Stellar Recap and the One Thing Project

 

I ended yesterday's blog post about Continuous Learning with a recommendation to subscribe to Stellar Recap which includes an opportunity to explore the "One Thing Project."

The One Thing Project is described in Stella's premier newsletter as follows: 

One thing project. I started a structured journal where I allow myself 15 minutes to write a simple and concise answer to a question prompt. I then reflect on these answers to see if there is anything I hesitated with or want to revise, which provides deeper insight into my values and preferences. My questions this week were: If you could only read articles and books about one topic, which topic would you choose? If you could magically swap lives with someone right now, regardless of whether you feel qualified to take over their profession, who would you swap lives with? You’re about to be appointed as the top leader of an organization or company. Which organization or company do you want it to be? If you could try something new today or tomorrow, ignoring any limitations, what would it be? What is one default behavior or bad habit that you would change?

At first I thought Stella might be piggy-backing off of the book The One Thing, but no, this is all her own One Thing Project.   The questions are those she came up with "from different sources such as interviews, psychological surveys, career assessments, and some were written down simply out of personal interest."

Stella uses this set of guidelines:

1. No more than a minute to reflect on the question
2. One answer that's written as concisely as possible--the answer should include the reasoning behind the response 
3. Response should be time-constrained (10-20 minutes max.)
4. No editing (Stella allows herself time for addendums)

In a week, she tackles one question each day for 5 days, uses the 6th day to review and reflect, and a 7th day for free-journaling.

Stella created this journaling system as a way of discovering patterns and themes about herself.  As you'll see when you explore the rest of her newsletter, this is a woman with insatiable curiosity.  

For those of us who are interested in such a wide variety of interests it can be difficult to know where to focus.  (Focus is another one of those skills we talk about in Agile cultures.)

This One Thing Project is a classic example of using agile practices and specifically, it's a great example of helping to find focus.

The questions are about self-discovery.  These will help you know how to prioritize all the things you do based on your on passions and personality.  Time-constraining the writing of your answers helps you practice a time-boxing technique that helps you focus. (I'll write a whole separate blog post about this.) And finally, leaving time to review and reflect, is a classic agile required for continual learning and improvement!

I'm so proud of my daughter-in-law in all she does and shares with the world. She's a true Sockdolager!