Deliverable

I know that it’s valuable to track my weekly goals here on the blog, but I struggle with the best way to do so. I’ve found a successful way to capture the day to day tasks via my GTD contextual lists (@Calls/Emails, @Household, @Shopping & Errands, @Someday/Maybe, etc.). I’ve also set up a couple of mobile folders that I keep with me to hold my project list, open loops, project notes, etc. All good stuff. What I’ve not figured out yet though is a way to tackle the “Bigger Picture” things (The book, songwriting, acting, practicing, etc.).

What I am beginning to understand though is the difference between “Next Actions” and “Projects”. David Allen
defines a project as “Any outcome you’re committed to achieving that will take more than one action step to complete.”. It’s helpful for me to think in these terms as I try to get a handle on the various things in my “Open Loops” list (especially the “Bigger Picture” items and especially “Practicing”…).

“Practice guitar” is a next action. “Practice guitar consistently” clarifies the frequency of that next action. Neither of these is a project. They are not the “outcome that I am committed to achieving that takes more than one action step to complete.” They are the action steps.

What then is the project for which “practice guitar (consistently)” is the next action?

There are a couple of ways to think about this. One is to set the goal of being able to make an accurate statement. For example:

• “I want to be able to make the following accurate statement this Sunday: I practiced guitar a minimum of 10 minutes a day this past Monday thru Friday”

This frames my practice in terms of a clear and achievable goal. When presented with the question “Did you practice guitar a minimum of 10 minutes a day this past Monday thru Friday?” I can answer with a simple Yes or No. This is effective for as far as it goes, but I need to look further.

If I create tangible “Projects” for the guitar (tangible outcomes that I’m committed to achieving) then my chance of success increases exponentially. What I’m leaning towards is creating specific measurable projects for each of the instruments that I’m committed to studying. For example, on guitar my first “project” will be to map out the notes on the first 7 frets. (To be able to successfully play an “F” anywhere on the first 7 frets… and all the other notes… if asked to.) Another project would be “To be able to play specific songs starting on any note”.

These things are measurable, tangible and specific. These are the things I’ll spend my minimum of ten minutes a day Monday thru Friday doing. I’m not sure yet if it’s necessary to track the “what” of my practice here on a weekly basis. I’m leaning towards tracking the big picture “Did you practice (or work on your book, or write songs, etc….)” items here, and leave the “what I did” details to my paper based lists. It’ll probably be easier to keep the weekly goals simple, and then cover the specifics of what I did in some type of wrap up at the end of the week. We’ll see how that goes.

I think this will work for practicing, but what about the 400 lb gorilla (the book) that I seem to go out of my way to dance around? I suspect that the same methodology will work for tackling the book. Lay out achievable time based goals at the beginning of the week, and leave the specifics to the lists. Things change… the “what” of your daily work will fluctuate. At this point on the book I think my main goal needs to be “Brainstorm and organize my notes”. The brainstorming will reveal what my next actions need to be. I’ll make a broad stroke of “work on the book for a minimum of “x” amount of time” and let the details work themselves out.

Surely more will follow as I figure more out!

Snapped this picture while waiting for the train at Penn after a visit home this past Sunday. The phrase “Make your own luck” popped into my head. Probably brought on by the fact that I am a big fan of George Clooney and really want to work with him some day.

Goals:
Purchase a folding box for all of my book materials. complete
I ended up going with a plastic file box. I purchased a package of folding boxes as well, but I’m going to take those back I think, though perhaps not. They might come in handy down the road. We’ll see.

“I practiced guitar a minimum of 10 minutes a day this past Monday thru Friday.”
• “I practiced bass a minimum of 10 minutes a day this past Monday thru Friday.”
• “I practiced trombone a minimum of 10 minutes a day this past Wednesday thru Friday.”

All of the above statements are accurate, with the following exceptions: I didn’t practice bass on Friday. The .jpg below captures my actual times. Thursday’s practice isn’t captured, because I did my trombone & guitar practice at school, and practiced my bass late Thursday night but didn’t log it. I’m trying not to get to hung up on the logging of my time… just the consistency.

• “I worked on my book a minimum of 30 minutes on Wednesday & Friday.

I didn’t work on the book during the week at all, but ended up spending a good chunk of time working on it on Saturday… maybe a couple of hours? (A million thanks to M. for her help with this!!!) We made significant progress and came up with an outline that think is going to be immensely helpful. I know that I feel like a big weight has been lifted. I think that you’ll see more “book related” posts in the coming weeks to be sure.

I’ve been working to establish some “best practices” with regards to how I approach projects. The idea is that the more clear I am with what I want, the more likely it is that I’ll achieve my goal. I may post more in the future on the specifics of what I’m doing, but for now I want to post the results.

I now have a list of all my projects. (I define a “project” as any goal that requires multiple next actions in order to complete.) Three of the projects that I worked on this week involved the practice of various instruments. I made the project goals “to post the following accurate statements on Deliverable on Sunday”. Here are those statements. They are all accurate.

• “I practiced guitar a minium of 10 minutes a day this past Monday thru Friday.”
• “I practiced bass a minimum of 10 minutes a day this past Monday thru Friday.”
• “I practiced trombone a minimum of 10 minutes a day this past Monday thru Friday.”

I also tracked my practice using the web based Time Tracker. I don’t want to get too heavily into the specifics of how much I practiced. It’s not some type of game where the person who has the highest practice numbers wins. I do however think the benefit of tracking my time lies in the mental discipline it requires. Forcing myself to get into the habit of using the timer made me have a specific beginning and end to my practice time. I can also take comfort in knowing without a doubt that I met my goal for the week. It’s also cool to note that “practicing for a minimum of 10 minutes each day” resulted in longer practice sessions for the most part. More time experiencing the music. Click below for a full size image.

I also just about finished my “Costco Photos” project. (Uploaded my .jpgs and had them printed.) I just have to decide how to display them and then I can scratch that off as complete!