Inspired by the book Mind on Maps by Antti Halla, as well as from The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey, I developed a tool, not only to boost my productivity, but also to visualise what I am doing. Alltough the main focus lies around awareness and mindfulness, it is the productivity aspect which helps me with personal development.
The Cycle of Success is a daily routine which helps me to stay focused, to increase my productivity, as well as to develop on a personal as well as on a professional level. Additionally it helps me to remind me of my achievements, the wins, what I have already accomplished and to motivate me to go further (or to dump a project or tasks).
The initial motivation was to get a away of task-lists towards a tool to establish habits, to map a day, a week or even a year, to create a visual overview. Not only I wanted to visualise what needs to be done. For me it is important to maintain a birds-eye-view to keep in mind where my inspiration and motivation is coming from and to focus on the things that matters the most to me. Measurement wasn't possible with to-do-lists, I struggled to remember the details of what I have achieved or what happened last year. In case you do lot of things and when you travel a lot, meet many people and when you are very active you easily loose the details and maybe also the achievements you have accomplished. Mapping out the plan and develop a structure helps not only to create a useful habit but will bring success in the long run.
I started very simple and just wrote some action items in a mind map but then learned that there is much more potential which could be revealed when the tools and the right strategy are meaningful combined. Bringing together the power of a Mind-Mapping-Tool and the concept of The Productivity Project was a real eye opener. Productivity as well as personal development are strongly connected and in my eyes those two elements cannot be separated.
A great tool for MindMapping is the FreeMind application: http://freemind.sourceforge.net which does not have this fancy look in the default view but comes with a lot of options to inter-link different MindMaps. When you use the drop-down-menu of a branch you’ll be able to choose “export as a new brunch” and not only you create a new MindMap but also a link back and froth to the file where you exported from and to the new file which was created (indicated by a small red arrow). That is awesome to work with! Once you get used to the workflow you can easily navigate, copy, cut-out and paste into new branches.
When I thought about productivity, about open- or finished tasks or about achievements, I was surprised how I struggled with coming up with all the things I have done in the past year of even in the recent past. Measurement wasnt possilbe and certainly I struggled with incentives or celebrations after a very productive week. Mapping out what needs to be done, align Time, Attention and Energy, keep focused, take breaks and celebrate achievements with incentives might not only lift the mood but will bring more motivation and inspiration in your daily life.
Having a good plan is a great start and helps me to clarify my thoughts and helps me to use my time wisely. But during the day I easily get lost and sometimes find myslef scrolling the newsfeed of FaceBook for five minutes or more — instead of doing useful stuff. Let me introduce you to Pomodoro Timer, a very useful technique for keeping the focus right on the things you mapped out earlier. Pomodoro Timer is a productivity technique that helps to master the time and stay focused on one task or topic you want to work on. Check this article on LifeHacker to familiarise with the technique: https://lifehacker.com/productivity-101-a-primer-to-the-pomodoro-technique-1598992730. I use the app by the name of Focus Keeper, it is available on apple store, is simple and free.
I am curious if you like the article, please add a comment or hit the clapping button as often you like! Furthermore, I’d like to know whether you like this genre and if you like to read more about self-improvement? Are you into sharing and would you like to share your tools and what works for you? I would love to find out what keeps you going and which hints & tips you have to stay on top of your tasks.
With appreciation,
yours Uwe
PS: If you like to try coworking, you might want to visit me in Bansko and try a day of free coworking. Check out what we do and visit our page: http://coworkingbansko.com
PPS: We organize the Freelance Weekend in Bansko, an event where we cooperate with Thalassa van Beek, who has an online group to help fellow freelancer to succeed. There are not many tickets left, but try if you can still shoot a ticket by following this link: http://freelanceweekend.com
