15 Big learnings from Getting Things Done Book
David Allen’s Perspective
David Allen is an author and consultant, as well as an international lecturer and the co-founder of the David Allen Company. Forbes has recognized David Allen as one of the most effective five coaches for executive leadership in the United States. Leadership Magazine quoted him as one of the “Top 100 thought leaders.” Then, Fast Company hailed David Allen, “One of the most influential thinkers in the world” in the field of personal productivity.
Introduction
GTD: Getting Things Done shows ways to increase your capacity to plan and implement assignments and tasks. GTD has become an increasingly popular method of accomplishing personal and professional tasks completed in the management field. However, Allen’s methods are intended to be universally applicable to any aspect of the world.
1. Take control of Your Life
A chaotic life makes it difficult to plan or think strategically effectively. Therefore, Allen advises you to take control of your day-to-day tasks prior to focusing on the bigger overall picture. The process of getting things done is a bottom-up method to increase productivity. The purpose of this strategy is to create the feeling that you are in control of your tasks. The control you have will allow the mental energy needed to consider your life’s goals.
2. What is your definition of finished?
In order to finish things, it is important to know what you mean by accomplishing something. A majority of people have a long list of tasks that don’t have a clear idea of what a successful task will look like. This method is not in line with your natural instincts. The brain is designed to solve problems when you are aware of what the final destination is. That’s why you must always try to establish an exact stopping point. If you’re having trouble achieving your goals, ensure that you’re conscious of what progress will look like.
3. The Five Steps to Effective Work
Collecting
Your work will be more efficient if you have all the necessary resources at hand prior to beginning. You can also make better use of the inputs you have when all your resources are in one place. So, engage in collecting. The act of collecting is collecting knowledge, resources, and jobs.
Processing
In addition to locating the relevant information, You must also determine the best way to use the resources available. Allen describes this process as processing. You must separate and distribute your resources according to the priority you plan to do in the future. This can be done through task planning, project, or plan.
Processing is the process of emptying the box or drawer and then defining the next step that is executable for everything you’ve collected in the initial step. Many people struggle to take action on a particular task because they don’t know what they should accomplish next. Without knowing what the task is, it is just an idea that is likely to keep popping into your mind.
Organizing
After you’ve processed, you need to review the results and then put them in a system that you can trust. The significance of this system is that it ensures that you don’t have to remember all of the results of processing. The organization system allows you to organize these results in an efficient form. Allen suggests putting tasks on to-do lists, and projects on lists of projects. Also, you can place plans for the future on a system for tracking, and include reference details in a document or database.
Doing
“Doing” is the act of executing the plans you’ve already made. Therefore, “doing” is doing the work you’re able to accomplish today.
Reviewing
After you’ve completed the task after taking action, you must examine the outcomes of your efforts. After reviewing, you can revise your strategy in line with the results and then improve your methods to get more effective outcomes. This is where you will regularly check that you’ve defined the correct goals and have covered all that must be accomplished. This review will take around one or two minutes for an everyday review. Ten minutes should be allotted for the weekly review.
4. Stop Keeping things in your head
People are prone to save everything they can in their minds. Our brains aren’t designed for the storage of memories. They are designed for speedy decision-making.
Try to keep your attention from juggling the information in your brain. For maximum efficiency, your brain needs to be focused completely on the work in front of it. Don’t get caught up in the pending tasks or other matters. One method to accomplish this is to take just a moment and put everything important that you have stored on a piece of paper.
Some prefer writing the information, while some prefer drawing. In either case, you’ll want to clear your stored data out of your mind. After you’ve done this, you’ll find it easier to make choices based on the information. This method will help you to improve your brain’s abilities, and it will help reduce stress. If you can reduce the stress associated with capturing ideas, you’ll find it easier to take more ideas.
5. Tasks and Projects Assignments are Different
The most common error is to track projects and tasks in the same manner. Another error is to confuse projects and tasks in similar review processes. Confusion between the two is the best way to overwhelm you. Combining long-term goals with your everyday tasks can cause you to feel like you’re failing. According to your perception, you are failing this long-term endeavor for the time it takes to finish it.
Because of the differing timelines for tasks and projects and projects, you must track these in a different way. For instance, you could use post-it notes to track tasks and an account of your tasks.
6. Always Look for the next Action
Large projects can become difficult due to their complicated nature. Therefore, instead of focusing on distant goals of the past, it is better to concentrate on the next steps needed to get there. In light of this always focus on the actions you can take today. If the task is not feasible right now there’s no need to be stressing about it.
7. Make Use of the 2-Minute Rule
Allen suggests tracking the tasks. This does not apply to tasks that are small. The tasks that take 2 minutes or less are not to be recorded. If you begin keeping track of these small tasks, you’ll be spending more time writing down track times than actually doing the task. Consider delegating when you think someone else could complete the job better and faster than you.
The rest of the chores must be organized into the form of a system. The system should include different kinds of lists. Contacts to make and people to compose an email and actions to take in relation to various projects you’re working on. Make sure to incorporate actions into your calendars with a time limit.
8. Use Reference Files to Plan Long-Term Actions
Long-term tasks shouldn’t go in your current daily task-tracking system. Allen suggests using reference files to save details about tasks that you do not have to act upon right now. You have the option of deciding whether you would like these documents to be physical or electronic.
9. Track Your Commitments with Buckets
The main purpose behind buckets is to keep data that is significant enough to become an issue. The key feature of the buckets is that they’re accessible from a distance. There are seven kinds of buckets that keep the system clear and clean:
- A list of your current tasks that you’ve committed to completing within the next few days.
- A list of current projects between 4 to 20 projects you’ve set your sights on completing over the next few weeks.
- A calendar with commitments to get together with other people in the near future.
- A list of someday or maybe ideas you’d like to think about, however, not now.
- Reference files: Information or documents you’ll need a reference for in the future.
- A capture device is a method to record thoughts or the next steps at the moment you consider them.
This system of buckets is highly efficient, however, this is only true when it is filled with current information. Also, you must regularly ’empty the garbage. Clean your buckets frequently. Allen recommends the minimum requirement of one clear-out each week. The buckets’ contents need to be inspected, ordered according to priority and all irrelevant or obsolete items must be removed.
10. The goal is to schedule a non-negotiable time for an Every Week Review
It is so quick that it can be difficult to keep an eye on whether you’re getting the results you want. Therefore, Allen suggests that you set aside an opportunity to conduct a weekly review. Allen offers suggestions of items to incorporate into your daily review.
- Sort and sort everything you’ve gathered, but you haven’t dealt with until now.
- Check the current tasks that you can include in or delegate to, or remove.
- Examine your current projects and think about whether there are some to be added, delegated or deferred.
- Examine your calendar and decide the meetings you need which you should add, assign, postpone or even delete.
- A section called Someday/Maybe covers any other items you might want to include or add to an ongoing project.
- Reference Files may contain anything you’ll require in the near future or items you want to update or add.
- The goals you’ve set. These goals indicate whether you’re heading toward the direction you want to go, or adjustments are required.
11. Design an environment that is comfortable for workers
It is essential to organize your work. It is also essential that you improve the structure of your workspace. Your workspace must contain everything you need to be productive. It is also important to ensure that you feel comfortable in the workplace.
12. The Purpose of Making Things Happen
There isn’t immediate satisfaction from getting things accomplished. It takes a long time to bring everything under control. This is why you need to give yourself a little slack.
Making things happen is about making a list of routines. Habits require time to form. Since doing things is connected with a variety of behaviors, it is best to start with only one habit at a. Once the habit becomes easy then you can focus on implementing another habit.
The most important goal in accomplishing tasks is to allow you to accomplish the task that is important to you. This is why getting things accomplished can help you tackle the issue of procrastination, by constantly upgrading your system. The changes are generally easier than you’d think. The most efficient systems use simple methods which work. If in doubt, go in the direction of taking a smaller approach.
13. Utilize Natural Planning
The process of planning for projects is usually defined by an unnatural and unstructured procedure. Allen says that natural planning is an easy and enjoyable method of identifying the steps to take. These steps will get you to achieve your long-term goals.
Start by having your completed goal in the back of your mind. Once you’ve got that in mind, you are able, to begin with, to brainstorm. Beware of brainstorming inside your head and ensure that you do it externally. For instance, note down your thoughts and sketch mind maps. Once you have your thoughts organized and you can begin to identify specific steps to implement these goals and move closer to your final goal.
15. Prioritizing Your Tasks
The importance of your tasks will help you determine the first thing to accomplish. Allen lists the six levels of prioritization you must consider when planning your tasks:
- Your 3-year vision
- Your 1-year vision
- Current obligations
- Current projects
- Current actions that are defined
- The actions of these levels directly impact the other five levels.
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