Now that all the new years festivities are behind us I’ve noticed many people discussing their new years resolutions, updating their to-do lists and generally getting organized for a good 2009. For me, I’ve found it a good opportunity to revisit GTD. Over the last several months, opinion on the classic productivity methodology seems to have turned negative and it’s ironically encouraged me to take another look at it. I’m currently working my way through one of David Allen’s other book, Ready For Anything, and I think it covers many points GTD didn’t discuss so well. As a result certain elements that didn’t really make sense now do and I want to cover them in this post.
Two minute rule
It’s very easy to forget about the two minute rule because it seems so inconsequential. Tasks that take a mere two minutes (or so) shouldn’t be such a problem, right? Well I’ve always found that it’s actually these small, quick tasks that fill up my to-do list and, quite frankly, when you have a bunch of them to do they are a royal pain in the ass. So why did I forget about doing it? With this in mind, the two minute rule is my top principle to focus on this year.
Vertical map
It’s very easy to forget about the vertical map (or horizons of focus) and neglect the bigger picture. I have two reasons for this. Firstly, it all seems rather obvious so why overthink it? I want to be happy and healthy, have a successful career and a loving family… you know the drill. Secondly, there is the hard to disagree with argument that though it’s fine to dream about the future, it’s what you do in the here-and-now that influences everything. But of course, just saying you want to be healthy and have a loving family isn’t enough to actually achieve it. You need an actionable plan (hence the vertical map).
Mind dump
It’s very easy to forget about the mind dump (seeing a pattern yet?). Perhaps I feared I would end up unearthing a load of extra work but that’s not how it works. Collecting and processing are two different processes. Just because I’d collated several pages of potential work to do it didn’t mean I automatically had to do it. It’s all about getting it all out of your head and freeing your mind from the mundane matters of remembering what it is you have to do.
Those are the three GTD basics I’ve most neglected over the last year and am aiming to focus on again but there are more that you can focus on. I asked people on Twitter what basics they neglect. Sam Spurlin said he fails to keep his next actions list up to date, while Howard Yermish brought up the common problem of neglecting the weekly review. Why not share some GTD basics you would like to re-focus on this year in the comments?
January 5, 2009 at 08:06PM
Good listing and a great reminder! My goals are even more basic for refreshing GTD. The first is to get back to inbox zero and maintain it. The second is to get back on the weekly review horse. That seems to be the first thing to go in my system, and even though I feel and notice it’s loss the most tangibly and immediately it is also somehow the most difficult to restart after losing it for a while.
January 5, 2009 at 08:29PM
Thanks for the comment Michael. Doing the weekly review regularly always seems to come up as a problem. Personally, I use my weekly review sheet so I’m sort of forced into updating to a new one every seven days anyway.