I’ve been putting on Twitter about when I am doing my Getting Things Done (GTD) weekly review and replying to a few friend that have mentioned the book. Some people have asked me how I’ve been getting on with the whole thing and so I though the best thing would be to write a blog post about the system I’m using, the benefits of it and also where I need to improve and things I want to look into next. First though a little background into what got me into this…
Getting Started…
As you’ll know from following me on Twitter and this blog that I love reading plenty of books. I first read Getting Things Done by David Allen about 3 years ago. I can’t remember how I found it – but I was excited by what I read. I implemented a system based around OneNote – with a separate page for each project. To start with things went very well and I did feel more organized but after a few weeks things started going back to the usual thing off my inbox being full of emails and that was what I tried to use as my todo list. The problem was I knew I needed to be more organized and really wanted GTD to work for me.
A year or two went by with me struggling on with todo lists scribbled on paper and my inbox full of emails. I noticed on Twitter people were mentioning a new book by David Allen called Making it all Work. I bought the book and looked forward to it being delivered. This is definitely a follow on book from GTD and after reading the first 10-15 pages I knew I had to go back and read Getting Things Done. I got it out from the attic (I’m ashamed to say) and sped through it in 3 days. Things had certainly changed since the last time I’d read the book for me – I had more projects, more responsibility, more to generally do! I’d also realized something important – writing things on paper had a much more important meaning to me. I think this was where I went wrong before – of course I’m all for IT solutions but there is just something about pen and paper that means if it’s written down, you’ve made a conscious commitment to the task. It is just to easy not to open OneNote, Outlook, Notepad or whatever your application for storing tasks in is, and doing a select all – delete. Of course you need to be able to take your management system with you. The choices of this get better and better with iPhone applications and OneNote on Windows Mobile but paper is still easier, nicer, and more of a commitment once it’s written down.
I’m not going to explain the GTD methods here, rather jump straight into how I’m doing things at the moment.
How I do it…
Inbox, outbox, reading tray
The first important part of my system is the inboxes I’ve arranged. I’m lucky enough to have quite a large office to work from (I work from home so have taken what should be a second double bedroom!) so had some space to arrange an area for an inbox, outbox and reading tray. The little shelves I bought to put them on were supposed to be blue! It wasn’t until I had them home and unpacked them for assembly that I realized they were pink.
All letters and receipts go into the inbox ready for processing each Friday as part of the weekly review. If something looks like a cheque coming in for payment or something else important I may open it and deal with it there and then, but generally all letters go straight in.
I subscribe to quite a few magazines such as Inc, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and a golf magazine. These all go straight into the Reading tray and I’ll grab something to read at lunch or if I fancy a 20 minute break from work. If there’s an article I like and want to keep I’ll often cut it out and put it to the bottom of the reading pile knowing I’ll come across it one day. To be honest I probably get more magazines delivered each month that I can possibly read so the pile is slowly growing. I read from the top down so look at the newest and most relevant stuff first. In a few months I’ll have to purge a lot of the stuff – maybe quickly scanning or just binning it without looking at. The material maybe so old by then it just doesn’t matter – the good thing about always reading from the top!
The outbox is the most simplest and is usually empty. Letters that need to be posted, cheques – that’s about it.
Projects and Next Actions Management
As I said earlier – it’s now pen and paper for me. I have a green folder that I can add A4 lined pages into for each project. I use a folder rather than a notebook as I can add, remove and reorder pages as needed.
The front page in the folder has a few important things on there:
- emails to send – may or may not be project related. Grouped together on the first page so I can batch process the emails all at once.
- items delegated – things I’ve asked others to do that need to be chased up. I include the date they were delegated also – so I know how late they are! :)
- ad hoc tasks – things to do that are a single action, such as a video to watch or a book to buy. Anything that is made up of multiple tasks is a project.
Before I get to projects I have some folder dividers that separate different areas of my life. Currently these are things such as golf, Lightning Tools, home jobs etc…
Within each section I have a lot of projects, each being it’s own page. Lightning Tools is the largest area as each product is a separate project as are a lot of other things some people may think of as a single task – such as a blog or web site article. Actions are written in the order to do although I leave a line free inbetween each action so I can add things in. Quite often during the weekly review I’ll rewrite a projects action list to clear it up and maybe even re-order it.
Filing Cabinet
Hugely important to be able to easily file away stuff. Bank statements, invoices – they all need to be put away, but in a nice organized fashion so you can easily find things. If it takes to long to file things – you’ll put it off, so keep it clean and well organized. It’s difficult to write more about a filing cabinet as they aren’t really that exciting! But without a good way of putting away your important pieces of paper whatever other GTD things you implement I reckon you’ll be doomed!
Email
Can’t live with them, can’t live without them! I hate email – even these days when I have things really under control. Complex folder structures for storing emails and using my inbox as a task list and storage area are completely out. I have only three folders for emails
Inbox – I do InBox zero generally 3 times a week and keep my inbox with with few enough items in it so it doesn’t take up more than a full screen. When going through and processing things to inbox zero items either get done (ie a reply sent), put on a project as an action and placed in the reference folder or just deleted.
Reference – if an email is going to take longer than 2 minutes to deal with the action (or actions) it needs go on the related project page or maybe it becomes a project all by itself.
Receipts – this is just a folder to keep emails about purchases and recurring monthly charges. A safe place to keep them. We use hosted Exchange so backups and safe keeping should be taken care of for me.
Calendar
Part of Outlook and Exchange also – the biggest change GTD has done is I keep my calendar sacred for concrete appointments and meetings. I used to put things on my calendar that I felt as though I wanted to do that day, but it was just pointless – I just let things roll over day by day and they’d be on my calendar for months.
Journal
This isn’t necessarily part of GTD but something I’ve recently started doing since the start of Feb. I never kept a diary before when I was younger, but am quite enjoying writing 5-6 lines about each day. I also list 5 good things that have happened each day. Seems hard to list 5 things when you start writing but it gets you in a positive frame of mind and you remember what a great day you’ve had! I’m also really looking forward to reviewing at the end of the year or maybe in 6 months to see what has been accomplished.
Weekly Review
This is probably the most important part of GTD, and if you don’t do it at least once a week you’ll struggle to keep GTD’ing. I do a mini review every couple of days just to review my projects and make sure the priorities of next actions are how I want them.
The main weekly review I do each and every Friday morning without fail. It’s in my calendar as a reoccurring event and nothing but the most important thing is going to change that. I do it first thing at 9am in the morning so to give me some time during the rest of the day to perhaps catch up with anything important I’ve missed during the week.
My weekly review can take up to 3 hours, but to be honest I don’t care because 1, I really enjoy doing it and 2, after it’s done I’m probably the happiest I am all week as I know where everything is and what’s important. My weekly review includes:
1, Empty and process of physical inbox – file letters and use the same general rule as always. If it can be done in 2 mins do it, if not add it to the ad hoc task list or relevant project page.
2, Empty and process of email inbox – same as above but this time with emails.
3, Review project list, actions and priorities – sometimes I’ll have done a task and forgotten to have crossed it off, things that happen during the week will change action priorities etc.
4, Review calendar for next week – take a look over my calendar. Now I make sure I set reminders far enough in advance, and see where I can fit some golf in!
Next Steps
Check calendar more regularly – I need to get in the process of checking my calendar daily to make sure I know what’s coming up and more importantly to ensure I haven’t forgotten something that’s coming up that day. I generally set 6-8 hour reminders giving me plenty of time to prepare for things in case I have forgotten about them. Once or twice though I’ve left the standard 15 minute reminder on and then missed something – most annoying as I’d done the hard work of putting it in the calendar in the first place!
Look at how to use SharePoint – although I use pen and paper for most of my GTD system I obviously work a lot with SharePoint and I know plenty of others prefer an IT type solution. Anybody want to work with me on a SharePoint based solution drop me a message – it may just be guidance on how to use all out of the box features.
Work on distractions – email, IM, TechMeme, Twitter etc. Keep feeling as though I have to check each of these and another few things every 60 seconds! Attention Deficit Disorder – maybe, but I need to make sure I can focus on tasks I’m trying to complete.
Resources
Books – the obvious ones:
Getting things done – the original and most important book of the three.
Ready for anything – 1 or 2 page chapters of GTD type motivational stuff. Good to keep you on track.
Making it all work – great follow up material to the original book. Make sure you read GTD first though, and maybe even re-read GTD if you read it a while ago.
GTD Connect – relatively new web site that requires a membership fee, but makes lots of resources available that can help keep you on track. Forums, whitepapers, podcasts – and lots of other stuff. Of all the things available I love listening to the podcasts while working.
The final thing to say really is what David Allen keeps repeating. It’s all about knowing what you’re not doing – by being able to see things laid out rather than in your head you can decide what’s important, and what can wait – or not even be done at all! When your mind is free of clutter – that’s when you can do the really good thinking and problem solving!