wildchocolate

I recently received the book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen, as a birthday gift. Only half way through the book, I am already transformed in the way I approach productivity in my life! As someone who was an incessant planner and list maker, I had no idea how inefficient my productivity methods were until I started to make and see the changes recommended in this book.

While there’s no way I could eloquently and completely paraphrase the Getting Things Done methodology here, I thought I’d share some of the personal applications I have made that are already transforming my life and crushing my stress. If you want to know more about how and why I made these changes, I highly recommend you read the GTD book for yourself!

Here are just a few examples of personal productivity issues that I am resolving thanks to the Getting Things Done productivity mantra:

Problem: I always used to make master lists that were overwhelming.

GTD Solution: My to-do items are now broken down into personal or professional categories, and from there into logical associations and projects like “Condo Re-design” or “Personal Health”. This makes them much easier to review and tackle.

Problem: I recorded things instead of actions which made tasks seem scarier than they are. For instance, I would record “figure out how to decorate the condo” rather than “discuss paint colors and purchase paint”.

GTD Solution: My lists and projects are now made up of next actions. This saves me the time of figuring out what to do about something and lets me get to the part where I actually make progress on it.

Problem: My “get this done at some point” tasks were always mixed in with time sensitive items such that i would often miss the time sensitive tasks.

GTD Solution: I now trust my calendar to tell me just what has to be done today. I can then move onto productivity based on my mood or available resources without feeling anxiety that I missed something critical.

Problem: I never captured “someday” items in a consistent and organized manner, so good ideas were often lost with time

GTD Solution: Whenever I have a thought, an idea, or a question, I immediately capture it in a list that I know I will review soon.

Problem: I did not track minor personal tasks regularly. For example, I reminded myself for a year before I actually called and made a dentist appointment.

GTD Solution: I now keep track of personal tasks that I want to get done for me, and I put them in a list that I regularly review. Just this week, I resolved 5 minor to-dos that had been dangling over my head for months.

Problem: I constantly felt like there was something important that I was forgetting because I did not have things recorded in a system that I trusted myself to check regularly.

GTD Solution: I now review my GTD lists and projects several times a week, which takes me no more than a few minutes to do, but saves me hours of stressing.

Problem: I often chose arbitrary dates to accomplish tasks and then felt disappointed when I didn’t get to them that day, even though the tasks were low priority.

GTD Solution: I only schedule things that are actually time sensitive, and other items go into topic-related groupings in my list of things to do next. Not only do I get time sensitive things done right away, but I also feel a higher level of achievement overall in knocking off tasks from my next items list.

Maybe these changes seem obvious to you, or you already do all these things, but I think almost everyone can benefit from taking a closer look at their efficiency. Or maybe this just stems from the fact that I come from an industrial engineering background which is all about optimizing, so I just can’t help myself!