Category Archive for: ‘gtd’
Using two systems for GTD
Most people lives have two main facets. First is the home area and second is the workplace area.
When implementing GTD one of the first elements I stumbled upon was making a decision whether to keep two separate systems or just one.
This may appear a non issue for some people but for others including me it was not such clear cut.
General recommendation is that single system is the way to go. This was the route I’ve taken first so a had all my work and home projects in one place, all the actions were with me etc. Although this worked reasonably ok after the initial period I’ve decided to abandon this approach.
Why
There were couple elements that influenced that.
- I would need to carry all my stuff everywhere even though I would not be able to do it.I do realise that having next action all the time gives opportunity to knock off couple items while waiting in the queue or before appointment. Yet I really prefer not to mix work and personal stuff and keep a firm separation between both.
- Everything in my system would have to be in paper. My workplace would not allow to sync company info to non-company equipment. This would be quite a burden as electronic organising is a better approach for my work tasks. Sometimes i find this lockdown a pain but mostly I like it. There are no regrets that I might be doing something for my work when I’m at home.
- I could go in the direction where all my stuff would live on my work computer but again this would not be best. First of all I’m not be able to access my stuff after the work hours. Also we are constantly reminded that work equipment including email etc is for business purpose. Then I would not be comfortable keeping my personal stuff there as it would be backed up to company servers and would be available for other people to access. Personal stuff is personal and it should stay this way.
- At the time of single system I still used a top level divider to separate home items from the work items. So regardless of the approach you take for your GTD system the tendency for separate home/personal stuff from work. This is mostly achieved by using sub contexts or splitting master lists into two. I think unless you work for your self there is no way you will avoid having some sort of separation between what needs to get done at home versus at work.
Strategies
With two systems there is some additional work needed to maintain both. It’s important to develop some strategies which would allow you to make both systems work appropriately.
- To make sure things are moving as desired so need to accept that weekly and daily reviews are duplicated as I have to review both systems. Fortunately it doesn’t take all that long for my personal stuff.
- Proper use of inboxes and ubiquitous capture allows me to dump any relevant ideas and then pass them into my work or home systems for further processing and organisation. This way I’m not worried that I’m missing on things. Because my personal system is always with me I jot down any ideas straight into it. When I have some work items to note I just email them to my work address.
- A good reminder system. It’s not unusual that I need to call someone or go somewhere during the work hours. To make sure that I don’t miss that I use a dual approach. I make a note in my filofax and also I add it into my Google calendar. This way each morning when reviewing calendar I will make a mental note about the task. Also Google will send me a sms (text) reminder once the action is due.
- Train yourself to focus on a location/context you’re in. If at work don’t focus on home stuff and vice versa. Although in some cases a change of environment can have very beneficial effect.
Setting up two systems my not be the best option for everyone. As usual it’s a matter of personal preference and situation. In my case it appears to work reasonably well.
GTD Implementation – some tips
Today I would like to give you some of my tips on how to implement GTD. This is mostly based on my mistakes that I have done when I started my GTD adventure. Hope your will find some value in this. Here they are (in no particular order).
Brain dump – Write it down. This applies to anything and everything that sits in your head. Write them all, your ideas, things to do, dreams, goals etc. Be strict and consistent. The fewer things in your head the more benefit your will get. Personally I think this is single most important element of GTD implementation that gives the most visible effect. You can literally feel weight lifted from your shoulders.
One thing at a time – Single things out. Focus on one thing at a time and consistently work through the lists and inboxes. Resist the urge to do things and browse through the stacks. The idea is that you pick one examine it, make decision (defer, do, delete) and move the the next one. This might be hard at first but should be easier over time.
Decide on the system – Setting up your system and tools is the most difficult time consuming part. You will probably spend hours trying various different approaches. My tip is asses your needs. Look at the effects of your brain dump and try to think what will be sufficient for you. Don’t try to over do your system, keep it simple i the rule no.1.
Pick your tools – Now when you’ve assessed your needs pick your tools but try to keep things simple and consistent Try to use tools that will support your system and each other. Tools that can easily exchange information and allow you to use them whenever your are and when ever you need them.
Stick with your choice – That’s very hard especially in the beginning. When the new habits have been created yet, when methodology is fresh and unsettled it’s easy to be lured by some new tools. The fact is: "it’s not going to work". Most of us like to play with new things, spend a little time with it and when bored move to another. But in this case you should change your tool only if….
Check if it’s you – When you find that your system is limiting you and does not meet your needs make sure this is systems fault. Often you consider something as system failure but in fact it’s your fault. You didn’t keep your system current, you have neglected some parts of the process, your haven’t clarified some thoughts. If that’s not the case and your implementation is not sufficient for you switch to something that will better fit your needs But this should be the only situation when you make a change. Otherwise you will spend more time transferring data across different platforms and wont get your things done.
Make notes – This is something that I discovered recently. I didn’t put enough attention on my implementation how it works, where are my in baskets, how do I file etc. so it was kind of loose and unstructured. Making notes on your system gives you an option to see, reflect what works and what doesn’t. I know, system should be simple and at hand and that 100% true but in order to do that your need to see your system form higher altitude, get some perspective.
Keep your system current – That sounds obvious but I always need to remind this to myself. It’s necessary to makes sure that the system is constantly fed with new items. Make sure you log all actions, projects, waiting for’s. Check if the inboxes are empty and calendar is accurate.
I hope you’ve found these tips useful. If you have some more tips and would like to share them please feel free to leave a comment.
Perspective, perception and experience
Couple weeks ago I’ve read this in “Home with God” a book definitely not about productivity – it’s about death, souls, energy and consciousness.
There is a great phrase which says “perspective creates perception, perception creates experience”. This appears to represent in a fixed formula where first two elements create third one. As it’s later explained this is not the case. In this equation if you change the way one element it reacts on two others and can transform them..
Almost immediately I thought that this can be matched to application of GTD. In my earlier post I’ve written that GTD can be painful that I can create a lot of frustration and disappointment. That I can produce a negative self-talk that doesn’t serve any purpose except put you down and magnify the adverse sides of things.
If one was to translate the above paragraph in to working with GTD it could take a shape of one of the two scenarios.
Scenario 1:
Perspective
Once you are through the initial implementation you process all the inputs and log them on to a list. This list will represent all commitments and obligations and it will be long. For some it can be 100 items for others it can be 500 or more.
Perception
The notion of fallowing any productivity system including GTD is that you will become more productive, have more time and accomplish more. However it’s often the case that the result of gathering all the obligation results in something that’s quite the opposite. Long list of unfinished tasks is a prime example of personal failure. So many things are waiting to be done. When you don’t track to do’s in any way it’s easy to pretend they are not there, but once they are put in one place there is nothing to hide.
Experience
Once you get in the mode of seeing yourself as unproductive this will translate into experiencing being unproductive. Looking at the lists will be a burden. The hundred items will morph into single blob of endless work. There will be no focus and one will be jumping from one thing to another without finishing it properly.
Scenario 2:
Perspective
The list with all the captured commitments and outcomes is the starting point. It’s long and mighty. It has everything you’ve wanted to do and grows every day.
Perception
Look at the next actions as opportunities, a possibility to make a difference, to improve something and complete it. As the lists are full of items to work on there is a plenty of choice to make a change. Regardless where you start there always be a positive impact.
Experience
Go through the items one by one. The list is fluctuating as you complete many items and then add more which are more important and have higher impact on life. You experience increased productivity and progress.
In the first scenario the sequence looks like a vicious circle where there is no escape. But it can be broken once you change one element in this three piece equation the effect will be translated on to the other pieces.
These two scenarios are happening all the time one day first scenario is on top when things are not going as planned on the other day you feel energised and productive, knocking down the actions and progressing on projects. Perhaps they occur during a single day.
The most important thing to remember is that the list in both scenarios is exactly the same it doesn’t change at all. The change needs to happen in our heads.
What I wonder is how to maintain more positive scenario for longer?
Are there any techniques that maybe helpful?
If everything is happening in the brain how can we access it for greater use?
GTD can be painful
This idea came to me when I was ironing (not my favourite household duty).
Triathlon is a sport that’s very much orientated on efficient of energy use. The shortest of races takes at least an hour to complete and the longest Ironman last from 9 hours up to 17. To achieve best possible results in this sport you need to have great level of endurance and a good technique. Developing both takes time and effort.
Every swimming or running technique is built on a simple set of moves so that you can get maximum power from each stroke or step. During the learning process body needs to adjust to new type of movement. Some muscles are under bigger strain than the others, joints need to stretch more in directions they never did before.
New types of strain you put on your body cause a pain. As your muscles are not used to increased intensity of workout they develop lactate acid and you feel as you can barely move. Joints and tendons get stretched so you merely can move your arms. When you keep repeating new drills and steps over a period of time body adjusts and pain will be gone.
A similar set of principles applies to learning new productivity methodologies like GTD. There is a set of rules that need to be learned and some behaviour needs to be changed. Although these appear to be simple and easy it takes some time effort and pain.
The Getting Things Done book offers few very simple ideas to organise life and work. The information flow is straight forward. All you have to do is collect, process, organize, review and finally do. Nothing overly complicated. Yet the complete implementation can be a drain you mentally.
When you look at this methodology closer you’ll see it requires establishing new set of habits for each of the steps. New thinking paths need to develop, new behaviour needs to be learned. Old patterns need to be replaced. In the medium term the effect will be similar as for the muscles and joints, there will be experience of pain.
As I learned GTD there were couple forms of frustration and discontent jumping at me all the time. Even now days after over 2 years of practicing it I get this feeling. I’m not happy with my system or with the way things work. I’ve been reading a lot about other people experiences with implementation of getting things done, their problems and questions. I think the biggest adjustment and pain shows up in three areas.
Tools. Perhaps not the most important element of the methodology, yet it’s discussed the most. In order to track thing you need a tool and most people searches for a perfect appliance. Although the choice is varied we rarely settle with one for long. Frustration grows every time I change a tool and then realise that all I need is a simple set of lists. Yet again I spend hours trying new shiny programs and gadgets. It can be a vicious circle.
Rules. They are simple; one word rules yet again we are not used to think by them. Collect, organise, decide, review, do, how difficult is that??? Either you don’t collect, forgot to review or completely ignore what you decided to do. Then when you try to re-examine what went wrong you look at the principles and try to find the answer why you can’t implement them – they are so simple.
Progress. There is expectancy to get an immediate result with anything we do. Have headache grab a pill and in 10min pain is gone. Want more time, be more organised and efficient then use GTD. But this time it doesn’t work that well, there is an improvement. It lasts only until next surge in workload when everything goes out the window. On the other side you crank through the carefully carved actions and then you find you haven’t moved a lot. Something important and meaningful was left out.
Implementing GTD is major shift in thinking so there will be obstacles, challenges to overcome. So if you are feeling down with your implementation or you fell from the bandwagon just take a moment and think of any things that your GTD adventure helped you to experience, complete etc.
It just takes time and persistence to work with your system. But once the change is done you begin to act on some sort of autopilot write down, process, organise, review, do! And it happens just like that.
Someone said that anything worth fighting for will cause you pain. Is GTD worth the pain? Probably not but most definitely it will have impact on areas that are important in life.