Immersion 2010: Session 4

Last week saw the 4th session of Immersion, only a half day this time. It meant the train was cheaper (hurrah) but I prefer having a whole day, I can really settle in and get into learning mode. This session felt like the least useful of them all so far, in terms of things that I gained from it. It was more of a continuation of the previous time-management/organisation session, and the tools to use.

Planning as a Creative Process
We looked at:
-Different ways of working
-Why planning is important
-How planning can be a creative process
-Visualising the business of 'you'.

The two speakers we had in session 2 came back, Gavin O'Connell and Marcus Long, and they both gave presentations on the tools they use to organise their days/months/years. Both seemed to use iCal/Google Docs type things - the latter useful as it is able to be shared with colleagues, thus making scheduling meetings etc easier.

Gavin also talked about a really useful tool of putting lists into priorities: There's a name for it but I can't remember. It's about asking if the thing is Urgent? Significant? Important? Or a mixture of 2 of them. For example, something could be Important and Urgent, but not Significant. Or it could be Significant and Important, but not Urgent. So it's easier to prioritise things that way. Asking yourself, will be day feel complete if I don't do this? Generally things that are Urgent should be done first, but if something is Important, or even Significant, it should be given more attention as it's something that will move you/your business forward. See? Kind of complicated but also quite simple really. It's made me think a lot more about prioritising my lists: I often write lists everyday of things to do but often with no hierarchy of what must be done, what should be done, and what would really help me if I got it done. So now I will start doing that, hopefully with some kind of cute notepad. Heh.

Other things Gavin talked about were the books 'Getting Things Done' and 'The 4 Hour Work Week', both of which apparently really helped him. I will check them out I think. Maybe at the library.

Magnus talked more in detail about his day and the way he organises his business. He kept a spreadsheet of actions that he took to get an internship - who he called, what they said, any leads etc. As a matter of fact, I did (and do ) the same thing with my self promotional efforts - who I've sent a postcard or handmade book to, when I followed it up, what they said etc. The process could be more efficient but it works quite well at the moment.

He also uses a colour coded calendar, iCal thing, which at a glance you can see what youre doing when. I use this too, more loosely (I have a colour for 'work' a colour for 'freelance' a colour for 'social' etc, it works quite well, especially for adding up working hours!

Also prioritising actions into what you get out of them: Are they short/long term gain, just for cash flow, for PR value, or for relationship building. What are the most important to you at this time? Etc.

We then had to consider:
-What drives you?
-Personal values
-Visualising dream business/job
-What makes what you do special?

So like I said, an interesting week, but a lot of the things mentioned were things I already have in place, but could use a lot more efficiently.

We were also made aware of Futurising, a two day event aimed at graduates. Think I might go, depending on work etc. Looks interesting and useful.

Next Immersion session is this wednesday :)