Guest post by @terryeva, a solutions architect for AOL and a social media enthusiast
The first and second posts in this productivity series examined the time management fallacy, efficient use of calendar entries, and tips on creating lists. This post will briefly discuss communication, clear up confusion about lists, and provide an overview of Getting Things Done.
Communication is important to organizations. In today’s world, even small businesses may not have their employees in one location. Add in global outsourcing of activities and effective communication is essential to getting things done. If practical, the best way to communicate is in person. One can easily clear up questions in person. If in person communication is not possible, the telephone, instant messages, or e-mails, in order, are acceptable alternatives.
Notice I placed e-mail last. Time and time again, I witness individuals sending e-mail instead of walking up a flight of stairs or picking up the telephone. Last summer I wrote two blog posts E-mail is for the dogs … or is it? and Email revisited. The posts point out common issues that could easily be avoided with face-to-face communication. I understand the use of email will be unavoidable in organizational communication. Chris Brogan offers some excellent tips for email in his blog post How Communication Skills Power Your Performance.
Someone asked me the other day why the lists I use are different from to-do lists. The lists I spoke of in the second post are actions. Actions drive something forward to a goal. Projects and Goals are simply comprised of actions. Completing the actions moves one closer to their goals. David Allen said, “90+% of to-do lists I’ve seen are incomplete inventories of still unclear things.”
This brings us to Getting Things Done (GTD): The art of Stress Free Productivity (Google Preview). As successful business professionals we must deal with an enormous amount of things to do in a short period of time and with a clear head. David Allen’s process breaks this down into five stages: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do.
Collect is the process of capturing everything (work and personal) that you have to do. The tools used for collection are not as important as making sure one trusts the external system. Collect everything that must be done and store the items in the system, not in your head. You may even feel a sense of relief once the collection process has begun. Emptying out the brain and placing the actions in the collection system is, as my colleague noted, “like getting a mental massage.”
Process is the thinking required to empty the collection bucket. As one reviews each item in the collection bucket one must ask “Is this actionable?” If the item is not actionable it must be deleted, stored as reference, or held for review. If the item is actionable then one must decide which project or outcomes one is committed to and what the next action is. If the next action will take two minutes or less just do it. If it will take longer than two minutes than delegate it or defer it to the calendar or as a next action to be done as soon as possible.
Organize means categorizing the items processed. For example, trash and reference are examples of non-actionable categories. Actionable items will need a list of projects, calendars, a list of next actions reminders, and a list of actions we’re waiting for.
Review is the process of reviewing what needs to be done. This can provide one a whole picture of one’s life. This is one’s chance to review the defined actions and options available.
Do is making action choices based on Context, Time Available, Energy Available, and Priority.
The five workflow stages I listed above are just a brief overview of GTD. I recommend David Allan’s book “Getting Things Done” to anyone interested in becoming more efficient and productive.
In the next blog post I will talk about the tools I use to Get Things Done.
Getting Things Done Resources:
The Getting Things Done (GTD) FAQ
How I use GTD 50,000 Foot Goals
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangeacid/ / CC BY 2.0
LET’S GET SOCIAL!
SIGN UP TO OUR E-NEWSLETTER
