Are You Doing Agile Results?

If you already use Agile Results as your personal results system, you have a big advantage.

Why?

Because most people are running around, scrambling through a laundry list of too many things to do, a lack of clarity around what the end result or outcomes should be, and a lack of clarity around what the high-value things to focus on are.  They are using their worst energy for their most important things.  They are spending too much time on the things that don’t matter and not enough time on the things that do.   They are feeling at their worst, when they need to feel at their best, and they are struggling to keep up with the pace of change.

I created Agile Results to deal with the chaos in work and life, as a way to rise above the noise, and to easily leverage the most powerful habits and practices for getting better results in work and life.

Agile Results, in a nutshell, is a simple system for mastering productivity and time management, while at the same time, achieving more impact, realizing your potential, and feeling more fulfillment.

I wrote about the system in the book Getting Results the Agile Way.  It’s been a best seller in time management.

How Does Agile Results Work?

Agile Results works by combining proven practices for productivity, time management, psychology, project management, and some of the best lessons learned on high-performance.   And it’s been tested for more than a decade under extreme scenarios and a variety of conditions from individuals to large teams.

Work-Life balance is baked into the system, but more importantly Agile Results helps you live your values wherever you are, play to your strengths, and rapidly learn how to improve your results in an situation.  When you spend more time in your values, you naturally tap into your skills and abilities that help bring out your best.

The simplest way to think of Agile Results is that it helps you direct your attention and apply your effort on the things that count.  By spending more time on high-value activities and by getting intentional about your outcomes, you dramatically improve your ability to get better results.

But none of that matters if you aren’t using Agile Results.

How Can You Start Using Agile Results?

Start simple.

Simply ask yourself, “What are the 3 wins, results, or outcomes that I want for today?.”   Consider the demands you have on your plate, the time and energy you’ve got, and the opportunities you have for today, and write those 3 things down.

That’s it.   You’re doing Agile Results.

Of course, there’s more, but that’s the single most important thing you can do to immediately gain clarity, regain your focus, and spend your time and energy on the most valuable things.

Now, let’s assume this is the only post you ever read on Agile Results.   Let’s take a fast walkthrough of how you could use the system on a regular basis to radically and rapidly improve your results on an ongoing basis.

How I Do Agile Results? …

Here’s a summary of how I do Agile Results.

I create a new monthly list at the start of each month that lists out all the things that I think I need to do, and I bubble up 3 of my best things I could achieve or must get done to the top.   I look at it at the start of the week, and any time I’m worried if I’m missing something.  This entire process takes me anywhere from 10-20 minutes a month.

I create a weekly list at the start of the week, and I look at it at the start of each day, as input to my 3 target wins or outcomes for the day, and any time I’m worried if I’m missing anything.   This tends to take me 5-10 minutes at the start of the week.

I barely have to ever look at my lists – it’s the act of writing things down that gives me quick focus on what’s important.   I’m careful not to put a bunch of minutia in my lists, because then I’d train my brain to stop focusing on what’s important, and I would become forgetful and distracted.  Instead, it’s simple scaffolding.

Each day, I write a simple list of what’s on my mind and things I think I need to achieve.   Next, I step back and ask myself, “What are the 3 things I want to accomplish today?”, and I write those down.   (This tends to take me 5 minutes or less.  When I first started it took me about 10.)

Each Friday, I take the time to think through three things going well and three things to improve.   I take what I learn as input into how I can simplify work and life, and how I can improve my results with less effort and more effectiveness.   This takes me 10-20 minutes each Friday.

How Can You Adopt Agile Results?

Use it to plan your day, your week, and your month.

Here is a simple recipe for adopting Agile Results and using it to get better results in work and life:

1. Add a recurring appointment on your calendar for Monday mornings.  Call it Monday Vision.   Add this text to the body of the reminder: “What are your 3 wins for this week?”
2. Add a recurring appointment on your calendar to pop up every day in the morning.  Call it Daily Wins.  Add this text to the body of the reminder: “What are your 3 wins for today?”
3. Add a recurring appointment on your calendar to pop up every Friday mid-morning.  Call it Friday Reflection.  Add this text to the body of your reminder:  What are 3 things going well?  What are 3 things to improve?”
4. On the last day of the month, make a full list of everything you care about for the next month.   Alphabetize the list.  Identify the 3 most important things that you want to accomplish for the month, and put those at the top of the list.   Call this list  Monthly Results for Month XYZ.  (Note – Alphabetizing your list helps you name your list better and sort your list better.  It’s hard to refer to something important you have to do if you don’t even have a name for it.  If naming the things on your list and sorting them is too much to do, you don’t need to.  It’s just an additional tip that helps you get even more effective and more efficient.)
5. On Monday of each week, when you wake up, make a full list of everything you care about accomplishing for the week.  Alphabetize the list.  Identify the 3 most important things you want to accomplish and add that to the top of the list.  (Again, if you don’t want to alphabetize then don’t.)
6. On Wednesdays, in the morning, review the three things you want to accomplish for the week to see if anything matters that you should have spent time on or completed by now.  Readjust your priorities and focus as appropriate.  Remember that the purpose of having the list of your most important outcomes for the week isn’t to get good at predicting what’s important.  It’s to help you focus and to help you make better decisions about what to spend time on throughout the week.  If something better comes along, then at least you can make a conscious decision to trade up and focus on that.  Keep trading up.   And when you look back on Friday, you’ll know whether you are getting better at trading up or if you are just getting randomize or focusing on the short-term but hurting the long term.
7. On Fridays,  in the morning, do your Friday Reflection.  As part of the exercise, check against your weekly outcomes and your monthly outcomes that you want to accomplish.  If you aren’t effective for the week, don’t ask “why not,” ask “how to.”   Ask how can you bite off better things and how can you make better choices throughout the week.  Just focus on little behavior changes, and this will add up over time.  You’ll get better and better as you go, as long as you keep learning and changing your approach.   That’s the Agile Way.

There are lots of success stories by other people who have used Agile Results.   Everybody from presidents of companies to people in the trenches, to doctors and teachers, to teams and leaders, as well as single parents and social workers.

But none of that matters if it’s not your story.

Work on your success story and just start getting better results, right here, right now.

What are the three most important things you really want to accomplish or achieve today?