Howdy. This week I was lucky enough to attend a two day conference all about achieving ‘Personal Excellence’. Delivered by thought leader Nicholas Bates, it wasn’t as painful as it sounds, it was actually really good fun. And here’s why.

I’ve only just started to invest time in my own professional development by reading productivity and management books – they usually scare me off with their highly unimaginable book covers and ‘corporatespeak’ glossy summaries. However, having recently read David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ , it was great to meet one of these work/life guru’s to quiz them about their thoughts and get a down to earth response. Needless to say, I now am a proud owner of my very own ‘Master List’, a document that contains everything I want to achieve over the next three months and beyond. It might sound anal, but I think it’s going to help me out a lot. 

So, for example, if I take one of my ‘objectives’ I then break it down like so:  

Learn more guitar
1 hour per week/be consistent
Get Blues basics book
Learn CAGED system
Get guitar tutor
Online lessons (research)
Master electric guitar sound
Unlock fretboard (book)
Song per week (plus vocals)
Get new acoustic guitar?
Find backing tracks for practise
Crack the Pod
Read music theory book
Practice with mates
Listen to more blues

This might look like a simple ‘To Do’ list but, as part of a single ‘Master List’ which tracks both life and work, I know I’m going to look at this each day and get on with it. Or as Nick says – ‘JFDI’. Hope this doesn’t make me sound like a robot.

(Please note: I know the list above looks extremely unrock n’ roll. Patty Smith would have a fit. I don’t think anyone wrote a song about master lists, but there’s a first time for everything!)

Finally, and staying on the theme of learning the guitar, I just had to flag up this tutorial website by Justin Sandercoe. I love what he’s done by offering all these tips for free. So, please excuse me if I sign off now as I’ve still got to spend an hour learning the Pentatonic scale. Or something like that.

Peace. Out.