Westside Toastmasters is located in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California - Westside Toastmasters on Meetup

A Path Through The Day

Sometimes I have people draw me a path through their day, from the time they wake up in the morning until they go to sleep at night. I ask them to show me their basic activities- how they spend major chunks of their time during a typical day.

They draw little stick figures: here I am eating breakfast, here I am going to work, here I am at work at my little stick-figure computer, here I am eating lunch, here's my cigarette break.

Then, if I'm working with snack users, for example, I ask them to draw in where they had a snack and how it changed the path of their day. You could see the particular pattern that emerged: People were carving out momentary oases in a busy day, retreating from the usual path of routine. This is a great exercise for any regular habit or product use that you want to explore, and the actual moment of the activity can be further illuminated if necessary by using a three-panel cartoon.