Mike Vardy from The Productivityist shares practical details about his approach to planning and managing the things he wants to accomplish through the use of themes, modes and energy levels.
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Discussion Highlights
- John’s dislike for overly complex plans and the wasted time it takes to manage them
- Planning has value, to a point
- “In preparing for battle I’ve also found that plans are useless and planning is indispensable” — Dwight Eisenhower
- The difference between “complicated” and “complex” plans
- Finding the “Getting Things Done” (GTD) methodology to be too rigid and not “human” enough
- Giving each day a theme that reflects the rhythms and constraints of your life
- Selecting tasks and projects based on your energy level and daily theme vs. looking at your list of things to do and just picking something
- You still have to have discipline when following your feelings or energy level
- Frameworks foster freedom
- “working by project” vs. theme or task
- Life doesn’t have an “off season”
- New years resolutions don’t work
- If you’re going to plan something for a whole year, make it something small that you can do everyday like journaling or meditating
- Theming provides a way to funnel or filter your focus.
- Theming is a much better guide to what you should do next after a meeting ends instead of checking your email
- Themes may overlap between business and personal
- Other times separate themes may make more sense
- Mike catalogs a variety of different theme ideas
- In environments where theming doesn’t work consider modes instead
- Mike finds that the best way to avoid restarting is daily journaling
- Practical steps to getting started with theming
- Look out three weeks on your calendar and look for certainties or patterns of what happens on certain days
- Don’t define a day as “free”
- Try a horizontal theme like reading every day for 30 minutes
- Add a “mode” to each task
- The year is both long and short–breaking it down into smaller chunks is valuable
- Work in the ways that work best for you–not what others say should work best for you
Books & Resources
- The Now Year Action Plan course by Mike Vardy
- The Productivityist Podcast hosted by Mike Vardy and produced by John Poelstra
- The Road to Character by David Brooks
- Lessons In Manliness: Benjamin Franklin’s Pursuit of the Virtuous Life from the Art of Manliness
- Three Words for the Year via Chris Brogan
- The Night Owl Action Plan by Mike Vardy
- Mike Vardy on Twitter
Credits
- Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund
- Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod
- Original photo source
All songs licensed under Creative Commons
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