We’ve started the new year and, if you’re somewhat like me, you may be sitting in the middle of two thoughts:
- Man… I sure would like to get A, B, C accomplished.
- But… what about all the other things that are already taking up my time?
For me, this isn’t necessarily a December into January thought. It hits me probably every 3 to 4 months.
For some reason that’s my general cycle of “knock out a bunch of things… let it stabilize a minute” then “OK… let’s move into what’s next“.
People on my team at work know this about me. They know I tend to take a week or two off every quarter or so and when I come back, I’m full of ideas.
Makes me think of the quote:
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.
Not sure who first said it (link) and also not sure I believe in the statement itself; it just comes to mind as I think about my semi-quarterly shake up of things to try and get to new things and different, better, results.
In writing this, Proverbs 16:9 (ESV) comes to mind:
The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
The verse reminds me to be thinking through plans and priorities while remaining open handed on which steps He wants me to be taking.
Three Years Ago, or thereabouts
About three years ago, we were working with a company here in town and I was having coffee with their founder. He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and proceeded to show me how he used a yearly mind map to distill down his focus areas.
Of course, I had heard of Mind Maps in the past. I just had never thought about deploying one for my personal planning and structure. His was simple and to the point and it got my mind running about “What is it for me this year?“
I figured I’d give that a go and started researching free online options. I stumbled upon MindMeister.com which let me have a few free Mind Maps.
Keep it simple, only three or four layers deep
Once I found the website, I created my first Mind Map. Knowing I lean to the very detailed side; I mentally resolved to try and only go 3 or 4 layers deep.
Anything more detailed would be my OCD coming into action and get away from the task at hand. The goal here is to try and figure out where best to spend the time I have been given.
For “Layer 1” – I naturally ended up being very close to the categories I denote in the blog I published in 2024 about Time Management -> LINK
From there, I started to iterate on what “Layer 2” was for each of the items. I added 3-5 (or so) for each given area.
I won’t bore you with the detail of all of them, but for “Self” it broke down into something like:
Then for “Layer 3” – I try to bring to surface the time-consuming items that are already in flight, on the horizon, or that I want to be on the horizon.
For example, “Time with God” looks like this:
To provide another example – under “Family” – this is aimed at my Four children & Family Travel Plans.
- For our 3 year old we have “Potty Train”
- For our 1 year old we have “Sleep through the night“
For those parents out there… don’t we all know that potty training and sleep training take SO MUCH TIME…
But wait… there’s more!
A good Mind Map isn’t really a good (said in a lower grumbly voice) Mind Map without some coloring 🙂
As I worked through and arrived at Layers 3 and Layers 4, I started to realize…
- We have a ton of stuff all going on at the same time. Shocker.
- Some items were unrealistic in the next couple of months but were taking up mental space.
- After stepping away from the Mind Map, other items came to mind that I had missed on the 1st round
- Some things were easily recognizable as “not right now“
To that end, I created a little legend on the Mind Map itself and started working through and assigning some things some colors.
Applying that to the visuals I’ve put above would be something like:
A few examples where this helped drive clarity & action
- Under both “Rachel” and “Self” – I noticed that Date nights with Rachel and time that Rachel needs to rest/refresh/spend time with friends fell into the “Do more of” and “Don’t drop” buckets.
- To best enable those scenarios, we rely on a few babysitters from the local universities to watch kiddos for date nights.
- I recognized that the next quarter was going to be a concern given our babysitter’s school schedules & graduations.
- I was able to then start talking with Rachel about babysitters ahead of time.
- I recognized that the next quarter was going to be a concern given our babysitter’s school schedules & graduations.
- To best enable those scenarios, we rely on a few babysitters from the local universities to watch kiddos for date nights.
- Under “Housing” – this is our projects bucket for house and land, there are always… ALWAYS… projects to be done and tools/equipment to buy. Ya boi wants a sawmill OK… 😀 – Sidenote -> I try to maintain a “Not starting the next project until previous project is complete” mentality. This makes the Homefront less stressful when I don’t have 10 projects in flight at Home and another 10 at Work.
- Back up to last year, in building out the “Housing” area – I noticed I wanted to do ~5 projects in a timeframe where we were (1) moving into a home, (2) pregnant, and (3) had other Self/Rachel/Family items going on.
- I ended up color coding which were most important (now vs. later) and felt more “at ease” with the path moving forward.
- Back up to last year, in building out the “Housing” area – I noticed I wanted to do ~5 projects in a timeframe where we were (1) moving into a home, (2) pregnant, and (3) had other Self/Rachel/Family items going on.
What this has ultimately enabled us to do.
In about half an hour each quarter, this has enabled us to:
- Recognize progress & distractions over the past quarter.
- Think about, pray, and try to foresee items coming up over the next quarter.
- Mentally breakdown the major focus areas in my life and think about where to lean-in more vs. intentionally avoid or do less of.
- Highlight gaps in various areas & start discussions in my family, work, and community circles about them.
But Why?
For those interested, I’ll share a little more of my heart on the matter here.
I believe that the Lord has gifted me in the ability to bring organization to chaos and clarity to confusion.
Sometimes this comes across as Excel Spreadsheets, Task Lists, Project Plans, or Mind Maps. Other times it comes across as a simple conversation where I can bring perspective to a situation for someone that is well received.
Sometimes, I believe, the devil uses it against me and pushes me to be too detail oriented, too focused on “do all the things right now” and pulls me away from “Seek first the Kingdom of God“.
That aside, three primary scriptures come to my mind on this specific topic.
First – In Luke 14:26 (ESV), in discussing the cost of Discipleship, Jesus says:
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Second – In Proverbs 16:3 it says:
Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.
Third, Proverbs then goes on to say in 16:9:
The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
To distill this down in how my brain interprets it:
- The cost of discipleship is, in part, being willing to put everything aside to singularly prioritize and walk with Jesus.
- To do that, I need to regularly come back to Him and put “my” work on the altar for inspection and seek His feedback and His emphasis areas so that my “plans will be established”.
- I can and should work to create plans based on what He’s put on my heart, because that’s a gift He’s given me that makes me unique. I shouldn’t be upset when others don’t understand them, or if I’m front running them, of if they can’t see the steps like I do (or vice-versa).
- I must trust & accept Him establishing my steps knowing that sometimes He gives me Step #1 and not yet Step #2.
Next up!
But wait… there’s more!
From here, I’m writing a “Part 2” of this quarterly planning process I go through each time that helps me take some action at work. It is a concept called the “Eisenhower Matrix” (or Method or Principle...) which helps to distill some tactical items at work down into four areas:
- What should I keep doing?
- What should I be delegating?
- What should I stop doing?
- What should I start doing?
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