How I Get Things Done: My productivity system
Like the rest of you out there, my life is packed and it never tends to let up (at least not by much, and not for very long). After all, it is what makes it all interesting. With a wife a daughter and a son on the way, my hectic work schedule as a Big 4 accounting firm manager, the added obligations as a college campus recruiter and class speaker, and all the other random responsibilities that pop up along the way- I have a lot of plates in the air. I am on a constant quest to keep track of everything on my plate, break as few as possible, and hopefully get something productive done at the end of the day.
I won’t say I have the magic bullet, or that I even get much accomplished. But, I do like to share what works for me and how I experiment with keeping my mind as clear and focused as possible. As a caveat: this works for me. I share the same struggles with many of my staff and peers. As much as I attempt to share my method, it is not for everyone. It takes a considerable amount of time to set up and discipline to perfect; but, it’s just geeky enough to keep me engaged. So if you’re interested, this is a glimps of what I do.
The core of my productivity system is David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. I was introduced to GTD by my very insightful and sympathetic EY “counselor”, who recognized my plight and gave me a copy of this book early on into my career. Over the years I have read and re-read the book, and tweaked my system to be as effortless and effective of a tool to execute as possible. The GTD process definitely has it’s pros and cons, though the main premise is to maintain a system that captures every ‘action’ in a trusted system and to save the brain from the responsibilities of tracking all the ‘to dos’ (a process that the brain tends to be the least effective at) and to focus it on creating.
The following graphic illustrates the GTD workflow:
A favorite topic among GTDers is describing their GTD implementation. As with most GTDers, I’ve tried a number of different setups. For now, let me describe my current setup:
- Remember The Milk – This by far has been the most ubiquitous and easy to use list manager I have come across, to date. For an extra $20 a year, I have my RTM lists synced across the web and various mobile devices I have with me throughout the day. The site even has a blog post dedicated to setting up an advanced implementation of GTD. I have recently overhauled my system to this setup, and has worked fairly well for me over the past few months.
- Pocket notebook – I carry my Moleskine pocket notebook around everywhere simply as a capture tool. Any thoughts, to-dos, projects, calendar stuff that I collect while I’m not at the computer or with my iPod touch gets captured in the notebook and transfered to my action lists or calendar later.
- GCal/Lotus Notes - OK, I’m not the first GTDer to love Google Calendar, but it’s simply the best, and it takes care of all my calendaring needs. Unfortunately, my work subscribes to the Lotus suite. Therefore, my work related items are stored on Lotus notes calendar and synced (as much as I am allowed) into GCal.
- Gmail/Lotus Notes - Gmail is my main go-to for personal email correspondence. Although, the vast majority of my emails are work related and are managed through Lotus Notes.
- Misc - Other than these main tools, I have an inbox at home and work and filing systems at both locations.
Well, I’m not going to explain the whole system in this post. Instead, I’ll provide some links to help you get started, if you’re a beginner GTD disciple.
Other GTD Resources
- Wired: A guide to GTD
- Mine Zone: Getting Things Done
- 43 Folders: Getting Started with GTD
- Davidco’s Lisa Peak: 10 beginner behaviors
Posted via email from JoS
Tags: productivity
Thanks for reading!