michaelwarf.com | The personal space of Michael Warf, Best Practice Evangelist

Gettin’ Stuff Done

Published on 18/04/08
by mwarf

I was sitting through interviews the other day, listening to a recent grad speak of his “almost 4″ GPA, his three jobs and a social life. In him, I saw a younger version of me (albeit much more sane, and better looking) and asked him about work / life balance. He simply explained that he blocks weekends off for family and friends and pushes it the rest of the week. I often wonder how long that type of lifestyle can last, because my approach is starting to fissure.

Those who’ve known me longest will tell you a tale of a man constantly working, or involved in social interests to a breaking point. I currently work at the U of L full time, run another venture in another city, take three classes as a student, and lead a house full of 8 people. Busy? Yep. Sane? Debatable.

Three years ago, I discovered a book by David Allen called “Getting Things Done“. In the book, Allen describes a “trusted system” where you can take reminders about “stuff” you need to act on and park, organize and act from it. Allen believes the amount of “stuff” swirling around your head at inopportune times distracts you from the things you are currently working on. If you had a system where you could park any of the “nags” about other projects, and know that you’ll be able to act on them at a more appropriate time - you’ll be left with a zen feeling and be more focused and productive.

Its absolutely true.

I’ve abandoned this system for one reason or another since I arrived in Lethbridge and its really time to get back on the train. After installing a bit of software (yeah, Mac only - sorry PC users) to help make the use of the system more efficient, I’m good to go.

Setting up the system if you’ve not used it before is painful. You take anything that you’ve got in your head and write it down as a series of actions, basically dumping everything you’ve got in your head onto paper. Later, organize the info into projects and provide context for the actions. The big idea here is that if you are at the store, your system will automagically give you a list of things you need to get done at the store. If you are home, it’ll switch focus to remind you of all the things you need to get done there. Providing context to a giant to do list is great.

Have you ever been to a hardware store and suddenly remembered that you needed milk? Wouldn’t it be great to be reminded of the milk while you are in the dairy aisle of the store? GTD does just that.

There are many ways you can take this simple system off paper and have it follow you around on and offline, via integration with ipods, pdas, cellphones and web calendars - but technology isn’t the point, its a way of working.

Some more information about GTD:

That's it. What Next?

Please leave your comment so we know what you think about this article. Trackback URL: Gettin’ Stuff Done.