January 7th 2008
GTD
2 comments
Getting Things Done is really just a collection of habits, and when they are all adopted into your life they bring about a marked improvement in your productivity and general work performance. However the problem is the GTD book isn’t exactly written in terms of habit building so it can be tricky for a newbie to come along and put it all into practice on a regular basis. In an attempt to address this I will do a mini series covering the different elements of GTD and giving some insight into how to build them up into habits. For an introduction to the methods I will be using checking out my article on habit building.
Next actions
If you only learn one thing from GTD, learn how to do next actions. It’s not a new or complicated concept by any means, but getting into the habit of breaking down your projects into next actions will make a radical difference to how you work. If you are getting bogged down, finding it hard to start or lacking in focus with a project, work out the very next, physical action. Getting into the habit of viewing your work in terms of next actions is comparatively simple. Take a list of all the projects you have on the go at the current time, and for each one work out what one single action you need to do to move it forward. If it helps, have a separate list for detailing these next actions (you can find an example on my templates page). Every time you get a bulk of work to do ask yourself, “what is the next action?” In fact write down that question on top of each page you use for tracking projects so you don’t forget it. If you need help defining your next action read my guide.
Weekly review
The weekly review is yet another common sense GTD element that is surprisingly not implemented by people more often. However, it is also actually one of the hardest to stick to because you have to schedule it into your time and when you are overloaded with work, the weekly review is the first thing to get dropped. Big mistake! You might get away with it for a few weeks but eventually all your stuff will pile up, your head will fill with unprocessed information and your GTD system will ultimately fall apart. Can any of you relate to that?
The first trick to making the weekly review an habit is to determine what day you want to do it. The usual day is Sunday for obvious reasons, however some do it on a Friday so they can leave work for the weekend with a clear mind. Others do it first thing on Monday to start the week off in style. It’s all up to you, though bear in mind you are more likely to do it if you schedule it for the morning, before any procrastination kicks in. The next step is to set up tools that encourage you to stick to that day; write it down on your calendar and make notes in prominent places so you don’t forget about it. Next, you need to be clear what exactly you are going to do during the review otherwise you will just spend an hour floundering about, not really getting anything done. Break the review into next actions! Read the following articles - here, here and here - and then formulate a schedule for yourself to use as you do the review. Finally, I also recommend you follow Seinfeld’s advice and tick off a check box each week you do it. Eventually you will build up a chain of ticks that you will be loathe to break. Next Wednesday I will be releasing a productivity template specifically for implementing this approach so be sure to keep an eye out for it.
What happens if you miss your scheduled day though? Don’t worry or get disheartened, slipping up occasionally is part of the process of building up habits. Simply move onto the next day. If you continually have trouble sticking to your weekly review schedule, take a look at what is holding you back. You might not be scheduling enough time for yourself or you might not be processing stuff during the week, leaving you with a intimidating pile to work through at the review.
Todd V:
January 8th, 2008 at 3:54 am