With this episode, I’m rolling something out that’s a bit different. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe not.
Like most of you, I do a lot of training, job and daily work activity preparation while holding onto a steering wheel. There is something about the austere environment that the front seat of a truck can provide. I try to use the time as best as I can. Occasionally, it’ll be music in the background, most of the times it’s going to be a podcast. Trying to add some mind expanding while commuting.
For the past several months, I’ve been mounting my GoPro with my Hollyland Lark M2 microphone, and when the moment strikes, simply hitting “Record” and riffing. Most of what I’m recording ends up on the proverbial cutting room floor. But, I’m playing around with the combined mediums. I gaining confidence in posting. And I’d like to think that my brain dumps are somewhat interesting, sometimes thought provoking. So many podcast hosts have provided me with knowledge & ideas to incorporate into action items, or to write about, or to just dwell on, trying to tie their experiences & knowledge with mine in my industry.
So, I’m going to try to post more of these shorts. We’ll see what happens.
In this episode, I riff on ideas surrounding “Consistency.”
-How consistent am I being? How purposeful? How disciplined?
-Am I just talking a good game? Or am I genuinely trying to stay consistent in my daily routines and actions?
-How am I organize my day? My morning routines? How am I using OneNote? Jocko’s “Eminently Qualified Human?” My Franklin Planner?
Links from the episode:
Engineering Management Institute
Podcast Trascription
All right, team, what is up? Bob Hildebranski, Construction Engineering Show podcast, Construction Engineering Show YouTube channel. Just checking in with you. Starting a little effort, what I’m calling the windshield debrief, a little after actions report. Things I’m thinking about on the drive to work, on the way home from work, after actions from the day, things that may have gone right, things that may have gone bad. Been recording them, keeping them in the roll, just rolling them out, small snippets. So check it out. Here’s one for you today.
This evening, what’s the debrief topic? Today, consistency. The word that’s been drumming in my head today, consistency. How consistent am I being? This is my personal debrief that I get to share with everybody. Am I being consistent? I am sitting thinking about the word, the vernacular, the term, what does consistency mean? Discipline, consistency, discipline, do those two go together? And how well am I applying either of those? I think I’m okay. Today, just driving home, full day today, full week this week. How well am I executing what I need to be executing during the day? It’s a constant drumbeat for me. How can I be more effective? How do I raise my percentage of impact? You guys have heard me say that before. And I guess today, how consistent am I being in those efforts?
I’m going to share on the website my means. So Franklin Planner, I think you all know, I’m a paper planner guy. My planning process since 1989, when I got my first Franklin Planner, has always, always, always consistently had me spending the first part of the morning getting myself together and prioritizing. And that prioritization system has evolved over the decades. It’s gone from the Hiram Smith, the originator of the Franklin, of creating the ABC and then ones and twos and threes. And I use that for a long, long time. I’ve since morphed, changed, tried, done different things, somehow always coming back to that list. I need that tactile being able to write something down because for me that reinforces. It just reinforces the need for what it is.
I have been using OneNote to keep track of open emails, open loops, open tags. Very convenient for being able to slide things around. Maybe someday I could do a little screen share of how I’ve been using OneNote. It’s pretty cool, I think, anyway. In terms of maintaining the influx of email tasks and to monitor type issues and how I do that, whether or not that would be helpful. Because I will continue to promote in the field of being a good resident, being a good leader in whatever management role that you have of leading teams, of leading tasks, of leading efforts. I need, you need, we need to be able to quickly monitor and update and know, have the pulse of whatever project job it is. Where are the two, three, five, 12, 18 open loops in the process and how am I keeping tabs on those? Very important. On email, on an electronic basis, right now OneNote seems to be the right way to do it. I tried Trello, I tried different, I tried the Franklin Planner, had an electronic thing for a while. I always fall back. So right now OneNote is working pretty well. I think I will. Maybe I’ll do a screen share and just post that somewhere. A little five minute video of just how I’m using it, how I’m dragging.
Anyway, in terms of consistency in my day to days, I’ve kind of morphed into a new system using, it’s been a little bit of a hybrid. You guys know I’m a fan of Jocko. Jocko and his discipline equals freedom. Every January he kind of rolls out his categories, what’s important. And up before the enemy, prioritize and execute, fuel, hydrate, back to the book of reading something every day, avoiding sugar, what does he say? Sugar-coated lies, avoiding that. Anyway, you can look up Jocko. Maybe I’ll put a link to that somewhere. But it’s cool. He’s got an app, which I tried, just loaded. Anyway, reinforcing categorically things that ought to be prioritized.
And when I think of consistency, that is something I can religiously say I’m consistent with is that morning session of taking that little extra time and going through what needs to be done. All right, so consistent within that.
And I’ve kind of morphed that into something that Ryan Michler over at the Order of Man had put together of his kind of daily worksheet. It’s really cool. It’s really worked for me. I’ve moved away from the Franklin ABC and D and tried to just work with tasks a little different.
Things to try:
- Consistency.
- Having that consistent routine in the morning.
And my morning routine is locked. It’s locked in. I have a very specific cadence in the morning:
- Prayer time for me.
- Time to read.
- Time to reflect.
- Time to journal.
The last couple of months, you guys are going to think I’m crazy, but I bought a $60 cold plunge off of Amazon. It is ridiculous how invigorating that little process of five minutes. I’ve taken my ruck, going out for hopefully, they try to be consistent, consistent, try to be consistent and getting the ruck on my back and going out for a 20, 25 minute ruck. But that five minutes in the cold water is supercharging. And I’m not kidding you when I say that. I’m not some sort of hippie new wave try this thing. There is something that just fires. I’m almost going to say it’s better than caffeine. Just the stimulation, the dunking yourself in the cold water.
It’s interesting in the Chicago area. It’s usually the water’s 65 degrees or so. Right now the temperatures have dropped overnight. It’s been in the fifties. That water this morning was 56 degrees. I lasted three minutes. That’s all I could get out of it. It’s ridiculous. But the effect that it has just on my system is, I can’t explain it. It’s an experiential thing that I will recommend. Give it a try if and when you get a chance.
Consistency. That’s part of the routine. And I really think that those morning habits for me, getting into the office, it’s something that I think you can do, that we can do. Think about how consistent you are.
And really where this is going is then when I leap off of that, the morning routine is done. Getting into work mode. How consistent am I in the next tier of the things that I know that I want, that are priorities to me? I can be more. I should be more consistent.
I harp but preach talk. We talk a lot about training here on this channel. It’s important to me. We don’t train enough. We’ve been doing a lot of training here lately within the group that I’m with. Illinois Tollway has been sponsoring what we’re calling Construction Manager CM Seminars. They’ve been great because they are training sessions. Working with Anthony Fasano and doing the instruction work at the Engineering Management Institute. Again, it’s training not only for us doing virtual sessions for the groups that are coming in, but it reinforces things for me.
It’s training. Am I consistent in my training efforts? By default, I’ve had a lot of things that are forcing that hand. So it’s coming at me where it is part of that. But those tangential means of effort for me to engage in modules of training, modes of training that are important, that I want to maintain consistency in what I preach.
Reviewing a checklist in the morning, reading an article, doing a safety brief for myself. That consistency I need to get better at. And that for me today is in this 10-minute session here of the windshield debrief, asking myself that question and knowing there are areas of focus that I need to elevate into that morning system to make that part of discipline, make it part of the habit, make it part of this consistent effort that we’re doing.
So there’s always time for a course correction. I think that’s where it is. We’re always learning. I’m not perfect. I’m not the model. I’m just trying to chip away at the rock every day. And knowing that I need to chip a little harder, that recognition of just like this as we’re talking now, knowing that I need to chip a little harder, chip in some areas of the rock that I haven’t chipped at in a while because that consistent effort pays dividends.
There’s the jump off. So I’ve got to take a look. I’m going to challenge you. Take a look at your systems.
So I’ve got to take a look. I’m going to challenge you. Take a look at your systems. This conversation ought to be able to give you some ideas on different things you can do. It’d be fun to get some uploads up on the website. Link this chat to the articles of how I’m doing what I’m doing if it’s interesting to you. Go head over to the website. Check it out. Maybe it’s something you want to adapt into your system.
So, alright. Consistency. Windshield debrief. Catch you on the next one. Peace out.
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