Productivity

By failing

By failing to review consistently, they just let things pile up and it gets harder and harder to keep up with their system. They can get the system set up, but then they try to “set it and forget it.” They don’t maintain it. When it comes to your productivity, you need to be consistently reviewing and making adjustments in order to get things done. It’s important to clean up and update your lists, dump any new loose ends into your trusted system, and clear your mind so everything can run smoothly. At Asian Efficiency, we recommend that you do this weekly. Yes, it takes a little bit of time, but the benefit of feeling like you’re finally in control of your life by far outweighs the cost.

Capture Everything: Capture anything that crosses your mind. Nothing is too big or small! These items go directly into your inboxes. Clarify: Process what you’ve captured into clear and concrete action steps. Decide if an item is a project, next action, or reference. Organize: Put everything into the right place. Add dates to your calendar, delegate projects to other people, file away reference material, and sort your tasks. Review: Frequently look over, update, and revise your lists. Engage: Get to work on the important stuff.

- Things I need from someone to accomplish current, due tasks. These are serious barriers that are potentially stopping deadlines from being met. Gratefully I seldom have more than an item or two here. This would be something like a new logo I need for a site that launches this week; something I need to bang on daily to make sure progress continues without interruption. Follow-up - These items cover middle-term events and deliverables that I just need “soon.” These might include things I know will arrive soon or eventually like incoming essays for The Long Winters’ site (that’s a passive-aggressive ping, Mr. Roderick) or a form I need to fill out for a client’s records in order to get paid. Occasional check-in - These are things that I hope happen soon but have no way to anticipate or predict. Still, I’d like to know about when it does happen so I check in every week or two. For me this includes stuff like a new software release or support for a feature I’d like in an app I’m thinking of using. The thread that runs through all of these is that the onus is on me to a) make sure these items represent part of a commitment I’ve made, and b) make sure they actually get done (even if it’s not my direct responsibility); otherwise, they should get moved onto my “Maybe/Later” list, right? So the questions on my mind are: How do I make sure I’m checking in often enough? How do I ensure I’m prepared to execute when the items are available? Staying on top of things The simple answer for getting these items done is to convert them into next actions. If I have a “waiting on” item that says “Receive new logo from Jim” for more than a day or two, it might benefit me to generate “Call Jim to nail down delivery date and dependencies for new logo” as a next action. Now I’m in the driver’s seat, ensuring that bad communication or just old-school slack don’t prevent my client’s cool new site from launching on time.

identify all the stuff in your life that isn’t in the right place (close all open loops) get rid of the stuff that isn’t yours or you don’t need right now create a right place that you trust and that supports your working style and values put your stuff in the right place, consistently do your stuff in a way that honors your time, your energy, and the context of any given moment iterate and refactor mercilessly

geeks are often disorganized or have a twisted skein of attention-deficit issues geeks love assessing, classifying, and defining the objects in their world geeks crave actionable items and roll their eyes at “mission statements” and lofty management patois geeks like things that work with technology-agnostic and lofi tools geeks like frameworks but tend to ignore rules geeks are unusually open to change (if it can be demonstrated to work better than what they’re currently using) geeks like fixing things on their own terms geeks have too many projects and lots and lots of stuff

Next actions: Both physical and visible - “But, for me, turning anxieties into projects and projects into discrete physical behaviors has a lot of appeal. It takes all the pressure off your brain and puts it back where it belongs: on your eyes, on your hands, and on that fat ass you need to get into gear.”

Yes, anywhere. Any portion or component of the GTD approach, applied, will bring at least a bit more clarity, focus, and control for you—without exception. And very likely when any one thing is executed, it will create a reverberation effect and spread to other parts. It’s a holistic model—i.e. any piece can be worked, and it will add to the whole gestalt.

Next 2 Waiting 3 Scheduled 4 Someday/Maybe 5 Completed 6 In-Process Projects 7 Degree Project Support Files 8 Other Project Support Files 9 Checklists and Templates 10 Reference

By imposing a degree of structure, by asking ourselves to behave in a slightly more focused way, we’re giving ourselves an opportunity to develop our creative muscles. It doesn’t always mean that what we create every single time every single day will be an act of great art and beauty, but if indeed the best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas, then using GTD principles to create windows of opportunity to generate lots of ideas, sounds like a good approach.

Write, record, or gather any and everything that has your attention into a collection tool.

Is it actionable? If so, decide the next action and project (if more than one action is required). If not, decide if it is trash, reference, or something to put on hold.

Park reminders of your categorized content in appropriate places.

Update and review all pertinent system contents to regain control and focus.

Write down everything that grabs your attention when it shows up (supporting the idea that your mind is better used to have ideas, not hold them).

Create a game you can win with GTD. Instead of saying you’re going to get your inbox to zero every day, start with an easier goal of once a week. Instead of saying you’re going to do the GTD Weekly Review every week for the next 10 years, try scheduling just the next one. And when you’ve done that one, book the next one after that.

The Natural Planning Model is a productive way to think about projects, because it allows to get maximum value with minimum effort. This is an informal approach that does not require great elaboration. Although you don’t realize it, you usually do these five things to accomplish any task, no matter how simple it is:

You rarely think about your principles consciously, but they exist, and are of particular importance when there are more people involved. You don’t want to reach the result at any cost. If your personal values are violated, you will consider the project as a failure.

Tip #1 Learn to love your Weekly Reviews

Tip #2 Prioritize ruthlessly, then cut out some more

1. Just because you put it on your to-do list doesn’t mean you have to do it.

Just because someone asks you to do something doesn’t mean you have to say yes

Just because it sounds like a cool project or awesome opportunity, doesn’t mean you should take it on.

It’s ok to reschedule today’s tasks for tomorrow, or later in the week, or just someday/maybe.

However, at the first time—when you decide that enough is enough, that it’s time to start organizing your stuff—, you should perform a complete (or nearly complete) capture of everything that exists in your mind. This is called The Mind Sweep in GTD, i.e. a overall scan of everything holding your attention right now. It consists in identifying anything concerning your work or your personal life which you consider should be different, and put it all in one single place, which we can call the in-basket.

This is the “incompletion triggers” list that David Allen recommends you to review every time you need to do a mind sweep: Professional stuff: Projects started, not completed. Projects that need to be started. Commitments/promises to others (boss, partners, colleagues, subordinates, customers, organizations, professionals…) Communications to make/get (phone calls, e-mails, letters, memos, etc.) Writing to finish/submit (reports, proposals, articles, promotional materials, instructions, etc.) Meetings that need to be set. Decisions that have to be made. Who needs to know? Significant read/review. Financial stuff (budgets, forecasts, statistics, credit line, cash flow, etc.). Projects formal planning (goals, targets, objectives). Travel. Banks. Administration (legal issues, insurance, procedures, etc.) Customers. Marketing. Promotion. Sales. Systems (computers, phones, office equipment). Supplies. Waiting for… information, delegated tasks, replies, petty cash, ordered items, decisions of others, etc. Professional development (training, things to learn, skills to practice.) Research. Personal stuff: Projects started, not completed. Projects that need to be started. Commitments/promises to others (spouse, children, family, friends.) Communications to make/get with family and friends. Upcoming events (birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, travel, social events, cultural events, sporting events, etc.) Things to do (places to go, people to meet.) Administration (bills, banks, investments, loans, taxes, insurance, legal affairs.) Waiting for… orders, repair, loaned items, etc. Home/household (plumbing, electricity, decoration, furniture, etc.) Computers (software, hardware, connections, internet.) TV, VCR. Music, CDs. Cameras, film. Phones. Sports equipment. Closets/clothes. Garage/storage. Vehicle repair/maintenance. Pets. Health care. Hobbies (books, music, movies.) Errands (drugstore, market, bank, stationer, etc.) Community (neighborhood, schools, local government).

Schedule your weekly review in your calendar. Allow yourself at least an hour, preferably two. Finish all your work before the review starts. Get comfortable. You might want to go somewhere you don’t associate with work. Take 5-10 minutes of quiet time. Meditate, doodle, or just stare at the head – whatever it takes to put a “buffer” between you and your everyday stuff. Have something to write in/on. Make sure you won’t be disturbed. This is your time!

Collect all your loose papers and put them into your inbox for processing. Process your notes to glean any action items, appointments, new projects, etc. Review your previous calendar data to remind you of any ideas, tasks, etc. that you might not have captured at the time. Review your upcoming calendar to see if there are any new actions you need to add to your lists. Empty your head. Write down anything that’s currently on your mind or capturing your attention. Review your project lists to determine each project’s status and if there are any actions you need to take to move each of them forward. Review your next action lists. Bring them up to date by marking off any actions you’ve already completed. Use completed actions as triggers to remind you of any further steps you need to take not that an action is done. Review waiting for lists. Add appropriate follow-ups to your action lists. Check off anything that you’ve already received. Review any relevant checklists. Review your someday/maybe list and decide if there is anything you’re ready to move onto your active projects list. Review your project support files to make sure you haven’t missed any new actions you need to take. Be creative and courageous. This is the hardest and most poorly described part of the process in Allen’s books, which is too bad, since this is where the magic happens. Having cleared your mind of everything you need to do at the moment, take time to dream up new ideas — risky ones, creative ones, etc. Essentially a free-form brainstorming session around the topic of “what could I be doing?”

What do I have to work on the next few days? What deadlines do I have coming up? Are there any new projects I have time to start working on?

What do I have to work on the next few days? What deadlines do I have coming up? Are there any new projects I have time to start working on? What went wrong over the past week? What lessons can I learn from that? What went right over the past week? How can I make sure more of that happens? How well am I keeping up with all my duties and obligations? What is coming up that I need to be prepared for? What kind of help do I need? Is everything I’m doing contributing to my advancement towards my goals? What can I do about the stuff that isn’t? Am I happy with where I’m at? What would I like to change? What are my goals for the next week? Month? 90 days?

What did I get done this week versus what I planned to get done? What unexpectedly arose this week that blocked my productivity? Why was I so efficient this week as compared to the last one?

Collect loose papers and materials — Capture and sort items like receipts and business cards you’ve collected over the week. Get “in” to empty — Process all your notes, emails, texts, and any other “incoming” items. Empty your head — Write down anything that’s taken up mind space recently but hasn’t been captured in your system.

Review “Next Actions” lists — Take inventory of the tasks and reminders you have coming up. Review previous calendar data — Flip through the last 2-3 weeks of calendar items to look for any outstanding items of things that may require follow-up. Review upcoming calendar — Zoom in on the future by looking ahead at your calendar items. Ensure that anything you need to prepare for is captured on your task list. Review “Waiting For” list — Reflect on outstanding items you need from others and make a note of what requires follow-up or impacts your own work. Review “Projects” (and “Larger Outcome”) Lists — Look through any and all project lists to assess their progress and make additional action items to drive initiatives forward.

Review any relevant checklists — Assess any other lists that are relevant to work and life that may need your attention.