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GTD - A 12 Step Program for the Disorganized - Part 5

This 5 part series covers the 5 stages of Getting Things Done or GTD, a personal organization system developed by David Allen and released as a book in 2001. In our first part we discussed the philosophy of GTD and stage 1: Collecting. The second part covered stage 2: Processing. The third part covered stage 3: Organization. In the fourth part we covered stage 4: the Review. In this final part we will discuss stage 5: Doing.

Doing

The purpose of any organization system is to make us more effective in accomplishing the things we have committed to. This is where GTD really pays returns on all the time you have spent capturing, processing, and organizing. The first way GTD changes how you complete tasks is to help clear your mind from trying to remember everything. If you trust that your system will remind you of things and keep you from forgetting them, then they no longer take up space in your active memory. This is a state that David calls “Mind like water” where you are able to be creative and focused because you aren’t constantly reminding yourself of everything else you ‘should’ be doing. While this can be a great benefit of a well implemented GTD system there are several tactical pieces of GTD that help with Doing as well.

Cranking Widgets

So now you are ready to start working, but where to start. First you can start with your calendar. What are the things on your hard landscape that you have coming up. If you find you have time before your next appointment, you go to the lists for the Contexts you are in. The goal is to have already done all of the thinking during your reviews. Now doing tasks should be as simple, as David puts it, as “Cranking Widgets”. You may be at work (@Work) with a phone (@Phone) and a computer (@Computer). Now just review those lists and decide what the most appropriate thing is for you to do given your energy level and any pending deadlines. You should have all the information in your context lists to make those decisions and start Doing the action. If you can’t then you need to rethink what you are putting on your lists.

As you crank widgets and mark things off your Next Actions lists, you continue to collect input. Don’t stop working to process it, just put in into an inbox and trust that it will be process later. When you complete an action you don’t have to write down the next step in that project if you are moving on to it immediately. Only when you stop one string of actions for a new one, possibly because of a distraction, do you need to collect the next outstanding action. In this way next actions act as bookmarks, reminding you what step you were on and what is needed to pick up where you left off.

Two Minute Rule

One of the powerful tools that David introduced is the Two Minute Rule. This rule says that if you have a Next Action that can be done now and takes less than two minutes, just do it now. The ‘can be done now’ piece means that there are no context or dependency requirements for the action. The ‘two minute’ piece is a hard deadline for finishing the action. If you can reply to an email or lookup a number in less than two minutes, it’s better to finish it rather than writing it down as a Next Action. But be careful, you may be able to ask your sister about her pasta maker in less than two minutes, but it may not be a good idea if you know she will keep you talking about cousin Gertie for half an hour. This rule is always applicable but is most effective during a review and can turn your weekly review into one of the most productive times in your week. You must be sure to return to your Review when you are done and capture the new Next action for that project. Don’t let the rule become an excuse for distractions.

Distractions

Another powerful part of GTD is it’s assumption that distractions will always happen. Rather that trying to avoid them, GTD accounts for and even embraces them. These new inputs can completely derail your plans, calendar, and lists. GTD give you a framework for getting back in control of your system and your work. If a new input, such as a phone call, email, coworker, or even your boss, happens then try to quickly determine if it takes precedence over what you were doing. Obviously your boss takes precedence over almost everything, but a coworker may be fine with a ‘call you in 15 minutes’ reply to a question. If you aren’t going to engage the input now, make sure you capture it into an inbox. That could be a note tossed into your physical inbox or a quick calendar reminder so you remember to call that coworker back 15 minutes later. If you do deal with it now, then be sure to capture what you were working on so you can return quickly to it when you finish with the new input. This way GTD keeps you working on tasks in a world full of new input and distractions.

Doing is ultimately the point of any organization system, and GTD excels in helping you Do more, be more focused, and keeping things from ‘falling through the cracks’. I hope this overview is helpful as an introduction to GTD. For those interested in more, pick up your own copy of GTD. In a future post I will lay out the details of my own GTD system and some of the important lessons I have learned in the Seven years I have been using GTD.

photo credit: Getting Things Done (my way) by Justin See - CC by-nd

GTD - A 12 Step Program for the Disorganized - Part 4

This 5 part series covers the 5 stages of Getting Things Done or GTD, a personal organization system developed by David Allen and released as a book in 2001. In our first part we discussed the philosophy of GTD and stage 1: Collecting. The second part covered stage 2: Processing. The third part covered stage 3: Organization. Now we cover stage 4: the Review.

Review

The Review, in GTD, takes two forms. There are the constant small reviews that you do throughout the day. There is also The Weekly Review, scheduled on your calendar for once a week, where you Process every inbox until it is empty and then review all your lists.

Mini Reviews

The constant reviewing of you inboxes and lists is probably something you already do today. This can be scanning your Next Action lists, Processing a few items from an inbox, or extracting commitments from meeting notes. This ongoing review allows you to trust that things put into your inboxes will be looked at and Processed in a timely fashion. These reviews should be handled much like the Weekly Review described below, but without the rigor of getting everything processed. Just processing a few items at a time can keep the system working smoothly throughout the week.

Weekly Review

Even if you have been processing your inboxes and lists regularly, you still need time to go over everything in your system. This is the purpose of the Weekly Review. You need to schedule and hour or two each week, when you can minimize distractions, to preform the Review. This time will not only allow you to empty your inboxes and review your system but to keep scope and control over your commitments. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Weekly Review in the success of your GTD system. It is the focal point that keeps the rest of the system working smoothly and builds your trust in it.

The first step is gathering all your inputs together. This can include putting all your ‘physical inboxes’ into one place. Try dumping all the receipts from your wallet, notes from your meetings, and random pieces of paper on your desk or in your bag into your main inbox. Then make sure you have access to all your virtual inboxes including email, voicemail, note taking apps, and even relevant pictures (like a white board after a meeting). This also includes your Calendar which often reminds us of commitments or actions needed to prepare for upcoming events. Everything that may have an undecided commitment or potential action should be included. Once you start your review, you shouldn’t have to stop to look for something to process. I have a checklist of all my inboxes that I use each week to make sure I don’t miss anything during my review.

The next step is to Process each item. Each inbox is to be treated as a ‘Last in, First out’ stack. For each email or piece of paper, you must rigorously apply the questions discussed in stage two. “What does this mean to me?” or “What commitment does this represent?”. If it’s reference material, file it. If it’s trash, delete it. If it’s actionable, then you have to capture the Outcomes and Next Actions into your system. Once you have made these decisions, then get it out of your inbox. Don’t just let it sit there to be looked at again later. Often this means having a good place to archive or file things you want to reference but have been processed. An “Action” folder can be a great place to put things related to your active tasks that keeps them out of your inbox. The goal for this first part of the review is to EMPTY your inboxes.

Once you have everything in your system, it’s time to review your system itself. Start with your Active Projects list by making sure each item is actually something you plan on working on in the next week. If not then move it to the Someday/Maybe list. Then make sure each Active Project has the appropriate Next Actions on the right Context lists. Mark off any projects you have finished and update your project files as needed. Also review your project plans for any new Actions or Waiting items that need to be captured. Finally you should review your Someday/Maybe list for anything you want to move onto your Active Projects list or into a Context list. This is the time to decide to start, or restart, a Project or complete some longstanding task. Every Active Project should have at least one Next Action or Waiting item or it isn’t really Active.

Next you can review each Context list and Agenda to ensure that they are up to date. Make sure any completed items are crossed off and any new Next Actions are in the proper place. If you have any actions that have been on your list since your last review, you should ask why they haven’t been done yet. If there is another step that really needs to be done first, capture that as the Next Action and move the one on your list to ‘Waiting’ or to a project plan as appropriate. If it’s not something you are going to do then delete it from your system. Don’t leave extra items hanging around that you have no intention of completing.

The last list to review is your Waiting list. This list should contain all the deliverables that you need from other people that are blocking your projects from moving forward. During your review is a great time to reach out to each of these people and remind them of what you are waiting on from them. By sending a quick email or leaving a voice mail, you can often get unstuck an important piece of a project. If you can’t follow up right then with someone, add a Next Action to the appropriate context list for you to do so later.

Now that you have Reviewed your System, spend a few minutes doing a Mind Sweep. Now that everything is fresh in your mind you should let yourself be open to any new ideas or thoughts and capture those as well. Just sit with a blank piece of paper or empty document in front of you and write down anything that comes to mind. You will be surprised at how much more you will think of given all that you just reviewed. Once you feel that you have emptied your mind of any new things then take that list and Process it just as you did your inboxes before. This will help you get a sense of completeness about your review and enhance your trust in the system as a whole.

Reviewing your inboxes and system on an ongoing bases and during a Weekly review is the foundation that keeps GTD running smoothly. This will take a long time the first few times but it will get faster and you will get much more comfortable as you do them. Many people feel less effective or even lost if they miss a Weekly review. I know I notice a significant decrease in my effectiveness and try to reschedule it for as soon as possible if I miss one. Now we can get to Doing our tasks, which we will cover in part 5 of this series. If you would like to dive in you can pick up a copy of Getting Things Done on Amazon.

photo credit: A stack of Moleskines by Andy Woo - CC by-sa

GTD - A 12 Step Program for the Disorganized - Part 3

This 5 part series covers the 5 stages of Getting Things Done or GTD, a personal organization system developed by David Allen and released as a book in 2001. In our first part we discussed the philosophy of GTD and stage 1: Collecting. The second part covered stage 2: Processing. Now lets get into stage 3.

Organizing

Organizing is where we take the Outcomes and Next Actions we created during Processing and give them a place to live. This constitutes the functional piece of the system that you will refer to as you Do your many tasks and complete your projects. While I will focus on the content of this system, the form it takes is up to you. Any virtual or physical system that can keep lists or reference material can be a part of the system. The important piece is that you trust your system and are able to access it quickly when actually getting your things done. I will describe my system in detail in a future post.

The Organization system has four components:

• Project lists and materials
• Lists of Next Actions (Contexts and Waiting for)
• Your calendar
• A reference file

Projects

You need two separate lists for your projects: Active Projects and Someday/Maybe. The outcomes that you are working toward in the next week go on your Active Projects list. Each item on your Active Projects list should have a corresponding Next Action on your context lists or a Waiting For item. The Someday/Maybe list acts as a master repository that holds all the things you have committed to but aren’t currently working on or that you may want to work on in the future. As in the processing step, I find it helpful to write my Project names in the form of “What will be true when this is complete”. So instead of writing “Mom’s Birthday” I would put “Mom has a present and card on her birthday.” This continues the focus on the outcome and helps you move to this result.

The second part of the project system is the project support files. These are planning and reference materials for all of your projects. They should hold all of the information you need to actually work on your projects and any future planning you have done. This can included both physical paper files and digital documents or notes relating to the project. I sometimes have both a folder on my computer and a real folder for each project. Out of these project plans you can extract your Next Actions as the project progresses.

Next Action

The Next Action lists are separated into “contexts”. These contexts are based on the location or resources that you need to complete your actions. Standard examples include “At Computer” for actions you need a computer to complete, or “At Work” for things that can only be done at your workplace. These are often expressed as @Computer or @Work. This way you can filter your actions to only those that you can do given your current contexts. You don’t want to look at task like ‘scrub oven’ or ‘collect the old newspapers in the garage’ when you are at work. Thats why they have different contexts, so that the only tasks you are looking at are ones you can actually do right then. You can also have context lists for people, David calls them “Agendas”, where you can record the things you need to discuss with that person when you have an opportunity.

As you work, your Next Actions become a set of bookmarks or reminders of the state of your Projects. You don’t need to capture and check off each step as you are working on them. Only when you stop working on a given Project do you need to capture the Next Action. This gives you an easy way to restart that chain without needing to review the project each time. Just as in Processing, be as specific as possible when wording your Next Actions. What is the next physical act, that you are not doing right now, that will move toward the Project’s outcome? That is what you capture as a Next Action, and be sure to put it into the proper context. If the reason you can’t do that action right now is your lack of a computer, then put it into your @Computer context.

The Waiting For list represents a special context and stores reminders of things that others have committed to, so you can follow up with them. Any Active Project that for which the Next Action isn’t yours should have a place holder on your Waiting For list. This can be captured as the name of the person and the deliverable you are expecting from them. For example “John W: Report on 3rd quarter shipping figures for the NE region.” or “Tabitha A: List of broken dishes from last week’s party.” both make great Waiting For items. This format makes it easy to follow up with each person and remind them what it is you are expecting them to deliver or do.

Calendar

Your calendar finds it’s place in GTD as, what David calls, the “Hard Landscape”. This reserves the calendar for only the items that need to happen on a certain time and day. This is what calendars are supposed to be for. Unfortunately, many people also use them as daily task lists or reminders for things that need to be done, but not on a specific day or time. So your meeting on Tuesday, at 4 P.M. would be on the calendar, but running to the car wash wouldn’t unless you have an appointment. For many this detaches the calendar as the center of your personal organization. Removing these semi-scheduled items from your calendar elevates the remaining appointments to a sacred decree. These are things that have to be done at the prescribed time. Therefore everything not on your calendar can be done at anytime you are in the appropriate context.

Reference

Finally you need a reference file for all of the non-actionable Stuff you have collected. This reference file is often a set of Drawers with a single, Alphabetic filing system. It is important to optimize this system for ease of filing not ease of retrieving. The harder it is to file something or the more you have to think about it then the less likely you are to actually file things immediately. You then end up with a pile labeled “To be Filed” and it becomes another project. You will have to become comfortable putting a single piece of paper into a folder and giving it a label. If it’s not something that relates to what you are actively working on then it should be filed. As long as you are consistent in your filing methods, you should be able to retrieve things quickly.

Contexts lists and your Active Projects list really form the working core of your GTD system. They are the parts you will return to many times a day to recenter and refocus your self. After each new distraction or burst of activity you can review the context lists that are currently applicable and pick a Next Action to work on. Or you can review your Active Projects and see if any new Next Actions need to be captured. This review is continuous, as is processing new items captured into your inboxes. But we still need another, regularly scheduled, review to bring everything up to date and make sure that nothing is being missed. In our next part we will cover step 4, the Review. If you would like to dive in you can pick up a copy of Getting Things Done on Amazon.

photo credit: Am I Organized? by koalazymonkey - CC by-nd

GTD - A 12 Step Program for the Disorganized - Part 2

This 5 part series covers the 5 stages of Getting Things Done or GTD, a personal organization system developed by David Allen and released as a book in 2001. In our first part we discussed the philosophy of GTD and stage 1: Collecting. Now lets get into stage 2.

Processing

Processing is the act of evaluating everything in your inboxes and asking “What does this mean to me?” Is the item reference material to be filed, is it trash, or does it represent a commitment you have made to yourself or someone else? If it represents a commitment then it goes into your system. This starts with deciding if each item is actionable, and if so, what the outcome looks like. These outcomes then can be recorded, usually as projects. If it’s not immediately actionable, but is something you want to eventually accomplish, then it needs to be recorded for later. Finally some things are important but not actionable they can be filed as Reference Material or Project support material as appropriate.

Outcomes

Anything that takes more than 1 step to do is a project. Sometimes it will be obvious that something is a project like “build a new deck”. Other outcomes that are smaller still count as projects, such as “repair broken window on car”. But what about things like “Buy a new hand-mixer”? That might be a task if the next action is opening your browser to Amazon.com and clicking buy. It also might be a project. For example, the next action may be “Research hand-mixer reviews” or “Decide on hand-mixer brand”. It even may be as simple as “Call aunt Ellen to ask what brand of hand-mixer she has”. If the next physical action doesn’t complete the outcome, then it’s a project.

Once you have these projects you have to decide a few things about them. First you have to decide what the outcome is. One way to ask this is “What does wild success look like?” Capturing projects in terms of the successful completion is important. It helps you focus on the next steps to drive the project to completion and not the problem or situation you are trying to change. “Replace broken window” focuses on the current problem and not the solution. “Install new window” may be a better way to phrase it but the real key to focusing on the outcome is to speak of it in the past tense. “New window has been installed” helps you to visualize the goal and determine what steps must be taken to achieve it. Projects should always answer the question: What will be true when I’m finished that isn’t true now.

Next Actions

Next you decide what action, or series of actions, will advance the project to this outcome. It is important to focus on the next action, or more directly, the next physical act that will move the project forward. These actions should be doable without any preparation or additional planning. If any is needed, then that preparation is the next action. A good way to find the next action is to ask: If someone was watching me work on this, what is the first thing they would see me doing. When you capture these, they should be as specific as possible to remove any remembering or deciding that may keep you from acting on them. A next action may be “Get the book” but is better written as “Get book on medieval pottery from shelf in dining room.” Another few examples could be “Call Bob about the green shirt for next week’s party - (122) 555-1234”, “Research warranty on broken toaster for Aunt Bessie.”, and “Decide about Birthday present for Mom”. In the last example I know I can’t move forward until I make a decision, so that is the next action.

Anything that isn’t immediately actionable is either reference material, something that might be actionable in future, or trash. Each of these find their own place in the organization system. In our next part we’ll cover stage 3, Organization. If you would like to dive in you can pick up a copy of Getting Things Done on Amazon.

photo credit: Making notes on GTD by Abizern - CC by-nc

GTD - A 12 Step Program for the Disorganized - Part 1

This was originally posted as a single article on OnOrganization.com, it’s been updated and posted here as a 5 part series

“Hello, my name is Canyon and I’m a Disorganized Mess.”

Saying that “the first step is admitting you have a problem and are powerless over it” may sound familiar to many. I feel I had to go further than that to accept that I needed help with my personal organization. I was drowning in “Stuff” and the cracks that stuff was slipping through had become gaping holes. I eventually found GTD and it saved me from my self-inflicted chaos. For this first series I want to give an overview of the GTD system. Next series I’ll cover my own implementation and some of the key realizations I’ve had about the GTD methodology.

GTD overview

Getting Things Done, or GTD, if you aren’t already aware, is the personal organization system created by David Allen and published as a book in 2001. It has become very popular with Geeks in the technology community. While there are many other explanations of GTD available, I will try to sum it up for the uninitiated.

The basic philosophy of GTD is that your brain is wonderful at evaluating data and making decisions but terrible at remembering the things you’ve committed to do. These commitments, either to yourself or someone else, take mental energy to remember. Your brain tries to be helpful and remind you of everything you have committed to, it’s just really bad at organizing this stuff. It’s also really bad about picking the right time to remind you of something. As David Allen says “You never remember that you need toilet paper when you are at the store.”

GTD helps you create a “Trusted System” giving you a way to capture and store these commitments outside your head. Trusted means that once you put something in to the system, you will come back to it at the right time. Your brain can trust you will see those items again and so it doesn’t need to hold on to everything. When your brain lets it all go, it frees up that energy for doing the creative stuff that your brain is good at. David calls this “Mind Like Water”. If all of the little reminders stop going off you can focus on doing the things you need to do. This system holds all of these commitments and the steps needed to complete them.

GTD has 5 stages.

1. Collect all your stuff outside of your head.
2. Process the commitments this stuff represents and what the next action is.
3. Organize those commitments and actions into a trusted system.
4. Review everything at least weekly.
5. Do the tasks.

I’ll cover each of these stages in detail.

Collecting

Collecting all your stuff, from the many different inputs you have, helps ensure every commitment gets processed. Processing allows you to make decisions and form plans from the pile of stuff you have collected. Organizing those decisions and plans in a structured way streamlines retrieving the info when you need it. Reviewing the whole system keeps it current and helps your brain trust it. Finally you can Do the things you have committed to, confident that you are choosing the best action to be taken at any time.

Collecting is all about not trusting your brain to remember tomorrow, or 5 minutes from now, the thought it just had. You must capture all of these thoughts and your commitments as they happen. An important piece is being able to capture anywhere, anytime. GTD calls this “Ubiquitous Capture”. This usually takes the form of a notebook, smartphone, or voice recorder.

One of the benefits of capturing everything outside of your brain is it keeps distractions down. If a new thought, commitment, or piece of information pops up to distract you while you are focusing on something, just jot it down and then go back to what you were doing. Your brain can be confident that it won’t get lost or forgotten, because you captured it. Then it won’t keep distracting you in an attempt to keep from losing this new input. This works for things you interrupt yourself with as well as anyone who attempts to inform you about, burden you with, or commit you to something new.

As you collect stuff, it lands in a series of inboxes. This can include your email inbox, voice mail inbox, a physical inbox on your desk, or a note pad you carry in your pocket. As stuff collects in this series of inboxes, you process the stuff as often as you need to keep it off your mind. Then, once a week, you commit time on your calendar to process all of the inboxes till they are empty. Then you know that everything from all your inboxes ends up in your system. This is a key to trusting your system, processing everything.

In our next part we’ll cover stage 2 , Processing. If you would like to dive in you can pick up a copy of Getting Things Done on Amazon.

photo credit: My Messy Moleskine by Alexandre Dulaunoy - CC by-sa