海角大神

Getting things done 101: Keeping your system functional

Reviewing your system on a regular basis and keeping it current and functional are prerequisites for maintaining complete control.

This is the eighth 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.

So far, we鈥檝e talked about three of the five major steps for getting things done: all of the stuff you need to do, that stuff down, and by putting all of that stuff into appropriate places. But how do you keep all of this running? Review. 滨迟鈥檚 the key element to making sure all of this works, in my opinion.

Allen makes the case for a review right off the bat, on page 181:

The purpose of this whole method of workflow management is not to let your brain become lax, but rather to enable it to move toward more elegant and productive activity. In order to earn that freedom, however, your brain must engage in some consistent basis with all your commitments and activities. You must be assured that you鈥檙e doing what you need to be doing, and that it鈥檚 OK to be not doing what you鈥檙e not doing. Reviewing the system on a regular basis and keeping it current and functional are prerequisites for that kind of control.

Here鈥檚 the truth of the matter. Our lives are incredibly busy 鈥� I can say for certain that my life is absolutely crazy at times. This means that sometimes, no matter how good the system is, things fall through the cracks. If enough things fall through the cracks, then the system ceases to work at all, which is a shame because when the system is pumping on all cylinders, it鈥檚 incredible.

The solution to this is to review things regularly. I do two distinct types of reviews to keep my system running.

Daily Review
I usually do this type of review at the start of each day. In the evening (particularly if I find myself in my office for some reason or another 鈥� usually due to children who can鈥檛 sleep, since my office is next to their bedroom), I鈥檒l sometimes redo some of these pieces as I choose.

I check my calendar for the day. What do I have going on today? The first thing I look at is my calendar 鈥� in fact, is the homepage of my web browser, so I can鈥檛 help but see it pretty quickly after starting my work day. I usually set some alarms on my computer as well so that I鈥檓 alerted to coming events throughout the day.

I check my calendar for the next week, too. This sometimes causes me to add some things to my inbox, like a note about an upcoming birthday or anniversary that I need to get a gift or a card for, or a trip that I need to prepare for.

I fully process my inbox. I go through all of the stuff sitting in my inbox and do something with each item, as described in the 鈥減rocess鈥� section from last week.

I reprioritize my 鈥渘ext action鈥� list and print off a copy. What am I going to do today? I usually categorize the list with four colors 鈥� things I try to do each day, things that need to be done soon, things that are truly important but aren鈥檛 vital to do today, and 鈥渙ther.鈥� I usually do them in roughly that order. This is my checklist for the day, and I cross off the items as I do them. The next day, I edit my 鈥渘ext action鈥� list by getting rid of all of the stuff I crossed off from yesterday (except for the 鈥渆very day鈥� things).

Weekly Review
Once a week, I do a more thorough review of my entire system, just to make sure nothing has fallen through the cracks. I usually do this on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, depending on whether Sarah or I is on nap duty. Here鈥檚 what that entails.

I round up anything miscellaneous floating around and get it in my inbox. On page 185, Allen explains this clearly:

Pull out all miscellaneous scraps of paper, business cards, receipts, and so on that have crept into the crevices of your desk, clothing, and accessories. Put it all into your inbox for processing.

I don鈥檛 process yet, though.

I brain dump. At the start of the 鈥渃ollect鈥� part of GTD, a person should sit down and toss everything that鈥檚 in their mind out onto paper so that it can be dealt with appropriately. I essentially do this each week. I just sit down with a pad of paper and start jotting down the things that are on my mind whether they鈥檙e already in the system or not. Yes, a lot of it is redundant, but those things that are repeated are big clues as to the things I need to get done because those are the things bothering me. They鈥檙e interfering with my mind flow.

I process my inbox and note everything that鈥檚 repeated. I then go through all of the stuff in my inbox. If I find stuff that鈥檚 repeated, I mark it as 鈥渋mportant鈥� on my 鈥渘ext actions鈥� document because if it keeps popping up like this, I need to take care of it.

I file everything that鈥檚 unfiled. During the week, if I pull out a file folder, I often don鈥檛 file it again. I just toss it in a wire basket on top of my filing cabinet. At the end of the week, I put it all back so I can easily find it all again. If I don鈥檛 do this, the filing system begins to fall apart.

I take a look at each ongoing project and figure out what the next action is. As I mentioned earlier, I keep a folder for each major ongoing project I have in my life. During my weekly review, I go through each of these and figure out what the next action is to carry that project forward. A project can be anything from writing a novel to reorganizing the garage and closets.

I review my 鈥渘ext actions鈥� list and set some priorities for the coming week. Mostly, this just involves upgrading the urgency of things already on my 鈥渘ext actions鈥� list. Yes, I don鈥檛 necessarily empty out my 鈥渘ext actions鈥� list in a given week. In fact, I can鈥檛 actually recall the last time it was completely empty.

I think about how everything I鈥檓 doing fits into my larger lifelong goals. I mostly just spend time thinking about where my life is going, what things that I wanted to do 鈥渟omeday鈥� (things often saved on a list, actually) might actually be coming into focus, whether or not the things I鈥檓 doing right now are in line with what I want to be doing in my life, and so on.

Allen riffs on this at the end of the chapter, on pages 189 and 190:

What are your key goals and objectives in your work? What should you have in place a year or three years from now? How is your career going? Is this the life-style that is most fulfilling to you? Are you doing what you really want or need to do, from a deeper and longer-term perspective?

[..] As you increase the speed and agility with which you clear the 鈥渞unway鈥� and 鈥�10,000 feet鈥� levels of your life and work, be sure to revisit the other levels you鈥檙e engaged in, now and then, to maintain a truly clear head.

How often you ought to challenge yourself with that type of wide-ranging review is something only you can know. The principle I must affirm at this juncture is this:

You need to assess your life and work at the appropriate horizons, amking the appropriate decisons, at the appropriated intervals, in order to really come clean.

Which brings us to the ultimate point and challenge of all of the personal collectiong, processing, organizing, and reviewing methodology: 滨迟鈥檚 9:22 AM Wednesday morning 鈥� what do you do?

This, in my opinion, is the key point of this book. The whole reason for having a system like this is to make you more efficient at the little things you have to do (by keeping your mind clear of clutter) and keep it all organized in such a way that you can step back and seriously think about the big picture. 滨迟鈥檚 impossible to do this if your life is constantly chaotic with you running around putting out fires all the time and collapsing in a heap of exhaustion.

For me, the best way to do this is to focus on one area of my life each week. I do this by breaking my life down to a number of roles. What roles do I play? I am a writer. I am a friend. I am a father. I am a husband. I am a son. I am a gamer. I am a reader. I am a homeowner.

I have long term goals and short term goals in each of those areas. How do I want to fill that role? Each week, I focus for a while on one of those roles and just reflect on where I want to be in the future and what I can do now to move in that direction.

I look for some key actions for the following week that are in line with those big goals. I usually add several things to the least important section of the 鈥渘ext actions鈥� list from the role I focused on, along with one or two more urgent things. For example, if I have the 鈥淚 am a son鈥� role in mind, I put things like 鈥渢alk to my parents about their will鈥� and 鈥済ive my mom a long phone call鈥� as a more important task for the coming week and 鈥渢hink of a great anniversary gift for them鈥� and 鈥減lan ahead for a weekend vacation with them late this summer鈥� as lesser things to do.

Next time, we鈥檒l go through the final piece of the puzzle: doing stuff. How do you prioritize all of that stuff that鈥檚 on your 鈥渘ext action鈥� list? How do you keep that in balance with your calendar? We鈥檒l dig into that on Tuesday!

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