Benefits of Capture

Now that we have walked through Capture and Processing, let's talk about the benefits that come with doing Capture right. Before I get into it I want to reiterate that Capture requires discipline. Any time Capture has failed, it was because I did not have the discipline to maintain either Capture or Processing. When I first started to fail I would beat myself up over it. If I slip now I think of it more as letting my room get a little too messy so I must do the extra work to clean it up. It doesn’t stop being something I do anymore. I need it like I need sleep and I just don’t work well without it.

Productivity is the heart of Capture. I find that when I consistently capture tasks that life gets easier. I give someone a task, I schedule a follow up when it is supposed to be completed. I remember a topic I want to bring up in a meeting next week, I put it in a list that I pull up in the appropriate meeting. While planning I will break large projects down to its component tasks and add them to the correct lists. It has come to the point that the people I work closely with know how well I am doing at Capture by the quality of my work and participation. Think about that. What other productivity habit has such a noticeable affect? I mentioned sleep earlier, but I really would like to know what you think on twitter (@minorleagueCEO). I can go on and on about how closely Capture and productivity are related in my life….and I will in the next blog where I will be reviewing my history and current process.

Stress Relief and Work-Life Balance are also big for me. I am not an 80 hour a week CEO most of the time, and when I am, I plan it with my family. Early on I had a big problem with keeping work and home life separate. It's just not something I was taught. I specifically had an issue where problems I was working on would get stuck in by head and I would think about it without meaning to and let it get between me and my family. I would assume a large portion of people experience the same thing. Simple things like reminders or basic tasks are annoying to try and make yourself remember and they cause stress because you don’t want to forget. For me, writing those things down is an immediate release from that stress. For big problems I take 5 to 10 minutes to figure out what actionable items I could write down that ensures that all of what I am thinking about is covered. For the biggest of problems (this will be its on blog in the future) I write my entire thought process down and from that writing I Capture action items. From some of these bigger tasks it will take practice. The first time I did it I didn’t trust myself because I didn’t know how it would work. Over time I learned to trust in this process because it has never let me down so long as I do it properly. Now, when I am finished entering tasks, I can let go more completely. This allows me to be more present with my family and that is my goal. Work life balance is hard because being as good as you can be at both requires more mental focus than picking one or the other and just throwing yourself at it. We will talk about this in-depth in the future, but Capture is (and I think I have said this before) where it starts for me.

Idea creation and growth is also something we have talked about before. Never in my life did I think I was capable of writing a book or doing anything on a large scale. Now I put more thought into what book I would like to write first when the time comes. Capture allows the seeds of an idea to grow into whatever you desire. You can also do it at your own pace. I consider it my zero-pressure planning for things I want to do. When I want to push out an idea, I do. If I don’t, I just let it sit and add things as they come to me, or when I come back around to being interested in the topic. That fits for me because what I am interested in switches on a regular basis. Sometimes I'm into networking, sometimes it’s how I plan to teach my children to respect others and be tolerant people. Sometimes it's how to improve at my favorite vidya game. Nothing stops me from growing my understanding of any situation I choose. So long as I pay attention, and capture.

None of this is new or revolutionary. It's just how it works for some people. Growing up no one taught me about making lists or writing things down. When I saw people do it I thought they were silly for not being able to remember things they wanted to do. It wasn’t until I shouldered some real responsibility for the first time that I realized I wasn’t good enough to be trusted. It hurt initially, but now it's something I am comfortable with. I am comfortable, because I know it is a weakness and I have Capture to make up for it. I am always down to talk about this and share my perspective so reach out on twitter or the comments section if you have questions.

P.S. The next blog might take more than two weeks. It looks like it will be pretty big and I want to make sure it is not a cluttered piece of shit that doesn’t make sense to anyone but me. I will update on twitter if it will be delayed.