Eye-Opening first Week of "Eliminiation"

[berlin]

I'm just through my first week of "Eliminating". What I did was to reduce my todo list to max. two points (normally 10-15). Then, trying to push through to see if I can get it done in 1-2 hours. Installed a tiny, simple app called eggtimer to countdown the minutes.

Since I'm in sales It was too complex to start of with max 2 specific todos. So, I've tried more general todos, here's the example for today:

+ Todo 1: handle communication concerning quote requests (60 minutes)
+ Todo 2: prepare logistics for trade show in sweden (60 minutes)

It's amazing how much more time I have ... and it's incredible how much interuption I get. From myself! :D I catch myself escaping these tasks a lot, surfing, doing other calls. Urgh, how eye opening.

Now, I've seen the improvement and will try again next week for better results. If you feel like commenting you're welcome... how was, or is your first week?

[kamakiri]

Elimination is a constant process. You will be amazed at what you can just cut out. I fight myself every time I go through my possessions, books especially, but after I throw a bunch out or sell books at the used book store, I feel better. I just have to fight the urge to buy more.

You didn't mention the time you focused on your list. Getting the big stuff done early is another key to productivity.

Great job on focusing on the non-muse aspects of Tim's book! That is the key to LD.

[sub8hr]

Finding other stuff to do and rebalancing your life is important too. I find that when I get bored I slip back into check the email, check the forum, check some blogs, repeat...

[jetpacklife]

Finding other stuff to do and rebalancing your life is important too. I find that when I get bored I slip back into check the email, check the forum, check some blogs, repeat...

Yeah, exactly my problem too. I have a cup of coffee in the morning. Handle and issue or two, and I'm done with "work" for the day, unless an emergency comes up during the day. What to do with all the free time?

[kamakiri]

That is the key to living the lifestyle of the NR. You can devote that time to self improvement. Be that studying, reading, traveling, volunteering, exercise, or pen twirling. If you manage to set up a muse that allows you to only work a few hours a week, it is really easy to slip into a pattern of laziness. Surfing the net all day or watching TV.

That side more important than developing a profitable muse actually, as it really leads to an improvement in your quality of life.

[berlin]

The report on Week 2 is long ... I've written it in this manner so that other people can relate to what it is like to tackle elimination ...

Well, hello everyone and thank you for the good feedback and input! I've just returned home from a brunch with an old friend that I haven't seen in six months. Opted in for an English breakfast. Love the mix of hearty beans, bread, fried eggs and ham. There's so many great things to do when you have time.


+ Looking back at this week

Looking back at my second week of "Elimination" I focused on maintaining the concept of my two point todo list per day. This week it didn't seem as strange as last week. I know I'm taking small steps here but it is hard to stay focused on eliminating and getting it right. I'm forcing myself to ignore the other chapters in the book at present. Kamakiri is right: so many people seem to jump right at the muse - which I'd love to do, too. But I want to sort this out, first...


+ Challenges

This weeks biggest challenge - looking back at my first week's analysis was to keep me from disctracting myself on focusion on just two todo points.

I've come up with a simple trick and here it is ... I've made sure that the todo points can be handled within two hours. After that the rest of the day is playtime. Playtime means you can do whatever you feel like: surf, call up friends or even call up customers if you feel like working some more. It doesn't matter ... it's your playtime. This simple trick motivates me to stay focused and all distracting thoughts are noted on a piece of paper and are delayed to playtime.


+ Resulting Benefits and Problems

Looking at the results. This is the one point that I really have to get straight. On average, I was done working at 14:00 / 15:00 (yes, emergencies arise and elimination still needs improvement). But this is a massive improvement considering that I used to sit in the office until 19:00 / 20:00. It also underlines the importance of focussing on elimination. I'm positive I'm on the right track.

Another great result is that I'm extremely content with myself and the results of my work. I haven't been this happy in a long time.

There are also two negative side effects I've encountered. One is that semi-important todos dropped under the table. I forgot to talk to our lab for product feedback - which I had promised to business development - and to call my uncle on his birthday. Still, they are two points I can live with, told my uncle I love him and ignored product development. Just have to make sure to maintain a good working relationship with them.

Another point is that my colleague turned out to be the one who suffers most from my new approach. We share an office - involuntarily - and have clashed a lot in the past. This week, he was furious.

Our boss wants us to cooperate as a sales team but he's complete horror to work with. He has a scientific background (me having an business background), him being of short stature and me not. Differences can lead to productive results but there's one point that really seperates us ... he actually got kicked out of his last position for being hyperaccurate and having temper problems. His working stile is to generally jump at me realtime - interrupting me hard - with points he needs to get done without having thought them through. "Let's discuss xyz" ... while I'm working on something.

What did I do to handle the interruptions? Well, mp3 earplugs worked wonders. Also, I've warded off two meetings he sheduled for "collectively thinking out loud" to solve his points when he could have just made a decision. Unfortunately, it came to a showdown this week ... I've put him on a project team for a trade show two weeks ago because he wanted to attend. This week he tells me that he can't go but he'll have to think about it. Due to the lack of feedback - two days later - I replaced him and put someone else in place. Informed him on Friday about my decision and he threw a complete temper tantrum. It seems, at last, he must have decided that he actually did want to attend the fair. I know that the upcoming week will be hard to deal with ...

Most importantly, this guy is an expert at killing his and my time ... when he's involved my working hours extend way beyond 19:00. I'm just not sure how to handle him since he's so complicated, can't make final decisions and has a strong tendency of taking work related issues on a very personal level.


+ Outlook for next week

I'll try to set up a queue for personal and secondary todos that I can put online. This would be great because I can drop of any issues of medium importance that need handling. Then I can check if anything really important was forgotten after completing the vip todos. Maybe I can blend it in with my personal Google Calendar or Google Contacts. A simple textfile that I can upload/download quickly.

Also, I will have to think of a way to handle this difficult co-worker. I'm not sure what to do with him right now. I get along excellent with the other people like my secretary or the people from the lab.

Things are looking great, I'm sure I'll overcome these issues... thanks to everyone interested in this subject!

[berlin]

You didn't mention the time you focused on your list. Getting the big stuff done early is another key to productivity.

Thank you. I spend a lot more time in the morning deciding what those two todos will be. At first it was hard but cutting the other 10 issues makes it mandatory to focus on the big things. Is that what you were referring to?

[berlin]

Finding other stuff to do and rebalancing your life is important too.

I've noticed it this week :D There's a lot of free time but I really have to sort things out step by step. This week I did a lot of personal todos from work which left me real free-time when I got home.

Still, I'm looking forward to the time of beeing confidently settled with eliminating and doing a practice run on a muse. There's this old project that I would love to get financially self sustaining. My music website which I haven't had the time to take care of in the past ...

If things run smoothly I'll collect ideas how to generate some income - maybe adwords or a better shop which hardly generates sales - and then use the insight on a real muse.