So far, so good. I took a look
at quite a few of the computer tools that 'plug in' to the Getting
Things Done process, and found them all over-engineered for my needs. I
don't own a PDA. And the thought of tying myself down to an office
again by using reams of cardboard file folders didn't appeal to me,
especially since my life is now almost entirely paper-free. So I simply
constructed a table, using word-processor software, for each of the
eight 'buckets' of 'stuff'. I already had my Projects numbered, with a
Windows folder for each one, so I didn't need to set up anything for
the Project Plan bucket. I already had a References
Windows folder, with all my checklists and other reference materials.
And I'm not a pack rat, so I don't need anything for storing Trash
either -- once a task is done, I'm content to delete it permanently. So
all I needed was a table for each of the five remaining buckets:
- Project list, with the next few actions, in order, comprising each project
- Next Actions list, for all the 'one-off' things to do that can't be done in two minutes
- Waiting For list, for actions that are pending action from someone else
- Someday list, with projects and actions that are not immediately actionable, but which you want to get around to eventually, and
- Calendar, with the actions scheduled for a specific date and/or time
I set these tables up, with the headings that David Allen's Getting Things Done
book suggested, and then I started processing my 'stuff'. For me, this
was not difficult: I already have a lot of lists -- to do, to blog, to
buy (books, music, other shopping), to research. In order to aggregate
all my 'stuff' for processing, all I needed to do was pull together:
- These six 'to' lists
- The implied 'to do' items in my mail inboxes (once I have
done what needs to be done with incoming mail, I either trash it or
move it into one of my Reference folders)
- The unprocessed 'reminder' items in my browser bookmarks
- The implied 'to do' items in the 40 documents in My
Documents (mostly related to my 20 currently open Projects) Windows
folder that haven't yet been processed and moved to Reference folders
- My stack of unread books, magazines, and hard-copy articles people have given me
- The appointments on my calendars
- The stuff in my small stack of 'bills to pay etc.'
- The stuff in my head that I've never got around to putting in any of these places
As you can see, I'm a lot more anal than most people. For twenty years
I've made a point of working without the need for an office or an
administrative assistant -- my personal war for independence. As a
result, it didn't take me long to identify all the 'stuff' that needed
processing. I'm a terrible procrastinator, but I know
what I'm putting off, and while I do a lot of things last-minute, I
rarely miss a deadline. This process of identifying all my 'stuff' only
took me a few hours, whereas I suspect for many people it would take a
full weekend or more.
The most useful part of the 'stuff-gathering' exercise for me was
actually thinking through my 20 Projects, and identifying the
sequential identifiable Next Actions needed to move each one forward.
As Allen points out, you can't 'do' a project, you can only do the Next
Actions in a project, one at a time, until the project is done. But
many projects aren't quite that linear -- they often have several
Actions that could be done Next, in any order. As I went through the
process, I often ended up identifying several Next Actions for each
project, and thinking further ahead than I normally do. Agility doesn't
preclude, and sometimes requires, thinking a few steps ahead, and doing
several things in parallel.
Having gathered all my 'stuff', I then went through the process in the
above diagram to move each item into one of the eight 'buckets'. My
first breakthrough was disposing of about 30 items in the 'If it takes
less than two minutes, just do it' category. Since few of these items
were urgent, I had probably looked at each of them a half-dozen times
without acting on them, wasting a lot of time in the process. In the
space of a couple of hours (I confess they took an average of five
minutes each to do, not two, but give me a break, I'm new at this) I
had cleared 30 Next Actions from my various 'to do' lists. This
accomplished three things: (a) it removed logjams that were preventing
several projects from progressing, (b) it cleared a bunch of one-off
Next Actions from my lists, making what was still to do clearer and
simpler to put into perspective, and (c) it moved several projects into
the Waiting For list, when after doing my part I e-mailed various
colleagues to tell them I needed something from them next, and to my
surprise most of my colleagues responded almost immediately, moving
these projects ahead quickly.
As I posted each item of 'stuff' into the appropriate table for that
'bucket', I began to notice that the column headings for several of the
tables overlapped, and I started merging tables together, using a
'flag' in the first column of the table to indicate which 'bucket' it
belonged in. I liked the idea of doing this, since it meant fewer
tables to have to review, and fewer transfers of tasks from one table
to another -- all I had to do when an item moved from Next Action to
Waiting For was to change the flag in the first column.
I ended up merging four of the five tables together: Projects, Next
Actions, Waiting Fors, and Someday items, creating a single table with
nine columns and about 200 rows. The nine columns are:
- Bucket: P for Project, N for Next Action, S for Someday, and W for Waiting For.
- Project # and Action #:
I'm using a convention of project number before the decimal and action
number after, so the third action in my fifth project is 005.003, and
the 27th next Action not associated with a project is .027 .
- Project Outcome: As Allen suggests, I'm using active verbs and outcomes as the Project Names, e.g. 'Write & Publish Novel'.
- Action Name & Waiting For: The widest column, also using active verbs, citing what the next action step is, and, if applicable, who it's waiting for.
- Deadline or 'Tickler' Date & Time:
In easy-to-sort format (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm) using the 24-hour clock, the
scheduled or deadline date (and time if applicable) or the date you've put in the
'Tickler' file to next look at this item, so it doesn't get deferred
indefinitely.
- Context: Where and how it's to be done -- Online,
Offline (using computer but not needing network connection), Calls,
Errands, At Home, or Meetings -- Allen's #1 criterion for deciding what to
do next of all the unscheduled Next Actions.
- Hours Required: Estimated time to do this Action -- Allen's #2 criterion for deciding what to do next of all the unscheduled Next Actions.
- Energy Required: A
simple 'Y' for actions needing special concentration or mental energy
-- Allen's #3 criterion for deciding what to do next of all the
unscheduled Next Actions.
- Priority:
Importance, not Urgency (urgency is captured in the Deadline Date), a
subjective assessment (H, M, L) of how important it is relative to
other actions --Allen's #4 criterion for deciding what to do next of all the unscheduled Next Actions.
Here's what I've filled in on this table for actions that belong in each Bucket:
- Projects: Project Outcome in column 3, and then, in column 4, one under the other but in the same cell of the table,
each of the foreseeable Next Actions, in approximate order, with column
5-9 data for each, and then at the end of the list, one single 'action'
called Rest of Project with the Hours Required for the rest of the
project, so you have a general idea of the total project size and time
yet needed to complete it. By leaving all the actions in a project in
the same row of the table, the actions in a project stay together when
you sort the table by rows. For those who haven't read Allen's book, a
Project is anything that comprises two or more actions. When there's no
hard deadline date, I simply assign a 'Tickler Date', putting the
high Priority items first, starting with the earliest date in which I don't
already have a full 8 hours' work assigned for that date. I only enter
a specific time if there's a scheduled appointment.
- Next Actions:
For 'to do' items not associated with a Project, I complete columns
4-9, using the same process I used for individual actions in Projects.
- Waiting Fors:
I only complete column 4, adding the name of the person I'm waiting
for, and a 'Tickler' Date to follow up if I haven't heard by that
person by then.
- Somedays: These
are, I think, essentially Projects that you haven't really thought
through yet. I'm treating them just like Projects, except I enter only
one Next Action for each.
I have the luxury of a UXGA (1200 x 1600 pixel resolution) screen, so
I've set up the table in panorama mode using 9 point type, and display
it at 150%, so I can see all nine columns on the screen without
scrolling. I had originally expected to be sorting the table in a
variety of different ways, but so far a sort by column 5 (Date &
Time) is all I've needed. Each morning I add my new inbox 'stuff' to
the table (excepting stuff that I can deal with in under two minutes or
so), and re-sort it by column 5, and I have my entire day and week laid
out for me. As I finish actions I just delete the rows. For Projects, I
erase the Next Action as I complete it, and move the subsequent actions
up. I'm going to follow the book's advice and do a weekly review of the
entire table on Friday afternoons.
Right now I use a manual pocket diary plus a monthly computer Calendar
(a Firefox plug-in) which I print out and post on the refrigerator so
my technology-averse wife and I can coordinate our schedules. I was
originally thinking of continuing this, and transcribing information
from my Getting Things Done table to my Calendars. But then I realized
that my table, with the actions sorted by date, was a calendar. So instead, I made the table a complete calendar by adding a fifth type of action, Appointments (bucket type A),
for scheduled events that didn't relate to any Projects or Actions
(doctor's appointments for example). For these appointments, I now
enter an 'A' in column 1, a description of the appointment in column 4,
and the date and time of the appointment in column 5. Re-sort by date
and, voilà, the table becomes a complete Calendar as well. My pocket
diary is now a thing of the past -- I just keep the table's icon in the
upper left corner of my computer desktop, and print it out only on
those rare occasions when I'm going to meetings where my laptop won't
be there and I may need to schedule another meeting.
My three 'to buy' lists are still kept in paper & pencil form. I'm
adding books, CDs and groceries to these lists all the time, and it's
just easier not having to print them out.
So far it's working like a charm -- greater productivity, better
organization of the day, less stress, less wasted time deciding what to
do with 'stuff' and what to do next. I'll do a follow-up report as I
get more experience. Until then, three questions for others who have
used the GTD methodology, or any similar personal productivity tool:
- What's the best way to link actions to the documents and
messages on your hard drive that relate to them and support them? Right
now I have a Windows Folder and an e-mail Message Folder for each
project, but usually only a few of the documents and messages in these
folders relate to the Next Action -- most of them relate to actions
already done or actions to come later. And I hate nested folders
(tedious to navigate) so I don't want to create a Windows Folder and a
Message Folder for every
action. I set up the project/action numbering system I describe above
just for this purpose -- so that I can put the project/action number at
the front of the document name and message subject, but this is pretty
cryptic. Is there a simpler, code-free, folder-free solution?
- How do you best use Google Desktop or Copernic or FileHand
desktop search tools to support the GTD process, i.e. to find documents
and messages quickly related to a particular action?
- What's the optimal total amount of work to assign to one
day? I tend to put in 12-hour days during the week and 4-hour days on
weekends, and so far I've been scheduling and 'trickling' 8 hours of
work for weekdays and 3 hours for weekend days. But by the time you add
in a few indulgences (actions that you do because they're just plain
fun) and allow time to process the new 'stuff' each morning, including
the 2-minute quick actions, and allow for the fact that evry project
takes longer than you expect, I've been unable to get the 8 hours of
work scheduled into 12 hours, and a couple of items each day are
sliding into the next day's schedule. Anyone have any answers for this?
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
