Perspectives and Tools for Personal Agility
As the world moves faster and faster, we are faced with the fact that businesses must become more agile to not only succeed but to survive. We spend a lot of time debating how we do agile over understanding and adapting our behaviors to the mindset of being agile.
In my experience, once you truly commit to being agile, your mindset changes everywhere. It becomes how you approach things. You don’t just turn that off when you get home or go on vacation.
The biggest change by far for me has been progress over perfection. As a project manager by trade, I planned and planned and planned. Sometimes things got done, but there was a whole lot of planning. There are so many unfinished projects. The kitchen, the garden, the bathroom.
I think through things differently now. The kitchen that I wanted to completely renovate, I realize that I can make incremental changes that would have demonstrable value earlier. Whoa! The whole premise of agile!
But it’s the daily stuff where I’ve seen the most change. And I now even plan my vacations this way, I plan my weekends this way, I clean up this way. Instead of cleaning the entire house in one fell swoop, I focus on one area first to make sure that I finish it instead of overwhelming myself and getting nothing done. And I prioritize too, where do I want to start that will make the greatest impact?
Tools & Techniques
Start by Starting. This one can be a hard one for most of us. We look for excuses to starting to work towards our goals. Whether it’s fear of failure, not knowing where to start, looking for perfection or just being distracted by netflix shows, starting is hard. And many times, when we don’t have everything worked out, we struggle with visualizing the outcome. But you can’t finish something that you don’t start. If you find yourself in a cycle of planning and more planning, stop planning and start doing. Just get started, you can plan as you go along. Great things can’t come from holding back. So start meditating even if you don’t know how, start exercising even if you don’t have a plan, pick up a healthy meal for lunch even if you didn’t plan your diet, make that phone call that you’ve been thinking about for months or invite that person out to lunch who you want to share an idea with. One of my favorite proverbs is “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.
Time-boxing for focus. Some agile teams use cycles called sprints or iterations, allowing them to focus on a specific set of activities. I’ve learned to use a technique at home called the Pomodoro technique. I find it particularly useful when I have something to do that I’ve been avoiding. You basically set a timer for 25 minutes and you commit to doing only that thing for that amount of time. For longer projects, you take planned breaks and then go back to your 25 minute timeboxes. Check out one post on it here - The Pomodoro Technique Actually Works.
Let it go - leaving room for exploration. The most fun thing I’ve learned from agile is experimenting. Now I leave room for experimenting or space for the unknown to emerge. What I found is that when you leave room for the unknown, you are generally pleasantly surprised. That doesn’t mean I don’t plan for risks. It just means that I can start something without anticipating everything that’s going to happen. And I’ve been delighted by the unexpected. Where before I didn’t love uncertainty, now I relish in the possibility of what the universe will bring without me trying to control all of it. And I have found that often the universe is more kind than it is punishing.
Saying NO so that you can say YES to what matters. Agile is all about prioritization. But prioritization is hard. We suck at it at work and we suck at it in our personal lives. I picked up a book called Essentialism and I’ve read it 3 times! In the book, McKeown talks about saying NO to many things in order to say YES to what’s important. He challenges you to look at the areas where you over-commit to make space for a truly intentional life that includes doing the things that bring you joy. I cannot recommend this book enough. It has changed my life.
More Patience? No way… Yes, way! I went to the ER recently and ended up getting emergency surgery. I often say - I don't have time to get sick. I am too nice to annoy everyone at the hospital but former me would have been losing it inside. Getting antsy about all of the productive time I am losing that I won't get back, looking for ways to cheat the system and get things done anyway. Notice my focus was not on pain or fear but rather productivity.
While I wasn't thrilled about being there and not moving on with my plans (eg. my upcoming honeymoon), I was remarkably calm. I realized that the best way to control things was to not try to control things, I would adapt instead. I was kind and mindful with the staff and they treated me like a queen. It was a great experience and it was better because I reset expectations and allowed things to flow. I met some really cool people and it reminded me of how precious life is.
Helpful Tools. Finally, we can look at some tools. I use personal Kanban a lot. It helps me visualize what needs to get done. As a family, we use it to prioritize and plan projects. No, we don't have weekly meetings. But anytime a project comes up, we pop it on there. Sometimes we move things to Done. Sometimes we talk about why things are stuck in To Do and we figure out how to unblock the work. Sound familiar? A good friend also has a physical person Kanban board that you can carry with you. It’s on Amazon too, check it out here.
I also use a physical planner created by fellow agilists called the Best Self Journal. It’s intended to help you set quarterly goals and in weekly cycles -- you plan, do the work, and inspect and adapt at the end of every week. It's a great way to stay organized and ensure that you are progressing towards goals that you set.
If you are a research geek like me, there's lot out there on habit setting. It's the new self-improvement go-to. There's even a ton of new information around the neural science behind all of this. And most long-term agilists will tell you that agile has opened them up to meditation, healthier lifestyles, lower anxiety, etc., etc.
It seems like a lot, but use what you need and you discard what you don’t need. Remember - essentialism! When I am going down the rabbit hole of research, I remind myself to only keep what I need.
A note to the weary. This takes time. All good things take time. Anything of quality takes time. Give yourself a break, learn to enjoy the process. It’s taken me years to have a mindset where I constantly look for ways to improve, ways to eliminate waste and ways to hold space for myself. I screw up sometimes too but I don't beat myself up, I reflect and move on.
The key to all of this is that it has become a mindset, my way of living. I never look at a project now and think I’m going plan the whole thing first. And, I’ve learned to catch myself when I’m trying too hard to see all the details or control everything.
Be agile in your journey to become agile.
What small change will you try towards personal agility?
If you are interested in or have questions about any of the things above, reach out to me.
Here are some references:
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Daniel Pink. Research into the timing of things to get the most out of our days.
Essentialism - The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown. Getting rid of the noise to focus on what's important.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, Mark Manson. Similar to Essentialism with more colorful words.
