Unclutter The Desk In Your Head! - Part 6 - Gannt Charts

OK this is the last instalment of 'Unclutter'.  We have talked about preparing ourselves for better focus on what we want to achieve and now we are looking at practical tools that will help us to plan better those things that we really want to get sorted out.

So today I am going to talk about another tool that I use called a Gannt Chart.  Once we have made the decision to tackle moving forward we need to be able to plan how we are going to go about that work, over what timescale and understand what we need to make it happen.

A Gannt Chart is perfect for this if you have a spreadsheet program like MS Excel then you have the tools that you need.

A Gannt Chart is essentially a calendar which is focussed on what you have to do and when.

Take a look at the video below that explains clearly how to make a Gannt Chart.




You will ultimately have a chart with a bunch of tasks on it listed against a timescale chosen by you.

Applications for this chart can be absolutely anything, but what you will need to do to make it a useful tool will be to check it every day once completed so that you are kept on track in meeting your objectives.

I hope that this is helpful, if you would like to talk to me about using other organisational tools feel free to drop me a line at john@spectaclescoach.com

Unclutter The Desk In Your Head! - Part 5 - Mind Maps

This blog series is all about making our minds clearer when tackling what we have to do. We hold so much in our minds that often when we need focus to get something done we get distracted or we procrastinate and potentially we can feel a lack of meaning because we haven't achieved what we set out to do.

Up until now in this series I have used the analogy of a cluttered desk in our heads.  We look at the desk and perhaps feel daunted knowing that it needs to be sorted out but we struggle to know how to start.

In terms of focus, I said that I would suggest some tools that you could use to help you to get to where you want to get to, putting to one side all the distractions and hopefully getting you to generate more and more ideas that will help you to get there.

Today I am going to talk about Mind Maps.

So what is a Mind Map?

A Mind Map is a fun way to play with ideas, plan and focus. It is a very ' non-linear' way to explore what is important and to work out what is needed to get there just be 'dumping' all the information that you have in your mind onto a piece of paper in front of you.

Here is an example below;

As you can see this is a very simple process that creates a picture of what you are trying to develop but it is a free form picture. There are no rules on how to do this, apart from doing what is most comfortable for you.

So the way it works is to have a central idea that you would like to develop. The sections 'sprouting' out are all the relevant details associated with the central idea. You can explore the sections in as much or as little detail as possible.

At the end of the process you will have had a little bit of fun exploring your idea and hopefully you should get to know the idea better and what you have to do to get it to happen.

Why don't you give it a go and let me know how you get on?

Keeping checking into my blog as I have another tool to share in the next post.

All the best,

John

John@spectaclescoach.com