November 12, 2024 • 40 mins
Is your to-do list downstream of your work style, or your work style downstream of your to-do list?
Do you prefer to write down everything you need to do for the day and then execute as many tasks as possible?
Or do you prefer to get stuck in for the day, and then decide what you need to do?
Your to-do list is your daily plan and sometimes an alarm clock. It gets you closer to your objectives by defining tasks. But, to be effective, it needs to match your working style and define what you actually need to get done. (Yes, what you need to get done and want to get done are very different!)
Let's get your to-do list working for you.
In this episode of The Happy Scientist, we examine different practical ways to tailor your to-do lists to your work style.
You will come away from this episode with easy wins to boost your productivity without significantly changing your approach to your work routine.
Watch or Listen to all episodes of The Happy Scientist podcast here: https://thehappyscientist.bitesizebio.com
#Podcast #BitesizeBio #TheHappyScientist
If you enjoyed this episode and want more practical tips on being a happy and successful scientist, we can help. Download The Happy Scientist Reference Pack today, and reignite your passion for science.
https://bitesizebio.com/the-happy-scientist-reference-pack/?ref=bsb-podcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
VX (00:30):
This is the Happy Scientist podcast. Each episode is
designed to make you morefocused, more productive, and
more satisfied in the lab. Youcan find us online at
bitesizebiodotcom/happyscientist. Your hosts
are Kenneth Vogt, founder of theexecutive coaching firm, Vera
Claritas, and doctor NickOswald, PhD, bioscientist, and
(00:52):
founder of Bite Size Bio.
Kenneth Vogt (01:00):
Hello. This is Kenneth Vogt welcoming you to
this Bite Size Bio webinar,which today is a live episode of
the Happy Scientist podcast. Ifyou wanna become a happier,
healthier, and more productivescientist, you're in the right
place. Today, alas, I am allalone without Nick Oswald. Nick
(01:22):
is is out for today, but I willdo my best to, give you
everything you need.
In these sessions, we we talkabout principles that'll help
you shape yourself to be ahappier and more successful
scientist in your scientificcareer. And along the way, we
(01:43):
will sometimes hear from Nick,which not today, but in future
episodes, you definitely will.If you have any questions along
the way, put them into thequestions box on the side of
your screen, and then I'll do mybest to address them. So today,
(02:04):
I'll be covering the topicgetting dead practical about to
do lists, and the notion is toalign your lists with your work
style. So bear with me a littlebit.
I feel kinda like, the wizard ofOz behind the screen today,
pulling a bunch of levers andturning a bunch of knobs. And
(02:25):
and that's even with the helpof, Connor Connor, the producer
on this episode today. So if Iif I if I act a little
flustered, don't worry about it.I'll get over it. So to do list,
this we actually have brokeninto into 2 parts.
We're gonna do a second webinaron this because there's so much
to talk about. Today, we'regonna talk about the the real
(02:50):
practical side of this, abouthow do you figure out what to
use for a to do list, what, youknow, what would work best for
you, what will get you theresults that you need, what will
allow you to to move forward andaccomplish things on a daily
basis, a weekly basis, a monthlybasis, whatever whatever time
(03:11):
frame you wanna look at, youwanna make sure that you get the
most out of this. So I'll beginwith, you're probably doing
something already. Right? And ithas to do with how your, you
know, your own mind works.
(03:31):
For some of us, there's justjust chaos going on all the time
in our heads, and I don't meanthat in a negative way
necessarily. Just we have a lotgoing on. We we're holding all
this in our heads, and somepeople actually are quite good
at that. And they can hold atremendous amount of of detail
at any given moment. For others,they find that very distracting.
(03:55):
They they really prefer to havean empty mind that's clear so
that when they decide to use it,they can put in there what they
want and focus on it. So thefirst thing you want to look at
is what are you doing now, andis it working for you, or is it
(04:17):
failing? And it might be that itsort of works for you, or it's
familiar enough that you getstuff done, but you feel like
you could do better. And therewould be nothing wrong with
coming away from this webinarfeeling feeling satisfied that
what you're doing works for you,and that's great. You don't have
(04:39):
to change things just for thesake of change.
On the other hand, there'sconstant new development, new
opportunities, new things thatwe can do, and it's worth
reassessing every once in awhile. Now if I go back in my
own personal career, back in theday, I did everything on paper.
(04:59):
And at the beginning, it wasjust a notepad. And, I mean, I
went through notepad afternotepad after notepad. Oh, my.
And then one day, I heard aboutthis system called Daytimers.
Again, it's a paper system in ain a in a nice leather bound
little book with with removablepages for each day. And, you
(05:24):
know, each page was laid out ina certain familiar way. And I
was like, oh, man, I I starteddoing that, and I just loved it.
Oh my.
It it was so great. It fit mypersonal style really well. I
carried that day timers with meeverywhere I went. The only time
I put it down is when I went tosleep at night. I took it
(05:46):
everywhere, and I used it.
And and it really worked greatfor me for the time I was using
it, and I believe they stillexist. And if there's other
things like it you know, I thinkFranklin Covey's got a system
like that too. If you like thethe pen and paper method and it
works for you, don't feel likeyou have to go computerized,
(06:08):
that you have to do it on yourphone or your laptop. You don't.
You can use whatever systemworks for you, but I will
caution you not to be a Luddite.
Don't don't just get stuck with,well, this is the way I've
always done it, because newthings pop up and sometimes you
(06:28):
want to check it out and see,will this will this take me
forward? Will this get me placesI couldn't go before? Now
there's one thing that thatreally hooked me about online
systems at at one point, andthat was hyperlinks. The idea I
could click on something andopen it up. I can't do that with
(06:48):
my day timers.
I couldn't do that with anotepad. If it needed to
reference something else, Ididn't know that I could find
it. So if you need that kind ofthing, there's lots and lots of
systems out there that canprovide that that opportunity
for you. But I wanna roll backto what what's on the screen
here and what real why I chosethese two pictures. I,
(07:14):
especially as a younger man,definitely had a chaotic mind,
and I knew I needed to havesomething to order that, and
that spoke to me.
Now later in later in life, Idon't have a chaotic mind
anymore. I really do like tohave that clean slate to focus
on things as as I'm working onthem, as that has required me to
(07:37):
change the methodologies that Iuse. And we'll talk about some
of those things, and I'll talkabout this historically, but
understand you didn't have to gothrough this history and you get
to benefit from those who did.So so let's let's move on to the
next step. There are a coupledifferent philosophies out there
(07:59):
on how to approach beingproductive.
Some like, 25 years ago, aseminal book was put out by
David Allen that was calledGetting Things Done. 288 pages.
He's a good writer, but it'sit's a lot of information. If
(08:21):
you're somebody who's reallydetail oriented, you really care
about about having a t to crossand an I to dot, David Allen
really will speak to you. Iloved this book 25 years ago,
and I would still recommend ittoday, but it's not for
(08:46):
everybody.
And it's if you are more of a, aspatial thinker, if you're if
you're not all about thedetails, but you're you're about
the bigger picture, Gettingthings done is going to be a
hard read for you. It's not I'mnot saying it's not worth
(09:08):
looking into. It is. But you maylook at it and go, this is not
practical for me. And I thinkthat's been the case for a lot
of folks.
A lot of folks love it. A lot ofhard driving individuals who who
accomplished a great deal areusing the methodologies that
that David Allen proposed inthis book. And there are a lot
(09:31):
of systems, you know, onlinesystems and tools and apps that
have been developed based onthis. And it's great. But the
fact is, for some folks, it'sjust too much.
And it isn't it isn't the matterof, oh, you're not smart enough
to do it David's way. That's notnot going to be the factor. It
(09:52):
isn't about you're notdisciplined enough. It's about
how you process the world. Yousee things in a certain way that
don't match the way thatsomebody who thinks like David
Allen sees things.
Now we've talked about this inthe past, and I would suggest
you go back to some of ourinitial podcast episodes that
talk about core mindsets. DavidAllen is very blue according to
(10:18):
that that, structure. But youmight be orange. You might be
green. You might be red.
There may be there may be otherthings that would make more
sense for you. So I won't leaveyou hanging here. It's like,
well, great. You just describedme. I'm I'm the person that
would not get along with thisDavid Allen philosophy.
(10:40):
What am I supposed to do? I haveanother suggestion for you, a
different book. It's called Zento done, z e n to done, by Leo
Babauta, and I'm sure that was atake on getting things done when
he wrote it. Now getting thingsdone, 288 pages. Zenden on 91
(11:00):
pages.
Very easy read. And Leah Babata,the author of Zendeskhan, is a
minimalist. I mean, he's aproponent of the minimalist
philosophy. And of of all thepeople I've seen out there that
(11:23):
that that promote thatphilosophy, I I really like
Leo's outlook on things.Zendeskhan really takes the core
of what's in getting things doneinstead of how would a
minimalist do this?
The advantage of the minimalistapproach is you don't have to
have every little thing figuredout. You don't have to have
everything planned at everygiven moment, and in many cases,
(11:46):
that is the only way that willwork. Now you're building the
space shuttle. Yeah. Youprobably need that super
detailed plan.
But if you are creating thingson the fly as it were, and I
think a lot of of science,especially biology, is like
that, you're responding to newdata that you know, whatever
data you just got now, what dowe do? You can't even know what
(12:07):
you're gonna do next untilyou've been you've been through
that path. So Zenith then reallyhelps with that. Now there are
some there are some techniquesout there in the world of how
you will approach things thatcan help too. So one thing
that's been around for a longtime is called the Pomodoro
technique.
The Pomodoro technique is quitesimple. It's basically when you
(12:31):
have decided what you're goingto do next I mean, right now,
what is the next thing you'regoing to do? You set a timer for
20 minutes. You go and do it,and it's especially helpful when
you have tasks that that you'reresisting doing. So, like, look,
I'm I'm only committing 20minutes to this.
When the timer goes off, I candecide I'm not gonna I'm gonna
(12:54):
move on to something else. Ihave found that technique very
powerful and and especially tokeep you doing things that are
hard, that that you're resistingfor one reason or another.
Because it when the timer goesoff in 20 minutes and you're
already engaged, you kinda don'twanna stop, so it helps. So you
(13:17):
can you can use this to workyour to do list and not run away
from the things you're afraidof. Our next our next webinar,
we're gonna talk about theemotional nature of of your to
do list and all that, but so Idon't wanna get into too much of
this right now, but the notionis you can use the getting
(13:37):
things done method, you can usethe zen to done method, and a
Pomodoro technique will workwith either one.
Another thing that's beenpopular, and and this comes from
the software development world,they used to be back in the day,
Now y'all may remember, I'm asoft software developer from way
back, so that's why this is whyI reference this. We'd use this
(14:00):
method called the waterfallmethod, and the waterfall method
worked as a method for gettingthings done, but it didn't work
real well. And software has thishorrible reputation for never
being done on time. It it's it'salmost impossible to plan for
(14:20):
the future around that. And so anew method was developed called
the agile method.
Agile is just a a projectmanagement approach, and this
relates to to do lists, and I'llI'll talk about that in a
minute. But the the idea here isyou can do things in shorter
(14:41):
bursts of deep focus onparticular things, whatever
you're working on right now.Even though you got a lot of
other important things thatyou're gonna do, right now, you
can only do the thing you'redoing. And you gotta this is
part of the philosophy how to topick what kind of deduce system
you're gonna use. You know, do Ihave 10 things going on at all
(15:03):
times and I gotta have myfingers in every pie at all
moments, or can I put things inseries?
Can I focus on one thing in amind at a time, that is? And as
you do that, that can help youhelp you decide what's gonna
come next. So let's talk aboutpicking a tool. So what are the
(15:24):
things that you're gonna do? Andthis may have a lot to do with
you personally.
The the scientist at the nextbench over may choose a
different method than you basedon the answers to the questions
that we're we're about todiscuss here, and that's
perfectly fine. Your work styledoes matter. The way your mind
(15:44):
works does matter. Now are yousomebody that that needs to
write things, everything downevery day? Are you somebody that
has to, you know, for your foryour own satisfaction to
accomplish a lot of things?
Do you need to check a lot ofthings off? Other people, that's
that's not so much theirdrivers. They don't they don't
(16:05):
have to record everything orthey don't have to they don't
have to to check the boxes.That's not the point. They they
rather just focus, and andthat's that's a different way of
approaching things.
And, you know, there's nothingwrong with that idea that I
wanna figure out what I'm gonnado today and go do it versus I
(16:25):
just wanna know what's the nextthing to do. And now what's the
next thing to do? And now what'sthe next thing to do? It's a
different approach to life. Solet's look at some of these
questions.
So the first thing about yourthe to do tool that you that you
wanna look at is, what does thisthing need to accomplish? Do I
need a place where I can recordeverything that I'm ultimately
(16:48):
gonna have to do so that I don'thave to remember everything? Is
it is it primarily a recordingtool so I just know what has to
happen? Do I need things to popup at a certain time so that I'm
not distracted by the sea ofthings I could be doing, and
instead, I know that this is thething I should be doing right
(17:08):
now? How much detail does thissystem have to have?
Do you just need to have a oneword, one phrase prompt, or do
you need a paragraph foreverything that you're doing? Do
you need to have hyperlinks, asI mentioned earlier, through
documents and protocols and andany other supporting material
(17:31):
that'll be necessary. If you'redoing that on sticky notes, it
may not work very well for you.It could work for you, though,
in something as simple as aspreadsheet because you can have
a link there. Right?
Now it may be that that is stillnot not robust enough for you,
and maybe you're not an Excelwizard. Now maybe you are and
(17:55):
you really like it and you canwork it that way. God bless. Do
do do what works for you. But,you know, there are many, many
systems out there that areavailable, and I'm not gonna
list off a bunch of thembecause, honestly, it keeps
changing.
It keeps growing, and I don'tknow them all. There's just no
way to know. Good old Googledoes, though, and you can find
(18:16):
plenty of places where it lists,potential systems you could use,
potential apps you could use,and reviews them. Now, you know,
you gotta read all that with a agrain of salt. Some of them are
biased, but some of them are,you know, legitimately
researched.
And and, I mean, it's not thathard to tell when you're when
(18:36):
you're looking at something. Ifthey're if they're they're not
giving you any detail, ifthey're advertising the very
things for sale that they'representing, okay, well, maybe
biased. But even even those,even if they have a certain
bias, doesn't mean they're notgiving you good information. So
it's worth doing a littleresearch and and just looking
(18:59):
for the things that are outthere. And, look, you know, if
having a way that you can thatyou can record detail in it
matters, that's that's somethingto look for in those systems as
you're digging around.
Now for some of you, your to dolist may be a daily planner, but
it might also be kind of analarm clock. So, you know, you
(19:19):
gotta look into what whatcapabilities have. Does it
remind me to do things? It's notjust that it were that it made a
record of things I need to do,but it reminds me to do them at
a certain time. That that is auseful to useful characteristic
to have if that's what you need.
Okay. Does your to do list needto be shareable with other
(19:41):
people? If you're collaboratingwith others, if you have team
members who work for you andyou're assigning tasks to them
from your to do list, that mightthat might matter. It might then
be that you have to have a wayto get other people to use the
system that you're using. So,again, in in examining any
particular to do system, you maywanna look for that.
(20:04):
If you're gonna use anelectronic kind of system, and
most of us probably are, does itneed to work on your computer?
Does it need to work on yourphone? Does it need to work on
both? Do I if I make a change onmy phone, you know, when I'm out
and about, will it be changed onmy computerized system? Or what
(20:28):
I really wanna warn you againstis having multiple systems here,
because what'll happen is you'llupdate 1, and you won't update
the other.
And one of the things thathappens if you're going from
having a pen and paper system toto an electronic system is that
you always get that notebook inyour pocket pocket. Right? And
(20:49):
you always scribble on that. Ifit doesn't make it out of your
notebook into your other system,which one has priority? And
especially if you if you're usedto using, a pen and paper
system, you won't you will neverfully make use of that
electronic system until youcommit to it.
(21:09):
So you gotta you gotta do that.So if you have assist something
like that, and maybe it's notpossible for you to to make the
update on your phone. Maybe youhave to write it down on a piece
of paper. Now now I don't wantyou to use that as an excuse.
I'm not saying when you preferto do it that way, but you have
to.
You're not allowed to take aphone into this meeting or into
(21:32):
this facility, for instance.Well, you know, your only choice
is to write write paper notes,but then you have to have it
right in in your daily system.Like, when I get back to my
computer, when I get back to myphone, I update it right away
right now. You gotta make it apriority. You gotta you gotta
commit to a system.
(21:54):
Now another thing to say aboutthis is when you choose a
system, you don't know for sureit's the best one. You don't
know for sure it's the rightone. It may not actually be a
good system for you. You'regonna have to test things out.
You're gonna have to try things,but give it a fair try.
Give give it a shot. I mean,don't go crazy on this in that,
(22:15):
well, I'll have to commit to itfor a year before another. No.
Try something out for a week,And after a week, if you're not
willing to keep trying, findanother system. If you're trying
a system and it's not workingfor you, don't get lazy and go,
oh, I don't wanna look foranother one.
It was too much vassal findingthis one. Finding the right one
(22:37):
will be so worth it. You wannayou wanna give it your best
shot. Another thing about asystem that might matter to you,
does it need to be secure? Doyou have do you have proprietary
information, or is there somelegal requirement that your
information be secure?
You know, look for thosefeatures because not every
system necessarily has that.Some the more and more of
(23:01):
securities become a big issuejust from a software standpoint,
but it isn't it isn'tguaranteed. So just make sure
that that's that feature isthere for you if that's one you
need, and then make good use ofit. And it's a using any
security. If you're if you'reusing, you know, your first
born's date of birth as youryour password, I promise you
(23:23):
that at some point, that's gonnacome back to bite you.
You you you've gotta you gottatake security seriously if that
if you really wanna be secure.So this is an interesting one.
The idea should should thissystem be fixed or flexible?
Does it make me put timeoriented stuff in this section?
(23:46):
Does it make me put thingswithout a deadline in that
section?
Does it make me separate my workfrom my my work tasks from my
personal tasks? Does it does itforce or enforce that kind of
structure? And this really comesdown to yourself. Are you
somebody that needs thatstructure enforced? Well, then
(24:07):
maybe it's not a bad idea.
And I think one one good way toto decide whether or not you
need it is how much you'reresisting it. If you don't want
it because you just don't wannabe told what to do, you don't
wanna be made to jump throughthat hoop, that's not a very
good reason. If you have a verygood reason why I I don't need
(24:30):
this kind of restriction, Itdoesn't matter to my employer
whether or not I schedule adentist appointment in the
middle of the day. That's that'sallowed in our contract. Fine.
Then it's fine. But in somecases, you know, your boss could
get real real sticky aboutpicking up your kid from school
at 4:30 when the workday ends at5, you know, and that's in your
(24:52):
calendar. And, you know, it'swhere perhaps it could be seen
by somebody, including yourboss. So, you know, you you
gotta you gotta look at what doyou need. Now sometimes
flexibility is is a real boon,though.
If you have to do things acertain way every single time,
(25:12):
it doesn't always apply. Sohaving a little flexibility
built into a system can beuseful. And again, you should be
looking for this. When I'm thisthis whole list here of how
you're picking a tool, this isthe stuff you really should
figure out before you even golook. Figure out the answers to
these questions for you, andthen you can go about looking
(25:33):
for your system.
So does this system requiremobility? That is, you know, can
it just work on your computer,or does it need to have an app?
And is the is the app on yourphone up to speed? Because I
think we've all seen plenty ofsystems in the world like this
where the computer thecomputerized system is great,
(25:55):
and the phone, it's so so. Imean, even big companies have
problems with this.
There's stuff you can't do onyour Netflix account on your on
the phone app that you have togo to a computer for. They could
make an argument that thatthere's a very good reason for
that. I'm sure somebody therewould. I think they're wrong.
(26:18):
But, you know, you have to lookat that when you're looking at
to do systems, find the one thatworks for you and you and has
what you need.
Mobility is really important ifyou travel around a lot. Having
a having your phone right therewhere you can update things, put
things in, capture things rightnow when you're at in the field
(26:38):
or wherever you are, can be canbe a game changer for a to do
system that will continue towork for you. Okay. I wanted to
I wanted to talk a little bittoo about to do list versus
project management. Because asyou start looking for a to do
list that will work for you,you're gonna start you're gonna
(27:01):
see at the beginning some thingsthat are that are quite simple.
There's there are some greatsimple systems out there.
There's one built into Windows.There's one built into Apple
iOS, you know, and they'rethey're pretty nice. You know,
they they get a lot done. I usethem, you know, but they don't
(27:23):
have all the features that mightbe had.
And the more and more featuresyou add to these to do list
systems, the more and more theystart looking like a project
management system. And you'veprobably seen some of the big
ones out there. There's there'sZoho and HubSpot, Basecamp and
Asana, and many others. And I'mnot here to advocate for or
(27:46):
against any of these, and I'veused many of them quite happily.
And and I'm and I'm real a bigfan of certain systems.
You'll notice I'm not advocatingfor any system because these are
systems that work for me, doingwhat I do, doing it with the
mentality that I have, butyou're doing different things
(28:09):
than I'm doing. You have yourown mentality, and so I don't
wanna I don't wanna push you ina direction to something that
may not work for you. You know,again, if we go back to that
last slide of the things youshould be looking for, they're
the things that you should belooking for. You are the one
that will need to decide. Nowwhen it comes to these, these,
(28:33):
through lists versus projectmanagement systems, one of the
things that might really matterto you is, do you need to
capture dependencies betweentasks?
You may find that just thenature of the work that you do
that a simple to do list is notgonna cut it. You're gonna have
to have a project managementsystem for for reasons like this
(28:53):
one. Another thing to look at isdo you need to to manage or
monitor the activity of multiplepeople? Multiple people involved
in projects that you mustoversee and either to do's on
those those lists that you'regonna assign to other people,
and you got so it's not justabout assignment to your to, you
(29:18):
know, your the all the thingsyou personally wanna get done,
but there are things you wannamake sure get done, and you may
not be the one doing that, andyou have to have a way to do
that. And the problem is is youcan have it on your to do list
is tell Bob to do x, and you dothat, but there's no follow-up
built into that.
You gotta make sure if youassign x to Bob, you gotta
(29:41):
check-in with Bob at some pointand make sure that Bob got x
done. In fact, that Bobunderstood what x was. Bob had
everything. Bob needed to do x.There's a there may be other
factors there, and, again, thatmight drive you from a simple
system to a more robust system.
(30:02):
Do you need to merge tasks andcalendars? So think about this,
we all have to do items thatit's just something I gotta I've
gotta get done. But then we haveto do items that I have to get
done at a certain time. Thestaff meeting is at 11 AM. I
have to be there at that time.
I my my task list can't justassume that I could have a a
(30:27):
staff meeting anytime I feellike. This that might be
something that has to becoordinated. So you may need a
system that will also coordinatebetween tasks and calendar
items, and you don't wanna getin the habit of putting things
on your calendar that don'tactually have a time or date
deadline. But you do wanna keeptrack of those deadlines. So you
(30:53):
gotta find a system then thathas the right answer to that,
that will it make sure I do itat the right time, or will it
make sure I get it done beforebefore the deadline?
Those are 2 different problems.If you start stuffing your
calendar with things, at 9:30AM, I'm gonna do this, and at
9:45, I'm gonna do that, and at10:15, I'm gonna do that, you're
(31:17):
gonna wig yourself up. I don'tcare how detail oriented you
are. There are some things thatshould not be calendared even
though they have hard deadlines.So, you've you've got to keep
track of that.
There's there's another factorabout tasks that when it comes
to time that matters too. If Ihave to have something done by
(31:37):
Friday, fine. I could do it anyday up until Friday, unless it's
gonna take me 3 days to do thetask. Well, then I can't wait
till Friday to start it or Iwon't get it done in time. So
you gotta you've gotta look atthat and make sure you you're
using a system properly.
If something really needs to bebroke down into multiple tasks,
(32:00):
you gotta have a way ofcapturing that, and it's gotta
be part of your system. So atthis point, I've given you a bit
to think about, and probably themost important part of what we
talked about was the was thatlast slide, and I'll go back to
(32:21):
it now. There we go. Is is theexamination you do of yourself
for what's the right tool foryou. 1st, figure it out what it
is you're gonna be looking for,and then go out in the world and
look for it.
It. And there's nothing wrongwith asking for input from other
(32:41):
people. If you know somebodywho's very, very successful in
in their career and in their joband they get a lot done, ask
them what they do. You know, getadvice from people you trust. I
mean, I hope that you trust me.
I hope you've heard enough goodgood stuff from me and you'll
listen to me, but then again,there are other people who are
(33:02):
doing precisely what you do.They will be a mentor to you or
can be a mentor to you, andthey've walked the road. And
they know what works, and theyknow it didn't work for them.
And if especially if theirpersonal style matches yours, so
that can be very helpful. Imean, you wanna model people
that are that are getting theresults you wanna get, but you
(33:23):
need to remember too that youhave to have a similar mindset
to them to use their model.
And not every model is a goodmodel for for everyone. You
might wanna be a singer, but doyou wanna be a singer like a
rock singer? You wanna be like acountry singer? You wanna be
like a pop singer? It matterswho you listen to.
(33:43):
Right? What what would be a goodmodel for you to follow? So it's
it's worth digging into that. Soif you will go away now, figure
out this list of what kind oftool you need for yourself, and
then go out and do anexamination in the world and
(34:04):
find some possibilities and findmore than one. You don't you
don't have to implement morethan 1, but, you know, give
yourself some options.
Then get in there and startusing it. Not saying you gotta
stick with it for the rest ofyour life, but give it an honest
an honest test. Get in there andtry it out and see what happens
(34:26):
and learn some things. And ifyou need to shift to a second
system, make the shift, andagain, give it give it a chance.
Really work it, really followits protocols, and see what
works best for you.
So when all that is said anddone, this will help you pick
out a useful to do list that'llwork for you. But there's a
(34:51):
second episode. Why would weneed we need a second episode?
Because I've seen this happentoo much in the real world. You
go out and you do the legwork.
You get it get it figured outwhat you should be looking for.
You look for it. You find it.You implement it. You start
doing it and stop.
(35:14):
Or worse yet, crash and burn.But, woah, what happened? Is it
the system? Did I not do myelectric properly? And you look
back and, like, well, the systemdoes meet the protocol I was
looking for.
And you know what? I really didexamine the protocol in advance.
I I I did everything Ken said todo. Why isn't this working for
(35:34):
me? Well, there can be a lot ofreasons why.
And it gets it make it down moreto emotional reasons, and it
make it down to more practicalimplementation problems. And
that's what we're gonna talkabout in the next episode. So I
will ask, if anybody has anyquestions, feel free to put them
(35:56):
into the into the question box,and and we'll look into that,
see what else we can answer foranybody as I pause pregnantly.
(36:16):
So one of the things you mayfind is what if you've really
got a an attachment to a PaaSsystem, but you know it's not
working for you and you'rehesitating to to do the
examination, you know, becauseit may be painful to find out
what what's what's not workingfor you and why. And all I could
(36:39):
say to you is just take one stepat a time.
Take that first step in. Juststart examining it. You as
scientists, examination is yourthing. It's what you do. Yep.
It it's the same kind ofscientific approach. If you find
something's not working for you,alright, then test out something
new. Develop a new hypothesis,test your hypothesis, and see
(37:04):
what happens. And you're gonnaget results, and you're gonna
figure out from those resultswhat's next best. You may not
come up with a perfect answerthe first time out, but if if
you approach this in ascientific way and you're
already familiar with thatmethod, it'll work for you.
If you have to deal with withdeeper emotional issues about
that, we'll talk about that onour our next episode. But, so
(37:29):
that is the idea. So I wannawrap up with hang on here. Well,
I wanna wrap up with 1st offthanking everybody for for being
present for for our webinartoday. And, you know, of course,
(37:49):
whether you're listening to itlive or you're hearing it on
demand, thank you.
Thank you. Now if you enjoy thiskind of content, please
subscribe to The Happy Scientiston your favorite podcast
platform or or on YouTube.Listen back to our earlier
episodes and especially thefirst nine. The first nine are
core principles that wereference over and over again.
(38:10):
Today, we talked about mind coremindsets.
Again, that's 3 of those thosethose first nine episodes. They
are packed with quality, usefulinformation, useful wisdom. And,
of course, tell your colleague,your colleagues so they can help
spread the happy scientist andso we can help spread the the
notion of happy scientists.Also, be on the lookout for more
(38:34):
live happy scientist episodes inthe coming months. You can find
them listed onevents.bitesizebio.com and on
the Happy Scientist Facebookpage at
So until next time, good luck inyour research, and goodbye from
(38:56):
us at Bite Size Bio.
VX (39:05):
The happy scientist is brought to you by Bite Size Bio,
your mentor Size Bio featuresthousands of articles and
webinars contributed by hundredsof PhD scientists and scientific
companies who freely offer theirhard won wisdom and solutions to
the Bite bite sized biocommunity.
This is the Happy Scientist podcast. Each episode is
designed to make you morefocused, more productive, and
more satisfied in the lab. Youcan find us online at
bitesizebiodotcom/happyscientist. Your hosts
are Kenneth Vogt, founder of theexecutive coaching firm, Vera
Claritas, and doctor NickOswald, PhD, bioscientist, and
(00:52):
founder of Bite Size Bio.
Kenneth Vogt (01:00):
Hello. This is Kenneth Vogt welcoming you to
this Bite Size Bio webinar,which today is a live episode of
the Happy Scientist podcast. Ifyou wanna become a happier,
healthier, and more productivescientist, you're in the right
place. Today, alas, I am allalone without Nick Oswald. Nick
(01:22):
is is out for today, but I willdo my best to, give you
everything you need.
In these sessions, we we talkabout principles that'll help
you shape yourself to be ahappier and more successful
scientist in your scientificcareer. And along the way, we
(01:43):
will sometimes hear from Nick,which not today, but in future
episodes, you definitely will.If you have any questions along
the way, put them into thequestions box on the side of
your screen, and then I'll do mybest to address them. So today,
(02:04):
I'll be covering the topicgetting dead practical about to
do lists, and the notion is toalign your lists with your work
style. So bear with me a littlebit.
I feel kinda like, the wizard ofOz behind the screen today,
pulling a bunch of levers andturning a bunch of knobs. And
(02:25):
and that's even with the helpof, Connor Connor, the producer
on this episode today. So if Iif I if I act a little
flustered, don't worry about it.I'll get over it. So to do list,
this we actually have brokeninto into 2 parts.
We're gonna do a second webinaron this because there's so much
to talk about. Today, we'regonna talk about the the real
(02:50):
practical side of this, abouthow do you figure out what to
use for a to do list, what, youknow, what would work best for
you, what will get you theresults that you need, what will
allow you to to move forward andaccomplish things on a daily
basis, a weekly basis, a monthlybasis, whatever whatever time
(03:11):
frame you wanna look at, youwanna make sure that you get the
most out of this. So I'll beginwith, you're probably doing
something already. Right? And ithas to do with how your, you
know, your own mind works.
(03:31):
For some of us, there's justjust chaos going on all the time
in our heads, and I don't meanthat in a negative way
necessarily. Just we have a lotgoing on. We we're holding all
this in our heads, and somepeople actually are quite good
at that. And they can hold atremendous amount of of detail
at any given moment. For others,they find that very distracting.
(03:55):
They they really prefer to havean empty mind that's clear so
that when they decide to use it,they can put in there what they
want and focus on it. So thefirst thing you want to look at
is what are you doing now, andis it working for you, or is it
(04:17):
failing? And it might be that itsort of works for you, or it's
familiar enough that you getstuff done, but you feel like
you could do better. And therewould be nothing wrong with
coming away from this webinarfeeling feeling satisfied that
what you're doing works for you,and that's great. You don't have
(04:39):
to change things just for thesake of change.
On the other hand, there'sconstant new development, new
opportunities, new things thatwe can do, and it's worth
reassessing every once in awhile. Now if I go back in my
own personal career, back in theday, I did everything on paper.
(04:59):
And at the beginning, it wasjust a notepad. And, I mean, I
went through notepad afternotepad after notepad. Oh, my.
And then one day, I heard aboutthis system called Daytimers.
Again, it's a paper system in ain a in a nice leather bound
little book with with removablepages for each day. And, you
(05:24):
know, each page was laid out ina certain familiar way. And I
was like, oh, man, I I starteddoing that, and I just loved it.
Oh my.
It it was so great. It fit mypersonal style really well. I
carried that day timers with meeverywhere I went. The only time
I put it down is when I went tosleep at night. I took it
(05:46):
everywhere, and I used it.
And and it really worked greatfor me for the time I was using
it, and I believe they stillexist. And if there's other
things like it you know, I thinkFranklin Covey's got a system
like that too. If you like thethe pen and paper method and it
works for you, don't feel likeyou have to go computerized,
(06:08):
that you have to do it on yourphone or your laptop. You don't.
You can use whatever systemworks for you, but I will
caution you not to be a Luddite.
Don't don't just get stuck with,well, this is the way I've
always done it, because newthings pop up and sometimes you
(06:28):
want to check it out and see,will this will this take me
forward? Will this get me placesI couldn't go before? Now
there's one thing that thatreally hooked me about online
systems at at one point, andthat was hyperlinks. The idea I
could click on something andopen it up. I can't do that with
(06:48):
my day timers.
I couldn't do that with anotepad. If it needed to
reference something else, Ididn't know that I could find
it. So if you need that kind ofthing, there's lots and lots of
systems out there that canprovide that that opportunity
for you. But I wanna roll backto what what's on the screen
here and what real why I chosethese two pictures. I,
(07:14):
especially as a younger man,definitely had a chaotic mind,
and I knew I needed to havesomething to order that, and
that spoke to me.
Now later in later in life, Idon't have a chaotic mind
anymore. I really do like tohave that clean slate to focus
on things as as I'm working onthem, as that has required me to
(07:37):
change the methodologies that Iuse. And we'll talk about some
of those things, and I'll talkabout this historically, but
understand you didn't have to gothrough this history and you get
to benefit from those who did.So so let's let's move on to the
next step. There are a coupledifferent philosophies out there
(07:59):
on how to approach beingproductive.
Some like, 25 years ago, aseminal book was put out by
David Allen that was calledGetting Things Done. 288 pages.
He's a good writer, but it'sit's a lot of information. If
(08:21):
you're somebody who's reallydetail oriented, you really care
about about having a t to crossand an I to dot, David Allen
really will speak to you. Iloved this book 25 years ago,
and I would still recommend ittoday, but it's not for
(08:46):
everybody.
And it's if you are more of a, aspatial thinker, if you're if
you're not all about thedetails, but you're you're about
the bigger picture, Gettingthings done is going to be a
hard read for you. It's not I'mnot saying it's not worth
(09:08):
looking into. It is. But you maylook at it and go, this is not
practical for me. And I thinkthat's been the case for a lot
of folks.
A lot of folks love it. A lot ofhard driving individuals who who
accomplished a great deal areusing the methodologies that
that David Allen proposed inthis book. And there are a lot
(09:31):
of systems, you know, onlinesystems and tools and apps that
have been developed based onthis. And it's great. But the
fact is, for some folks, it'sjust too much.
And it isn't it isn't the matterof, oh, you're not smart enough
to do it David's way. That's notnot going to be the factor. It
(09:52):
isn't about you're notdisciplined enough. It's about
how you process the world. Yousee things in a certain way that
don't match the way thatsomebody who thinks like David
Allen sees things.
Now we've talked about this inthe past, and I would suggest
you go back to some of ourinitial podcast episodes that
talk about core mindsets. DavidAllen is very blue according to
(10:18):
that that, structure. But youmight be orange. You might be
green. You might be red.
There may be there may be otherthings that would make more
sense for you. So I won't leaveyou hanging here. It's like,
well, great. You just describedme. I'm I'm the person that
would not get along with thisDavid Allen philosophy.
(10:40):
What am I supposed to do? I haveanother suggestion for you, a
different book. It's called Zento done, z e n to done, by Leo
Babauta, and I'm sure that was atake on getting things done when
he wrote it. Now getting thingsdone, 288 pages. Zenden on 91
(11:00):
pages.
Very easy read. And Leah Babata,the author of Zendeskhan, is a
minimalist. I mean, he's aproponent of the minimalist
philosophy. And of of all thepeople I've seen out there that
(11:23):
that that promote thatphilosophy, I I really like
Leo's outlook on things.Zendeskhan really takes the core
of what's in getting things doneinstead of how would a
minimalist do this?
The advantage of the minimalistapproach is you don't have to
have every little thing figuredout. You don't have to have
everything planned at everygiven moment, and in many cases,
(11:46):
that is the only way that willwork. Now you're building the
space shuttle. Yeah. Youprobably need that super
detailed plan.
But if you are creating thingson the fly as it were, and I
think a lot of of science,especially biology, is like
that, you're responding to newdata that you know, whatever
data you just got now, what dowe do? You can't even know what
(12:07):
you're gonna do next untilyou've been you've been through
that path. So Zenith then reallyhelps with that. Now there are
some there are some techniquesout there in the world of how
you will approach things thatcan help too. So one thing
that's been around for a longtime is called the Pomodoro
technique.
The Pomodoro technique is quitesimple. It's basically when you
(12:31):
have decided what you're goingto do next I mean, right now,
what is the next thing you'regoing to do? You set a timer for
20 minutes. You go and do it,and it's especially helpful when
you have tasks that that you'reresisting doing. So, like, look,
I'm I'm only committing 20minutes to this.
When the timer goes off, I candecide I'm not gonna I'm gonna
(12:54):
move on to something else. Ihave found that technique very
powerful and and especially tokeep you doing things that are
hard, that that you're resistingfor one reason or another.
Because it when the timer goesoff in 20 minutes and you're
already engaged, you kinda don'twanna stop, so it helps. So you
(13:17):
can you can use this to workyour to do list and not run away
from the things you're afraidof. Our next our next webinar,
we're gonna talk about theemotional nature of of your to
do list and all that, but so Idon't wanna get into too much of
this right now, but the notionis you can use the getting
(13:37):
things done method, you can usethe zen to done method, and a
Pomodoro technique will workwith either one.
Another thing that's beenpopular, and and this comes from
the software development world,they used to be back in the day,
Now y'all may remember, I'm asoft software developer from way
back, so that's why this is whyI reference this. We'd use this
(14:00):
method called the waterfallmethod, and the waterfall method
worked as a method for gettingthings done, but it didn't work
real well. And software has thishorrible reputation for never
being done on time. It it's it'salmost impossible to plan for
(14:20):
the future around that. And so anew method was developed called
the agile method.
Agile is just a a projectmanagement approach, and this
relates to to do lists, and I'llI'll talk about that in a
minute. But the the idea here isyou can do things in shorter
(14:41):
bursts of deep focus onparticular things, whatever
you're working on right now.Even though you got a lot of
other important things thatyou're gonna do, right now, you
can only do the thing you'redoing. And you gotta this is
part of the philosophy how to topick what kind of deduce system
you're gonna use. You know, do Ihave 10 things going on at all
(15:03):
times and I gotta have myfingers in every pie at all
moments, or can I put things inseries?
Can I focus on one thing in amind at a time, that is? And as
you do that, that can help youhelp you decide what's gonna
come next. So let's talk aboutpicking a tool. So what are the
(15:24):
things that you're gonna do? Andthis may have a lot to do with
you personally.
The the scientist at the nextbench over may choose a
different method than you basedon the answers to the questions
that we're we're about todiscuss here, and that's
perfectly fine. Your work styledoes matter. The way your mind
(15:44):
works does matter. Now are yousomebody that that needs to
write things, everything downevery day? Are you somebody that
has to, you know, for your foryour own satisfaction to
accomplish a lot of things?
Do you need to check a lot ofthings off? Other people, that's
that's not so much theirdrivers. They don't they don't
(16:05):
have to record everything orthey don't have to they don't
have to to check the boxes.That's not the point. They they
rather just focus, and andthat's that's a different way of
approaching things.
And, you know, there's nothingwrong with that idea that I
wanna figure out what I'm gonnado today and go do it versus I
(16:25):
just wanna know what's the nextthing to do. And now what's the
next thing to do? And now what'sthe next thing to do? It's a
different approach to life. Solet's look at some of these
questions.
So the first thing about yourthe to do tool that you that you
wanna look at is, what does thisthing need to accomplish? Do I
need a place where I can recordeverything that I'm ultimately
(16:48):
gonna have to do so that I don'thave to remember everything? Is
it is it primarily a recordingtool so I just know what has to
happen? Do I need things to popup at a certain time so that I'm
not distracted by the sea ofthings I could be doing, and
instead, I know that this is thething I should be doing right
(17:08):
now? How much detail does thissystem have to have?
Do you just need to have a oneword, one phrase prompt, or do
you need a paragraph foreverything that you're doing? Do
you need to have hyperlinks, asI mentioned earlier, through
documents and protocols and andany other supporting material
(17:31):
that'll be necessary. If you'redoing that on sticky notes, it
may not work very well for you.It could work for you, though,
in something as simple as aspreadsheet because you can have
a link there. Right?
Now it may be that that is stillnot not robust enough for you,
and maybe you're not an Excelwizard. Now maybe you are and
(17:55):
you really like it and you canwork it that way. God bless. Do
do do what works for you. But,you know, there are many, many
systems out there that areavailable, and I'm not gonna
list off a bunch of thembecause, honestly, it keeps
changing.
It keeps growing, and I don'tknow them all. There's just no
way to know. Good old Googledoes, though, and you can find
(18:16):
plenty of places where it lists,potential systems you could use,
potential apps you could use,and reviews them. Now, you know,
you gotta read all that with a agrain of salt. Some of them are
biased, but some of them are,you know, legitimately
researched.
And and, I mean, it's not thathard to tell when you're when
(18:36):
you're looking at something. Ifthey're if they're they're not
giving you any detail, ifthey're advertising the very
things for sale that they'representing, okay, well, maybe
biased. But even even those,even if they have a certain
bias, doesn't mean they're notgiving you good information. So
it's worth doing a littleresearch and and just looking
(18:59):
for the things that are outthere. And, look, you know, if
having a way that you can thatyou can record detail in it
matters, that's that's somethingto look for in those systems as
you're digging around.
Now for some of you, your to dolist may be a daily planner, but
it might also be kind of analarm clock. So, you know, you
(19:19):
gotta look into what whatcapabilities have. Does it
remind me to do things? It's notjust that it were that it made a
record of things I need to do,but it reminds me to do them at
a certain time. That that is auseful to useful characteristic
to have if that's what you need.
Okay. Does your to do list needto be shareable with other
(19:41):
people? If you're collaboratingwith others, if you have team
members who work for you andyou're assigning tasks to them
from your to do list, that mightthat might matter. It might then
be that you have to have a wayto get other people to use the
system that you're using. So,again, in in examining any
particular to do system, you maywanna look for that.
(20:04):
If you're gonna use anelectronic kind of system, and
most of us probably are, does itneed to work on your computer?
Does it need to work on yourphone? Does it need to work on
both? Do I if I make a change onmy phone, you know, when I'm out
and about, will it be changed onmy computerized system? Or what
(20:28):
I really wanna warn you againstis having multiple systems here,
because what'll happen is you'llupdate 1, and you won't update
the other.
And one of the things thathappens if you're going from
having a pen and paper system toto an electronic system is that
you always get that notebook inyour pocket pocket. Right? And
(20:49):
you always scribble on that. Ifit doesn't make it out of your
notebook into your other system,which one has priority? And
especially if you if you're usedto using, a pen and paper
system, you won't you will neverfully make use of that
electronic system until youcommit to it.
(21:09):
So you gotta you gotta do that.So if you have assist something
like that, and maybe it's notpossible for you to to make the
update on your phone. Maybe youhave to write it down on a piece
of paper. Now now I don't wantyou to use that as an excuse.
I'm not saying when you preferto do it that way, but you have
to.
You're not allowed to take aphone into this meeting or into
(21:32):
this facility, for instance.Well, you know, your only choice
is to write write paper notes,but then you have to have it
right in in your daily system.Like, when I get back to my
computer, when I get back to myphone, I update it right away
right now. You gotta make it apriority. You gotta you gotta
commit to a system.
(21:54):
Now another thing to say aboutthis is when you choose a
system, you don't know for sureit's the best one. You don't
know for sure it's the rightone. It may not actually be a
good system for you. You'regonna have to test things out.
You're gonna have to try things,but give it a fair try.
Give give it a shot. I mean,don't go crazy on this in that,
(22:15):
well, I'll have to commit to itfor a year before another. No.
Try something out for a week,And after a week, if you're not
willing to keep trying, findanother system. If you're trying
a system and it's not workingfor you, don't get lazy and go,
oh, I don't wanna look foranother one.
It was too much vassal findingthis one. Finding the right one
(22:37):
will be so worth it. You wannayou wanna give it your best
shot. Another thing about asystem that might matter to you,
does it need to be secure? Doyou have do you have proprietary
information, or is there somelegal requirement that your
information be secure?
You know, look for thosefeatures because not every
system necessarily has that.Some the more and more of
(23:01):
securities become a big issuejust from a software standpoint,
but it isn't it isn'tguaranteed. So just make sure
that that's that feature isthere for you if that's one you
need, and then make good use ofit. And it's a using any
security. If you're if you'reusing, you know, your first
born's date of birth as youryour password, I promise you
(23:23):
that at some point, that's gonnacome back to bite you.
You you you've gotta you gottatake security seriously if that
if you really wanna be secure.So this is an interesting one.
The idea should should thissystem be fixed or flexible?
Does it make me put timeoriented stuff in this section?
(23:46):
Does it make me put thingswithout a deadline in that
section?
Does it make me separate my workfrom my my work tasks from my
personal tasks? Does it does itforce or enforce that kind of
structure? And this really comesdown to yourself. Are you
somebody that needs thatstructure enforced? Well, then
(24:07):
maybe it's not a bad idea.
And I think one one good way toto decide whether or not you
need it is how much you'reresisting it. If you don't want
it because you just don't wannabe told what to do, you don't
wanna be made to jump throughthat hoop, that's not a very
good reason. If you have a verygood reason why I I don't need
(24:30):
this kind of restriction, Itdoesn't matter to my employer
whether or not I schedule adentist appointment in the
middle of the day. That's that'sallowed in our contract. Fine.
Then it's fine. But in somecases, you know, your boss could
get real real sticky aboutpicking up your kid from school
at 4:30 when the workday ends at5, you know, and that's in your
(24:52):
calendar. And, you know, it'swhere perhaps it could be seen
by somebody, including yourboss. So, you know, you you
gotta you gotta look at what doyou need. Now sometimes
flexibility is is a real boon,though.
If you have to do things acertain way every single time,
(25:12):
it doesn't always apply. Sohaving a little flexibility
built into a system can beuseful. And again, you should be
looking for this. When I'm thisthis whole list here of how
you're picking a tool, this isthe stuff you really should
figure out before you even golook. Figure out the answers to
these questions for you, andthen you can go about looking
(25:33):
for your system.
So does this system requiremobility? That is, you know, can
it just work on your computer,or does it need to have an app?
And is the is the app on yourphone up to speed? Because I
think we've all seen plenty ofsystems in the world like this
where the computer thecomputerized system is great,
(25:55):
and the phone, it's so so. Imean, even big companies have
problems with this.
There's stuff you can't do onyour Netflix account on your on
the phone app that you have togo to a computer for. They could
make an argument that thatthere's a very good reason for
that. I'm sure somebody therewould. I think they're wrong.
(26:18):
But, you know, you have to lookat that when you're looking at
to do systems, find the one thatworks for you and you and has
what you need.
Mobility is really important ifyou travel around a lot. Having
a having your phone right therewhere you can update things, put
things in, capture things rightnow when you're at in the field
(26:38):
or wherever you are, can be canbe a game changer for a to do
system that will continue towork for you. Okay. I wanted to
I wanted to talk a little bittoo about to do list versus
project management. Because asyou start looking for a to do
list that will work for you,you're gonna start you're gonna
(27:01):
see at the beginning some thingsthat are that are quite simple.
There's there are some greatsimple systems out there.
There's one built into Windows.There's one built into Apple
iOS, you know, and they'rethey're pretty nice. You know,
they they get a lot done. I usethem, you know, but they don't
(27:23):
have all the features that mightbe had.
And the more and more featuresyou add to these to do list
systems, the more and more theystart looking like a project
management system. And you'veprobably seen some of the big
ones out there. There's there'sZoho and HubSpot, Basecamp and
Asana, and many others. And I'mnot here to advocate for or
(27:46):
against any of these, and I'veused many of them quite happily.
And and I'm and I'm real a bigfan of certain systems.
You'll notice I'm not advocatingfor any system because these are
systems that work for me, doingwhat I do, doing it with the
mentality that I have, butyou're doing different things
(28:09):
than I'm doing. You have yourown mentality, and so I don't
wanna I don't wanna push you ina direction to something that
may not work for you. You know,again, if we go back to that
last slide of the things youshould be looking for, they're
the things that you should belooking for. You are the one
that will need to decide. Nowwhen it comes to these, these,
(28:33):
through lists versus projectmanagement systems, one of the
things that might really matterto you is, do you need to
capture dependencies betweentasks?
You may find that just thenature of the work that you do
that a simple to do list is notgonna cut it. You're gonna have
to have a project managementsystem for for reasons like this
(28:53):
one. Another thing to look at isdo you need to to manage or
monitor the activity of multiplepeople? Multiple people involved
in projects that you mustoversee and either to do's on
those those lists that you'regonna assign to other people,
and you got so it's not justabout assignment to your to, you
(29:18):
know, your the all the thingsyou personally wanna get done,
but there are things you wannamake sure get done, and you may
not be the one doing that, andyou have to have a way to do
that. And the problem is is youcan have it on your to do list
is tell Bob to do x, and you dothat, but there's no follow-up
built into that.
You gotta make sure if youassign x to Bob, you gotta
(29:41):
check-in with Bob at some pointand make sure that Bob got x
done. In fact, that Bobunderstood what x was. Bob had
everything. Bob needed to do x.There's a there may be other
factors there, and, again, thatmight drive you from a simple
system to a more robust system.
(30:02):
Do you need to merge tasks andcalendars? So think about this,
we all have to do items thatit's just something I gotta I've
gotta get done. But then we haveto do items that I have to get
done at a certain time. Thestaff meeting is at 11 AM. I
have to be there at that time.
I my my task list can't justassume that I could have a a
(30:27):
staff meeting anytime I feellike. This that might be
something that has to becoordinated. So you may need a
system that will also coordinatebetween tasks and calendar
items, and you don't wanna getin the habit of putting things
on your calendar that don'tactually have a time or date
deadline. But you do wanna keeptrack of those deadlines. So you
(30:53):
gotta find a system then thathas the right answer to that,
that will it make sure I do itat the right time, or will it
make sure I get it done beforebefore the deadline?
Those are 2 different problems.If you start stuffing your
calendar with things, at 9:30AM, I'm gonna do this, and at
9:45, I'm gonna do that, and at10:15, I'm gonna do that, you're
(31:17):
gonna wig yourself up. I don'tcare how detail oriented you
are. There are some things thatshould not be calendared even
though they have hard deadlines.So, you've you've got to keep
track of that.
There's there's another factorabout tasks that when it comes
to time that matters too. If Ihave to have something done by
(31:37):
Friday, fine. I could do it anyday up until Friday, unless it's
gonna take me 3 days to do thetask. Well, then I can't wait
till Friday to start it or Iwon't get it done in time. So
you gotta you've gotta look atthat and make sure you you're
using a system properly.
If something really needs to bebroke down into multiple tasks,
(32:00):
you gotta have a way ofcapturing that, and it's gotta
be part of your system. So atthis point, I've given you a bit
to think about, and probably themost important part of what we
talked about was the was thatlast slide, and I'll go back to
(32:21):
it now. There we go. Is is theexamination you do of yourself
for what's the right tool foryou. 1st, figure it out what it
is you're gonna be looking for,and then go out in the world and
look for it.
It. And there's nothing wrongwith asking for input from other
(32:41):
people. If you know somebodywho's very, very successful in
in their career and in their joband they get a lot done, ask
them what they do. You know, getadvice from people you trust. I
mean, I hope that you trust me.
I hope you've heard enough goodgood stuff from me and you'll
listen to me, but then again,there are other people who are
(33:02):
doing precisely what you do.They will be a mentor to you or
can be a mentor to you, andthey've walked the road. And
they know what works, and theyknow it didn't work for them.
And if especially if theirpersonal style matches yours, so
that can be very helpful. Imean, you wanna model people
that are that are getting theresults you wanna get, but you
(33:23):
need to remember too that youhave to have a similar mindset
to them to use their model.
And not every model is a goodmodel for for everyone. You
might wanna be a singer, but doyou wanna be a singer like a
rock singer? You wanna be like acountry singer? You wanna be
like a pop singer? It matterswho you listen to.
(33:43):
Right? What what would be a goodmodel for you to follow? So it's
it's worth digging into that. Soif you will go away now, figure
out this list of what kind oftool you need for yourself, and
then go out and do anexamination in the world and
(34:04):
find some possibilities and findmore than one. You don't you
don't have to implement morethan 1, but, you know, give
yourself some options.
Then get in there and startusing it. Not saying you gotta
stick with it for the rest ofyour life, but give it an honest
an honest test. Get in there andtry it out and see what happens
(34:26):
and learn some things. And ifyou need to shift to a second
system, make the shift, andagain, give it give it a chance.
Really work it, really followits protocols, and see what
works best for you.
So when all that is said anddone, this will help you pick
out a useful to do list that'llwork for you. But there's a
(34:51):
second episode. Why would weneed we need a second episode?
Because I've seen this happentoo much in the real world. You
go out and you do the legwork.
You get it get it figured outwhat you should be looking for.
You look for it. You find it.You implement it. You start
doing it and stop.
(35:14):
Or worse yet, crash and burn.But, woah, what happened? Is it
the system? Did I not do myelectric properly? And you look
back and, like, well, the systemdoes meet the protocol I was
looking for.
And you know what? I really didexamine the protocol in advance.
I I I did everything Ken said todo. Why isn't this working for
(35:34):
me? Well, there can be a lot ofreasons why.
And it gets it make it down moreto emotional reasons, and it
make it down to more practicalimplementation problems. And
that's what we're gonna talkabout in the next episode. So I
will ask, if anybody has anyquestions, feel free to put them
(35:56):
into the into the question box,and and we'll look into that,
see what else we can answer foranybody as I pause pregnantly.
(36:16):
So one of the things you mayfind is what if you've really
got a an attachment to a PaaSsystem, but you know it's not
working for you and you'rehesitating to to do the
examination, you know, becauseit may be painful to find out
what what's what's not workingfor you and why. And all I could
(36:39):
say to you is just take one stepat a time.
Take that first step in. Juststart examining it. You as
scientists, examination is yourthing. It's what you do. Yep.
It it's the same kind ofscientific approach. If you find
something's not working for you,alright, then test out something
new. Develop a new hypothesis,test your hypothesis, and see
(37:04):
what happens. And you're gonnaget results, and you're gonna
figure out from those resultswhat's next best. You may not
come up with a perfect answerthe first time out, but if if
you approach this in ascientific way and you're
already familiar with thatmethod, it'll work for you.
If you have to deal with withdeeper emotional issues about
that, we'll talk about that onour our next episode. But, so
(37:29):
that is the idea. So I wannawrap up with hang on here. Well,
I wanna wrap up with 1st offthanking everybody for for being
present for for our webinartoday. And, you know, of course,
(37:49):
whether you're listening to itlive or you're hearing it on
demand, thank you.
Thank you. Now if you enjoy thiskind of content, please
subscribe to The Happy Scientiston your favorite podcast
platform or or on YouTube.Listen back to our earlier
episodes and especially thefirst nine. The first nine are
core principles that wereference over and over again.
(38:10):
Today, we talked about mind coremindsets.
Again, that's 3 of those thosethose first nine episodes. They
are packed with quality, usefulinformation, useful wisdom. And,
of course, tell your colleague,your colleagues so they can help
spread the happy scientist andso we can help spread the the
notion of happy scientists.Also, be on the lookout for more
(38:34):
live happy scientist episodes inthe coming months. You can find
them listed onevents.bitesizebio.com and on
the Happy Scientist Facebookpage at
So until next time, good luck inyour research, and goodbye from
(38:56):
us at Bite Size Bio.
VX (39:05):
The happy scientist is brought to you by Bite Size Bio,
your mentor Size Bio featuresthousands of articles and
webinars contributed by hundredsof PhD scientists and scientific
companies who freely offer theirhard won wisdom and solutions to
the Bite bite sized biocommunity.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.