Getting Things Done project in Todoist
The long lists that result when tasks are broken down into small subtasks in this way can quickly overwhelm GTD users. Allen recommends three methods to counteract too many tasks:
Add “context” to your tasks, for example if you can only do something when you are in town or when someone specific is with you.
Use a calendar to plan the tasks that need to be completed on a particular day . Otherwise, collect all tasks in a "Next Steps" folder that you can go through when you have time.
Create “someday” and “maybe” lists for tasks that are not currently a priority.
From now on, review your tasks once a week to keep things in order. When doing your "weekly review," you should keep the following in mind:
Create a "trigger" list to remind you of tasks you haven't written down yet. For example, my triggers include phrases and words like "I need to call back," "Facebook," "check birthdays," "car repairs," and a ton of people's names, including my boss, my boyfriend, and my best friends.
Store everything you want to read in one place, otherwise the “next steps” will quickly become overcrowded with articles and documents to read.
Use a date-based filing system for physical items that you will need on a particular day or that will remind you of something that day.
The blog article “ GTD in 15 minutes ” – albeit in English – explains this filing system, which can consist, for example, of a hanging file with folders for each month and each day of the month, as follows:
The idea is to create a place for things you need on a certain day (like concert tickets) or to remind you of something you plan to do on a certain day. (Remember: the calendar is only for things that really need to be done at a certain time.) A good example is notes from a lecture that you didn't really understand ("I want to read this again in a few weeks when my subconscious has processed it"). Every day when you get up, you open the folder with the current date. You put the concert tickets in your bag, decide that you want to take the dog to the groomer today, but put the lecture notes off for another three days because you don't have time. Once the folder is empty, you put it behind the others so that the folder for the next day is at the front. At the end of one month, you open the folder for the next month and organize its contents by putting everything in the correct daily folders.
Is all this a bit too much information right now? That's because most of Getting Things Done's explanations are too simple.
Allen's book is over 200 pages of research and reasoning behind why this system works, how to use it properly, and why you should consider applying it to your life. It will explain the method much better than I ever could, so I recommend you read it for yourself.
Where does “Getting Things Done” come from?
David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, once said, " I had 35 jobs before I was 35. " In his twenties, he encountered mystics and psychics who inspired him to "give up everything - education, drugs, his first marriage, his home" and join the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA). Strange as it may sound, this church (some would call it a cult) laid the foundation for Getting Things Done.
Over the next five years, he worked a variety of odd jobs, including landscaping, working on a glass lathe, and selling mopeds, while strictly following the teachings of the MSIA movement ( which some consider a cult ). When John-Roger, the leader of the movement, started so-called "Insight Seminars" to promote personal growth for his followers, Allen was excited and eventually became a trainer himself. His experiences with Insight shaped the first version of "Getting Things Done," which he continued to develop over the next 25 years.
In 2001, he published the first edition of Getting Things Done, and the book quickly became an international bestseller. In 2005, Wired called the productivity method a " new cult for the information age ," and in 2007, Time magazine called Getting Things Done " the business self-help book of its time ."
I'm glad I didn't know about the spiritual basis of GTD before reading the book. Otherwise I probably would have dismissed it as New Age nonsense. Thankfully I didn't, because the system works.
A short disclaimer
The five lessons from Getting Things Done that I describe below are purely from my personal experience. The GTD concept described above is what Allen lays out in his book. I have modified his methods over the years until I found a model that works for me.
Some people may find it easiest to follow the GTD method as it is. Hopefully what I'm sharing will be helpful to others. I'm sure some of you have already developed your own GTD workflow and I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!
Now, without further ado, I want to tell you about the five things I think are most important among everything I learned from GTD.
There is no work-life balance
1. There is no such thing as a “work-life balance”. Work and leisure time do not balance each other out; they merge into one another.
Before I discovered Getting Things Done, I assumed that productivity at work was somehow different than productivity at home.
When I was growing up, my father often traveled for work. He would disappear for a few days and return with gifts from foreign cities and countries, little treasures like matryoshkas, Hungarian chocolate, and once a Smash Mouth T-shirt from San José.
But it wasn't his presents that made me so happy to see him. He put down his laptop bag, took off his coat, put his wallet on the cupboard, and then turned off his massive cell phone (he was an early BlackBerry adopter and took a little too long to give it up).
The phone made a sound as it shut off, a sound that signaled that it was now time to play - time when I would enjoy my father's undivided attention. Work was over. Life began. I thought then that my adult work life would be similar.
Now I'm working and have tried to achieve a work-life balance , but somehow it turns out to be inefficient and unenjoyable. Getting Things Done helped me understand that I was chasing a fantasy of a bygone era of work, when LinkedIn, Facebook, work emails and Candy Crush weren't constantly competing for our attention on the same handheld devices. Before Getting Things Done, I thought that when I was at home, I only occasionally had to write down tasks related to the house or the next big cleaning job.
Now it's different. I write down these work tasks - yes, housework is new zealand telegram data work - and plan them in my calendar, just like the things I have to do for my job. I do the same when I want to remember to call my mother or buy birthday presents.
In a way, Getting Things Done made me realize that it doesn't matter what I spend time and effort on, but that I do it. (Incidentally, I read the original 2001 version of David Allen's book; I haven't read the updated version yet.)
This method forces me to write down absolutely everything that could be a task for my “inbox”. Last time, this included:
Buy cat food (at home)
Saga Deluxe Edition Book One reread (Leisure)
Clarify details for business trip with Lisa (work)
Vacuuming the sofa (at home)
Read article: “ The Step-by-Step Guide to Syndicating Content (Without Screwing up Your SEO) ” (Work)
I had all of that to do, and my brain doesn't magically divide tasks into "work" and "other." I learned to create a schedule for what I needed to do in a day—everything from grocery shopping to analyzing spreadsheets—so I could get it all done and not be plagued by stress and overwhelm (at home and at work).