One day you are walking to get some coffee and an idea pops up in your mind. You decide that it would be so cool to paint every day as a way to relax and unwind. Plus, you always wanted to have some creative outlet.
But you don’t have supplies. You need to order them or go to the store. Then you probably need to watch some YouTube videos on how to paint.
No worries. Record this idea in your backlog note on your phone. You can put something short such as “paint every night” or “learn how to paint as a new hobby”. You will remember what you meant by it.
It will literally take you five second to pull out your phone and write down that sentence.
And now the most important step. You keep on walking. You don’t act on this idea. You’ve recorded it. Your brain knows that it is safely recorded somewhere. Your brain doesn’t have to constantly remind you about this idea.
You do this with every idea you want to act upon or the project you want to commit to. Of course I’m not talking about some small tasks like cleaning up your room. You should record tasks that will take more than 30-60 minutes of your time.
Sprint Planning
Then once a month, when we do sprint planning, we look at all these ideas and go one by one. We sort them into our 3 areas of life:
- Career & Growth,
- Health & Key Relationships,
- Quality of Life.
The lists will be long because you’ve been recording all these ideas throughout the month.
The first reaction
The first question that will pop in your mind when looking at some of the items is “What on earth was I thinking?” This question will be addressed to about 20-30% of all recorded tasks.
What you thought was urgent and important is simply your human brain having a minor malfunction.
Without any regret, you can safely delete those tasks.
This is when you realize how much time you just saved because you didn’t act on these ideas. You recorded them in a safe place and continued with your intentional living.
After you delete all the nonsense, you start prioritizing these tasks.
Apps & Tools
I use Todoist for ideas backlog, backlog refinement and sprint planning. But you can do it Microsoft Word, Excel, in your notes document. It doesn’t matter.
Then you select 3 tasks in you will focus on for the next 3 weeks in each of the areas and commit to those. 9 goals in total. During the month you keep on adding things to your backlog and then you look at it again in 3 weeks when choosing goals for the next sprint. And you do it every month.
What is meant by the Quality of Life area?
This involves hobbies, travel, leisure, upgrading my home environment, etc. Basically, anything that makes my life NOW (not one day one when) more enjoyable.
Thank you so much for this information. I’m implementing it right away.
Pingback: Time blocking Q&A - The Monthly Method