Patrick Rhone: Metrics and GTD? It’s Baked Right In [Black Belt Productivity]
We are pleased today to publish a guest post from a longtime friend of BBP, Patrick Rhone. He is a well experienced practitioner of GTD, and is a master of what he calls “org-fu”. By day, Patrick is a workflow consultant, personal productivity coach, and web designer based out of St. Paul, MN. Bookmark www.patrickrhone.com for another great source of GTD based (among other things) web content. Special thanks to Patrick for the time he put into this writeup.
I was recently approached by my friends at Black Belt Productivity to offer some thoughts on metrics in the realm of Getting Things Done – how to measure productivity and ensure that it is driving you to specific goals. For further detail on the question, see the original post.
I agreed with them that this is a topic not well covered and not much discussed among the GTD crowd. I would like to think the reason for this is perhaps it is too obvious, but I know this not to be the case. It took some time, re-reading the book and attending a seminar to become known to me. I know this to be one of the most overlooked areas of the GTD but perhaps it is the most crucial. Here is the thing – metrics are built into the system. They are baked right in like sugar in a cookie.
Now, I know you may not believe me. In fact, if you attend one of the GTD Roadmap seminars you will find that the better part of your time there is spent on this very subject. If you have the Getting Things Done book, you can find it starting on Page 51. If not, I will recap it here…
**The Six Level Model for Reviewing Your Own Work**
This is what is referred to as the Vertical Map. A vertical map is basically how your daily actions align with, are part of, and work towards your entire life’s roles, goals, objectives, principals and values.
This Vertical Map is broken into six “horizons of focus” that are broken out from the bottom up as follows:
* Runway – Actions: The next physical and/or visible actions to take on any project or outcome. these should include calendar items, next actions on your context lists, e-mails to take action on, items to review, etc. these are the things you should be engaging daily.
* 10,000 ft. – Projects: These are the projects and multi-step outcomes that can be finished in a year or less. These should be part of your weekly review and should be generating the things on the runway.
* 20,000 ft. – Areas of Focus: These should be the areas of focus in your life and areas of responsibility in your work. This can include a high level job description, personal lifestyle checklist, etc. This should be reviewed monthly to ensure that your projects are properly aligned with these roles.
* 30,000 ft. – Goals and Objectives: This can include any job or personal goals you have. Twelve to Eighteen month out items to be reviewed yearly.
* 40,000 ft. – Vision: These are long term three to five year goals. What would success look, sound or feel like that far down the road? How will you know it when you get there? Write it down and review this once a year to make sure you are on the right path.
* 50,000 ft. – Purpose and Principles: This should be the beginning of everything. What is the purpose of the life you wish to live? What are the driving principles and beliefs? This can take the form of your faith, personal mission statements, personal manifestos, etc.
In other words, your actions at a daily “runway” level should be directly and vertically tied to your principals and values at the “50,000 ft” level. To get a real sense of this, look at it from the bottom up. Once you can see and understand how a project like “Fixing up the house” fits into the overall goals of life (In my case “Relationships: Bethany: Life Partner”). It will give you a new drive and focus on the importance of follow through on the various associated action items in the project. How are the projects you perform at work fitting into your job description? If the project is not fitting into that description or role then is your role changing or is that project better delegated to someone else more appropriate?
The metrics within should be obvious. Your regular review (weekly or otherwise) should include a detail of these views specific to you and you should be evaluating your completed “runway” and “10,000 ft.” items against the measure of getting closer to the “20,000 ft.” and beyond. There is real power in this. It really helps you focus and align your life along a path that gives each action meaning and context.
The bottom line is this, if you adopted GTD in hopes of getting control over your immediate world and have yet to sit down and take a look at these higher levels of focus, I encourage you to do so. Only through this can build the yard stick through which you can measure the things you are getting done. You will also ensure that you are getting the _right_ things done.
Original post here: Jason Echols
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