Organize IT

If you’re reading this site, you will almost certainly have a to-do list of some form. It might be jotted down on a sheet of paper or it may be an elaborate list of next actions stored on your computer. These lists are important because they allow you to see and track what needs doing. They stop you from forgetting stuff and allow you to get those nagging thoughts out of your head. But the benefits go on. When you have completed a task on your to-do list what do you do?

The hard landscape is something I discovered from GTD. It is often used to describe calendars and other time planning tools. The tasks you put them must be unchangeable, or at the very least not susceptible to your whims and moods. If you put down that you need to finish a report on Monday, you better mean it. If it comes to Monday and you decide to push it back a few days, then your calendar becomes unreliable. Your hard landscape starts to turn into a soggy, marshy one.

Your productivity system is an integral part of your workflow. Gone are the days of having a handful of simple tasks that you could keep in your head. Nowadays, work is multifaceted, complicated and even overwhelming. That’s why you need a reliable system to get it all out of your head and get it organized. It can be as simple as scribbling down a to-do list for those with a small workload, to having a complex computer-based system encompassing several tools. Contrary to the general consensus, when it really matters there are only two rules you need to follow for getting a system that won’t let you down.

Stating something might seem easy. You can just pick up a pen and start writing a report, or call a meeting to brainstorm ideas as such as the project proposal comes in. However, due to the scale and complexity of most work nowadays, there are usually so many obstacles in the way that can stop us in our tracks, and its not just limited to business (what’s stopping you breaking that bad habit?). How we deal with these obstacles has a huge bearing on how smoothly we complete our projects. Do you attempt to plough through or do you temporarily turn your attention towards the obstacles to really get them out of the way?

A lot gets said about how important planning out your work is. Yes, it’s critical to have a clear picture of what you need to do, and have the appropriate preparatory work in place. However, an element of the project cycle that doesn’t getting nearly as much attention, and which is just as important, is being clear on what you need to do to declare a project as complete, done, finished.