Getting Things Done

1. Getting Things Done A surprisingly interesting system for managing your time effectively July 30, 2010

2. Who Is This Presentation For? • Are you in control of your time? • In your business and personal life, are you on top of your goals and commitments? • Do you know what you should be doing at any given point in time? • Are you completely relaxed about managing your time? If all of the above are true, congratulations! You don’t need to be here.

3. Work Is Losing Its Edges • GTD defines work as anything that you want or need to be different than it currently is • Work used to be self-evident; milk cows, plow fields, etc. • You knew when you were done • As farming and manufacturing jobs are replaced with knowledge work, edges are vanishing • When are the wireframe designs perfect and you can stop working on them? • Should you be studying a new technology in your spare time to advance your career? • Should you go to the gym on Sunday morning or make slides for a Lab49 seminar? • Should you fix the kitchen faucet or update your personal web site? • The distinction is blurring between business and personal work • Jobs are constantly changing, and professionals are more free agents than ever before • Little seems clear for very long, in terms of what our work is, and how to do it well • We process huge amounts of information, and generate large volumes of ideas and commitments

4. The Problem and the Goal • The problem: • The amorphous blog of never-ending work fills up our brain and uses our CPU and RAM • Many professionals have low-grade, constant anxiety • Trying to remember everything that has to be done • Worrying about the things that are not getting done • Too much distraction at the day-to-day level to undertake bigger projects and goals • The goal: • Imagine if your personal management situation were totally under control • What if you could dedicate 100% of your attention to the task at hand without distraction? • Many of you know what that relaxed mental state is like • e.g. when you’re playing sports, or a musical instrument, or cooking, or whatever The goal is to bring that relaxed state of effectiveness to your work life.

5. The Reader’s Digest Version • Have an organized system for keeping track of all of your work, outside of your brain • Must be a comprehensive, trusted organizational system to capture everything you want to do • Keyword is everything; work and personal, high and low priority, short and long term, etc. • Have a well-defined system for choosing your next action • At any given time, what should you do next? • Consult the data in your organized system, choose the next action, and do it • Then update the organized system, and repeat Has anyone figured out the operating system analogy yet?

6. What’s Wrong With To-Do Lists? • Typical problem is that it’s full of items that are not actionable • You haven’t clarified the desired outcome • You haven’t decided the next step • You haven’t put reminders into a system that you trust • Therefore they will contribute to your background stress, and not move forward • Exercise 1: Are there any problems with this to-do list? • Buy milk • Create web site • Plan vacation • Clean house • Learn Silverlight

7. Understanding Projects versus Next Actions • Determine the next action for a project typically takes about two minutes • Exercise 2: Think about the project or situation that is most on your mind at this moment • What bugs you, distracts you, interests you, or otherwise consumes CPU cycles? • Take two minutes right now to decide the exact next thing that needs to be done • e.g. if the project is “create web site” what would you do next? • Pick a domain name? • Research hosting providers? • Exercise 3: • Let’s pick the next actions for the other items on the previous slide • Plan vacation • Learn Silverlight • The gist of the GTD system is: • Don’t confuse projects and next actions • Spend most of your time working on next actions • Periodically (every 1-2 days) scan your projects to determine new next actions • Periodically (once/week) update your list of projects

8. The Big Picture Stuff +Inbox What is it? Trash Is it actionable? No Someday/Maybe Yes Reference Needs to be broken down Into actions What’s the next action? Projects Is it < 2 minutes? • Plan • Capture • Review for next actions No Yes Do it Delegate it Defer it Waiting Next Actions Calendar

9. Implementing the System • Implementing these ideas requires the ability to categorize tasks • Outlook + BlackBerry works very well • Use Outlook task categories (not folders) • Ctrl-Shift-K is your friend • For the Apple-inclined: • OmniFocus • Toodledo • Things • The Hit List • Wireless syncing with categories is a must • Initial minimum list of categories: • +Inbox • Someday/Maybe • Reference • Projects • Waiting • Next Actions

10. Exercise Four • Initial state – let’s GTD! • +Inbox • Plan Lab49 outing • Line up a speaking engagement • Set up system for tracking personal finances • Other ideas? • Someday/Maybe • Reference • Projects • Waiting • Next Actions Stuff +Inbox What is it? Trash Actionble? No Someday/Maybe Yes Needs to be broken down Into actions Reference Next action? Projects Is it < 2 minutes? • Plan • Capture • Review for next actions No Yes Do it Delegate it Defer it Waiting Next Actions Calendar

11. Next Action Contexts • If you are out doing errands, why should you be thinking about computer-related tasks? • If you are in the office, why should you be thinking about fixing a home plumbing problem? • Context-based categories (convention – precede with @): • Next Actions • @Errands • Buy milk • @Home • Fix kitchen faucet • @Lab • Customize settings on desk phone • @Remote (office) • Review GTD presentation • @Transit • Skim HTML5 book • @Agendas • Parents – what are we doing for the family reunion this year? • Practice Head – ask for study recommendations

12. How to Use the Calendar • Your calendar is not a garbage can to store tasks that you think “should be done that day” • Many people are tempted to plan work by distributing tasks onto their calendar – don’t do that • Disagree with the Franklin Covey concept of putting tasks on your calendar and pushing them forward • Your calendar should be used exclusively for hard constraints • Scheduled meetings • Scheduled conference calls • Items that must absolutely be done on a particular day • If the time is not constrained, don’t specify it (e.g. use Outlook “all day event” checkbox) • This creates a clear discipline • If it’s on your calendar, it’s mandatory • If you have a free moment, go to your Next Actions list • If you try to plan your day using the calendar, you’ll stop looking at the Next Actions list • You will stop trusting the system and it will fall apart

13. How to Use Email • Don’t use email as your to-do list • Try to clean out your email box, or at least tag everything as read • So that the unread messages count is meaningful • If the email implies a next action, create one on the spot • e.g. for Outlook • Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-Shift-K , Ctrl-V • Or even better, draft the email to the Tasks header on the left • For Mac people I’m sure there’s some mouse-oriented carpal-tunnel inducing equivalent

14. Managing Action • Top down approach doesn’t really work • Intellectually you ought to work from the top down • Personal/corporate missions, then objectives, then implementation details • But this doesn’t fit with rapidly changing environments with constant distractions • GTD approach is bottom up • At 3:22 on Wednesday, how do you decide what to do? • Filter by context • Are you on the subway? Reply to emails, review documents, etc. • Context-based task categories make this easier; filter your list, then pick a task • Filter by time available • Do you have only 15 minutes before a meeting? Do something quick • Filter by energy available • Are you mentally tired? Do your Clicktime sheets • Filter by priority • If you have some open space, pick whatever is most important

15. Project Planning • Determining next actions for each project • GTD philosophy is to use “natural planning” • Which means in essence, don’t stress about it, just plan it like you would a dinner party • Natural planning can be thought of in five steps • Define purpose and principles (Why are you doing this? What are you trying to accomplish?) • Envision the outcome (Intimate dinner party? Or a big party with a DJ?)) • Brainstorm (What time should we go? What do we feel like eating? Any new places we want to try?) • Organize (Let’s see if the restaurant is open. Let’s check in with some friends about dates.) • Identify next actions (This part is easy by this stage.) • Unnatural planning (sound familiar?) • “We need to have a dinner party! Who’s got some good ideas?” • “Let’s start by writing an outline for our dinner party.” • “Let’s agree on a mission for our dinner party.”

16. Collecting • This is the most important part of GTD from the perspective of clearing your head • Gather 100% of the incompletes • Physical in-basket • Paper-based note-taking devices • Electronic note-taking devices • Voice-recording devices • E-mail • +Inbox category • Add freely to Projects and Someday/Maybe categories – use triggers to get ideas • Professional: Incomplete projects, commitments to others, financial, administration, supplies, office, etc. • Personal: Home, hobbies, skills, creative expression, clothes, gear, trips to take, organizations to join, etc. • Review loose papers, notes, calendar items, projects, etc. • Empty your head – try to think of everything • Be creative and courageous

17. Organizational Refinements • Keep a list of priorities at different levels, and review quarterly or even annually • Priorities 1 – Life • Priorities 2 – 3-5 year vision • Priorities 3 – 1-2 year goals • Priorities 4 – areas of responsibility • Projects (conceptually equivalent to “Priorities 5”) • Project subcategories (job-specific), e.g. • Projects – General • Projects – Client • Projects – Sales • Reference subcategories • Reference – General • Reference – People • Reference – Recommendations • Reference – Study • Ad hoc lists

18. Weekly Review • This is so critical that you must establish good habits, environments, and tools • Recommendation is to block out two hours a week for this (e.g. Friday from 4-6 PM?) • Review tasks • Collect all new items (focus on completeness first) • Review projects for next actions and create those tasks • Tidy up the system (delete tasks that are completed or irrelevant, refactor as required) • If you skip this, the system will break down very quickly • The failure mode is that you’ll start feeling stress again • You will realize that your brain is wasting cycles trying to keep track of what needs to be done • That’s a symptom that you’ve stopped trusting your GTD system and it’s time for a review

19. Timetable of Activities

20. Summary Questions? The bible: Getting Things DoneThe Art of Stress-Free ProductivityDavid Allenhttp://www.davidco.com/ The software: Doesn’t really matter, as long as you can categorize tasks.