In the last couple of posts we had focused on traditional vs. agile Project Management Methods. Today I want to discuss something that applies to all Project Methodologies and even to your personal life. This is the power of focus.
There are many distractions every day (e.g. unexpected meetings, phone calls, emails, text messages) that make it challenging to stay focused on what is important to you and your project. In order to increase your success you need to increase your focus. Spend only time on things that are important to you and your project.
In addition to that I believe you should focus on the things you do effortlessly. As Dan Sullivan says "If you spend too much time working on your weaknesses, all you end up with is a lot of strong weaknesses". So get a Master at what you already do well. That can be the key differentiator for you and your project.
To increase the focus of a Project you should have a Mission Statement (search Google with Steven Covey Mission Statement). In Project talk you would call it a Project Charter. If you make it a little more personal I think it will be even more effective. In any case you need to know what you would like to achieve with your project and for the team and yourself. What is important to the project stakeholders? The answer to this question becomes your compass (mission statement/project charter). This ensures you are focusing on the things that are important to the project. What is important to you? What is your value compasss? How much do the 2 compass (project + your personal objectives) overlap?
It helps me to have a personal written plan on what I want to achieve on a project because if I write it down it sticks better. There are 2 kinds of plans which I consider useful, the first plan is a weekly plan and the second plan is a daily plan. If you really follow these plans in your business and personal life it will ensure that you get more of what you value. Note that these plans are more for personal use than official project documents.
Let's start with the weekly plan: Assumption here is that you write down once a week (e.g. on a Sunday) what you would like to achive for the project and yourself during the next week. What needs to happen that week to make you feel satisfied?
If you think about this ahead of time you can minimize all the distractions that will happen during the week because you know what is really important for you and your project. Here are some distraction examples: Do you jump to your email Inbox whenever a new email arrives? Do you respond to all IM's, phone calls, text messages etc immediately? Do you distinguish between URGENT/IMPORTANT and URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT, NOT URGENT/IMPORTANT, NOT URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT interruptions? Maybe you should check email only at certain times during the day and/or setup different folders in your inbox to feel less stressed. The objective of the weekly plan is to keep your focus on the important goals and focus on what is really important to you and your project. This makes it easier to say NO to interruptions.
The daily plan is similar to the weekly plan but focuses only on one day. You can set this up the night before or in the morning. The point is that you think about it ahead of time and you get your compass/value system for this day. What are you trying to achieve today (i.e. SCRUM meeting in the morning). What needs to happen today to make you feel like you achieved your goals at the end of the day? You will most likely realize that in the beginning you schedule more than you can realistically achieve. Anyway it will help you to know yourself and the team better to learn what is and what is not possible.
An interesting book on this topic is "The Power of Focus" from Jack Canfield/Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt.
