My friend Martin Lindeskog pointed me to this post recently:

My seven most hard-earned mistakes regarding structure | The Structure Blog

And we decided to share our own experiences with making mistakes, and learning from them. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Martin:

“Personally, I have done all the mentioned mistakes. The biggest for me is to really integrate the system in my worklife on a regular basis. I will think the best method for me is hands-on, back to basics, with index cards, a mindmap for projects (using GoalEnforcer) and web based GTD system, e.g. Gtdagenda. The important thing is that I have to take time for the weekly review, sit down, taking notes (using Pulse Smart Pen for recording my “notes to self”), going through the inbox and mail. I will look into the personal kanban system.”

I have done all of these myself, and I work smarter/harder now to avoid them! The Personal Kanban board has been a tremendous aid in tracking what is going on, what is stalled, and prioritizing the Urgent vs the Important.

From David Stiernholm’s blog:

Here are my seven most hard-earned mistakes in the area of structure and personal productivity. Do not let these blunders happen to you.

1. I have let a whole week pass before I summarized meetings I have had (because it “has been so intense”).
Consequence : Material I promised to send were sent much later than I intended.

2. I have let the portable inbasket in my briefcase become really full before I have emptied it and processed everything, instead of doing it immediately when I come back to the office.
Consequence 1: Once I go through the stuff in the inbasket, it’s a labourious task that tends to be procrastinated.
Consequence 2: Critical notes are hidden in the bunch and show up only when I empty the inbasket. Then it may be high time to do the task they represent.

Stephen: This is so very important, and I found a simple solution: When I come home from work (usually dog-tired and in no mood to process my inputs and collections from the day) I have a drawer that I put all of the “stuff” from my pockets, and the captured stuff goes into my inbox. Then, first thing in the morning, even before I eat breakfast or turn on Twitter, I process the inbox.

Martin: “1. I have gone through my notebook and I find notes from meeting with things that should have been taken care of some time ago in order to the process in a timely manner. Solution: use the digital pen, write down notes and mental recordings that I check during the weekly review.

2. I often fill my briefcase with stuff and don’t empty it for some time. I should create a routine to do it on a daily basis. But first I have to “find” the in-basket, see attached photo!”

Synchronizing between Applications

3. I have failed to be extra cautious when I have switched from one phone to another, and when syncing the new one with Outlook still does not work correctly. That is, I have scheduled a meeting in the calendar in the new phone, which I have not synced with my main calendar.
Consequence: I have missed a sales meeting (I’m sorry, Irene). That makes certainly not a good first impression if you are a struktör.

Martin: “3. I don’t sync my smartphone. I don’t use Outlook. I have several incidents with loosing mobile data, e.g. contact address book withphone numbers, calendar events, etc., when a mobile phone has gone “dead”… I don’t trust the mobile phone at the moment, so I have gone back to using a Moleskine weekly notebook diary calender. Maybe I will start to use Google calendar again. I have recently bought a Blackberry (not new, it is used) for a good value price, so I will take time and try to learn its features.”

Stephen: I do not use my Android phone for this type of sync-ing either, since it doesn’t seem to have an interface to my notebook or paper calendar…I just don’t have enough trust in the devices, not like I do with my pen-and-paper system.

Time Management

4. I have allowed myself to become so immersed in delivering a material before deadline that I have put my morning routine to the side and missed to check today’s calendar.
Consequence: I have missed a meeting with a client (please forgive me, Kerstin) and discovered it only after the deadline for the material to deliver. I don’t want that to ever happen again. Imagine how thorough I am with checking the calendar nowadays.

Martin: “4. I have almost missed meeting like this. Today I thought I had a morning meeting because I had a similar one two weeks ago with the same people, but when I checked my calendar, it was booked in the afternoon. Make a routine to check the calendar before going to bed?”

Stephen: I am sometimes late for meetings because I get immersed in whatever it is that I am working on, and this is a big problem for me. I know when the meetings are, because I do look at the next day’s schedule before going to bed and when I awake. But I lose track of time – and I will use my ADD as an excuse.

The Capture Device is Essential

5. I have been asked to fix something and thought “Well, what we just agreed on, I will remember. I do not have to write it up.”
Consequence: Of course I forgot, because I trusted that I was done when the to-do list tasks for the day was checked off.

Martin: “5. I have done this several times. But now when I am back to the basics, carrying a Moleskine volant small notebook (6,5 x 10,5 cm) in my pocket all the time, together with a Tec pico pen, I am all set! I am carrying with me David Stiernholm’s formatted index cards in my briefcase and a separate in my wallet all the time.”

Stephen: I learned a long time ago that I cannot trust my memory for these things, especially working in the restaurant business. There is just too much going on, all at once, for me to epect myself to remember. I carry a FieldNotes brand notebook in my back pocket all the time.

The 2-Minute Rule – Just do it!

6. I have postponed trivial things to do until later, although I just as easily could have done them right now.
Consequence: Later, I have too much on my hands, when instead I could be free of these trivialities (which is now becoming urgent).

Martin: “6. Yes, I have to become better on taking care of trivial things at once. I have to be in the mood for these kind of stuff… ”

Stephen: Waiting to get “into the mood” can be a very dangerous thing. Almost as dangerous as simply not doing them at all. I work at doing all of the “trivial” things while I process my inbox each morning. It works, whatever mood I am in.

Your E-mail is not a Next Action List

7. I have kept e-mails in my mailbox instead of creating to-do items from them and then delete them.
Consequence: I have unconsciously begun to think of my mailbox as today’s to-do list, which meant that I “forgot” my real list. I thought that I was “done” when the mailbox was empty, but you know what? – On the to-do list, there were five or ten things that needed to be ready that same day.

Martin: “7. I have been struggling with my email inbox for a long time. I have to archive about 20,000 email messages and start from scratch again.
See my reply to Anita Campbell’s comment on my post, “Productivity Tools For Your Worklife“:
“Anita,

It is a challenge to get down to an empty email inbox. It is a good
idea to set up special folders as you say. You also put labels on your
incoming email messages and then sort them in different categories,
e.g., in contexts (at office, home, computer etc.), projects,
references, next actions, waiting on and someday.

The goal is to get a clear overview of your incoming messages and to
achieve a mental notion that you have control of the stuff coming at
you.

I have too much email in my inbox at the moment and I think the only
solution is that I take care of the messages at least once a week
during my review, in order to prevent the mailbox to pile up again. I
will start to experiment on how often I will check email during the
day. Timothy Ferriss says that you strive for checking your email
twice a day in his book The 4-Hour Work Week.””

Stephen: My inbox does get pretty full, but here is one area where my Android phone comes in handy: All of my emails are accessible to me via the phone. So the important or urgent items get handled right away, lesser or simply informative items get archived and then I process them when I get back to my desk.

Conclusions and Confessions

Have you done these things? Are you in need of a little refresher? Share your thoughts and comments, let’s help each other.

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