Three-fold nature of work - express webinar

[kelstarrising]

Oogie--

This is based on simply deciding the next action, not doing the next action (including if doing is "planning".) I think you and I have chatted about this one before too and that it takes you that time to process through all of the next steps. If that's the case, I would wonder if you're getting into project planning at all, versus capturing "Plan out abc project" as the next action.

Kelly

 

[Barb]

If you're asking...

I'm with Kelly on this...30 seconds for me. Maybe a minute if I'm tired or my mind is elsewhere (mind like popcorn, you know!)

 

[CJSullivan]

Me too

I agree with Kelly - sometimes it only takes me 30 seconds to do the "oh, and then I'll need to..." kind of project planning. Oogie, it doesn't seem like many of your projects fall into the "only need quick, back-of-the-envelope" type planning scenario! If I feel it will take longer to flesh out, I make an action item. One of MY demons is that I have lots of "plan XYZ" kinds of action items and they seem to not be getting done... hmm... wonder what I'm avoiding?!

 

[Barb]

If...

If it takes time to fully plan out a project, than THAT is your next action. Processing is only deciding the single next action, not plotting out a project from beginning to end.

 

[Oogiem]

Step 1 can take minutes

For me sometimes just answering the primary processing questions of What is it? and Is it actionable? can take many minutes. Usually the long pole is the is it actionable question.

Remember the long one about the e-mail with a link to a story about Wild and Scenic Rivers? Just getting to the whether there really was a project hiding in there and what is the next action was meant I had to figure out what the entire link meant. That took hours as I recall, I know I wrote about it here.

Maybe I am not doing processing right. If I look at the new workflow chart First question is What is it? then Is it actionable? if Yes then What is the outcome? and What is the next action? I believe that all of those questions have to be answered and into my system for me to consider a new input that will result in an active project "processed".

I don't think I can do that for any item that comes in to my inbox in 30 seconds if it's a new project or not similar to one I have done before.

Sure I can easily hit delete for trash and things that are obviously someday/maybe can get entered in fairly quickly but new stuff takes time to define.

 

[TesTeq]

33.81 seconds.

For me sometimes just answering the primary processing questions of What is it? and Is it actionable? can take many minutes. Usually the long pole is the is it actionable question.

Remember the long one about the e-mail with a link to a story about Wild and Scenic Rivers? Just getting to the whether there really was a project hiding in there and what is the next action was meant I had to figure out what the entire link meant. That took hours as I recall, I know I wrote about it here.

Maybe I am not doing processing right. If I look at the new workflow chart First question is What is it? then Is it actionable? if Yes then What is the outcome? and What is the next action? I believe that all of those questions have to be answered and into my system for me to consider a new input that will result in an active project "processed".

I don't think I can do that for any item that comes in to my inbox in 30 seconds if it's a new project or not similar to one I have done before.

Sure I can easily hit delete for trash and things that are obviously someday/maybe can get entered in fairly quickly but new stuff takes time to define.

If in your inbox you have:

• 1 item that represents new non-standard Project and takes 10 minutes to process
• 5 items that represent standard Projects or Next Actions (for example bills to pay) and take 10 seconds each to process
• 20 non-actionable items (to delete or reference or Someday/Maybe) that take 3 seconds each to process

then the average time of processing each item is (1*10*60 + 5*10 + 20*3) / 21 = 33.81 seconds.

 

[ProfessorSue]

my approach

If in your inbox you have:

• 1 item that represents new non-standard Project and takes 10 minutes to process
• 5 items that represent standard Projects or Next Actions (for example bills to pay) and take 10 seconds each to process
• 20 non-actionable items (to delete or reference or Someday/Maybe) that take 3 seconds each to process

then the average time of processing each item is (1*10*60 + 5*10 + 20*3) / 21 = 33.81 seconds.

How about just putting that first, long item in a "To Review" folder. I have several of these, one generic (which I would use for the potentially new project), and several related to particular existing projects or areas of focus. That speeds things up. Of course, you have to get back later to do the reviewing!

 

[Oogiem]

How about just putting that first, long item in a "To Review" folder.

Tried that. It was a black hole of never getting done at all and a severe drag on my system.

 

[Oogiem]

If in your inbox you have:

• 1 item that represents new non-standard Project and takes 10 minutes to process
• 5 items that represent standard Projects or Next Actions (for example bills to pay) and take 10 seconds each to process
• 20 non-actionable items (to delete or reference or Someday/Maybe) that take 3 seconds each to process

then the average time of processing each item is (1*10*60 + 5*10 + 20*3) / 21 = 33.81 seconds.

Good point, I'll track it to see but so far just today my main e-mail inbox has had 53 delete items, I've got 6 that are just read then file in my huge mail reference pile, 12 that are part of either an existing project or an easy to do project and what looks like 7 or 8 that may be entirely new projects. I've taken to starting at the e-mail list and doing processing in batches. First pull out all the deletes based on subject which I do before my coffee. That took 3 minutes so very fast. Then I read and move to the reference folder any that are obviously just FYI type items. Reading the 6 that I thought were of that type took me just at a minute each. Then pull out the obvious ones that are part of existing projects, send them to my OF inbox and sort them into the project as either additional info or to modify or adjust my current next action on that project. I do that by just clipping either entire messages or actions as appropriate to OF, move the messages to reference in mail, then go into OF and process that inbox. Time for those 12 messages today was 18 minutes. So I'm at about 22 seconds on average so far but I haven't yet tackled the ones I think are new projects. I'll be starting those after coffee, I need to be fully functional to process those. I'll time it accurately and post back. I also still have my paper inbox to process which I typically do at lunchtime.

Maybe I'm just noticing the ones that take me 20 minutes per input or even on occasion an hour per input. I'll try to track for a couple of days and see where I am at.

I do now that it takes me between an hour and a half to 2 hours each day minimum to process all my inputs properly. That is summer time. Winter I get less input so it goes faster.

 

[Oogiem]

Update on processing time

OK from yesterday the leftovers in my e-mail inbox that I thought were new projects. I didn't clear them out as I ran out of time. 1 took 15 minutes to get to the next action. 1 minute deciding what it was, 12 of those minutes were spent in the is it actionable and what's the outcome stage and 2 minutes in defining the next action so it can actually get done. It ended up becoming 3 separate projects. Another one I measured took 7 minutes. 1 minute deciding what it was, 6 minutes getting the outcome and action defined. I only managed to deal with those 2 things so now have some backlog of the remaining 5 that I haven't even read yet.

 

[S-Tolland]

Result of research

I have kept a tally of how I have spent my time for the last 2 weeks at work and have been really surprised by the results.

My original estimate for my time was as follows:
Unplanned: 50%
Predefined: 40%
Defining: 10%

My research has shown something entirely different:
Week 1:
Unplanned: 20.5%
Predefined: 57%
Defining: 22.5%
Week 2:
Unplanned: 11%
Predefined: 72.5%
Defining: 16.5%

I had thought that a lot of my time was taken up by unplanned work, and this simply isn't the case! I'm not quite sure why I thought that the time on unplanned work was so high. I'm still thinking about this. However, I am really pleased that my defining time is very reasonable at approx 20%. I plan to repeat the experiment in a couple of months time and see whether the percentages are similar.

 

[vbampton]

So I'm still debating something, and I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Contributing to forums is a fairly major part of my marketing, so I dedicate X length of time each day to doing so.

Is it unplanned work, because it's incoming and I never know what I'll find?

Or is it planned work, because I've set aside the time to work on it?

Or would you call it defining, because it's another inbox?

Or how would you define it?

 

[Barb]

Really good question!

So I'm still debating something, and I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Contributing to forums is a fairly major part of my marketing, so I dedicate X length of time each day to doing so.

Is it unplanned work, because it's incoming and I never know what I'll find?

Or is it planned work, because I've set aside the time to work on it?

Or would you call it defining, because it's another inbox?

Or how would you define it?

Given what you do and assuming you are participating in Forums around what you do, I'd lean toward including it in processing (for which you've set aside time.) But it could turn into "work as it appears" or unplanned work based on finding something there requiring more than 2 minutes to respond to or handle.

So it's really all of the above, I think, in your case.

 

[Fritz58]

What is unplanned work: smth not in my calendar for the day and not in my action list?

Oogie: I'd put Read email in attachment to plan smth out of it in your case. Takes 10 sec.

 

[Oogiem]

What is unplanned work: smth not in my calendar for the day and not in my action list?

Oogie: I'd put Read email in attachment to plan smth out of it in your case. Takes 10 sec.

Unplanned is the sprinkler breaking, irrigation water low, cows out in the hay field, escaped sheep in the wrong pasture, rams stuck in fence, chicken injured, mower bearing busted, etc. etc. etc. just to name a few that happened to me in the last couple of weeks. That is, everything that comes up that needs attention NOW that you did not expect.

For me actions like read email and process later will never happen. Either I process or I don't. I cannot put it off until later. When processing you first have to decide if it is actionable. That decision can take many minutes for some types of inputs. And if the answer is that it is actionable then you need to know what the outcome is supposed to be because until you define that you can't accurately define a next action. Processing is taking things to what is the next action and that takes a long time for some types of inputs

 

[Fritz58]

Oogie: do you have doing time for your lists?

 

[vbampton]

I'd lean toward including it in processing (for which you've set aside time.)

Of course! :idea: Yes, calling it processing makes much more sense, thanks Barb.

 

[Oogiem]

Oogie: do you have doing time for your lists?

yes, quite a bit actually.

For example I just came in from an hour of working on actions from my list. Sort out the just lambed ewes from the not yet lambed ones. Move the ewes with lambs into one bunch onto fresh pasture. Move the not yet lambed ewes down into the closer lambing pasture behind the house. Reset the fences to keep the 2 groups apart. Replace the charger on the lower fence. Set irrigation water to water the far west pasture because we have water for the next 4 days. Set water to provide both groups of ewes water in the drinking water ditch. All actions in my context of @outside with help for a variety of projects.

I'm in now, taking a bit of a break, checking off those actions and doing a mini-review of their projects to see what the next actions are, reading some stuff, making phone calls and a few other things all in the context of @inside by myself then I'll head back out for a few more things from @outside by myself before it gets too hot to work. Then I'll come back in for lunch and probably do @inside hobby things this afternoon. I started work at 5 am this morning, pretty typical for a summer day.

 

[Fritz58]

Oogie: do you have enough time for doing then?