Organize IT

David Allen claims he falls off the wagon all the time. He loses control and goes loopy (maybe) on a regular basis. His co-workers at his company also fall off the wagon and have regular in-house training just to get back on board. Twitter is full of people falling off the wagon. I used to fall off the wagon regularly too. Used to…

The weekly review is a common productivity practise. It basically involves putting time aside to figure out what’s happening in your life, chase anything that’s fallen through the gaps over the last several days and basically get a clear picture of everything. Every weekend on Twitter I see hundreds of people announce that they are doing their weekly review. But has anybody asked why it has to be weekly? Why not monthly, or even daily? Why, oh why!

When you’re overwhelmed with everything in life and your head is buzzing with numerous tasks, thoughts and problems that need your attention, it’s very difficult to get a grip of the situation and do something about it. However, I’ve always found that the first step is to sit down, get my notepad out and really write down everything that’s bothering me (do you do something similar?). This process is often called the mind sweep. However, for it to really work I’ve realized that there are certain rules you have to follow. Essentially, you can’t hold back because if the thought is in your head, it deserves your attention regardless.

Over the last few days I’ve been reading through Making It All Work, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Getting Things Done. For somebody who writes a lot about productivity and personal growth here at Organize IT, I often have a hard time reading such books. Most advice you get from them can be distilled down considerably, but of course a fifteen page book wouldn’t sell so well. However, I found MIAW a comparative joy to read. It not only discusses how GTD works but how the mind works when it comes to doing stuff. It’s so full of common-sense discussion. Rather than thinking, “That’s a great idea but personally I’d do it differently,” like I get with most books, I find myself nodding along in agreement at what Allen has written. It’s difficult, after all, to argue with common-sense.

At the moment I’m currently focusing on the vertical map (otherwise known as the horizons of focus). Bigger picture thinking is something I’ve neglected for a long time (I discussed why in my previous post) but now I want to get back on track with it. One of the problems I feel there is with the vertical map explanation in GTD is that it is tied to this whole horizons angle (going from the runway to 50,000ft levels, for instance). To me, this gave the impression that the items at one level had to tie neatly into the items on the next level, and so on. If you’ve ever had a dozen or so next actions at the runway level and tried to draw a clear line all the way to your long term goals at the 40,000ft level you’ll know how difficult it can be.