In the last post, I talked about my busy period and how it related to the philosophy of Boredom. This time I wanted to talk about how it impacted my Personal Control Book.
I've talked about how I organize my PCB. The guts of the PCB are within Trello. Life Focuses, Beacons, Areas of Focuses, and Projects are all kept within the Trello boards and cards. Then for my weekly updates, I keep them on a private Confluence page.
It's all very well set up, organized, and executed; until it's not.
I can admit that for a few months, I didn't touch Trello. I neglected all of those Projects with nicely laid out tasks. As new projects came in, I didn't consult Trello to see how they fit into my Life Focuses. I stopped all activity within Trello and stopped logging in. I still kept up my weekly updates, but Trello didn't exist to me.
This lapse is okay. I didn't abandon Trello or the PCB, and I still recommend them. I'm again using them today.
Overhead explains the lapse. Any system is overhead, even useful ones. Maintaining the system is energy that seldom is spent directly on whatever project you're trying to complete. So it needs to be viewed this way.
Let's imagine that your system is your car. To keep things running smoothly, you must maintain it. It needs oil changes, tuneups, and washes. Changing your oil does not get you to your destination faster. But not giving your car a tuneup will eventually cause you to be stranded away from your destination.
But life is not perfect, and we only have so many hours in the day. When we hit our most intense time crunches, that overhead involved in maintaining the system becomes a hindrance. If you need to get to your destination in an hour and it's an hour's drive away, you don't have time to take the car in for a tuneup. The tuneup can wait.
What I did was I kept the focus on the weekly updates, only because they helped me navigate my tasks and help prevent any from falling between the cracks. I shelved the rest of the PCB until I could breathe again.
As I'm writing this, I'm in the recovery phase. I've managed to include all new projects into my Weekly Update. Only about half of those have a Trello board, but any new projects will get one. I updated the boards that already existed. I even enhanced my Weekly Update now that I got to see how it performed under high stress.
I think it's critical that even when we get buried with life and start to feel like we're losing focus, we are prepared. It might seem chaotic, but we have the system. If we properly maintain our system before hitting chaos, it'll provide its value and serve its purpose during that chaos. It might start to break down, but a sound system will hold through until the turmoil dies down, and you can start maintaining it again.
(Written 2019.10.19)
I've talked about how I organize my PCB. The guts of the PCB are within Trello. Life Focuses, Beacons, Areas of Focuses, and Projects are all kept within the Trello boards and cards. Then for my weekly updates, I keep them on a private Confluence page.
It's all very well set up, organized, and executed; until it's not.
I can admit that for a few months, I didn't touch Trello. I neglected all of those Projects with nicely laid out tasks. As new projects came in, I didn't consult Trello to see how they fit into my Life Focuses. I stopped all activity within Trello and stopped logging in. I still kept up my weekly updates, but Trello didn't exist to me.
This lapse is okay. I didn't abandon Trello or the PCB, and I still recommend them. I'm again using them today.
Overhead explains the lapse. Any system is overhead, even useful ones. Maintaining the system is energy that seldom is spent directly on whatever project you're trying to complete. So it needs to be viewed this way.
Let's imagine that your system is your car. To keep things running smoothly, you must maintain it. It needs oil changes, tuneups, and washes. Changing your oil does not get you to your destination faster. But not giving your car a tuneup will eventually cause you to be stranded away from your destination.
But life is not perfect, and we only have so many hours in the day. When we hit our most intense time crunches, that overhead involved in maintaining the system becomes a hindrance. If you need to get to your destination in an hour and it's an hour's drive away, you don't have time to take the car in for a tuneup. The tuneup can wait.
What I did was I kept the focus on the weekly updates, only because they helped me navigate my tasks and help prevent any from falling between the cracks. I shelved the rest of the PCB until I could breathe again.
As I'm writing this, I'm in the recovery phase. I've managed to include all new projects into my Weekly Update. Only about half of those have a Trello board, but any new projects will get one. I updated the boards that already existed. I even enhanced my Weekly Update now that I got to see how it performed under high stress.
I think it's critical that even when we get buried with life and start to feel like we're losing focus, we are prepared. It might seem chaotic, but we have the system. If we properly maintain our system before hitting chaos, it'll provide its value and serve its purpose during that chaos. It might start to break down, but a sound system will hold through until the turmoil dies down, and you can start maintaining it again.
(Written 2019.10.19)
