To be able to do what’s important, there are 2 major problems:
- How to actually do the important things?
- How to choose which things are important?
These may seem simple, but they are really hard to overcome. Both of them.
So many things to do, which ones to do?
I want to tell you about a productivity system I use to overcome these problems. It’s actually designed around just that.
Agile Results
I have talked about it several times before, but I want to focus a little bit more on it today.
The system is called ‘Agile Results’, described in the book ‘Getting Results the Agile Way’ by J.D. Meier. It’s an awesome book. I really like the system. I works really well for me.
One great thing about the system is that you can do whichever part of it you want, and still benefit. If you slip up, you can start again, without any issue - no backlog and no grief.
Outcomes
The part of the system I want to talk about, is probably the most basic part. It’s outcomes and reflections.
The point of the outcomes is to outline 3 outcomes you want to achieve within a specific time frame. The time frames are daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Each one is broader and more ambitious than the next (The yearly one being the biggest outcomes, and the daily one the smallest outcomes).
And you have to limit yourself to just three. This is really important!
For the daily one you pick three goals you want to have achieved by the end of the day. You can do more, but these three are the wins you commit to that day. And you can use the weekly goals to find out which daily goals makes most sense to you - and so on…
The great part about the outcomes is that it scales really well. You don’t have to set up goals for the year, the month and the week. You can pick and choose! They make sense even if you don’t have them all.
The one I highly recommend you at least stick with, is the daily one. It’s the real driver for action in my experience. If you start with that (and you can do it right now - just write down 3 wins for the day!), you can easily add more goals later - if you want to.
And again, if you forget for a few days, it’s easy to get back up on the horse. Just write down 3 things you want to have done by the end of the day. Super simple!
How to actually do the important things?
Finding out which things to do is one thing, but how are we actually going to get these things done?
When you have them written down for the day, and you remember them, it’s actually really easy.
Let me give a really simple example:
I had a week were one of my goals was to fix my toilet flusher. It was kind of a big goal for me, because I had no idea how to fix it. But I committed to fix it within that week.
So the next days, I had one goal for each day, helping me getting further to my weekly goal.
On Monday I wanted to have researched everything I could about the problem. Google, calling a specialist. I found out that I needed some parts.
The next day I set up my goal to be to get all the parts. I could have set up another to actually fix the toilet, but I didn’t have the time for more that day.
The third day I set up one of my daily goals to be to actually fix the toilet. And I did! And thus one of my weekly goals was fulfilled as well.
It’s a really neat way to break up bigger goals, and actually getting them done!
How to choose which things are important?
So that covers how to get the things done, but what about choosing the right things?
When you have to choose 3 things, and no more, you have to prioritize. Which things are important enough to make the list? Probably the most important things!
You force yourself to pick and do the important things. It’s that simple. And it really works (at least for me).
So as along as you keep writing them down, you are good!
Bonus: How to get even better at choosing the important things AND doing them?
I mentioned something called reflections. This is the Agile part of the system. It’s all about looking back at your outcomes and doing some reflection.
You just write down 3 things that went good and 3 things that can be improved. This can be done weekly, monthly and yearly.
For instance, you look the goals for the last week and write down 3 things you did well and 3 things you want to improve upon next week.
Using the reflections, you can improve the goals you choose (so that you choose good goals that you can actually finish), and the way you do them.
Constant adjustment is the core of the Agile part of this great system.
Extreme Results
The web app I am working on these days is very much related to Agile Results.
It allows you to keep track of your outcomes and reflections in a very smart way. For instance, when creating your daily goals, it shows you the current weekly outcomes as well.
If you want to give it a shot, I have a preview version running on https://xr.gjermundbjaanes.com
I have also written more about it on my page here on Extreme Results.
Head over and register now. Give it a shot, and leave me some feedback if you’d like. I would very much appreciate it!
Follow me on Twitter: @gjermundbjaanes