海角大神

This is the final entry in a fourteen part series discussing the time management classic by David Allen. New entries in this series will appear on Tuesday afternoons and Friday mornings through July 16.

Before I start digging in to what I think are the five key take-home messages from this book, I鈥檒l link back to the thirteen previous entries, in order, for people who want to read them in order.

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Here are the five key messages (from my perspective, anyway) contained in .

Get stuff out of your head and on paper (or in a reliable digital form).
We all daydream. We鈥檙e in the middle of doing something when a thought pops into our head 鈥� something we need to do, something we wish we were doing, etc. We think about it for a moment and suddenly, our focus on the task at hand is broken. It takes us time to get back on track on what we鈥檙e doing, plus we鈥檙e trying to remember that thing that we just thought about.

This is hugely counterproductive. It keeps us from doing the task at hand well, even if it鈥檚 just a short task or a 鈥渕indless鈥� task. Your mind drifts when you鈥檙e writing an email and you forget an important detail, requiring additional communication and more work for you. Your mind drifts when you鈥檙e washing dishes and you cut yourself, requiring time to take care of the wound. Your mind drifts when you鈥檙e 鈥渇ocusing鈥� on one task at work and you suddenly find yourself taking 50% longer to do it.

The big solution to this is to get 鈥渋n the zone鈥� with whatever task you鈥檙e doing, but that鈥檚 often hard to do. The single best way I鈥檝e found to get myself in the zone with whatever task I鈥檓 working on is to simply get everything out of my head in advance and have it in a trusted system 鈥� and if something pops into my head mid-task, I can just jot it down quickly, knowing I鈥檒l deal with it later. Daydreaming and mind-wandering almost disappear if you get all of that stuff out of your head and somewhere secure. Read for more focus on corraling all of your stuff and thoughts.

When being productive, your focus should be exclusively on the next action.
We all have tons of things going on in our lives. Some of them are simple 鈥� 鈥渃all the repairman about the dishwasher鈥� or 鈥渂e at the recital at 7 PM.鈥� Others are quite complicated and nebulous 鈥� 鈥渋mprove my relationship with my mother鈥� or 鈥済et a better career going.鈥�

However, the basic principle for making all of these things happen is the same: focus on the very next action you can take to move it forward. No matter how big or how small of a project you鈥檙e looking at, it can鈥檛 move forward without you taking a single step.

That single step is the key. If there鈥檚 something you genuinely wish to accomplish, focus not on the enormity of the goal and the seeming complexities it holds (at least, not right now). Focus instead on the very next thing you need to do to achieve that goal. Nothing else matters right now. The riffs on this idea.

Processing the stuff that comes out of your head and into your life is a daily practice.
My inbox sits on a corner of the desk I use for almost everything. Into that inbox goes all kinds of stuff 鈥� currently, I see some mail, a poster I need to hang up in our children鈥檚 room, two magazines, a couple of receipts, and about five handwritten notes. That鈥檚 good. That means I鈥檓 collecting this stuff as soon as it appears in my mind or in front of my eyes.

There鈥檚 still a problem, though. In my rush to get things done, it can be easy to just let stuff pile up in your inbox. The problem with that is before you know it, you鈥檙e right back to where you started, with random thoughts penetrating your focus and slowing you down.

The key is to deal with the stuff you collect in its entirety every single day. Deal with it properly, too (as I discuss in the next point). Dealing with this stuff regularly means that all of your stuff 鈥� ideas, things, and so on 鈥� find their way to where they鈥檙e supposed to be 鈥� your filing cabinet, your trash can, your calendar, your to-do list, and so on. That way, when you need to know what appointments you have (for example), you only need to look at your calendar. You don鈥檛 need to rack your brain. The deals with this.

Have coherent, known places to put all of your stuff.
Hand-in-hand with the processing is the idea of having rational places to put stuff.

You鈥檝e got to have a calendar that stores all of the things you need to do at a certain time or date. You also need to have a 鈥渘ext action鈥� list that tells you what stuff you need to get done. You also need a trash can and an attitude that鈥檚 not afraid to trash stuff. I think those three pieces are absolutely essential.

Beyond that, there鈥檚 some flexibility. I usually keep a master list and a series of folders for all of my larger ongoing projects. The list just lists all of the projects, and each project has a folder for specific ideas related to it. I also have a filing cabinet in which everything I think I should keep gets tossed. I don鈥檛 do anything complicated to file 鈥� I just give each folder a name and alphabetize them A-Z with the folders that start with numbers coming after them.

The gives you all kinds of ideas and details about having the right places to put stuff.

A regular (preferably weekly) review is essential, where you reflect on things more broadly.
Each weekend, on whichever day of the two Sarah is on nap duty with the kids, I spend an hour or two reviewing my life.

Am I moving forward on all of my projects? How are they each doing? Are these projects in line with what I really want to be doing with my life? Did anything fall through the cracks this week? What does my calendar look like for the coming week? Is absolutely everything in my inbox processed?

These thoughts and tasks not only keep the day-to-day system running, but they also go a long way towards ensuring that I鈥檓 doing things that are in line with the big things I want in life and that the big things I鈥檓 shooting for are in line with what I want out of life now. That kind of reflection helps me to constantly connect the little stuff to my big dreams, which is key for keeping everything moving forward. You can read more about this in the of the discussion.

In closing, reading and implementing the strategies has made a tremendous difference in my life. I would have never launched The Simple Dollar 鈥� or been able to sustain it 鈥� without the techniques in this book. If you have dreams 鈥� or simply have a hard time handling what鈥檚 on your plate right now 鈥� might very well be the most useful book you鈥檝e ever read. If you got even a glimmer of a good idea from this series, check out the full book 鈥� and don鈥檛 worry about Allen鈥檚 focus on business topics. The ideas he presents work in every context of life, from the stay-at-home parent to the self-employed to the programmer sitting in his or her cubicle.

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