mindmap | Develop. Inspire. Transform.

As some of you may know, over the December holidays, I had a trip scheduled to the Oregon coast, and, at that time, the trip just didn’t feel right, so I cancelled. Well, as I was writing one night after work, I think it was Wednesday, it occurred to me that a trip to the coast this weekend felt right, so I booked a small cottage about 100 yards from the Ocean, and set out late Friday afternoon.

Before I write more about my time in Yachats, let’s take a look at two of the posts from this past week.

2 Writing Reflections

The Reflection Series: Thinking About Time Differently

I always love what I write, even when the writing is difficult, or it doesn’t turn out exactly like I anticipated; and, the latter happens, well, not quite often, yet as a burgeoning writer it happens. It’s part of the process.

The reflection on time and energy was such a fun post to write, as considering how my (our) energy is spent daily is an important consideration. One that I think more about today, than in times past.

As I wrote about in the post, the idea came from a conversation with a colleague of mine, and since that time, I’ve written this post, made a very short video for LinkedIn, and mapped most of my work (and some of the departments). Here is the latter.

As you can see, what is helpful is knowing how much energy each project takes, and the timeframe the work will take place. On the vertical axis, you can see time labeled as work of the year, work of the quarter, work of the month, and work of the week; and, energy is on the horizontal axis.

I am currently reflecting on this graph, and will use the information contained within to construct my next year of work. Super helpful.

Guide

The poem guide was created as I sat and reflected upon my childhood and how I was taught well, very well, in fact, how to use, and develop, my intelligence, perseverance, and determination to “get things done.” The issue?

Well, I wasn’t taught, and it is totally okay that this was so, how to develop my intuition. Yet, it was always there, waiting, and, in fact, guiding me, even though I was unaware for a very long time.

I really enjoyed writing this poem as I believe it is a reflection of many young people’s lives, especially in the United States.

Yachats

Oh, how I love, love, love the coast. Or, maybe it is called the beach, shore, ocean, or sea, where you live. Either way, I adore being at the coast, and the trip this past weekend was no exception.

I spent my almost two days there, walking along the coast trail, taking photos, meditating, and writing. Oh, yes, I did get some nice sleep too.

Here are some pictures from my time in Yachats.

Lovely, yes?

Yes, it was great fun. I’ll be sharing some of the new poetry I created this weekend in the coming weeks. One is already scheduled for tomorrow night. I hope you enjoy it, as much as I enjoyed getting to take in all of the scenery and beauty that inspired it.

Alright, that’s all for this week.

Have a splendid week.

#poetry, #blog, #blogger, #bloggersdiary, #blogging, #coast, #guide, #mindmap, #ocean, #oregon, #poem, #timeandenergy, #wom, #woq, #wow, #woy

Using Our Energy Level As A Measure Of Time

This past week I’ve been reflecting upon time management. Well, to be more specific, time management in relation to projects, tasks, and, then, after a conversation with a colleague of mine, energy.

Have you ever thought about scheduling your day by the energy you exert in relation to the projects or tasks you work on? Well, I had never really thought about my time this way either.

Or rather, I think a lot about how much energy a project or task takes, yet I have never created a system for analyzing my energy output.

Well, it’s about time, I think. Pun intended.

Before we go on further in the discussion, however, let’s first take a look at my projects and tasks in a linear format, which is the picture below.

I find it helpful to write out the projects and tasks I am responsible for.

Yet, in the linear version to the left, I am missing several pieces needed to get a grasp on the whole picture.

Meaning, how do the projects and tasks relate to the department priorities? Good question.

Let’s take a look.

Below is a mind map to assist in answering this question.

Completing the whiteboard mind map helped me see a couple of things that are not apparent when data or information is presented linearly.

Here are some of the things I learned from mapping the projects and tasks nonlinearly.

Most of my time is currently spent in meeting the department’s sustainability priority.
There are at least three commitments that aren’t connected to a department priority. They are the bubbles, or circles, that are off to the side, disconnected from the rest of the mind map.
We are working on systems in each program, yet they are different systems.

And here is a question that arose after reflecting upon this mind map overnight.

How does my time on these various projects and tasks vary as a function of energy output?

It is very common to measure out time in, well, units of time. For instance, project A takes X amount of time, whereas project B takes Y amount of time. Helpful.

Yet, what we also know about time is that, for instance, you can work on a project or task for an hour, let’s say, without exerting that much energy. While, conversely, you can spend 30-minutes on a project or task that requires much more mental, or physical, output. How do you then manage your time?

If you simply gauge or measure all projects the same way, you may, for instance, have a work day that is full of high energy outputs, and a day that has very little, which may cause a balance issue.

My suggestion? Good question.

Well, I plan to remap my projects and tasks by energy output. It might look something like this.

A rough sketch this is, however, even in this rough sketch, you can get the idea.

What this sketch does not take into account, or, rather, does not, at this time, have space for, are those projects that fall outside the department priorities.

More reflection for me.

Alright, that wraps up this entry in the reflection series on thinking about time differently.

Remember, if we simply use time as the only way we measure our output, without considering energy, for instance, we may be missing a big piece of the overall framework of how we schedule ourselves and our work.

#energy, #humandevelopment, #introspection, #leadership, #mindmap, #reflection, #selfdevelopment, #selfimprovement, #strategicthinking, #timemangagement