<p>If you don't know who David Allen is, hit up your local bookstore and I guarantee you'll find a copy of "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0142000280/nuancelabs-20">Getting Things Done</a>" on the shelf. In a nutshell, capture what is on your mind, agree to what you have to do or file it for another day, stack your tasks in an atomic way so you can tear through them when you are able, review-rinse-repeat. You need to be leading your mind, not your mind leading you. It's About Getting it Out Of Your Head. David says our minds are lousy offices, and he's right. "If your mind had a mind, it would only remind you of something when you could do something about it." When did you remember the birthday card, the cars tune-up, home improvements, etc.</p> <p>Begin by capturing anything and everything that is in your head. If you need a primer check out <a href="http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Trigger_List">43Folders Trigger List</a>. Write until you can't write anymore. Pour all those nagging, bugging, mind warping needs of your life out onto paper. </p> <p>Pause a moment, right here when the pen is still and you can't think of more to write. For this moment all is quiet. Just the act of distilling, the act of acknowledging, is a great thing. Your world is laid out in front of you. Thinking through these things you'll have new items spring up. Don't let them root, write them down too. </p> <p>From now on the more habitual this reaction is the better you'll be for it.</p> <p><b>Refining and Defining</b></p> <p>You can't do everything in one action. "Investigate company break-even points", "Host dinner party", "Vacation in the Caribbean", these items requiring multiple steps are projects. You need to break your complex thoughts down into what can be termed atomic actions. Each action should take somewhere between 2 minutes and 2 hours. Any shorter and you should just do the task, any longer I begin to doubt it is just one action. </p> <p>If you do not break these items down pieces of them will start nagging you again because you know it's not being captured. By keeping each of your desired outcomes on a "Project" list, you can always refer to it and say, "Do I have each of these in motion?" It is not necessary to keep these lists with you at all time. </p> <p>What is more important is giving everything a relative context.</p> <p><b>Putting Everything in Context</b></p> <p>As you look over your list the things that you know need doing, can you do right now? I bet only a portion of them. You can't water the garden while in a meeting or get milk while walking the dog, so why track all these things on a large "to-do" list? Filtering through this mess will turn you off from your system faster than anything. </p> <p>We need to break everything down into lists that you can manage in the context that you are able to.</p> <p>Defining contexts is something you personalize. A great way to start is by having big ideas and making them more refined over time. Think, "At Home", "At Work", "Errands", "Near Phone", "At Computer". You can take this in <a href="http://www.evomend.net/en/what-not-gtd-context" title="What is and is not a GTD Context">a lot of directions</a>.</p> <p>If the object is to do what you can, when you can, this process aligns like minded tasks together. Now when you are "Near Phone" you can crank out a few more calls, while running "Errands" you'll have your list of items and stores you need to hit up. We all like to flow when we work. These ideas help keep you in the flow longer by not having to switch gears to think of what else you can do.</p> <p><b>Taming the Calendar</b></p> <p>The last time you checked your calendar did you think about events that weren't on there? Or have items that really don't matter in their place? Let's make the calendar something we can take more seriously. An event will happen with or without you. If it has date sensitivity it goes on the calendar. If it does not then it belongs in a context.</p> <p>David terms this the "hard landscape". Put items on your calendar that have a reality. Drop dead dates don't belong here. Submitting the report on May 5th does. Don't leverage your calendar into a pressure zone. If you are working when you can in context the calendar becomes a much easier vehicle to control and one that helps rather than hinders.</p> <p>Book time for yourself. Give yourself a few days each quarter that you can work on you. Refine your systems. If you aren't making time for yourself no one else will be. It's an investment that seems like a lot of time but in the end it keeps everything running smooth and you'll be ahead for it.</p> <p><b>Negotiating With Yourself</b></p> <p>It's time you started behaving like a moderator. Sure some decisions are hard but it is better to make them willingly than to have happenstance (or negligence) make them for you. Clearly distinguish between things you are actively committed to completing and the things you'll get to, but can't focus on now.</p> <p>At this time the game in the financial industry is shifting us all around. Our priorities are going from outward to inward and we need to be agile in order to keep focus on what is important. To make it all work don't be afraid to push items from "Projects" to a "Someday/Maybe" list. Keep your list of commitments trimmed to the core of what needs to be focused on. Each time you sit to work on a review of your lists you can always move items back.</p> <p>Be reasonable with yourself and tackle what you can when you can. It's better to "win" at completing a few things, than to feel "lost" by having too much exposed and being overwhelmed. The more you complete the better you feel and the more you will continue to get done. </p> <p><b>Referencing, Keeping Order with the Past</b></p> <p>Why recreate the wheel if you've already made it once? As milestones pass and you're actively researching for related projects and tasks you'll gain a great resource you can put to work over and over again. </p> <p>Once a checklist has been born you can implement it whenever you like and iterate on it depending on what has changed. The packing list you made for last years trip will probably be useful for this years travel. New client relationships that are fostered through a process only get better the more you refine it. Like with going green, recycling your own content is extremely valuable.</p> <p>How you build your reference system is up to you. David likes A-to-Z filing, my friend is 100% digital. I live in a combination of paper and digital havens. What works for you will only work for you. If you avoid filing then your reference system is going to deteriorate. If you aren't good about coordinating your digital trove it's going to get neglected. Experiment and find what best works for your lifestyle and work habits.</p> <p><b>Keeping Focused is Just a Review Away</b></p> <p>We're building an active way of processing the things that come flying in (often on fire and at high velocity) and putting them in some cohesive order that you can rely on getting them done (or at peace with not-today). It all hinges on your ability to stay consistent and review often. </p> <p>The more you do, the more you are free to do. If you begin to stray you'll find yourself holding on to thoughts instead of writing them down. By pushing and pulling from "Projects" to "Someday/Maybe", resolving your immediate contexts, your reviews will help refocus your efforts. </p> <p>Work it into your schedule. Some do their weekly review on Fridays to account for how the week went, or maybe Sunday's to prepare for the upcoming week. Others tackle it every Wednesday to gauge the correct direction and priorities for where they are. Whatever works for you. Book it on your calendar and do it.</p> <p>As my business partner, <a href="/members/jeff-hoffman">Jeff Hoffman</a> has said, "If you choose to defer the planning that makes this system work, the decisions will still have to be made at some point; they don't go away, you've just chosen to make them in the moment rather than planning ahead. [...] In the end, GTD actually does save you time and effort. It's about doing more with less, not just doing more."</p> <p><b>A Beginning</b></p> <p>I hope this primer on "Getting Things Done" helps you see a system that you might want to try out, maybe adopt, and with time excel at. For more information on David Allen visit his site: http://davidco.com</p> <p>For more on the workflow of GTD check out <a href="http://www.davidco.com/pdfs/gtd_workflow_advanced.pdf" title="David Allen's Workflow GTD Diagram">David Allen's Workflow Diagram (pdf)</a></p> 2008-10-09T19:01:33Z 2008-10-11T09:09:00Z -16.6208 625 1909 true 12 13826 staying-focused-on-what-is-important 6 2008-10-11T09:09:00Z

Right now your business and your livelihood is going to be tested. To stay creative and agile through it will take honing your personal systems to a new level.

0 2008-10-09T19:49:12Z