How I Plan My Life - 2 Week Sprint Masterclass

[@StephaniePhilp]

Sheng, I love your openness to sharing your own life and being 'real'. It's a rare quality and so appreciated as it makes you, and what you do, relatable. We don't have to beat ourselves up for not achieving; we can just review and start again. It a great way to gain continuous improvement.

[@ShengHuang]

Thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement! I believe that sharing our true experiences, including both successes and challenges, is crucial in creating a genuine connection and understanding. You're absolutely right - we don't need to be harsh on ourselves for not achieving certain goals at times. Life is a continuous journey of learning and growth! Each time we review and start again, we're not just restarting; we're moving forward with more insight and strength than before. This mindset is essential for continuous improvement and personal development! Your appreciation for this approach means a lot to me. Thank you again for your support!

[@jacquerush7177]

thankyou for your content. I'm fighting a lot of brain issues/aging, and much of your content is structured enough that I can plug in my micro goals and improve my overall life, while not getting too obsessed with my decline and slow progress.

[@ShengHuang]

I'm glad this video has helped you Jacque. While we can't stop aging, we can choose how gracefully we do so. You're doing an admirable job seeking out new tools and systems to do just that 🙌

[@nextlooker]

have seen this video more than once. Also had it playing in the background when I was planning my own sprint. Definitely enjoyed and appreciated you candidly sharing your plans and thinking process - not awkward at all!

[@ShengHuang]

I'm glad it was helpful Kenny!

[@therealrayster]

Sheng what you are doing to other creatives is such a goldmine that this video tutorial is almost a course! Thank you from the bottom of a fellow introvert's heart

[@frankwaterman8951]

I love the way that no time is wasted in doing your sprint plan. This a great combination of a GTD "Mind Sweep".. & what Alex Osterwalder calls "Ideation" & then giving it structure in the Mind map.. I use a "concept map" to do my stuff first.. before doing the Mind map..

[@ShengHuang]

Thanks Frank! I use multiple mind maps to "distill" messier concepts into simple actionable steps. Sometimes it can take 2 or even 3 maps to get there. But it always works, somehow.

[@frankwaterman8951]

@@ShengHuang ah Sheng.. That seems to be quite normal. What I have learned from Professor Jordan Peterson is that a bad beginning is a great start. He says a lot of our first ideas are bad. What I have learned by using a concept map is to get everything into the concept map at first go, uncritically. Then I can spot where "clusters" of ideas seem to be emerging.. Because it is a concept map, there is no structure like in a mind map.. so it is very easy to move things around. Then the ideas start forming a direction .. which can be put into the mind map...

[@pen_journal]

Awesome share again Sheng!!! Your level of content is just AMAZING! Thank you!!!

[@ShengHuang]

Thank YOU for coming by!

[@youarewhatyouthinkmedia]

Ok, this is gold dust - consider this video saved Sheng! Thank you for creating such a comprehensive look into your system. Looking forward to learning from this video over the next few days.

[@ShengHuang]

Just growing a week at a time man!

[@loicsoriano]

So valuable, thank you very much, I keep it for reference to uplift my next 2 week sprint.

[@ShengHuang]

Let's level up together my friend!

[@lynd4188]

You are providing a great service to all those who seek a path in life. wonderful!

[@servicioslinguisticos5502]

Right now I'm using mind maps to figure out how I've been doing things, in retrospect. I'm the total opposite of you, I like winging it, BUT sometimes my own lack of structure brings me grief and stress. I have NO IDEA what's going to come out on that paper, and it's so cool to start to understand how my mind works! You have inspired me to do this, thanks!

[@ShengHuang]

Haha you sound like Olivia! She's not the mapping type and lives (revels?) in chaos (in a good way though sometimes it can be stressful). This is where frameworks, talking to her therapist and working through problems with me is useful. It goes both ways of course because sometimes I'm TOO orderly which can suck the fun outta life ;) So like many things in life, it is a balance my friend!

[@wherezthebeef]

Thank you Sheng, another gem, I'm going to revisit this one... this is just a masterclass!

[@ShengHuang]

Thank you Jim! I'm glad it was helpful :)

[@BodilWandt]

I just discovered your videos and love them. This one too. One thing: according to Traditional Chinese Medicine TCM it's good to not be awake between midnight (or 11 pm?) and 6 in the morning. This is the time the body is cleaning and mending it self, so pushing for 5 am is probably counter productive. TCM has many thousands of years of experience.

[@ShengHuang]

Good to know! Sometimes the western way of doing things for productivity's sake can be counterproductive - seems like a recurring theme in our society ;)

[@thinktank8286]

Really like your kind and thoughtful video. An application and practice question: 1. How would you do this with firm locked-in work tasks as an employee, not a freelance self-directing employee? 2. How would you do this with chaotic, high urgency, marriage and family needs/tasks. Frankly, so many productivity videos on YT pitch ideas that seem only applicable to young, single, hustle-self employeed people. Not people where it seems everyone else between work and family runs my life not of my choosing. (Probably a counselor issue) but thank you just the same! 😉 As an Agile Business Analyst, I found it very interesting that you seemed go metric effort in hours and days rather than some ethereal/mystical 'story point' 😀 How long is a "day" for you, is that a 8 hour working day? Or a 16 hour "wake" day?

[@ShengHuang]

Thank you for your kind words my friend :) Great questions. My take: 1) You might find some insight from this particular section in the to-do MM video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGq8YqOpa7iYbq8. I used to have weekly syncs with my manager and go through my Monday to-do MM to lay out my major focus areas and tasks for the week. It's not quite a 2-week sprint but it is close because it allows my team to give feedback to what I've drawn (i.e. my understanding or model of priorities). I use a different color ink for their feedback and star the major action items. This then shapes my daily to-do's for the week. I wish I could share some screenshots of those maps because it fits your use case. Maybe an upcoming article on mindmapnation.com?? ;) 2) Ah again the to-do MM is exactly made for it. I literally organized my own 20-person wedding (last Friday) using a quick map to lay out timing, people, roles, and places and turned it into clear directions so everyone knew when and where to show up: prnt.sc/42LJCGApRJXo. The important thing is always knowing what you want to convert the map into (i.e. the Productive Output) because it's likely more of an intermediary step from chaos to order. I talk about this concept here: www.mindmapnation.com/articles/when-to-use-mind-maps. In my case, it was an email/message. Also, for urgent matters I usually use paper & pen for fluidity since it's mainly for myself. The key is to use annotations for prioritization and important details. I've some tips here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/roGWoHZvh7ycqs0 I know what you mean! Coming from corporate and teams myself, I've used mind maps for just about anything that needs organizing, including my own emotions will ya believe it! kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3jZioqNgMtli7M. Another excellent question on the # of hours - it depends! When I was a Google biz analyst and startup product manager, it was 8-10 hours to match my expected working hours, but now as a solopreneur, it's basically my waking hours 😆😅😂 Alright I'll stop link spamming now - have a great one!

[@SooperToober]

Brilliant

[@UlhasSakhare94]

Thanks a ton for your efforts Sheng. This content is pure gold. Helped me a lot with my own sprints and can't wait to share it with more audience.

[@ShengHuang]

Yeah man we’ve got this! Haha I’m sprinting myself to the 🚀 finish line 🏁😁👊🏻🙌🏻

[@dannyliu1]

Awesome idea, I gonna try this ! Thanks Sheng.

[@jacquietinkler8767]

I've just stumbled upon your channel as I used concept/mind mapping as a research method in my PHD. I have just submitted the revisions for a paper I've just written about using this method as a way of getting people to "map" their ideas and thoughts for a research project. You get very different and interesting representations of thinking if you get people to draw out their thoughts. Happy to share a pre-press copy if you're interested. I've also started testing mindmapping for lecture notes (with drawings) as a bit of a learning experiment. Mind mapping is very versatile and it's been great to see how you use them for different purposes. Thanks for sharing your work. :)

[@ShengHuang]

Hi Jacquie! I'm intrigued :) I don't think there are enough mind mapping studies out there and am glad you're taking the lead. I'd love to read it! Please shoot me a msg on mindmapnation.com or DM me on LinkedIn or IG. Yes my observation is that the number of mind map permutations is as numerous as the number of human minds...it's vastly diverse. It's actually one of the reasons I knew I had to make a community for mind mappers to share their different methods and mindsets. It's truly fascinating! The 2nd order effect is greater empathy as you get to know how someone else thinks. Thank you for dropping by!

[@lynd4188]

I hope you always trust your calling

[@ShengHuang]

I'm trusting it and walking on the road. Thank you for your encouragement Lyn. Comments like these keep me going!

[@ratedinspirational]

This is very enlightnening, thanks!

[@Lozza9000]

Have you read the Tony Buzan mindmapping books? They are a wealth of ideas and fundamentally encourages the use of colour and images over words. This is to keep the mind in a creative state. I would be keen to hear your feedback on Buzan books and techniques.

[@ShengHuang]

Thanks Lozza. My thoughts on Tony's techniques is that they are effective however I lean more towards the philosophical side, hence words hold a lot of meaning, to the extent that sometimes a single word could convey 1000 words like an image. It's also more efficient for me draw maps without colorful pictures. My preferred style is to combine mind maps with annotations to make them more "3D".

[@khtjsdfv1336]

Thank you , I learned a lot

[@EgonLiberge]

Thanks a lot for the content Sheng ! Just one question regarding the habits that you put in place. How would you explain that for each 2WS, you can add a few new habits where it's known that we should only focus on 1 during at least 30 days ? Would love to know how you think here :) Thanks !

[@justindavis4217]

You should be a NOTABILITY AFFILIATE!

[@ShengHuang]

Haha! Thanks for the comment, I really do use it all the time.

[@josephkelly6681]

Sheng, love this. I started mind mapping after reading Think like Leonardo Da Vinci decades ago when I had my first big startup and it helped tons. A question: as a small business owner I get bogged down in administration stuff like banking and sending the exact same email to someone who did not actually read it and sends me a generic answer. How do you plan for admin stuff and limit the black hole they can become in terms of bandwidth?

[@ShengHuang]

Ah it's good that you're in control of your own time. I prefer to batch process all my logistical/operational tasks into a single day or identify the time of day that I can sit down and crank through all my emails in one go, which for me is usually the afternoon. I save my best morning hours for creative and mentally taxing work and then shift my meetings and emails to the afternoon. I also religiously use Pomodoros to track and limit my time on tasks: kzbin.info/www/bejne/poHJoYOog8RlkM0

[@coookiemonster]

Cookie Approves

[@ShengHuang]

COOOOOOKIIIIESSSSS!!!!! 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

[@coookiemonster]

@@ShengHuang That's what i talking about. Yes!!!

[@therealrayster]

@@ShengHuangBe gentle with cookies though. Acid Reflux :p