by Robert Landon
Tags: David Allen, GTD, Time Management, Career, Productivity...
David Allen's Getting Things Done time-management system is based on some pretty esoteric concepts ("knowledge work," "distributed cognition," the "ready state" of martial arts, and so on), but in actual practice it's cheap and very much do-it-yourself. His bestselling book, Getting Things Done, lays out the method comprehensively, but his fans are so legion that you can actually piece together the elements of his program just by browsing the blogosphere. The tools and technologies you use are almost entirely of your choosing. Post-It notes, a smart phone, your own jacked version of Outlook-Allen claims that any or all of these will work, as long as they're deployed in the rigorous ways the book spells out.
minimum start up cost: $50 (some of Allen's acolytes spend hundreds on seminars and sessions with personal coaches)
two full days, back-to-back and with minimal interruption, then one to four hours a week, ongoing
Office Supplies: file folders, paper-holding trays, a pen, a calendar, and some paper are all you need to get started
Allen's Book: you don't have to buy it, but Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity has lots of helpful details on implementation
Adaptability: GTD requires small actions throughout the day-at your desk, in meetings, at home, while commuting-that may require a serious change in mindset.
(Optional) GTD Software: GTD hackers are constantly creating free templates and applets that bring GTD functionality to programs like Outlook, Gmail, and Lotus Notes.
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GOAL: Record all your commitments to free up mental energy and start accomplishing things.
GTD is a totalizing system, so don't expect to just ease yourself in. The first big push is key, and it requires a major, two-day collection process, in which you're supposed to gather up every single thing that requires action on your part: unopened mail, emails, voicemails, countertop clutter, reading materials, scary catch-all cabinets you can barely open. For larger items that don't fit into a desktop inbox-a broken fridge, a leaky faucet-just make an individual note and add it to the pile. Allen suggests that you devote a separate sheet of paper to each idea or project. A discrete, physical object helps make an idea more concrete, and it lets you track each item individually, increasing its chances of getting done.
When all your physical rubble is more or less in one place, it's time for a "mind-sweep": the processing of writing down everything in every aspect of your life that you want to get done-now, next year, or sometime before you die.
Trigger List
Chapter 5 of Getting Things Done has a helpful trigger list to jog your memory about commitments you've made or want to make. There are more than 200 items on the list. Here are ten of them:
Professional:
Policies/Procedures
Commitments/Promises to Others
Installation of New Systems/Equipment
Forecasts/Projections
Training/Seminars
Personal:
Vacation Plans
Books/Records/CDs
Vehicle Repair/Maintenance
RSVPs
Civic Issues/Community
Goal: Break tasks down into actionable steps.
Once you've compiled your inventory of unfinished business, it's time to process each and every item. Don't worry, that doesn't mean you have to resolve every single item. By "process," Allen simply means that you have to determine a "next-action": the very next thing you need to do, either to resolve an issue or at least keep it moving toward completion. Many items you'll only need to file-or throw away.
What does a next-action look like? Say you want to clean out your garage, but you can't because a broken refrigerator is taking up the space you need for reorganizing. Your next-action could be "Call Goodwill to fetch the dead fridge." Got a looming product launch and feel out of the loop? Write down "Go into Outlook and set up a strategic planning session." Need a pencil sharpener? The process might start with "Download document that explains company procurement software."
It's basic stuff, really, but Allen adds some hard-and-fast rules:
No frontsies. Address things one at a time, beginning with the top item in your pile and working your way down. Don't move on to the next item until you have determined what next-action is required. Some items may require hard thought; take the time to do it now. If you leave it until later, it won't be any easier, and meanwhile, it will continue to occupy valuable mental space.
Two-minute actions. If a next-action can be completed in less than two minutes, Allen says do it right way, the first time you have the item in front of you. Not only do you get all the rewards of rapid turnaround ("Mail proposal letter" could give you a one-week jump on the competition; "Call FTD" nets a happy spouse), but, Allen argues, you've also freed up your mind for whatever's next.
Delegate and defer. For any item longer that two minutes, you can either delegate it (shout over your cubicle, shoot an email to your admin), or simply defer it to what Allen calls a "trusted system"-the combination of calendar, file folders, and action-item lists that form the backbone of GTD. To find out what that might look like, keep reading.
Beware the Junk Drawer
As you gather items into a pile, Allen warns to watch out for the purge-and-organize bug. If you get overly focused on, say, an overstuffed closet, you may not get through the entire collection process, which is vital. What to do? Write "clean out closet" on a piece of paper, put it in your collection pile, and move on.
Goal: Put your action steps into categories where you can review and complete them easily.
Roll up your sleeves, ladies and gentlemen, because now we're getting to the meat of Allen's program. It's time, in Allen lingo, to "organize"-put all those next-actions into a system that enables you to get them all done.
His idea is that you must go beyond laundry lists of actions. In the short run, such lists quiet nervous minds, but for most, he says, they invariably contain a handful of items that never get crossed off. They may be pleasures that you never get around to-like "take guitar lessons" or "play bridge more"-or little things such as "get pants mended." Often it's the big things-"get new job," "help solve world hunger"-that remain unresolved. Allen says that the answer in each case is to determine your next-action-"ask Tom the name of his tailor," "update resume," "send donation check"-then enter it into your personal-organization system.
Needless to say, Allen has some ideas about how to organize your organizational system. Here are the key concepts:
Design your own trusted system. Develop the combination of calendar and written action lists that will work best for you. Lists can go into a loose-leaf binder, your Treo, scrap paper, the back of your hand-whatever. Calendars can range from Outlook to a hand-ruled spiral notebook.
Make contextual lists. Organize actions into separate lists defined by the circumstance required to complete them. For example, you can categorize tasks based on whether you do them on the phone, online, at your office desk, at home, or while running errands in your car. The idea is that you'll move more quickly through a single kind of action than if you keep switching back and forth between mental modes, technologies, and/or physical locations.
Record projects. Allen defines a "project" as anything that requires more than one step, and he strongly suggests that you keep a separate file for each, whether they be small things like "get new couch" or big things like "department reorganization." He also has very explicit instructions about how to set up a system for those files. He prefers a strict alphabetical filing system (rather than grouping by category), and he distrusts hanging folders.
Keep a "someday/maybe" list. Record and regularly review projects that you hope to accomplish someday, even if there is no urgency-or time-for them right now. It's fine to leave them right where they are, but creating the list and defining the item as currently undoable, Allen says, frees up mental energy that can be used more productively elsewhere.
Keep a "waiting for" list. What deliverables are you expecting, whether from your boss, spouse, or direct reports? Allen recommends tracking these in a separate list. Some practitioners further organize their pending file by person and/or organization, so that they can go over everything in a single interaction.