Browsing Category: Old Productivity Articles

I decided to launch my new blog to coincide with the latest group writing project over at ProBlogger.net.

You can read my article, entitled “How to ensure you achieve your goals” at my new blog “PhilNewton.net”.

Jana recently asked an interesting question relating to my progress log system – specifically about my modified version of the Printable CEO:

“My question: do you use your modified PCEO just for work-related activities or also for non-work goals (i.e., the activites to ensure ‘balance’)?”

The short answer is “It’s mostly business”, and to be honest I never really thought about adding many non-work activities to it. The “b-Alert” tracker takes care of making sure I’m balancing my day, and the PCEO gives me a way of measuring how productive I’ve been. So far it’s helped overcome the problem of doing lots of small (and important) tasks and feeling like I’ve wasted a day, because I can look at the scores and see that I achieved a lot. I like that.

This question came at a good time, as I’ve recently modified some of the activities on my score card to reflect a slight adjustment in focus. I’ll compare old and new, and walk through a few of the decisions I made when creating my score card.

Old vs New

How I created the original score card

When I first started using the PCEO, I was a little unsure of what activities to use, so a lot of the points are similar to Dave’s original system. Looking over them, you can see they’re divided into four major sections:

• “Visible” work – The high scoring activities are all visible work. “Concrete Project Work” can cover anything on a project, from documentation to coding some fancy particles.
• Things of value – The next scoring band concentrated on things that are of value to other people, such as sharing source code or writing an article for the blog. It also covered business/personal development work, such as writing goals or creating something that helps with business work.
• “Smaller” business tasks – “Concrete business work” covered most business tasks, such as tweaking the website, doing accounts or anything else not covered higher up the chain.
• Contribution – I do volunteer work for the Scout Association, and I felt planning activities for that deserved rewarding on the PCEO chart. “Misc. Contribution” covers helping other people on forums or newsgroups.

The new and improved version

There aren’t any radical changes, but I think the small tweaks I made will have a positive effect. I was quite happy with the original scoring, but I felt it had a few weaknesses which I’ve tried to address:

• Promoting volunteer work – I removed the somewhat redundant “Project Proposal”, and promoted volunteer work into its place, because I felt that I was neglecting this area a little.
• “Strengthening/Creating relationships” – Going back to Dave’s version, I liked the section on relationships. It’s all too easy to overlook the important relationships in our lives, whether they’re business or personal. Again, that’s a weakness in my original system that I wanted to address.
• Other tweaks – I changed the focus on a few items slightly. “Site promotion” went to “business promotion”, and “publishable code” went to “publishable resource”. This gave it a broader scope, and means there is a reward for sharing any resource of use, such as a template.

That’s all folks!

So that’s my PCEO scoring system in all its glory. If you’re just getting started with the Printable CEO, it can be difficult to work out a way of scoring your activities, but hopefully seeing my version will inspire you to create something cool.

So, my thirty day trial of affirmations is now over. How did things go?

What was it all about?

My “experiment” was to use positive affirmations on a daily basis, to see if they made a difference in my life. The initial idea was to repeat my affirmations once in the morning when I woke up, and then again at night just before I went to bed. I started with six affirmations, most of which were inspired by content on bmindful.com.

What went wrong?

The first week went well, but I noticed something of a slow down in week two. I tweaked my affirmations to make them shorter and easier to remember, and I also increased my exposure to them by carrying them around on a small card in my wallet. I found the article “Creating Effective Affirmations” at bmindful particularly useful when rewriting my affirmations.

What went right?

As I touched on in But I Can’t!, sometimes I will mentally talk myself out of a situation through a negative self voice. I’ve found that using daily positive affirmations has stopped me from using this negative voice, and I’ve often found myself overriding my negativity with my new affirmations.

It’s refreshing to be in a situation that would normally cause anxiety, and to hear your “inner voice” repeating positive affirmations instead of negative ones, and needless to say it makes a difference to mood and productivity.

I found that shorter affirmations worked best, so I modified my original six accordingly. I also found that more focussed affirmations worked better, so I kept each affirmation focussed on a single subject. The increased exposure was also quite effective, especially as some affirmations tend to stick better than others.

Was it worth doing?

Undoubtedly, yes. I’m sticking with these affirmations for the foreseeable future. Whilst they haven’t completely transformed my life, they’ve made a noticeable improvement. As with everything I do, I’ll continue tweaking my system to get the best results.

If you’re thinking of using positive affirmations in your life, I can highly recommend “bmindful.com“. It has a selection of well written articles about affirmations, and also has a list of affirmations that you can add to your own custom list.

If you like this article, you’ll like my other site, philnewton.net. It’s dedicated to productivity, time management and other personal development tips.

For me, New Year’s Eve is a time for reflection, as well as a time to look to the future. I don’t set New Year’s Resolutions in the “normal” sense, such as “Get Rich” or “Get in Shape”, because to me they’re not useful as goals. I do set large goals for the entire year, and as with my 90 day goals (described in Keeping a Progress Log, part II), I divide them into 7 categories.

What went right in 2005?

The main highlight of 2005 was gaining my BSc in Software Engineering. I also started this blog, and learnt some interesting and useful personal development strategies. Despite there being little to show, I feel this has been a good year for me.

What do I want to do in 2006?

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve not updated this blog for a while, so in 2006 I want to develop a regular posting schedule. I’ve already got some topics I want to cover, as well as a few more experiments I want to run. I also want to release the rest of this website, and start my own business.

Goodbye 2005!

I’ve finished my second week of using daily positive affirmations, which wasn’t as eventful as the first week. Here’s a look at my observations so far:

What’s working?

I still get a positive boost when reading them in the morning, and they’re still helping me through sticky situations.

I’m still surprised by just how effective they can be at times, and I often find myself repeating my affirmations if I’m feeling low. They don’t completely remove the negativity, but they certainly make a difference.

What’s not working?

Although I look at my affirmations twice a day, they’re still not as ingrained as I’d like them to be. There are still times when they don’t seem to work, and I think this problem could be solved by exposing myself to my affirmations more often.

Some affirmations are working much better than others, and I’ve found that short, simple and focussed ones work much better for me.

What’s going to change?

I’ve got six affirmations, which I’m going to tweak slightly. A few are a little too verbose, and some overlap a little in their intent. I’m also going to increase the regularity at which I read them, and make a small card to carry around with me.

So far this experience has been quite eye-opening. I always suspected affirmations would have a positive effect, but I never got around to trying them out. The results I’m getting so far are certainly encouraging, and I’m hoping these tweaks will improve my performance.

If you like this article, you’ll like my other site, philnewton.net. It’s dedicated to productivity, time management and other personal development tips.

It’s been a week since I started using daily positive affirmations, and I’m seeing some interesting results so far.

There’s definitely been a positive effect. I’ve been in a few negative situations over the past week, and when my usual reaction of feeling down started, my affirmations kicked in and I booted out the offending thoughts. It was certainly an uplifting experience.

If you’ve ever heard of the “Law of Belief”, you’ll probably recognise what’s happening. The Law of Belief postulates that people behave in a manner consistent with their beliefs. It’s a simple principle that can have powerful results, but most people only ever experience the negative effects.

For example, if you sit on your own, slouch down and say to yourself “I’m such a failure”, then that’s exactly what you’ll be! Having this negative belief will do you no good at all, and will only help to reinforce your feelings.

The good news is that you can choose to believe whatever you want, and that is a very powerful tool for personal development. Affirmations will help you reinforce positive beliefs, and banish those limiting negative beliefs.

If you like this article, you’ll like my other site, philnewton.net. It’s dedicated to productivity, time management and other personal development tips.

Lifehack.org has an interesting article entitled “But I can’t…”

How often each day do you tell yourself, or others, you can’t do something? Is it true? How do you know you can’t? What if you’re limiting yourself without knowing it? What if you’re lying to save face or avoid embarrassment?

This is one of things I hope to overcome with the use of positive affirmations. I don’t expect to notice any large changes just yet, but I’m quietly confident that they will have a positive effect on my life.

“I can’t” is simply a negative affirmation, and one I intend to ditch for good.

The 30 day, no risk trial

Back in April, Steve Pavlina wrote about the concept of testing changes in your life for 30 days.

A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial. This is a concept I borrowed from the shareware industry, where you can download a trial version of a piece of software and try it out risk-free for 30 days before you’re required to buy the full version. It’s also a great way to develop new habits, and best of all, it’s brain-dead simple.

I like this method because it’s a great way of overcoming the initial resistance to change. You know you can stop after 30 days, which also drives you towards completing the trial period.

The power of positive affirmations

I’ve read about the use of positive affirmations in several books, but I’ve never got around to trying them out. A recent entry on Out of Bounds about positive affirmations renewed my interest in them, so I’ve decided to try them out.

The article also links to a very interesting site, bmindful. It’s a very modern looking site that allows you to share and tag affirmations. I’m using a few of the affirmations as inspiration for my own.

The experiment

Starting on the 1st of December, I’ll be using positive affirmations for 30 days. It’s quite likely that I’ll tweak as I go along, but at the start I intend to write my affirmations on an index card and read them aloud three times a day.

I’ll be writing about the whole experience, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the results are.

If you like this article, you’ll like my other site, philnewton.net. It’s dedicated to productivity, time management and other personal development tips.

Evolution of the progress log

Stirred by a comment from David Seah, I thought it would be interesting to look over my progress log for the last few months, and see how it’s changed. It’s still a relatively new book, but there have already been some big modifications:

• Fewer goals – I used to have 3 goals per day, which in hindsight was a little too much for me. Now I have my “Big 21” at the front, and 3 smaller goals for each week. This seems to work much better, and I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore.
• More focus on reflection – Because 21 weekly goals took up a lot of room, there was very little space left for reflection at the end of the page. I used to write one or two lines about how each day had gone, but now I have a whole side of the page for reflection, which I use to make notes of what went right and wrong.
• No more analysis – I removed the daily reflection, and tried a brief period of writing a section called “Analysis” which focussed on the week instead. Unfortunately it usually ended up as some pretty harsh criticism. It’s no great surprise that I got rid of it.
• No rating – My “b-Alert” tracker used to have a small column at the end where I would rate myself out of 10 for that particular day. As with my analysis section, this usually turned into a chance to kick myself. Not very productive. This has since been replaced with my PCO implementation, which I prefer as it’s not my opinion of how I’ve done, but based on physical evidence of how I’ve performed.

It’s been interesting to look over how things changed, and it’s one of the reasons I chose to use a book. I really wanted to be able to look over it at a later date and see how things have changed. It’s also nice and flexible, as all these changes show.

This week’s change is the addition of a progress bar underneath each goal, inspired by the “Task Progress Destruct-o-Matic Edition“. I’m not too sure about it at the moment, but it’s worth a try. It’s more than likely that I’ll change my rather lacklustre progress bar into something with a finite number of steps, possibly involving explosions. Everybody knows blowing stuff up is cool.

Too much planning?

Gerard’s comment on LifeHack.org got my attention:

That’s just too much planning. Life is meant to be lived, not planned like a well-organized conference complete with grading each and every facet of life. I went over to the sodaware site and looked at both parts of the Keeping A Progress Log post and thought, ‘What are we becoming?’ The answer – if we are not careful – is pre-programmed, graded, narcissistic people-bots who have taken the life out of living.

Naturally I disagree, but it did give me food for thought. All those goals sound like a lot, especially when you think that there are 60 goals for a 90 day period. However, considering I used to be at 3 goals a day, which equates to nearly 300 goals for a 90 day period, I think there’s been an improvement on that front.

As for taking “the life out of living”, I’d have to disagree with that too. I don’t plan each day in excessive detail, and I usually just have a “next actions” list to work through. I’ve tried planning in more detail, but I like flexibility in my day so I ditched it. I don’t think having this system is detrimental to my enjoyment of life. If anything, it’s helped me enjoy things even more.

Perhaps it’s just a question of personality and lifestyle. Everybody has different ways of doing things, so just do what works for you.

Related Posts:

• Keeping a progress log, part I
• Keeping a progress log, part II

In the last thrilling instalment, I briefly covered my progress log, a book which I use to keep track of how close I am to achieving my major goals, as well as my overall level of productivity.

In this entry I’ll be describing:

1. How I create my 90 day goals.
2. The points tracking system I use
3. The “b-Alert” system

Creating my 90 day goals

As mentioned in my last entry, I have a total of 21 goals to achieve in 90 days, divided equally into seven categories. I got this idea from “The Power of Focus”, and I’ve found it helpful for making sure I have balance in my goals. I use the following categories:

• Financial – This covers how much money I want to earn and how much I want to save.
• Business – This concentrates on what I want to achieve with my business, and where I want it to be once the 90 days are up. If you don’t run your own business, this area would cover work instead, and may include goals for promotions, raises or important tasks you want to achieve.
• Fun – Sometimes it’s easy to forget the fun side of life, so I use this section to note any fun things I want to do, as well as how many days I want to take off work.
• Health – This makes sure I’m thinking about my exercise and diet plans.
• Relationships – This includes family and friends, as well as work relationships. It’s important to nurture your most important relationships, and to make time for the people in your life that matter.
• Contribution – I like to do my bit for others. My contribution goals tend to focus on my work with the Scout Association, as well as helping people on software development forums and producing material for when the rest of this website goes live.
• Personal – The last section contains any goals that don’t quite fit anywhere else.

I use mind-mapping to create goals for each area, and then decide on the time span for each goal. I may wish to achieve some in less than 90 days, and others may be longer term goals. It’s important to note that I usually have more than 21 goals at this point, so I pick the three most important goals from each category, and these become my 90 day goals. I keep a note of the other goals, and these will usually become integrated into my weekly goal setting session.

Tracking my progress

I use a modified version of “The Printable CEO” for my daily tracking, and although it doesn’t look as good as the original, it gets the job done. I keep the list of activities that are worth points on a seperate piece of card, which also acts as a bookmark. The list itself is modified from the original, and it now reflects my interests and line of work.

Even though I’ve only been using this part of my system for a few weeks, I’ve already spotted a few patterns. It’s a great way to identify which areas need improving, and also which days are least productive. So far Monday is my worst day, and Thursday my best. Curious.

The “b-Alert” system

I read about the “b-Alert” system in the book “The Power of Focus”, and I really liked it. It’s not particulary complex, and it only takes a few seconds to update it at the end of the day. The idea is to make sure you have balance in your daily activities (much like creating balance in your goals).

“b-Alert” stands for:

• Blueprint – This might consist of a few “to-do” items, or it might be something more complex. Either way, it’s good to have an idea of what you want to achieve during the day.
• Action – Action is the most important activity, hence the bold letter. Not action = no results.
• Learning – A daily dose of learning helps you increase your own knowledge, and stimulates your mind. You don’t need to devote hours of study in the library, and what you learn doesn’t have to be profound. Don’t limit yourself to a single source either. Books, journals, and magazinesare all good sources, but what about blogs, podcasts, audio tapes and even interviews?
• Exercise – It only takes thirty minutes a day. I always exercise for 20 minutes every morning, and although some days I really don’t want to, it’s made such an improvement to how I feel that I really wouldn’t want to give it up. As with learning, vary your sources of exercise. It doesn’t have to be a fourty minute session in the gym thrashing your biceps, it can be a nice walk or a bicycle ride.
• Relaxing – If you’ve worked hard, you deserve time to relax. Spend time with your loved ones, admire nature or have a nap! The break will do you good, and leave you feeling recharged and ready to face whatever challenges life decides to throw at you. Remember – you deserve the break, so don’t feel guilty for not working. If you work for yourself, this can sometimes be hard to do but it’s important that you don’t let yourself get burnt out.
• Thinking – A little reflection can go a long way. This is what I use the “What went right/wrong” sections in my progress book for.

My book has a grid for tracking this, and once I’ve worked on a particular section I circle the letter. At the end of the week it’s quite easy to see which areas aren’t getting the attention they need. You don’t need to work through the letters in order, you simply use them as a guide for planning your day.

The future…

That about wraps it up for now, but this system is constantly evolving. I’m quite happy with how it’s performing at the moment, but there’s always room for improvement. Don’t worry – I’ll keep you updated.

If you like this article, you’ll like my other site, philnewton.net. It’s dedicated to productivity, time management and other personal development tips.

I’ve been keeping a progress log since the end of August, and although it’s still far from perfect, it’s been a great help on my self improvement odyssey. Recently I’ve modified it slightly to use a version of “The Printable CEO”, and although I’ve not been using it for very long, I do feel like it’s made an improvement.

Even though I use computers most of the time, I prefer to keep my log on paper as it means I can review it when I’m not in my office. I also think it gives it some character, although that’s entirely down to personal preference. I also do everything by hand – no printing here. Perhaps “The Drawable CEO” would be a good name for it.

The basics

Using both sides of a single page for each week, I keep track of the following:

• Weekly goals
• My points monitor
• My “b-Alert” tracker
• What went right
• What went wrong

I added a transparent pocket to the inside of the book, which I keep my 90 day goals in. I have 21 goals, divided into seven sections. In part two I’ll explain these sections in more detail.

Each page starts with the date, and then the top three goals I wish to achieve for the week. I put checkboxes in front of each goal so I can tick them off when they’re complete. The original system had me setting three goals for each day, but I felt this crowded the page a little too much and also distracted me if I had goals from the previous day that I hadn’t completed.

Underneath this is my points tracker, and then underneath that is my “b-Alert” tracker. I took the b-Alert system from “The Power of Focus” (reviewed here). I also use the goal setting tips from the same book to make sure I’m covering the important aspects of my life. This will be covered in more detail in part two.

The back of the page is divided into two sections. The top two-thirds is “What went right”, where I note anything important that was achieved. Reading over this gives me a boost, and helps remind me of what I’ve achieved during the week.

The remaining third is “What went wrong”, which allows some analysis of where the week could have been improved. I deliberately kept it to a third to prevent myself from being overly critical, and also to focus myself on the major issues.

Where possible I use bullet points, as it makes it easier to scan for a quick overview. It’s useful to look over this during my weekly review, as it helps me find areas for improvement.

In part two, I’ll cover the trackers in detail, and also explain how I ensure I have balance in my goals.

If you like this article, you’ll like my other site, philnewton.net. It’s dedicated to productivity, time management and other personal development tips.

If you work for yourself, the chances are that motivating yourself is an important, and sometimes difficult, activity. David Seah has a great method for overcoming this problem, in the form of “The Printable CEO”. I’ve only been using it for a week, but I’m already seeing an improvement in the amount of work I’m getting done.

The basic premise is to assign scores to certain jobs you’ll be doing throughout the day. Each time you complete one of these jobs, you give yourself “points”. It’s a simple system, but there’s strangely something satisfying about earning points during the day, and so far I’ve found it to be a real motivator when I don’t feel like doing anything.

Next week I’ll be writing about how I’ve integrated the Printable CEO into my personal progress system.

Read more: The Printable CEO