Plate Spinning

Yesterday I stopped procrastinating, set up my writing system, and jotted out a rough outline for Plate Spinning, The Book. How cool is that?

Long term, I hope to develop some specifically plate oriented tracking tools. In my own life, I’ve used spreadsheet for this from time to time, but that’s remarkably boring and not a lot of fun to share with you - so I went on a tool-hunt, and wound up with Joe’s Goals.

It’s not got all of the features I want, but it’s intuitive, which counts for a lot in plate-spinning. And.. tada.. it’s free!

To use Joe’s Goals, just set up each “Plate” as either a goal or a log. Then as you move through the week, either add a checkmark for each related task (if it’s set up as a goal) or a note about what you did (if its a task).

Either method should show you at a glance which areas need attention, and which ones have momentum going, and which areas need attention.

So go check it out. Joe’s Goals. Tell them I sent you. They have no idea who I am, of course, but I think they should, don’t you?

To find out what plate spinning productivity is all about, check out the posts in the Plate Spinning Category.

So, who needs Plate Spinning Productivity?

Well, I do.

But in case you aren’t me… (and you probably aren’t) I came up with gratuitous bullet-points, to help you decide.

• Are you a creative type, involved with the arts, product development, copywriting, design, etc?
• Are you primarily in charge of your own scheduling?
• Do you struggle with dividing your attention between multiple, diverse projects and areas of interest?
• Do you work best entirely immersed in a single project?
• Does the idea of prioritizing tasks according to importance confound you?
• Do you require a lot of ruminating time on projects?
• Are you overwhelmed with the idea of balancing acts of actual creation (writing, painting, code development) with the business end of marketing, promotion and book keeping?
• Do you long for your own personal project manager?
• When focused on a project, have you got the nagging sense that you should be working on something “else”?
• Are you regularly behind schedule, overwhelmed, and missing deadlines?
• Is there a collection of shattered, splattered china tucked away in your closet, the remnants of abandoned projects that lost momentum?

Now, I don’t have a nifty little scoring formula from this quiz to tell you if you need to learn Plate Spinning, but somehow, I suspect you can figure it out

I would really appreciate comments, though… Please let me know how many of these points describe you!

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MindTWEAK: Bullet points. How… organized of me. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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(I got a bit carried away with this post, so if you’re in hurry, go on and jump ahead to the gratuitous bullet points. Otherwise, carry on!)

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Patsi Krackoff (of The Blog Squad and Writing Great Ezines & Blogs) recently posted something remarkably familiar:

“I have a problem managing my work load: I can’t multi-task like most successful people seem to do. I am a one-track minded gal. Like for most entrepreneurs and small biz owners, I have plates spinning in the air all the time, and juggling is required.

If it were up to me, the plates would have splattered already… ” (from One-Track Mind: I Have a Problem )

In my world, the juggling *is* left up to me - and I have an astounding collection of splattered and shattered china to prove it. I’ve also got an impressive set of productivity plans, kits and books, none of which quit did the trick, because again, like Patsi:

“…. I need ruminating time. I need to think about each project with plenty of “mind time” in between. That’s how my best ideas come to me - in the empty spaces in between projects.”

None of the systems I’ve tried allowed for that, or my other quirks. In addition to “mind time,” I need plenty of space to sink myself into my work.

With numerous, diverse projects, finding that space to focus, as well as that necessary mental space between tasks is very difficult — especially while also making sure that nothing essential (like, say, paying the utility bill) slips through the cracks.

So I’ve started experimenting with my own productivity system.

Enter Plate-Spinning Productivity.

Plate-spinning is all about keeping multiple, diverse projects active and rolling, with as little effort and maintenance as possible.

Currently in Beta .1 (or is it Alpha .04? maybe its… oh, bother. I’ve lost track. It’s in development, anyway), it’s tailored to over-focused creative types: people like me, like me, like Patsi, and very likely you, too (If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably creative. Only creative people seem to relate to my peculiar brand of insanity)

People like us often have trouble shifting gears and balancing priorities. We tend to work best according to the driving inspiration of the moment, rather than a pre-defined schedule. Our best work often comes when immersed in the process of creation, sometimes to the point of obsession, and we usually need plenty of unstructured free space to ruminate, think, experience, and shake off our obsessions.

Normal, disciplined productivity methods tend to get in our way.

We’ve tried most popular methods. They look great, they sound great, and we love the bells and whistles. Sometimes we get enthused for a while, inevitably become focused on the organizational method itself, and wind up forgetting the actual projects it was supposed to organize. If we avoid that trap, eventually we wind up immersed in another single obsessive project, and forget all about the method we’re supposed to be using.

“We’ll get back to it,” we think, “just as soon as we finish this project…” But we don’t get back to it. Most productivity methods aren’t designed to be put on hold while we work — the whole point is to channel and direct our workflow. No system, no matter how promising it is, can direct the flow when it’s not part of the flow.

Plate-Spinning is designed to stay in the flow, guiding without interfering.

In a lot of ways, it’s less of a system than an attitude, a way of thinking about multiple projects. With plate-spinning, the goal isn’t to get things “done”, organize, or schedule. The goal for us is simpler… keep a small amount of momentum behind each of our projects — just enough to keep them all spinning.

The idea is to keep the maintenance of our projects low maintenance and natural, opening up the time, energy and focus to immerse ourselves in the obsession of the moment, spend time on loved ones, or just staring blankly at the ceiling (ruminating is work, too!)

Plate-Spinning doesn’t replace your to-do list. It doesn’t require you to rework your entire productivity system, replace all of your file-folders, invest in new software, Moleskines or a lifetime supply of index cards.

Think of it as a plug-in or widget for whatever other system you may find successful.

So who needs it?

I do.

But since you’re probably not me, and you’ve bothered to read this far — you should go find out more, via the gratuitous bullet points check-list.

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MindTWEAK: Sometimes, it takes me thousands of words (this post) to come up with the few hundred words (the bullet points) that really matter. The great thing about blogging? I can post both!

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The idea behind plate-spinning productivity is to keep multiple andAS diverse projects active and “spinning”, with as little effort as possible. Before you start, check out this video: Eric Bren, Plate Spinning Wizard, to see the basis of the metaphor. You can read more about it in the series that starts here, or just dive in headfirst with this Quick Start and wait for me to explain more later.

Setting The Stage:

—Step 1: List Your Projects/Tasks

Jot down about seven of your projects or task categories: These are the “plates” you’ll be spinning.

Don’t make the list too detailed, and don’t try and prioritize it - just a simple list is all we’re after. If you find you have many more than seven, lump some of them together into categories.

—Step 2: Mark any plates that seem *Fragile*

*Fragile* plates are those that will break if they stop spinning and fall out of your attention. Anything that requires constant attention (like feeding the baby) is “fragile” - likewise, anything with a looming deadline, or anything that has a high financial or emotional cost if ignored. [click to continue...]

The idea behind plate-spinning is to keep as many of my projects up in the air and spinning as possible, with as little effort as possible. Read about it here, here and here too.

With my recent lapses in brain-care, you’d think my productivity would have gotten off track, and my projects would have all fallen by the wayside.

My focus was poor, my energy tanked, and I generally felt like I didn’t get a thing done. Funny thing, though… when I sat down to look at where I am from a plate-spinning perspective, it ain’t at all bad. What I think I’ve gotten done and what I’ve actually gotten done are two different things.

Here are my current plates/projects, all of which are in beta-test mode right now.

• This Blog: Spinning I’ve manged to post decent content regularly. I’ve kept up with comments, commented on other blogs, and done some fine-tuning to the design and code.
• Personal Finances: Spinning Everything is up to date, and paid on time. Those taxes still need doing.
• Housework: Spinning This one is a shocker. But I’m actually getting somewhere, starting to keep up, and even <gasp> get ahead. Granted, my inbasket is overflowing, but that’s just an hours work or so.
• Fine & Graphic Art: Spinning I ordered supplies, and the projects I’ll be working on next are pretty well defined in my head.
• Health: Spinning Though this wobbled badly while I had the poison ivy, by noting the problems here, I put them back into my head, and they’re sort of auto-correcting.

So While I lost focus for 2-3 weeks, my projects had enough momentum that they took very little effort to keep moving along. I didn’t put any new projects in the air, but nothing is wobbling. I apparently caught all of the problems before the projects could crash.

How cool is that?

Plate Spinning actually works as a productivity method. Without conscious effort, I’m balancing my projects, maintaining momentum, and as an added benefit? even better is he shift in my attitude after completing this review.

When I started this review post, I was overwhelmed. I felt behind on everything, anxious, and upset that I had slacked off while feeling sickly.

Now that I’ve looked at the situation, I realize that instead of being “behind” and in danger of a crash, I have some room to breathe. None of my plates are in danger of falling, so I can put my energy wherever I like, whether it’s with one of these projects, something new, personal, or just goofing off

I’d really like to make a chart of some sort to give the review process a more visual aspect, so I’ll add that to my Next Projects List:

• Used Book Sales (pre-alpha)
• Book Writing (alpha — the software is ready to go)
• Plate Tracking Chart (pre-alpha)

So there you have it. An MT original method, that is actually, actively working.

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MindTWEAK: Isn’t it great when things just work?

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The idea behind plate-spinning is to keep as many of my projects up in the air and spinning as possible, with as little effort as possible. You can read more about it here and here.

This week, I dropped a whole buncha plates. Ker-Smash.

Oops. Seems that I focused on one plate (research) at the expense of all others. The other projects lost momentum and started wobbling. I mentally “saw” the plates wobbling, but I didn’t stop and spin any of them. As a result, they eventually stopped spinning and fell off of their sticks.

Which brings me to 3 Principals of Plate Spinning Productivity that I need to be aware of, each very roughly outlined.

1. Momentum takes energy. Creating initial momentum takes more energy than maintaining it. I need to spend more energy when I start a project, but once it’s spinning, the momentum is much easier to maintain with lower energy and attention. If a plate falls, and a project stalls, it will take as much time and energy to restart it as it does to start it initially.
2. Focus should be on the gestalt, on the whole line of plates, rather than one or two individual plates. Obviously, focusing for too long on one project means ignoring others which may wobble or fall.. it may also cause the focused-on plate to spin so fast that it flies off the pole. Burnout?
3. Timing matters. I need to develop a sense of how long I can stay away from a particular project, without it losing momentum. I haven’t mastered that yet. It also matters in *which* projects get spun at which times. (Not all plates need to be in the air at all times)

So. Let’s see how badly I’ve done. Here’s a review of the plates I listed 3 weeks ago:

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As I wrote yesterday’s post, I realized I’ve never applied the plate-spinning concept in my own life. Mind you, I don’t think the the friend who came up with the metaphor saw it as a method - it was just a description for what he did. Still… I think it could turn out to be a very interesting active techniques. So let’s start with which plates I currently have spinning:

• This Blog (Mind-Tweaks) It’s got momentum and balance. I’m applying a bit of extra spin with this post. Whirl!
• Personal Finances I’ve actually paid a lot of attention to this in the past few months. It’s spinning along nicely, if a bit wobbly in unneeded expenses. In the next few days, I should see what I can do about cutting some of them out, but for now, it’s fine.
• Housework judging by the mess in the kitchen, this one is definitely wobbling and about to fall.
• Fine & Graphic Art The art-related plates fell off of the poles a few months ago. There’s no pressing need to wind them up, but they should go back into play soon.
• Health Ok, this one sucks. I’ve been putting a bit of effort into it.. clearly not enough. What it needs is some serious momentum, and this is an area that momentum builds quickly.

Looking over my Beta-Testing list…. there’s one pre-alpha project there that I’d like to spin into action. It shouldn’t take much effort to get rolling. So we’ll add it into the mix too.

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Multi-tasking is generating a lot of blog chatter lately; recent studies suggest that trying to accomplish a lot of things at once does not make us more productive, rather, actually seems to make us less efficient. (well.. er.. yeah we knew that, we just like to deny it.) And now, there is evidence from MRI’s to show that the brain isn’t equiped to focus on more than one task at a time. If forced to multi-task, there’s a neural bottleneck, and everything takes just a little bit longer.

And yet, one of the uber-organized gurus I used to spend time with made multi-tasking work for him.

It was amazing to watch, really. He called it “keeping the plates spinning,” referring to the juggler’s act of balancing spinning plates on sticks, shown here:

His trick was to apply just enough energy to each task/ project/ client/ family member/ hobby that each of them would maintain momentum and stay balanced until he could get back and give them another spin. It was really beautiful to watch - especially when I got a birds-eye-view as one of the plates he kept in motion.

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