Getting Things Done
Feb. 2nd, 2008 06:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calzephyrMy workplace had another Getting Things Done seminar a week or so ago (free book? free lunch? I'm so there!). The funny thing is that I don't have problems getting things done at work, just at home. I would probably end up bastardizing the purity of the GTD model if I tried to explain it, so I can recommend either the book or one of the many websites out there devoted to the model. People are really into it at an obsessive level :-) There's even Zen To Done.
David Allen's basic premise is that the demands of 21st century life means that there are new demands with insufficient resources at hand for the brain to cope with. The boundaries of work are blurred or keep changing, so many people find themselves wearing many hats. A lot of people have "open loops", big or little commitments that are nagging at your brain. In some ways, the brain is very dumb, it will remember things at the wrong time, such as when you're trying to go to bed :-D By collecting all the "stuff" that's on your mind and sorting it, you relieve the brain of having to remember it.
One of the exercises we did was a "mind sweep" which was a list of everything that we either needed to do or wanted to do. Some of these things were immediate (email Mr. Manager) while others were far off (go to Wildflower Festival). Then we had to pick a few and decide on a next action (gather stats for Mr. Manager). This is how traditonal to-do lists fail, because we might not be sure of the next action and they don't capture that.
For example, everyone probably has pictures they want to frame. The next time you're at Ikea, you think "Gee, I should pick up some frames." But then as you wander around the frame aisles, you realize that you don't know how big the pictures you want to frame are. As such, you leave the store frameless and your pictures remain unframed! This is how stuff doesn't get done :-D
There are a couple of workflows in the book for dealing with stuff as well as processes for deferring, delegating and dealing with things. I might try these on the pile of paper on my desk :-D
Applying the GTD method is also about building new habits, but it's detrimental to try and create a lot of habits all at once. Some habits I want to try, however, are:
- if it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it! (it took 4 seconds to toss out the expired sour cream that's been in our fridge for three months :-D)
- don't multi-task, consider each thing at a time and focus 100% on it
It would be cheesy to say that this book will change your life, but if you're a champion procrastinator like myself, adopting even a few parts of the model can rid one of the shame and guilt of being unable to complete things. Just the other day I mailed a picture for someone that I have been meaning to mail for years. The hold up? Not being able to spray fixative on it. Then the hold up became not being able to find the picture. And geez, yet another hold up - I didn't have a big enough envelope at hand, so I had to buy a few to tape together. Sometimes it's just not the beginning action and the end result, it's all the pesky stuff in between!
David Allen's basic premise is that the demands of 21st century life means that there are new demands with insufficient resources at hand for the brain to cope with. The boundaries of work are blurred or keep changing, so many people find themselves wearing many hats. A lot of people have "open loops", big or little commitments that are nagging at your brain. In some ways, the brain is very dumb, it will remember things at the wrong time, such as when you're trying to go to bed :-D By collecting all the "stuff" that's on your mind and sorting it, you relieve the brain of having to remember it.
One of the exercises we did was a "mind sweep" which was a list of everything that we either needed to do or wanted to do. Some of these things were immediate (email Mr. Manager) while others were far off (go to Wildflower Festival). Then we had to pick a few and decide on a next action (gather stats for Mr. Manager). This is how traditonal to-do lists fail, because we might not be sure of the next action and they don't capture that.
For example, everyone probably has pictures they want to frame. The next time you're at Ikea, you think "Gee, I should pick up some frames." But then as you wander around the frame aisles, you realize that you don't know how big the pictures you want to frame are. As such, you leave the store frameless and your pictures remain unframed! This is how stuff doesn't get done :-D
There are a couple of workflows in the book for dealing with stuff as well as processes for deferring, delegating and dealing with things. I might try these on the pile of paper on my desk :-D
Applying the GTD method is also about building new habits, but it's detrimental to try and create a lot of habits all at once. Some habits I want to try, however, are:
- if it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it! (it took 4 seconds to toss out the expired sour cream that's been in our fridge for three months :-D)
- don't multi-task, consider each thing at a time and focus 100% on it
It would be cheesy to say that this book will change your life, but if you're a champion procrastinator like myself, adopting even a few parts of the model can rid one of the shame and guilt of being unable to complete things. Just the other day I mailed a picture for someone that I have been meaning to mail for years. The hold up? Not being able to spray fixative on it. Then the hold up became not being able to find the picture. And geez, yet another hold up - I didn't have a big enough envelope at hand, so I had to buy a few to tape together. Sometimes it's just not the beginning action and the end result, it's all the pesky stuff in between!
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Date: 2008-02-02 03:19 pm (UTC)The habit I'm trying to get into that would help with this is to start working on things regardless of how much time/energy I think I have. At the worst I'll only get a little bit done, but I'll be that much closer to the end, and at the best I'll find it's not actually as bad as I thought and I'll get more done than I thought.
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Date: 2008-02-02 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 11:48 pm (UTC)