Tag Archives: productivity

Trello for Ten

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Hello Trello!

I’ve known about Trello for awhile and used it very briefly with a team I was on. And then a team member was replaced and they were off to another application for project management. Even after a little time with it, I thought it was a great idea for my business, so I created a free account. And then it sat there…

For a year or more, it sat there and I really did very little with it. There was a learning curve and that often derails my attempts at adding something new that might actually benefit me more in the long run. So I didn’t think about Trello much at all. And then, a membership group I am a part of started talking about this great resource and how it could be useful in a number of ways. The owner of the group even posted Trello templates that we could play with and customize.

Not knowing a lot about how Trello works, I dug in and started playing with it again. I learned by doing and making mistakes and doing again. I added the Boards I need for my business. Then added a Board for household projects we want to complete this year. I launched into developing a creative hub Board and a Board for vacation planning. I even added my partner to the household and vacation boards so we could coordinate on planning and executing. Honestly, I felt brand new.

And then I did very little with it yet again!! Trello hung out now in the back of my mind frequently yet wasn’t making it it to my Bullet Journal lists. But I’m happy to say, the Boards only hung out unused for about 2 months. I remembered how helpful it would be and figured out how to make it more relevant. I found even more business planning templates that were done for me and figured out how to copy and customize them. I watched video tutorials and gained new understanding of how each piece of the system could work for me.

Fast forward and I’m now adding files, photos and other attachments so that I can find things easily and quickly in one place! My logo, brand colors, bios and more are all in a stack of cards within a board called Brand.

Even more important, I made a usage commitment that was easy to execute. I would set aside ten minutes a day to be inside of Trello. I set a timer, log in and go to the Board that most needs my attention that day. I might not even need the entire ten minutes, but I have it open to me if I decide I do. And if I need more time, I put it into my Bullet Journal for another time slot that allows for another ten minute block.

Trello for Ten

I feel like this may be a game changer! I’ll know where everything lives and can move tasks and set deadlines easily. And Yes, the jury is still out, but here’s the next thing. All of my most successful and consistent habits are built on a few principles. (thanks to the book Atomic Habits.)

Habit Checklist

  1. I have a desire to actually be that person who does that thing (I am a Trello user!)
  2. I’ve stacked it with another habit.
  3. I set myself up for success by having what I need to accomplish the habit. ( I do it after I’ve already fired up the computer and my browser it set to open with Trello)

In this case, I’ve stacked it with daily planner review and bullet journal brain dump, and it fits nicely there for right now.

I’ll check in with you on this from time to time and see how it’s going and whether Trello is still as relevant for me then as it is now. I’d love for you to tell me about your experience with Trello as well. Do you use it? How do you fit in the time and even better, do you have a favorite template? Or is there another application you use that serves you best?

Let’s share and discuss in the comments. And now, I’m headed back into Trello!

No More Red Bubbles

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For me, and for some of my clients, it’s Decluttering Your Life time.

This is Part Two of a series of blog posts about decluttering your mind, your time and your stuff. If you have a topic about time ownership, organizing, mindfulness or whatever comes to mind, I’ll take a shot at covering it. Just comment below 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past week, I spent a great deal of time decluttering my inbox. I’d been sick with a nasty upper respiratory infection for a couple of weeks and took several sick days. Combine an inbox that has been hastily tended to since the end of January with a propensity for signing up for a lot of free downloads, classes and entries into sweepstakes, (yes, it’s a habit problem) and you find yourself with a small red bubble over your email programs that says 633. Yes.

633

Not so suddenly, there were 633 new emails in my Inbox and I felt overwhelmed. And frankly, I’ve seen that number go a lot higher. But on this day, I decided it was time to end this madness once and for all.

Maybe an hour or so later, there were 13 left. And maybe three hours later, I had the beginnings of a process.

I am NOT great at handling an email once. I’m working on it, but I will still open an email, read it, decide I need to take action on it and then leave it in my inbox for me to handle later. Which means I then handle it twice, and maybe even three times. Later turns into tomorrow or someday and I end up with…too many emails, clogging up my inbox, that are dated and no longer relevant. And an inbox full of emails takes a lot more time to sort than an inbox of 13.

So here’s what my process looks like.

Step One:  I only check emails 3 times a day (and have done for quite some time.) Checking emails first thing in the morning doesn’t suit me. I don’t start out strong when I get bogged down in emails first thing. And, I like to batch the work these days. So my first check is 10am, my second is at 1pm and the last is at 4:30 pm. I’ve turned off the email notifications on my laptop and iPhone.  Notifications in real time tempt me to go in and reply to individual emails and that’s not a productive use of my time. The only exception is if someone is late for a session or meeting and I am assessing whether they have to re-schedule at the last minute.

Step Two:  The last daily check of email is also the daily purge session. If I haven’t handled it by then , I act on it right then or mark it in my planner as a task for the following day. No more leaving it linger in the Inbox for more than two days. If it requires compiling information for a report or adding an event to calendar, I create it, flag it, bullet it and eventually handle it. Everything else gets deleted or put in a folder. I leave the office secure in the knowledge that I have no red bubbles over my email icons.

Step Three:  I am on a BRUTAL UNSUBSCRIBE CAMPAIGN. If It isn’t being read, bought or used in some way, I delete it. The ONLY exception is if I think it will be relevant to me or to a client down the road. Then I file it and set up a rule for it to always go to that folder. Useless emails are not helping me to be productive. They waste my time.

Step Four:  Even with a junk filter, I get a lot of junk. It seems to ebb and flow. Now, I make sure I mark it junk and block sender so it stops coming. I’ve even blocked those I’ve unsubscribed if they don’t stop fast.  It helps your email program remember what’s important to you. Even better? Programs like SaneBox (small monthy cost) or Clutter (free) .

Step Five:  Every email doesn’t need a response. Ryan Giles reminded me of this in a recent presentation on Time Ownership. I don’t even have to say “thanks” to every email. As I start to reply, I ask myself, “What type of response is  necessary for both me and the recipient? Or am I doing them a favor by not responding. Would I want this reply in my inbox? Does it say everything I need it to say?”

Step Six:  If I’ve filed it, I need to consume it. Some folders – like tax receipts – can sit there till the end of the quarter or tax preparation time. If it’s a class, I need to take it at some point, so I schedule it. If it’s something I need to read, I add it to my Follow Up  Friday plan. There’s no sense filing it if I’m  never going to look at it again. So purging my Folders is also a monthly event that has to happen in order to keep the email pipeline flowing freely for me.

Step Seven:  My new goal is to have no red bubble over my Outlook Icon at the end of the day. I have a sign on my cabinet next to my desk to remind me.

Seems pretty clear to me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s your process now? What could it be if you made some changes?

 

EXTRA CREDIT: Remove the Red Bubbles from your phone apps as well. The multiple red bubbles on my iPhone screen drive my kids crazy, but don’t really bother me. But if I’m going to fight the Red Bubbles on my laptop, I may as well create a rule across all devices.

Let me know what systems and processes you have adopted or that you come up with in your quest to Declutter Your Life.

Fill yourself up before the orange, beeping light comes on.

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The best metaphors come out of coaching conversations. This is something I experience a LOT and it never ceases to amaze me.

So a couple of days ago, I was coaching someone on personal capacity issues, otherwise known as “how many to-dos are too many to-dos for one work day for me right now the way I am currently feeling?” I phrase it this way because the nebulous WORK LIFE BALANCE (said in a loud, echoey voice to add drama and proper reverence) changes every single day. You could get sick. Daylight Savings Time kicks in. Stuff happens. That’s why is shouldn’t be called balance at all. But that’s another subject to keep diving into another day.

The point I’m getting at today is how do you know how much is too much and how much is just enough, especially if you are transitioning into something new, experiencing a health issue, or just plain saying yes too many times? If personal capacity shifts sometimes just because it’s bound to shift?

My client was describing how she just bought a new car and her gauge tells her how many miles she should expect to be able to drive before she runs out of gas.  She suddenly cries, “I wish there was a gauge for my personal energy that would measure how many clients I can serve before I’m just worn out and unable to give anything else.”

Wouldn’t that make life so much easier? A way of measuring how many more tasks or clients or reports we can complete before we are energetically and physically spent? It would make planning our day, our month and our YEAR so much easier! We wouldn’t overschedule or take on more volunteer activities than we can handle. We would only say yes to what we absolutely know we can accomplish. We would delegate the rest or just easily say, “No. I’ll be on empty if I take that on. You’ll have to find someone else. Or wait till I am able to fill up again. I’ll get back to you next week.”

My personal awareness around this issue is that I actually TURN OFF the feature that tells me how many miles I have till empty in favor of the feature that tells me how many miles per gallon I am achieving. I ignore capacity in favor of a performance measurement.  I’m that girl that thinks an A- just isn’t good enough. The word productivity comes up in my daily self talk. A LOT.

But wait – it gets better. In my car, I have this gas gauge constantly in view that shows me in bars how much gas I currently have.  I can’t turn this one off. So 10 bars is full and 1 bar is almost empty, right? So I get in the car a lot, only to discover I have like 2 bars. My brain registers that I have 2 bars till empty and I make a mental note, “You must get gas soon.” But inevitably, I am driving along at some point hours or days later and I hear the familiar BEEP and I see the final bar is glowing orange. This means, “GET GAS NOW!!!” It’s almost gone! All of it! The anxious search begins for gas and I tell myself I won’t be able to get the most reasonable price now because I don’t have the option of shopping around. I’ve got to gas up now. Even though I took the time earlier to register that I was almost on empty, I pushed myself because I thought I had more time. I thought I’d get gas when it was the right place and the right price. I put off taking care of the inevitable.

Are you running on 3 bars? 7 bars? Or is your orange, beeping light already on? 

 

So not only do we face these capacity issues in life and in work all the time, we often ignore the signs and signals that we are running toward empty. We think we can do more, should do more, MUST do more. “I’ve pushed this before and survived. I’ll just carry on.”

We know that things like meditating for a few moments or taking a walk in the middle of the day would help our brains become more functional or help us think more creatively. But we end up working through lunch because there’s a deadline or we have to develop this one new thing before the day is through. Or maybe someone calls and says, “Hey can you take on this _______?” And we say, “Sure!” Not really stopping to consider how many bars we have till the orange light pops on and the anxiety begins. We run out of capacity because we push ourselves to the limit, more often than not.

So here’s a thought – what if you agreed to get gas as soon as you’re on 2 bars? Every time, no matter what? What if 2 bars was your personal orange, beeping light?

Or what if you just stopped to consider how you feel when you are metaphorically starting to run on empty? What are the signs for you?

For me, it looks like:

Anxiety
Rapid Heartbeat
Feeling of Overwhelm
Self talk phrases “Why do I always do this to myself? “Why do I always wait till the last minute? Why didn’t I say No!?!
Forgetfulness
Constant feeling of forgetfulness
Dread
Panic
Anger
Ache in the back of neck and shoulder area
Inability to focus or attend to things I normally do to relax
Distractionary tactics

There are probably others, but you get the picture, right? Sound all too familiar?

Filling up before you get to empty starts with recognizing what running on empty looks like. Deciding how many ______ = capacity starts with recognizing or remembering what too many looks like.  Your internal gauge is giving you a clear visual or emotional measurement – you just need to put it into view. Honor it.

It’s simple. Fill yourself up before the orange, beeping light comes on.