Organize IT

When I did a critique of GTD a few weeks back and asked my readers to contribute their thoughts, many of you complained about the complexity of the system itself and/or the difficulties in implementing it into their workflow. There are a number of examples out there of how GTD has been simplified (Zen To Done being a prime one). However do such approaches really simplify the system or do they actually just strip chunks out of it? Are there parts of the GTD workflow that can be pruned or is it already lean and trim? Please share your thoughts! I look forward to incorporating them into a future post where I will take a deep look into simplifying GTD and whether it really can be done without losing the fundamental building blocks that make it so effective. Over to you!

Welcome to the third of my ongoing series of posts looking at habits you can implement that will bring about definitive improvements in your life. For the third habit I will look at the next action. It is one of the simplest but most effective pieces of advice that came out of Getting Things Done. It’s such a simple but useful concept in fact, that it transcends the narrow office based productivity framework of David Allen’s system and is an invaluable mindset in day-to-day life.

Inspirational quotes for 20th April 2008.

Henry Ford: “Unless you have courage, a courage that keeps you going, always going, no matter what happens, there is no certainty of success. It is really an endurance race.”

Les Brown: “Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner.”

Al Lopez: “Do what you love to do and give it your very best. Whether it’s business or baseball, or the theater, or any field – if you don’t love what you’re doing and you can’t give it your best, get out of it. Life is too short. You’ll be an old man before you know it.”

Norman Vincent Peale: “There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. It gives warmth and good feeling to all your personal relationships.”

Organize IT recap for 18th April 2008.

• On Wednesday I introduced the first stage of my Organize IT trigger list. Thanks to your feedback I have expanded it even further and I now believe it to be a huge, definitive list. I have also published it in PDF format for easy printing when you need it during weekly reviews. You can get hold of it here. Let me know whether you find it useful or not!
• Murphy’s law, also known as Sod’s law, is that old adage that if anything can go wrong, it usually will. It’s often put down to being unlucky, being in the wrong place at the wrong time and other unfortunate circumstances. However, now there is a scientific formula that will help you calculate the actual odds of being inflicted with Murphy’s law. It’s a bit tongue in cheek, but it does bring up some interesting points about how these quirks of fate actually have logical reasons for happening.
• We all know that exercise is good for you and it can make you both feel and look better. However, there is a lot more to it than that. PickTheBrain has ten extra points regarding the benefits of working out that you might not have considered. If I ever feel a little unfocused and drained a trip to the gym ironically tends to help with that.
• Recently I’ve put a lot of focus on the idea of having balance in your life. Rolf at Evomend has a very interesting look at the concept, applying it to the idea of destiny or self determination. The diagram in particular will give you something to think about.

As promised on Monday when I wrote my seven point guide to clearing your head, I have written an extensive trigger list to help in the process of getting everything off your mind. It is intended to be as definitive as possible and can hopefully serve as a replacement for the trigger list in the GTD book (I have used that as the basis and expended greatly on it). My intention is to publish a PDF of this list for easy printing and reference this Friday in time for the weekly recap. However, I want to make sure I have added as many trigger words as possible (and organized existing ones properly), so the next stage is over to you. If you can think of any words I may have missed please suggest them in the comments!