Welcome back to our series on keeping time in perspective. We are halfway through this series on keeping time in perspective, with a discussion of Agile and how you can say yes to the important tasks and no to the tasks that do not align with your pillars and vision at this time. Having an ideas overflow space in your business allows you to dream without worrying that you need to implement right at this moment. With our theme of simplicity, clarity, and vision for 2022 in mind, lets jump in.
Introduction
You can have your priorities, your pillars, your backlog, the yes and ideas overflow tasks all nicely sorted, but then a new opportunity pops up. What do you do? Do you say yes and throw everything out of whack or do you say no to preserve the order? It can seem complicated and opportunities, especially if you are open to them, are abundant.
So what do you do? You obviously can’t say yes to every opportunity that arises, just like you probably don’t want to say no to every opportunity. There must be a balance and finding that balance can be made a little easier with Agile in your life. You definitely don’t want to miss out on an important opportunity when it arises.
Choosing Opportunities
Before we talk about how Agile can help here, lets pause for a definitely of the word agile from dictionary.com: “quick and well-coordinated in movement”. This leads us to believe that the Agile system for time and project management should be flexible and fluid. Something that can change quickly and with coordination and it can. The beauty of Agile is that you aren’t locked into a specific set of tasks in a specific order for the entire year. You have your backlog, but then you are pulling items in or adding newly discovered items to a sprint every 10 days, or whatever time span you choose. This means that you don’t have to stay stuck with a set-in-stone plan for the year that ignores that fact that life and opportunities are fluid.
With that settled, there is space and a place for opportunities as they arise, now you can put time and energy into deciding WHICH opportunities to say yes to and which will get the no or maybe later designation.
Let me give you an example to get us started. You are a new coach, you just finished your training, have a brand-new certification but you see this other specialized training that looks amazing. They open just a few times a year and you are really excited about the content. Do you say yes or no? The answer depends. You have to think about not just cost but also time. Remember that time is finite. You don’t have an endless supply. When you look at your time what will fit into your schedule? If you are hoping to make progress in building your coaching clientele, this course might be a no for now even if the finances make sense. You might also consider if the course will be more impactful after you have more coaching experience. Will the content make more sense and be more readily applicable? You also want to consider our good friend procrastination. Take a look at your backlog. Are the items on that backlog ones that make you nervous, push you outside your comfort zone, or are labeled as large? Are you inviting a new opportunity to push these tasks that you have already identified as critical to your vision and the pillars of focus back for a little while? Why might that be?
These are tough questions and conversations to have with yourself. In fact, it can be very helpful to discuss these kinds of questions with a mentor or your peer community. Fellow coaches who have been in your shoes and can listen with an open mind. Sometimes we get so close to the situation that we don’t even realize the barriers that we might be constructing that slow down our progress.
When we are considering any opportunity that impacts the Coaching Hive, we take time to explore what would happen if we move forward, what happens if we ignore the opportunity, in addition to the time and financial ramifications. By doing this, instead of making split second decisions, which often aren’t necessary for your coaching business, measured decisions are made with the whole business in mind, including the backlog, vision, and pillars.
This is just one example. What about a new tool that you want to use in your business and there is an incredible flash sale. Do you run for your wallet, pull out the credit card, and purchase that tool? Unless you find the flash sale in the last minutes of the deal, you probably have a little time to explore the opportunity a bit. Once again, you can look at the financial cost. If it doesn’t make sense financially there is no need to go any further. This can go into the Ideas overflow for a later date. Now if the finances make sense, especially with the sale, you can dig a little deeper. What if this tool would be a big benefit for your clients and even for your own efficiency as a coach, but it takes 20 hours of training to master? Do you have 20 hours to spare in your upcoming sprints to focus on mastery of the tool? If not, will the tool just languish going unused month after month? Does it make sense when you put the time you have into perspective? This is why having Agile at your fingertips, knowing your backlog, your sprint makeup, and time availability help you to choose which opportunities are right for you.
Now what about something that has little financial cost like attending a networking event? Can Agile help you here? The answer is yes, you can add this opportunity to your upcoming sprint and know that you will need to move fewer items from your backlog into the sprint to makeup for the time spent networking. What happens though if the backlog items can’t wait any longer? What if they do have date dependencies and the deadline is approaching? Then you may need to recognize that this specific networking event isn’t right, but you can look for another similar opportunity that fits into a future sprint. In fact, you could build in networking to your backlog so that you are automatically thinking about this concept as you plan each future sprint.
Conclusions
Are you beginning to see the benefits of Agile? The flexibility of this approach to your time allows you more freedom and actually helps with data-driven decisions. This brings about simplicity, clarity, and a focus on your vision that simply going with the flow doesn’t generate.
Your backlog, sprint knowledge, and done tasks piling up will soon help you see the benefits of slowing down to craft your vision, your pillars of focus, and the planning that happens for each short sprint. There are no longer long drawn-out tasks that never seem to move forward. You are taking action and completing actions every 10 or so days. Agile embodies simplicity and clarity.
We have just one more episode in this series. Next week we are going to walk back a little and make sure that you are still thinking about where you are headed. It is easy when you get into these brief sprints to lose sight of the big picture. Stepping back every once in awhile will help you stay grounded in your vision and pillars.
Tip for the Week
To help you stay on track this week lets end with a simple task to keep you focused. Pay attention this week for opportunities that arise. Once you have your sights set on an opportunity, explore whether this opportunity makes sense when looking at your backlog, current sprint, works in progress, and even the financial impacts. If you are struggling to see opportunities, think about your time on social media. Do you spend time responding to posts in the professional groups you belong to? If so, this is an opportunity that you can choose to accept or choose to forgo. What makes the most sense? See what it feels like to take an objective look at opportunities, even if they are small so that you have practiced for when the bigger opportunities pop up.
I look forward to seeing you back here next week for another episode of the Coaching Hive Podcast where a focus on mentoring and community removes the overwhelm of building your successful coaching business and adds in a dose of momentum.
Until next time, have a healthy, safe, and happy week!
~ Dr. Moira
