planning - DevBurner

Just because you are into technology and want to be as efficient as possible, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use “Luddite” tools to get some stuff done.

I am in front of a computer all day and have an iPad or iPhone at my disposal almost 100% of the time. You can call it “too connected” if you’d like (and there definitely are some truths to that), but it’s the way I tend to live.

So many uses

Digital tools have enabled us to get more things done and to continually get them done faster. For instance, I have a small program at work that can search for a string of text in our Enterprise Resource Planning software and change it to whatever we want. Just a few months earlier they were doing this all by “hand”, that is, going in to each record and manually updating it to the new text. Not only was this slow, it was error prone as well.

And just think, before the ERP system was there, someone would have had to do that by hand again.

Obviously, not using a digital tool or process to make these updates is stupid and time consuming.

Except for these

But, there are many processes and and workflows where Not using an analog tool may be stupid and time consuming. Here are just a few:

Brainstorming

I’ve tried so many digital mind mapping tools and other brainstorming techniques. If you can show me that there is a digital tool that does brainstorming better and faster than a pen and paper or marker and wipe off board, I will buy you lunch (no, I won’t). Using analog tools to brainstorm and get down ideas is natural. Instead of figuring out the best way to use the tool, you just write.
On the fly explanation

While developing a new system, starting a new business, or just working with someone on something complicated, it’s important to be able to explain things naturally and on the fly. Pen and paper are great for this as well. You can draw relationships between things, point out small nuances, or even rip the paper apart and start over.

I keep a large pad of paper on my desk. When people come in and work with me, we use that pad like crazy. It’s simple and effective and helps us get things done.
Day planning

I am an avid OmniFocus, Evernote, and other digital productivity tool user, but when it comes to daily planning, paper is a great tool. There are a lot of great tools out there that are pre-made (like the Emergent Task Planner), but a blank piece of paper and your own format works just as good as anything else.

Tools like OmniFocus and others that store projects, actions, due dates, notes, etc. are important for the shear fact of being able to search and “shuck and jive” your input around. But, daily planning can be a nice break from that where an analog tool can give you some clarity.

Just because I’m into tech tools and processes doens’t mean that I think analog and paper tools are useless. Both digital and analog serve their own purpose. It’s up to you to find exactly how either fit into your workflow and make your more effective.

Planning a project is a creative and intuitive endeavor. It requires that you have way more ideas than you will ever use and that you aren’t hard on yourself for coming up with something that could be perceived as “stupid”. You have to be able to “give yourself a break” and become an idea generating machine to ensure that you are planning for everything you need to get done in your project.

You then need to be able to organize the information into tasks in an intelligent way.

I follow a loose “Natural Planning Model” offered by Mr. David Allen. Here’s how it goes.

Creating the vision

The reason that you have a project in the first place is because there is more than one task to complete between point A and point B. That is, your current state is not the state that you wish it were in. You have things to do.

You can’t know where a project is supposed to end up without knowing of what done looks like. That’s why I make my project something highly doable. I then envision what it would look like when the project is done and what the definition success would be.

For example, for an upcoming project of getting new all-season tires for my car, the project title would be:

“Install new all-season tires on the Solara”

and my vision of success would look something like:

“Ensure that my new tires are installed on my car and that my winter tires are put away securely until next winter.”

I store the project title as a new project in OmniFocus and the vision of success as the project’s note.

Creating the mind map

This is where your creative side comes into play. Mindmapping is an excellent way to let your ideas flow naturally and gives you the ability to account for everything related to a project. I personally use MindNode Pro for my Mac. I copy the title of the project from OmniFocus and make that the base node of the MindMap as well as what the mindmap will be saved as.

I think start adding nodes for anything I can think of that is related to the project. I don’t worry about order or context at this time. Just whatever comes to mind like:

Order tires on TireRack
Look at the tire recommendations form Efficise and decide which to purchase
Make sure that you have plastic bags to store winter tires in
Make an appointment with Monro

You get the idea.

Creating the outline

After I have a ton of ideas and potential actions I start to group them by “sub-project” in the mindmap. I then transfer them to the OmniFocus project by exporting the MindNode file to OPML, opening in OmniOutliner Pro and then dragging tasks from OmniOutlinter to OmniFocus (this workflow needs a little work still).

After moving them to OmniFocus I then decide which tasks are parallel and which have to be cone in order. I give them a context in good GTD fashion and possibly start dates and due dates for time sensitive tasks and project milestones.

Acting

Once my project is outlined then my overarching OmniFocus system provides me with the tasks that I need to see at the right times. If there are important tasks in the project then I see them show up in my “core” perspective through the day. If they aren’t important for that day, I will then see them in my available tasks in the certain context that I work in when I move to the “less important” tasks of the day.

I then do the tasks. Rocket science. I know.

Adjustments

It’s inevitable that you will have to change some things in your project as it moves forward. That’s where my weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) reviews come in. If I see something fishy in my project during my review, like a stalled task, complete tasks, hidden tasks (damn you, OmniFocus!), or anything else, I take care of it during the review.

And that’s it. I try to spend way more time “doing” then “planning”. That’s important.

When Analog Tools are OK