Another Non-Resolution or Kanban thank you Ma'am

As you can tell, I have a long list non-resolutions for the New Year.  One thing that I implemented last year was the Pomodoro Technique.  You can read about it here (from my blog post), and you can read further about it here, from the horse's mouth (Francesco Cirillo).   In a nutshell the Pomodoro Technique is a form of time blocking that promotes focused concentration on the task at hand.

The "task at hand" fits into a larger time management system, of which there are many.  We all work differently, and we need to develop work processes that allow us to function at a high level without undue stress.  For those of us ADHD superstars, the Pomodoro technique is a godsend.  It provides a 25 minute window for focusing on the task at hand. And, it provides for a quantitatively defined time for you to STOP before starting again. The short breaks are 5 minutes and after 4 sessions, you get a 15 minute break.

If you have trouble focusing on a task at hand because you get distracted by all of the thoughts and things flying at you and commanding your immediate attention, OR (and this is a big one too) you have trouble starting tasks (particularly those that are not very fun), OR (and this is yet another big one) you cannot disengage from a task (a/k/a falling into the rabbit hole) then this technique can help you

1. get started (hey, just do that unpleasant thing for 25 minutes)
2. stay engaged (it's just 25 minutes) and, importantly
3. disengage.

Disengaging is an important part of building perspective.  A rabbit hole will suck you down, and there is no perspective in rabbit holes.  I don't say the following lightly:

It is one of the most effective techniques I have found for myself to help manage my  focus.   That means that I get through my task more quickly, or I have a learning when my task blows up and takes longer than I expect.

Having said that, it is worth noting that your job has to allow you to work this way.  You couldn't be a customer service rep and do this.  However,  as a professional, my work adapts quite well to this method. Nevertheless, even if your work situation does not allow for such implementation, there are many things in our personal life (paying bills, cleaning, cooking, exercising, internet/tv time etc) that adapt well to such time management methods. 

There are not too many software offerings for using this technique in an integrated way with good time management system.  I have TeamViz, but the interface is not completely to my liking.  Plus, I don't see that it is actively updated or managed, so I don't plan to renew my subscription.

I ran across KanbanFlow (listed at Pomodorium), and I have been using it for five days. Click the logo and be transported to their page.   I'm so excited about this system because it marries the Pomodoro technique along with VISUAL process flow.  It is a cloud program, so it is accessible from the internet and the mobile phone.  It is a paltry $5 per month.  Heck, I saved that already in productivity about 20 times over in these past few days.

In addition to marrying with the Pomodoro technique, I can use this with David Allen's Getting Things Done system--and truly enjoy stress free productivity. The system is a work flow system that creates an inventory of things to do, and then your work to pull these things into the work in process category to include another category of today.

inventory of stuff to do ==> stuff that is in process (active work) + TODAY Stuff  ==>Done!

You can add more columns--but at some point too much ruins the simplicity.  The beauty of the system is that you can keep your backlog populated with stuff (trapped in your system so that it cannot get away) that needs to be done.  You move that stuff (drag and drop or through a date that automatically will move it to your in process column or today column) to the appropriate column, and then work through that batch.  Send completed items to the done column, and then go back to your inventory of things to do a pull things into your active process.

By managing the today and in process columns you manage what you plan to spend your time and energy on by marrying the work with the time constraints on when it needs to be delivered (this week, today) and what resources (your time and energy) that you have available. By being proactive, you have a better chance of not over-committing your time and resources.  Further, you are not wilting each time you look at your total inventory of things to do, because your focus is on your work in process and today.

Rather than your inventory of things to do pushing into your near-term active space because they are not managed or prioritized, you are pulling them into near-term active space once you have the resources (time and energy) to apply to these items. Pulling rather than pushing is a tenet of lean/agile thinking and systems, of which Kanban is a tool for visualizing the effects of pulling.  Nothing goes into work in process until something gets moved out.  Work in process is the marrying of the resources (time, energy, materials) with what is getting produced.

For us knowledge workers, we are producing deliverables (budgets, software, new call center, customer presentation).  What is the difference between pulling v. pushing?  It's the difference between being proactive (pulling your items into your present work time) v. reactive (having these items push themselves into your workspace).  Better to pull these items in rather than have them push themselves uninvited into your current work space (an bulldoze your peace of mind).

Once you create space in your 'in process and today columns' then you go back to your inventory of things and pull them into your current field of vision.   Your focus is strictly on what is in process and what has to be done today. How is that for limiting distractions?  If the time demand and urgency of things is more than you can handle, then it is time to plan on using other resources.  Oh, how I wished I had this system 10 years ago!

Who among us has not looked at our entire inventory of things to do and silently whispered, "WTF?"  As unplanned tasks present themselves, there is a better framework for evaluating where they need to be (today, work in process, inventory).  Simply look at your schedule and see what you can move, or where you can schedule this new deliverable. Your backlog has already been swept for things that have to been done soon (in process) or Today.  Therefore, it is not a long, foreboding shadow that hangs over you.

Rather, you can focus all of your energy on completing the stuff that needs to be done today, and doing the most fun thing of all...dragging it to the DONE! column. When things are completed you are creating time/energy space to pull things in from your inventory.  Further, adding tasks to the backlog is not stressful, but comforting in knowing that you've captured a deliverable within your system and you can plan for it.

Because priorities change constantly, having facile tools to reflect those changes in the kanban board are welcomed.  KanbanFlow allows you to drag and drop to instantly prioritize, or use colors or swim lanes to configure a matrix that works for your style of deliverables.

Each task can have color coding, labels, subtasks,  due dates, where it needs to land on the due date, description boxes and estimated time.  Using the Pomodoro timer, you choose a task and capture the time spent on it.  When the task is done, it will tell you how well you did against your estimates.  Moreover, you can even email tasks to it. It has an intuitive feel that gets you up and running in .....drum roll....less than 2 minutes.  It really is that simple.

I love it, love it, love it. And I feel like a disciple of it.  There might be other software out there, but I'll not be looking for it.  This software has EVERYTHING that I could want.  I'm ecstatic...and I don't say that very often.  And using this tool in a corporate environment for initiatives at the department or corporate level would be a great way to kick up the level of productivity and creativity in the workplace.

Anyway, for any of you reading who are looking for a great tool to integrate prioritization of complex tasks, time management and creating space for focus and productivity, I would encourage you to (1) research the Pomodoro technique; (2) read David Allen's book, Getting Things Done, the Art of Stress Free Productivity and (3) take a look at the Kanbanflow website.  I also have another book that I would recommend:  The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McDonigal.  In that book you will see how your brain conspires against all your best laid plans.

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Spring Forward | Pomo-DO!

Tonight we Spring forward, losing a precious hour of sleep and gaining a welcomed hour of daylight.  Each year the change gets a wee bit more difficult.  There is still snow lingering; but with temperatures in the mid-60's today, not for long.

I have a second week of Pomodoro time inculcation under my belt.  I found a tool that has an integrated phone/desktop app   http://www.teamviz.com/help/pomodoro-timer-for-windows-7/  It's not the greatest app, but it has planning features that the others don't.  Sadly it does not have some customization features that others have.



If anything, this technique builds a mind memory (e.g. muscle memory for your brain!)of what you can(not) do in 25 minutes.  This week, I used it to build a task list within a large project.  Generally, my habit (and it is not a very good one) is to hurl myself into a project (or maybe lurch like a bulldozer getting in gear).  And while being a bulldozer allows one to accomplish quite a bit, all that shoveling and pushing gets tiresome.

But this Pomodoro technique is very much a new trick for this old dog.  And my only wish is that I had found it sooner.  This technique is not an all or nothing implementation--though as I read around the web, I see that some have classified it this way.  Frankly, I have found it a little daunting trying to integrate it into my entire day.  But that is my goal.  Rather, I will suggest how one can ease into the Pomodoro Technique.

Here's how to start your own Pomo-DO! habits.

Objective:  Use the Pomodoro technique to manage some aspect(s) of your day where you need to overcome inertia, or simply get something out of the way.

Tools needed:  A timer that visually and/or audibly (preferably both) that will register 25 minutes.  (Here's two resource links, one for your computer; one for your phone)

Method:  Identify 3 items in everyday life that you wish to apply 25 minutes of your focused time and energy.   Pick something that is providing you with some daily anxiety-- full email in box, mail piled up, laundry piled up, room that needs cleaning, project that needs starting but you just have not sat down to scope it out.  The important thing is that you will allow yourself no interruptions.  No bathroom.  No drink.  No email.  (Though watching TV and laundry go hand in hand!)

Clock Setting:  25 minutes.  Go!  Fold, clean, cook, manage email, start your project plan (heck start your project list!).  Tick tock.  You can here the clock ticking, so you are cognizant of every second.

RINGGGG.  Write down what you accomplished.  How you felt.  Gage what you produced.

Yield:  25 minutes of uninterrupted productivity in the task that you outlined.

For my everyday Pomo-DO!, I have the following:

• day planning (25 minutes to plan my day -- what projects to scope, budget, perform and finish)
• exercise (25 minutes of outside time (no matter what the weather))
• cleaning (25 minutes of picking up or cleaning).

What does 25 minutes a day get you in time currency for the week:

•   2.92 hours of exercise
•   2.92 hours of cleaned space
•   2.92 hours of thoughtfully planned daily time allocation.  We have 16 hours a day.  For a week we have 112 hours of time.  If we spend just 2.92 hours a week planning  (2.62% of our available time) that time, just think how much more productive we would be.

 I have some time still before this focus becomes a habit.  I'm committed to starting week three.  I'm finding this a very fun and engaging way to manage my time. A reminder of my heart rate monitoring for exercise that kept me engaged and focused on continuous improvement. 

(P. S.  I found that a watch that is ticking fast (2x per second) produces a stress response in me v. a second by second tick.  Consider that as you choose your techniqe.

I've spent 2 v. the 1 pomo budgeted on this blog post (because I did some more 'research').  I've already done my exercise pomo.  Now to clean.  I have 3 Pomo's scheduled for that today.
 

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Notes from the Field: Pomodoro Inculcation

On February 19 I wrote about beginning my journey into Pomodoro-land. I've been experimenting with different applications for my Android phone.  There are desktop applications, but I'm not always at the same desktop.  My phone, though, is always with me.

While I like many of the features of Clockwork Tomato, I'm now using the following timer.

The benefit of this timer over Clockwork Tomato is that it has a task list, and it tracks your expected v. your actual pomos for a particular task.  As I mentioned in my initial post, I'm looking for a way to solve the paradox of (1) not beginning an activity AND (2) not stopping an activity.  This method is a great trick to get started on a task.  That the portion of the task started will only be 25 minutes, it is a great way to make yourself get started.

In addition to using this application as an aid to START something (v. fixin' to get ready to start something) as well as a lifeline to get out of a rabbit hole of an engrossing project, using the planning feature of expected time (in terms of number of Pomos) v. actual time.  It is a technique to train the brain to think about time.

A thing to be improved is a thing to be measured.  Accordingly, running the 50 yd dash and completing a routine report are both items that can be measured and times improved.  I've long had the discipline (only through impatience and disdain for routine) of taking routine tasks and making them quickly dispatched.  However, such improvements were vague as I have not measured the differential between the old way and the new way.

I realize that all of 'this' is simply imposing a structure over the normal course of events that unfold in a day.  But for anyone who has seriously struggled with overcoming the inertia of getting an unpleasant project out of the way (or simply underway), a single Pomodoro can be the lubricant needed to ease you into your project, if only to plan it.

I've been using the Pomo timer over the last few days to excavate my desk (and the surrounding area of my office).  It is not a pleasant task, but armed with my Pomodoro, fresh files, my Brother P-touch labeler, a shred container and a recycle container, I have moved mountains of paper --and the attendant psychological baggage that accompanies such pulp.  (I'm officially at the end of my Pomo alloted to write this post).  I'm going to cheat and use part of my break time to write these last couple of sentences.)

I'm not done, and I underallocated my Pomos.  But I have 2 more MAX pomos left on this unpleasant task.   The task that seemed overwhelming (and it surely was) was made less so by attacking it in manageable increments.

If your natural proclivities are such that you need aids to be more in control of your life (because you are so highly intelligent, interested in everything, thinking all of the time, and lighting form subject to subject so facilely that you REALLY NEED HELP GETTING YOUR BRAIN TO STAY PUT, then I highly recommend this technique.  You can download a PDF and a cheat sheet here to get started (from the original source, no copyright issues. 

All you need is 25 minutes to get started. 

1.  Get the app for your smartphone OR download one of the many timers on the web for your computer.

2.  Click on the link above for the PDF and the cheat sheet

3.  Be flexible - not all aspects of your work life can be pomo'd.  But you can pomo MANY things (such as doing your tax return; cleaning; exercising; going through mail etc).


Mind like tomato:  Tick!  Tock!

P. S.  The pile on my desk is not 2 inches.  It is FRACTIONAL to what it was.  

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Notes from the Field on Clockwork Tomato

Earlier this morning, I wrote about my using Clockwork Tomato, the Pomodoro app for my HTC One.  There is a Pomodoro Cheat Sheet that you can find at this link.  My goal today was to use the planning techniques of the Pomo in getting through my to do list.

My first item on the list was Clean Desk. It was a mess from the deep immersion that I wrote about in my first post.  I assigned 2 Pomo's, or 50 minutes to accomplish this task.  Sadly, not only did it take me 2-Pomo's, I added another Pomo (that's 75 minutes) and I still didn't finish.  I still have 1.5" of papers to go through.  I stacked them up for a look at tomorrow. Honestly, I think that there is 2-Pomo's left to do. It's like losing weight -- whatever you gain over a period of time cannot melt away.  Such are the physics of the 'stuff' that accumulates on your desk (and other places in your house).  As a veteran of these types of accumulations, I say with authority, pick a well-defined space (even if it is just a corner of your desk), and work through your 'piles' systematically.

My second item on the list was Organize To-Do list.  My to-do list was getting a bit far flung, and it was needing some consolidation.  I had 1 Pomo for that.  It took me two. Sniff.

My third item was a  budget-actual job hours report for a client that analyzes all of the performance of jobs against estimates to include hours and estimated man day rates.  I estimated 1 Pomo.  It took me 1 Pomo.  I hit the send button just as the session was ending.  That felt like a winner.

I will not bore you with the rest.  Point being...that tick, tick, ticking in the background is a powerful reminder that "time's a-running" whether you are accomplishing anything or not.   It is a motivator not only to complete the task, but better, to PLAN the task, and ensure that everything needed is lined up so you can get through the session. And finally, it really focuses you to KNOW how long a particularly task takes. This method makes you time conscious.

Because I used this method all day--which meant that each session ran into the other seamlessly--I felt both hurried and a stressed. I say this to be honest, not to disabuse you of the notion of integrating a method such as this into your life.  Rather, this discomfort (which we all try to avoid), will be lessened by refining the day's plan better.

My previous utilization of timing methods was to use discrete packages of time without any integration into an entire work day. 

But gosh, I had a productive day!

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My Paradoxical Brain | Clockwork Tomato

Over the course of the last few months, I've been working integrating time management techniques into my daily life.  I have a paradoxical brain suffer equally from possessing an easily distractible (I had to add this word to my  Blogger dictionary-- go figure!) brain as well as a brain capable of long periods of intense work and concentration.

With such gray matter goofiness, the only way to train my brain better to both not get distracted AND to not get immersed in a deep dive is to set some time structure that makes sense.  I have found some wonderful timer apps both for my computer and my phone, and I have been using them in a way that I would describe as haphazardly disciplined.  With several months under my belt in using these timers to force myself to do what I consider unpleasant tasks, I have noticed that I'm able to undertake tasks more easily as the timer creates a finite period for fulfilling the task.

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon the Pomodoro Technique (Pomodoro means tomato in Italian) when looking for some productivity apps for my HTC One.  (How I love that phone).  I don't plan to write about the technique here, but you can read about it here.  The technique involves using a 25 min/5 min work/break ratio. There are apps that you can get for your pc (http://www.focusboosterapp.com/) or your smartphone.  I am using the Clockwork tomato app. (You gotta love that name!)

This method is suited to those such as myself who are stationary workers.  Because I'm desk-bound in my job and have many tasks that have to be done, this application is well-suited for my work.  With my paradoxical brain that is capable of many distractions as well as getting lost in work forgetting to give my poor body (or it) a rest, this technique is perfect for those who need a structured time environment, and some help easing into a  task as well as easing out of one.

I've been using this method for three days (over my other timer methods deployed), and it is a perfect fit for me. First, the app is integrated with the day.  I'm not stringing together unrelated timers and the like.  Because the Clockwork tomato app is highly customizable (let's say that you want a 50 minute work session and a 10 minute break), you can deploy a version of the method that works for your type of work.  Admittedly, the 25 minutes is not ideal for some of the things that I have to sit down and do.  Nevertheless, it is a perfect amount of time to start something to make some headway.

Because the app is ticking in the background (which one can mute, but I would suggest not doing so--it is a great reminder that time is passing), and one can visually see how much time is left, then it is a great way to direct focus and effort.  Truthfully, it is your own "beat the clock" game that you are playing with each start of a pomodoro session.

A small digression:  Many years ago, I was serving on a VSCPA committee and one of my colleagues, who I only saw a couple of times a year, showed up looking remarkably thinner.  His secret?  Each hour on the hour, he got up for 10 minutes and walked around and drank 8 oz of water.  Now the small things do add up.  So taking 5 minutes away from your task at a 25 minute interval, or 10 minutes at a 50 minute interval, gives your brain space, and gives your body time to move.  I've never forgotten my colleague's result (even though his name long-escapes me). 

For someone like myself that gets lost in my work to the detriment of my poor body (and brain) deploying this technique over the last few days has had noticeable results.  In my 'rest' periods, I've done the following:

• brief exercises with a body bar
• yoga breathing
• yoga stretches
• drank 5 oz of water at each break
• walked through the house (when working at my home office) and picked up items, or started laundry etc. 

Over the course of the day, those breaks add up, and you have a refreshed body, a tidied space, and some blood and oxygen coursing through your body.  More importantly, one gains a time structure that onec an synchronize one's mind/body to so that one can effortlessly (okay, better) accomplish the daily tasks at hand with forethought on how much time something will take and efficiency, as the clock is ticking in the background!

For my past bad habits when I would enter many successive days (having done so in the last 6 months) strung together of 12-15 hours of work with inadequate movement and hydration, I always emerged from those clusters of work feeling drained and ill.  So much so, that I would sometimes have to go to the doctor to get my body unstuck.  And it was all work, not any of my other necessary things that needed to get done.

For those of you with these struggles of needing an assist to start a task as well as some fall protection so that you don't fall into your work without being able to get out of it for the sake of your mind and body, I highly recommend this technique and this wonderful app.

I'll continue to work with this technique and integrate it with my deployment of  Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress Free Productivity by  David Allen.  On that front, I introduced one of my clients to this marvelous, flexible system of David Allen's.  It's a small company, and all of the staff is deploying it. The president, who is very organized, is finding it provides him a greater finesse to his current system, and feels the benefits immediately.   In just a few short weeks, all are feeling less stress, more organized and more productive.  For my own part, I'm refreshing my utilization of these techniques, because it does work.

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