Fitness PM - Setting Priorities (or "Waahhh! I don't have enough time to do my workout!")

Your time is finite.  You probably have a job, kids, perhaps you go to school, have hobbies, social responsibilities, need to maintain your household, the toilet has backed up, your car is 2000 miles overdue for an oil change, you've got a rash and need to see a doctor, and for crying out loud call your parents.  I get it - you're busy.  How on earth do you squeeze it all in? 
The answer is:  YOU DON'T.  It's not a popular answer.  For instance, Politicians, when faced with budget cuts and tough decisions, will actually trim and reduce ALL budget line items rather than make decisions about removing spending items entirely.  Large corporations will "do more with less" - meaning they will assign even more work to already overtaxed resources - they can't say "no".  In other words, the easy choice is to shortchange everything and ultimately you see the results of this shortchanging everywhere.

"Multi-tasking" was/is a buzz word which basically means you are doing many things in small chunks.  Many new job postings will say "must be able to multi-task".  This is analagous to asking a perspective employee to "must be able to avoid holding self and others accountable for getting the right work done in a timely manner".  Be an accountable grown-up and figure out how to reduce multi-tasking!  Here's a little drawing by yours truly that will explain why multi-tasking is killing your effectiveness:

Multi vs Single Tasking

This is just a simple example - the reality (not shown in the picture) is, tasks will take less time if you work on them until completion.  Your output will probably even be of higher quality.  Sometimes this is impossible, but if you are reducing the amount of set-up time between tasks, you are becoming more efficient. 

How does this apply to making time to work out?  It's all about setting priorities and working in priority order.  The only time you get out of priority order is if an opportunity arises.   Note that I work in a "hierarchy of needs" order, where my base needs are met first where absolutely possible, and "wants" or "nice to haves" are absolutely dead last in priority order.  Obviously this is oversimplified, but I include working out as a "Health" need, and I hit it very early in the morning.

Regular Guy's Hierarchy of Needs

Everybody has this sort of hierarchy, but not everybody puts it into a powerpoint slide and pastes it into a blog.  I work from the inside out, that is, my most core needs are in the center, and the things I need less (wants) are on the outside.    Can you apply this to yourself?  How about to your job?

When you work on a task, you do it as effectively and completely as you possibly can so that you are not half-assing it through your day.  I go so far as to time-block things; ie. say "from 5-6am I work out.  Period."  I do this with pretty much my entire day - here's an example of my daily schedule.



This regular guy's day...time boxed

 This is an over-simplification of a concept called "Theory of Constraints".  In my case, I apply my full resources to the area which needs them the most.  In other words, I kick as much ass as humanly possible on my workout from 5-6am.  I don't stop to wash dishes, my kids stay in bed, my garage stays dirty, and I don't cook breakfast.  Workout.  From 5-6am.  That's it.  If it's important, the task gets done.  If it's less important, it waits (or gets dropped entirely).  You do not have time to do everything in the world.

One other thing - I must admit my evenings do get muddy; it's much harder to time block them as there are more variables.  However, all of those variables (wife, kids, dog) fall under the "family" need, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

How do you box your day?  How do you prioritize your day?  Is this helpful or a complete waste of time?  Give me a shout on my blog, or send me a tweet at @PMGeekAndy.

Fitness PM Thursday - Taking Measurement (or "Why I hated Army Basic Training"))

As a young private, one of the things I absolutely hated about US Army Basic Training was the tests.  HATED THEM.  There were medical tests (vision, height, weight, a physical), there were basic soldier tests (remembering your 3 General Orders, basic rifle marksmanship, basic grenade marksmanship, "the Super Bowl" assessment - including first aid, etc), and there were physical fitness tests (2 mile run, 2 minute push-ups, 2 minute sit-ups).  I still get almost physically ill at the thought of taking these tests.

21 years have flown by since Basic Training in lovely Fort Jackson, SC.  I probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with my M-16, and pray to God that we will not have to rely upon my accurate recital of the 3 General Orders.  However, as a project manager with 20/20 hindsight I really appreciate the Army's propensity to take measurements.

A measurement (or metric) is used to assess capabilities or show progress.  Obviously, you'll want these measurements to be relevant to your Problem (in our case fitness - see my Problem Statement blog).  You'll also want to have enough different metrics to get a good understanding of how you're solving your problem.

The measures that the Army used assessed several capabilities:

• Health:  Is this soldier a body type that will work well in the Army?
• Physical Fitness:  Can this soldier stand up to the rigors of being in a stressful, battlefield situation?
• Soldiering:  Does this soldier have an understanding of the system so as to be a useful asset and not to be a danger to him/herself or their fellow soldiers?

Each measurement, at least in the Army's case, was an accurate representation of your overall fitness for duty.  If a soldier passes the Health criteria and aces the Physical Fitness tests but stinks it up with an M16, the likelihood is either a)

How does this apply to the physical fitness and/or workouts of a regular person?  It's super simple.  First, think about your problem statement.  For example, my problem statement is:

• It currently takes me > 45 minutes to do my favorite fitness hike due to my current weight (191 lbs) and level of fitness.  If I cannot complete this hike in < 40 minutes, I will be late to my other morning commitments (breakfast, childrens' school, work) AND my wife may break my neck.

Hopefully this problem statement and its impact are abundantly clear.  Based on this, what are some measurements that I can use to assess my cuurent capabilities?

• Time:  For this hike, the distance is fixed and the terrain is hilly and rocky, but other than the temperature and the number of people on the trail, all variables remain the same.  I measure the time it takes to get from the trailhead to the top and back again, and I'll measure it each time I do the hike (which is only once per week, on Saturdays at 5am).
• Weight:  Right now, it's about 191, which is just a little heavy for somebody with my frame.  Worse, it causes me to snore (pissing my wife off to no end).  I will keep track of this metric daily since I probably need to lose about 5-6 lbs.
• 3.2 mile run:  My running route begins and ends at the top of a big hill.  I can do this quickly enough to not impact my family, so it is a good exercise to help improve my hike.  Right now, I can do this in about 30 minutes, which is really slow.  Improving this metric, maybe to 25 minutes, will be a good indicator that I am making progress.  I run this two times per week and will time it each time.

Obviously it's great to see improvement in your metrics (a positive trend), but if you notice that one of the metrics is going in a negative direction, you should realize you need to take action.  In my case, my 3.2 mile run time could improve, but unless my weight also improves (i.e. it increases above a trigger point, 191 lbs), it is not likely that my hike time will improve.  An early warning of an issue will trigger you to take action before you are completely derailed.

A couple tips on using metrics:

1. Ensure your metrics are relevant to your problem and/or goal.  Measuring the number of pushups that you can do will not directly help you to understand whether you can perform your hike more quickly. 
2. Make sure your metrics are quantitative:  Saying "I'd like to look good naked" is probably not a good metric.  What if the person who is looking at you is a chubby-chaser?  Pick your weight, your waist size, your hip circumference, etc, as a better metric.
3. Establish trigger points:  While your measurements may fluctuate a little, you may want to pick a trigger point for a measurement.  For instance, if my run takes me more than 30 minutes, then I will need to run a shorter distance or sprints in order to improve my run time.
4. Pick several measurements:  You'll probably want several measurements to accurately monitor your progress.  Time, weight, heartrate, recovery time might be a good combination for the hiking problem.  If you pick too many measurements, they'll be difficult to collect and maintain (and you won't do it).  i would choose 3-5 relevant metrics.
5. Measurement frequency:  This is up to you, but for each measurement that I use, I decide ahead of time how frequently I will measure.  Maybe it's every day.  Maybe it's weekly or monthly.  Do what makes sense, but please realize that the more quickly you identify an issue, the faster you can resolve it.
6. Be consistent when you measure:  Similar to my tip on quantitative measurements, you need to be consistent when measuring.  If measuring your waist, measure at the belly button each time.  When doing pushups, know what constitutes a full pushup (both down and up).  You're only cheating yourself if you're not consistent.

That's it.  And guess what?  I found my old PT test scores from Fort Jackson the other day.  I know I can beat my pushup total right now, I'd probably be close with sit-ups...but there is no way in HELL I could catch an 18 year old version of me in the 2 mile run.  Maybe this should be a new Problem Statement, Goal and Metric for me?  (or maybe I should just accept that I am 39)

Interesting, useful topic?  Would you like to see more of this?  Please reply to my blog or drop me a Tweet @PMGeekAndy

Fitness PM Thursday: Problem statements (i.e. using your big fat body as leverage)

Have you ever noticed that it is often difficult to motivate people to take action?  Have you ever noticed that sometimes one of those people is yourself?

As a project manager, I often have to influence resources who do not report directly to me.  These may include the people who do the work on my projects, my project sponsor, and project stakeholders (e.g. customer, peer team members, suppliers, etc).  Sometimes I will see teams working...but they are not working cohesively, and they may or may not be addressing the appropriate problem with the urgency it needs.

As a regular guy (or gal), oftentimes we have similar problems in our personal lives...and our fitness is no exception!  It is all too easy to continue going through the motions and not taking focused steps to address our issues.  Further, our family and friends might not support our personal "projects" as they may not grasp how important these endeavors are.

This leads me to today's topic:  creating a problem statement.  A Problem Statement is used to gain agreement from stakeholders on what problem is to be solved, and what is the impact of not solving this problem.  I do this as a first order of business when establishing a new project team, and I have begun doing this for my home projects.  An effective problem statement will focus a team and garner attention from sponsors and other stakeholders who can remove "project roadblocks."

A problem statement is constructed as follows:

• <Current situation> <impact of doing nothing>
• Example:  Our XYZ website crashes when we have ABC users logged in simultaneously.  The impact is that we are lozing up to $ZZZ in sales per day and have experienced a

A couple of notes:  The problem statement should have some sort of quantifiable measurement, both in the current situation and the impact.  Making this tangible is the best way to grab people's attention and unite their energies.  The problem statement, in my opinion, should NOT include any solutions.  It also should not state Goals (this is a separate activity, see my goal-setting blog from a couple weeks back).  When a team is too focused on solutions and goals without first agreeing on a problem, this is analagous to straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Trust me - this applies to personal fitness!  My example:  losing weight!  At the end of graduate school, I was tipping the scales at 215 lbs.  In fact, my Nintendo Wii Fit character was round!  I needed to address this, and I needed support from my family.  Here's the problem statement that I came up with:

• My weight is 215 lbs and BMI is > 27.  The impact of this is that I have to buy new pairs of pants and snore heavily (which keeps my wife awake).  There are also long term health impacts including susceptibility to arthritis, back pain and needless risk of Type II diabetes.

Simple, powerful, and useful when focusing my attention on improving my diet and forcing me to work out.  There were measurements (weight, BMI...I could have gotten into my waist size, cholesterol, etc - but you get the idea).  The impact was also very clear - this would impact my wallet, impact my wife's sleep, and impact my family.  Creating this statement got my wife to allow me to buy P90X (and ultimately the Insanity and Rush Fit).  Yes - I ultimately lost 30 lbs (have gained 5-7 back - but am in good shape).

I hope this is helpful.  Have you ever had problems focusing your resources?  (or yourself?)  Send me some feedback or drop me a line on Twitter (@PMGeekAndy) if you have any questions or would like help crafting your fitness problem statement!

Fitness PM Thursday: Risk Management (or...how to keep kids from ruining your workout)

If you haven't guessed by now, as a Dad, my workouts are not exactly the top priority for the rest of my family.  Frankly, as long as I have enough energy to drop my kids off at school, help coach their teams, help with homework, clean dishes, make dinner, get their "Rio" movie to play for the 500th time this week, etc... the kids are good.  Being a dad who is present involves much more than just showing up.

However, what my kids, wife, co-workers, neighbors and maybe even the weird guy who wears makeup at the grocery store will be unable to argue with is that I can be a complete prick when I am unable to get my workouts in.  I'm grumpy, less productive, and I have guilty feelings because I probably spouted off about working out (then didn't actually do it).  Further, when I'm having these feelings, I am much less present in the OTHER activities which fill my time.  Hence...my prick-ness.

In any sort of project, you need to be able to make certain assumptions in order to complete your assignment.  For instance, if I am a software developer, I need to be able to assume that I will have access to compilers, licenses, adequate disk space, a functioning server and expertise in order to build whatever software I'm building in a timely fashion.  If I am a general contractor renovating a kitchen, I have to assume access to the home we are working in, the subcontractors will show up when scheduled, the materials will be appropriate and show up on time, financing will come through, etc.  There are lots of variables and assumptions to be made, and (one of) the difference(s) between a mediocre project manager and a good project manager is they manage these assumptions.

If a blown assumption has a possible effect on the success of a project, it is known as a Risk.  The practice of planning for, identifying, analyzing, responding to and monitoring risks as they arise on a project is known as Risk Management (PMBOK ver 3.0, http://www.pmi.org/).  A risk can be thought of as an "If-Then" statement:

• IF <some things happens> THEN <consequence>

By identifying risks and analyzing their impacts, you can assess whether or not you need to worry about them.  When you perform your analysis, you'll need to get an understanding of what the likelihood of the risk coming true is and what would be the impact of the risk coming true.

How does this tie to working out?  For me, it's pretty clear that there are a few risks I need to manage.

1. IF I do not start my workout before 5:10am THEN it will not complete in time.
2. IF I make noise getting ready for my workout THEN the kids will wake up and I will not get to work out
3. IF there is no water for our cooler THEN I will not be able to complete my workout.
4. IF there is clutter in my workout area THEN my workout my not complete in time

While analyzing these risks, I must plan for each of them differently.  For risk #1, I am an extremely deep sleeper, and my morning has a tight schedule.  While it is not the end of the world if I'm a little late, it is much better to be done before our kids are awake so that I can help to get them prepared for school.  My risk mitigation plan is to set my alarm on my cell phone for 5:00am and have my equipment ready to go the night before.

For risk #2, if I wake up my kids, I'm toast.  That is a show-stopper!  They will want to eat, watch "Sponge Bob" and make a ton of noise.  This risk is also high probability, so I have to be very careful.  To prevent this, I actually sleep in my workout clothes and have my workout shoes waiting in the living room.  I keep lights off and have the DVD play on our Mac at an extremely low volume.  My only contingency (what do I do if it happens anyway) is to work out later in the day (which generally never happens).

Risk #3 is extremely low probability.  Honestly, I could probably suck it up and drink tap water if I had to.  While I'm aware that this risk exists, this is not a risk I will monitor regularly.

Risk #4 is extremely high probability, but the impact is somewhat less severe.  I'm going to be stuck moving some clutter so that I can get my workout in.  I accept this risk, and I wake up a little earlier or move it the night before.

Does this make sense?  What risks do you face in trying to accomplish your fitness goals?