Getting things done
- 2. The book: (It’s good!)
- 3. I know when to go out And when to stay in Get things done - David Bowie, Modern Love
- 4. GTD isn’t a productivity technique: it’s a meditation technique.
- 5. What do you want to be doing now?
- 6. What do you really want to be doing now?
- 8. Nagging Doubts. Squirrels.
- 9. Only Collect
- 10. Technique one: if a thought crosses your mind, write it down.
- 11. You need a trusted collection area outside of your brain.
- 12. What do you do once you’ve written it down?
- 13. Technique two: go through your collection area regularly, and triage it.
- 14. Question 1: Do I want to commit to acting on this?
- 15. If it’s not actionable: • Trash? • Someday/maybe? • Reference?
- 16. Question 2: What’s the next action?
- 17. Where does the action go? • Do it! (If it takes less than 2 minutes.) • Waiting list. (If you want to delegate it.) • Calendar. (If you want to be reminded at a specific time.) • Next action list. (To do as soon as you can.)
- 18. Components of your system: • Collection areas. • Someday/maybe file. • Reference file. • Waiting list. • Calendar. • Next action list. • Project list.
- 19. Inbox Zero
- 20. Hierarchy
- 21. The only things that go on your next action list are single physical steps.
- 22. Technique three: if it takes multiple steps, no matter how small, make a project.
- 23. Example: Making a Dinner Reservation
- 24. • Make a dinner reservation.
- 25. • Find restaurant phone number. • Call for dinner reservation.
- 26. • Pick restaurant. • Find restaurant phone number. • Call for dinner reservation.
- 27. • Pick a date and time. • Pick restaurant. • Call for dinner reservation.
- 28. These steps aren’t all next actions: only ones you can do right now are.
- 30. Technique four: add triggers to help you select next actions.
- 31. One solution: contexts. Shopping, phone, computer, home, work.
- 32. Another solution: go over the next action list at the start of the day.
- 33. Perspective
- 34. It’s easy to get caught in the details; sometimes, you need to step back.
- 35. Technique five: once a week, do a weekly review.
- 36. Go over your lists: • Projects. • Next actions. • Waiting. • Calendar. • Someday/Maybe.
- 37. Anything you’re forgetting? Any new projects?
- 38. This is what prevents your someday/maybe list from being a trash can.
- 39. You’ll review these lists every week. So:
- 40. If you won’t do it in the next week, it’s not a next action, it’s someday/maybe!
- 41. And make the decision of whether to commit away from the heat of the moment.
- 42. Again: read the book:
- 43. Thoughts?
Editor's Notes
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- #11: You want your mind focused on what’s important right now, not worrying about what it might be forgetting. With a bit of practice, your brain gets sensitive to these distractions, you learn what should be written down. (Lots of things should!)\n
- #12: Once you have this, you’ll have a lot fewer nagging worries.\n
- #13: This collection area is not a garbage dump. If you treat it that way, your brain won’t trust it.\n
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- #15: This is a very important distinction to have in your mind: differentiate between things that you would like to have happen in an ideal world and things that you’re committing to doing as soon as possible. I’ll return later to how to decide between the two.\n
- #16: Someday/maybe is where you put stuff that you would like to get around to eventually (or: that you’re not sure you _don’t_ want to get around to eventually), but don’t want to commit to right now.\n
- #17: This is an important concept, I’ll come back to it. Inbox items turn into projects that split into multiple actions, or may themselves be actions that are part of a larger project.\n
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- #20: Your inbox is a collection area. It is _not_ a next action list, it is _not_ a weird mixture of next action and someday/maybe. Take the time to go through each inbox item, and make a decision: am I going to commit to acting on this soon? Do I know what action I will take?\n
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- #24: Is this a next action or a project?\n
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- #26: Admittedly, these days you can probably do this first step on your phone right before making the call.\n
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- #28: You can imagine more possibilities; the right answer depends on the circumstance.\n
- #29: And maybe none are, if you’re waiting on either another person or a specific date to act. But if you don’t know what you want to do or have happen next, then you haven’t broken down the project enough.\n
- #30: Now you have a next action list. And you’ve committed to do everything on it as soon as possible! But you can only do one thing at a given time.\n
- #31: I don’t have a great name for this concept. But, the important thing is: whenever you’re in a situation where you really do want to do one of your next actions, you’d better be reminded of that next action!\n
- #32: This is what the book recommends; it doesn’t work for me.\n
- #33: This is what I do; borrowed from Things and from the Pomodoro Technique. I’m not committing to do everything on the list of what I select for that day, or to not do things on that list, but that gives me a small list that I can look at frequently and where I won’t worry if I don’t ever look during the day at my next actions that aren’t on that list. (Warning: the book frowns on this.)\n
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- #41: Before I realized this, I had way too much stuff on my next action list that I wasn’t actually treating like commitments. Now, if there’s any doubt, off to someday/maybe it goes; and if something has been on my next action list for a few weeks, I ask myself what’s going on in my brain.\n
- #42: Give house maintenance example: it’s amazing how long I procrastinated on various pieces of house maintenance, and how much better I felt once I committed to doing them and actually acted on that.\n
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