time, they
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  Speaker 1: would write down a big giant list of things to
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  Speaker 1: do or maybe they're pulling that list out of their
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  Speaker 1: email application or out of their note taking application, and
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  Speaker 1: then they can't really find the motivation to narrow this down,
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  Speaker 1: or to cluster up activities, or to figure out what
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  Speaker 1: needs to be done first, second, or third. And that
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  Speaker 1: actually means there isn't a really strong or clear reason
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  Speaker 1: why they don't have that bigger picture what they want.
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  Speaker 1: So maybe they're working at a cubicle farm, at a
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  Speaker 1: corporate job, and they're constantly dreaming about farming, and they're
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  Speaker 1: constantly dreaming about this big garden.
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  Speaker 2: Yet they don't live in a.
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  Speaker 1: Place they can do that, and they haven't considered because
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  Speaker 1: they're so stuck in that day to day routine, that
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  Speaker 1: constant commute, that constant fantasy. It has displaced the opportunity
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  Speaker 1: of finding alternate solutions, which could be participating at a
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  Speaker 1: nonprofit farm, it could be participating at a community garden,
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  Speaker 1: It could be starting a garden on your balcony. And see,
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  Speaker 1: I'm in the solutions business. It's not the problem's business.
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  Speaker 1: This everybody's got problems. I've got billions of problems, some
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  Speaker 1: of them I don't even know about.
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  Speaker 2: The same might be with you.
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  Speaker 1: There might be ninety nine problems and things that you're
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  Speaker 1: bothered and worried about are not one of them, and
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  Speaker 1: that's holding you back. The key is the project management approach,
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  Speaker 1: packaging up like tasks around your goals and objectives, having
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  Speaker 1: agreement stakeholders, people that you work with that are going
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  Speaker 1: to play their role, so the roles and responsibilities. You
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  Speaker 1: now create an ecosystem. Now, this is a called a
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  Speaker 1: network Nodle diagram where there's different nodes and those nodes
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  Speaker 1: are the tasks to complete, and within the task to complete,
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  Speaker 1: you have categorizations like milestones, goals, deliverables, and then between
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  Speaker 1: these tasks you have some sort of order of operation
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  Speaker 1: because some tasks are blocked by other tasks, and some
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  Speaker 1: tasks can be done now and require a small amount
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  Speaker 1: of time, and some tasks need to be done later
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  Speaker 1: and require a large.
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  Speaker 2: Amount of time.
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  Speaker 1: But that is the thinking approach that with proper documentation,
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  Speaker 1: which could be single page project plans, it can be
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  Speaker 1: a paper daytimer. George Washington did not have a fancy
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  Speaker 1: note taking application and fifteen notifications on his phone every day.
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  Speaker 1: That may have been his advantage, but again these technologies
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  Speaker 1: and these tools and these AI helpers and all this
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  Speaker 1: stuff is a modern thing. If you don't have this
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  Speaker 1: solid underlying foundation to implement, you're going to have frustration
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  Speaker 1: and problems. So in my case, I yes, I look
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  Speaker 1: at technical stuff. I have tasks in a note taking
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  Speaker 1: application tied specifically to projects. I have project plans that
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  Speaker 1: I review, and eventually there's so many different things going
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  Speaker 1: on inside the system that I've written a script that
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  Speaker 1: goes in and figures out what's the priority of these tasks.
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  Speaker 1: Now I know how to do this without the script,
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  Speaker 1: But because I'm managing you know, several podcasts and marketing
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  Speaker 1: campaigns and client work, and very often need to produce
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  Speaker 1: reports for clients, I have this tool that pulls the
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  Speaker 1: information out and shows it. So there's nothing wrong with
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  Speaker 1: task management applications. There's nothing wrong with project management applications.
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  Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with keeping a master ledger of projects.
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  Speaker 1: And we've taught about that before. That's your program plan.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a giant ledger of projects that are weighted
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  Speaker 1: by certain criteria. And then you can calculate a score
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  Speaker 1: based on maybe five questions.
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  Speaker 2: And then so you ask a question of each and.
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  Speaker 1: You rate it on a scale you add up the points,
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  Speaker 1: and then you work on the project that has the
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  Speaker 1: most points. Now, why do we have these mathematical formulas
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  Speaker 1: for outcome. Well, in the case of a business project,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to put a certain amount of money out.
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  Speaker 1: You want to make sure you get that money back
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  Speaker 1: otherwise it's not good business. In the personal world, if
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  Speaker 1: you have a deep desire to have a giant workshop,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to have a giant woodworking shop. It's going
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  Speaker 1: to have maybe eight to ten thousand dollars worth of
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  Speaker 1: equipment in it, and it's going to take up the
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  Speaker 1: same space that your wife wants to have a sewing
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  Speaker 1: shop and her eight to ten thousand dollars in equipment.
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  Speaker 1: Then you're going to have a conflict there because those
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  Speaker 1: are those are two activities that can't take up the
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  Speaker 1: same physical space. And so we can talk these things
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  Speaker 1: out if you have the communication skills, but a project
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  Speaker 1: management approach could lay out the opportunity so that you
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  Speaker 1: both can have what you're looking for. Now it's just
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  Speaker 1: not just material things. If there's a nonprofit opportunity that
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  Speaker 1: you have, if there's board attendance, if there's opportunities for
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  Speaker 1: you to work with different kinds of passion projects, it's
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  Speaker 1: still project or because the project orientation helps prioritize at
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  Speaker 1: a at a larger block level, and then any tasks
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  Speaker 1: that come up can be can be unassigned or assigned
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  Speaker 1: to particular projects. Now again, I'm not going to recommend
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  Speaker 1: any specific software. I don't think you should create your
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  Speaker 1: own tools other than tools that help you parse the
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  Speaker 1: information and better report and identify what's most important.
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  Speaker 2: And then many of.
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  Speaker 1: These tools are basically answering five or six questions about
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  Speaker 1: you know, is it near term, when's the due date?
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  Speaker 1: And it ends up being visualized on a calendar. If
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  Speaker 1: you want to work specifically, whether it's business oriented project management,
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  Speaker 1: if it's the processes you use to manage things with
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  Speaker 1: the tools that you have, if it's an approach to
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  Speaker 1: maybe be more effective as a writer, and we've talked
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  Speaker 1: about that as well, then ask specific questions at www
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  Speaker 1: dot inside Strategic relations dot com. The really big takeaway
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  Speaker 1: here is if you're looking at the individual actions you
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  Speaker 1: need to take rather than why you're taking those actions
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  Speaker 1: or the context of those actions, you're going to miss
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  Speaker 1: those relationships between activities, and very often from a project
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  Speaker 1: oriented approach, you can say, do I have to do
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  Speaker 1: this task?
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  Speaker 2: Where is this task tied?
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  Speaker 1: And then it doesn't even need to be done at all.
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  Speaker 1: And so now rather than going out and getting the
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  Speaker 1: latest software and chasing the latest automation, or trying to
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  Speaker 1: outsource things or trying to buy tools to fix things,
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  Speaker 1: you're now doing more important work aligned to your strengths
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  Speaker 1: and then ultimately achieving more in a measurable way, so
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  Speaker 1: that you create more resources from your effort, and then
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  Speaker 1: you can reinvest those resources and amplify the value of
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  Speaker 1: your results. That's why we talk about building business relationships.
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  Speaker 1: If I have a strong relationship with my clients, they
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  Speaker 1: tend to pay, stay and refer. And if I'm doing
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  Speaker 1: that with the right clients and of course I'm delivering
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  Speaker 1: work on time and communicating clearly, there's really nothing that
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  Speaker 1: can go wrong with that in the short term. Now,
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  Speaker 1: over the long term, things can change, but if you
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  Speaker 1: have the project management or the project approach methodologies, then
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  Speaker 1: you can make adjustments Accordingly, I'm just in hit with
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  Speaker 1: inside strategic relations saying, yes you can create and key
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  Speaker 1: profitable customers, Yes you can build business relationships, Yes you
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  Speaker 1: can design your approach for greater implementation of things that matter.
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  Speaker 1: For details about what we've covered here, resources, workshops, coaching,
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  Speaker 1: and consulting, visit www dot inside strategic relations dot com.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just in hit.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a business analyst, strategic consultant and be more than
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  Speaker 1: happy to answer questions or be more specific in the
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  Speaker 1: comments below. And this is again, what you do matters
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  Speaker 1: more than what you think. What you do matters more
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  Speaker 1: than what you desire, and results come with action.