Good Afternoon TMOD, Fellow
Toastmasters and guests. Had you been in that same scenario, where we have so
much to do that we just forget what we actually needed to do? Had you been in
the grocery store and have forgotten what you wanted to buy, but can remember
the phone call you need to make at 4:00 this afternoon to your boss on office
work. In our increasingly busy lives multi-tasking is a great tool, but
sometimes everything blurs and we need to focus on what we truly need to
accomplish and this is where the methodology of GTD, Getting Things Done,
shines. Yes, another methodology! This afternoon you are going to learn GTD
methodology, the specific steps to use as part of GTD, and how you can
implement GTD in your everyday personal and business lives.
We as humans are most
productive when the mind is clear and Getting Things Done is a methodology for
personal productivity allowing for the organization of all that ‘stuff’ in your
life. David Allen created GTD in the
book named aptly, Getting Things Done was released in 2002 the idea of GTD has
been brewing with David Allen since 1983 after putting together a productivity
seminar. The methodology has evolved over the years and continues to evolve
especially as the older models of productivity become outdated. The main
principle behind GTD is the common sense concept of having a complete and
current inventory of all of your commitments
and activities. At a high level, the GTD process is a bottom up approach
that starts with getting all of that ‘stuff’ out of your head. Once that
‘stuff’ is stored somewhere else it then provides for the ability to turn that
‘stuff’ into actions.
So how do you go about
Getting Things Done?
The steps to GTD are very
straightforward;
1.
Collect,
2.
Process & Organize
3.
Review and Do.
We’ve discussed the Collect
step already and it’s as easy as putting everything you need to get done into
an Inbox. The Inbox can be any sort of collection system from paper to e-mail.
Once you’ve collected your items into the Inbox you then need to process
these items, in effect emptying your Inbox. To process the item we split the
Inbox into two categories, actionable and non-actionable. If the item is not
actionable it either gets Deleted, added to a Reference bucket, or added to a
Someday/Maybe bucket, like that trip to Hawaii! For those items that are
actionable we then need to Organize them into various buckets. Before we
do however, will this item take less than two minutes to complete? If so, then
JUST DO IT! But if it takes longer than two minutes the item should be if
possible, delegated otherwise deferred. Deferred actions are organized into
contexts such as office, home, calls, errands. The next step is then to
actually Do these actions based upon their context and buckets. At the
office? Then what’s in the office bucket? Have some time at home then look at
the calls context or home bucket. The last step is Review, an occasional
review, usually weekly, of each of your buckets, contexts and projects to
ensure they aren’t being ignored. This time is also spent again
emptying the stuff in your head into the Inbox and then repeating the steps of
Processing and Organizing and of course doing.
After learning about these
steps involved in GTD some of you may be asking how you might implement it in
your personal and business lives. Well as GTD has established a bit of a cult
following there are a number of tools available to use. I personally utilize
Outlook as my Inbox and have an app on my smartphone that is specifically
designed for GTD, called Producteev, with a whole bunch of neat features. For
starting out however the simplest way to implement GTD for yourself is to get a
plain spiral notebook and dump the stuff that’s in your head into it. Then
Process, Organize and Do! Implementing GTD relieves that overwhelming feeling
and helps to increase productivity without being locked into a rigid structure.
I would also highly suggest getting David Allen’s book to learn more about GTD.
So why are you still sitting? Get your paper and pencils and start Get Things
Done!
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