Have you ever come across a quote, an inspiring saying or a Hadith, that you liked so very much you just had to take a printout and stick it up somewhere that you could see it everyday. Infact you may have a couple of these either around your office desk, or home, maybe in your car. If you haven’t done it yourself, you certainly know friends who have this quirky little habit.

I have done this a couple of times in the past too. And sure the first couple of times I read the quote, it does charge me up to either work harder, or be focused or more caring, loving etc. However, after a week or so, if I happen to read the quote, it makes no difference to me. Give it a fortnight, that quote becomes invisible. I don’t even look at the side where I’ve got that quote up. Infact even if I did, I would probably see right through it. There’s a psychological reason that if anything is seen or told at too often, one becomes completely immune to it. The technical term for this is: nagging. So what do you do to get the same impact again and again? So how can you see and read this advice regularly enough that it encourages you but not so often that it stops having an effect on you.

It’s because of Rules. We had them as School kids, there are Rules at office, then then there are traffic Rules. Rules Rules Rules everywhere. Who needs ‘em, Wouldn’t it be better if we just got rid of them? No, you know that it wouldn’t be. And that’s because, it’s these Rules that are in place to provide us with the freedom to do what we can, within limits.

One of the great things about GTD is that it believes in making and following rules. GTD has a great set of Rules. These rules if one can adopt them as “Commandments” in one’s life that are never to be broken, it would save you from a lot of one of the most stressful and anxiety-ridden activities i.e. Decision-making. Having these rules in place, spares you from thinking through many things each time they crop up. You don’t need to make decisions any more, just follow the rules that have been set.

(Side note: There are many great GTD rules, (expressed as Best-Practices of the 5 Phases of Gaining Control), but in this post, I’ll be discussing the rules which are not strictly GTD Rules by the book. But have nonetheless helped me greatly in simply getting things done.)

Earlier this is what I would go through:
1. Before Packing: Pretty much the whole day I would be thinking: “Oh my God, I’ve still got so much packing to do. When will I do it? I’m still at work. I better leave soon, but there’s still so much to do.”

2. And while I’m packing: “I’ve got to pack clothes and then there’s my toothbrush, and oh-my-God I cannot forget my mobile charger…aargh!”

3. But worst of all after I’m all packed: “hmm I’m know I’m forgetting something, but don’t know what that is.”

These days, packing is so easy when I’ve got to travel. (Ofcourse that’s mostly got to with the fact that I’ve got my sweet wife to help me out). But even then, every time I start packing, all I need to do is pick up my Travel Checklist and then blindly, without a shadow of a thought just start piling stuff into my laptop bag or suitcase as it maybe. Gosh, do you know how relieving that is. Ah, if you could just taste the sweetness of being in the state of no-thought, the mind-like-water. (Thank you David Allen, may the Lord bless your kind soul).

I have found the Tickler file to be an immense stress buster. It’s a brilliant tool when it comes to forgetting about something I need to do someday later and then remembering about it just the day I need to. There are two types of tickler file I maintain. One is a digital one and the other is a paper based one.

My Paper Based Tickler file:
Here’s a picture of the open drawer of my physical Paper based Tickler file. You may click it to see the full-size image.

I’ve set it up using standard Mercury Filing Cabinets, available at Pan Furniture store, with Surya Filing Folders.

To get those nice neat labels I’ve used Brother QL Label Printer or you can also use the DYMO LabelWriter 400, both of which should be available at the well-stocked stationery store. I’ve seen the labelers at the shelves of Staples, here in Bangalore.

I’m probably not making full use of it as I probably can and as David Allen does. What I currently have in my Tickler file is:

Affirmations and other Positive messages: I currently have printed out Affirmations from Susan Jeffers e-book “Why Affirmatins are so powerful“, placed it randomly in my Tickler File.

There’s spring cleaning happening at home, because of which once a while a a golden old memory in form a photograph await me, daddy and Ali when we return home from work. Have a look at the picture on the right. That was me 10 years ago, delivering a speech at a Toastmaster club (click here to see a complete picture). I was 76 Kgs+ in weight, with a 36 inch+ waist line and be it motu, fatso or fatty I’ve been labeled it all. The picture of the right is a much recent photo. Today I’m 67 Kgs, my 34 inch trouser falls off occasionally and now I get told again and again “Gosh Arif, you’ve lost so much weight.” and you know what…I can’t get enough of it ☺.

There’s magic in persistence. When the same mundane task of exercise, or learning or teaching is repeated over and over again, those are necessary ingredients of the potion of success being brewed by the gods in heaven.

Wouldn’t you like to have a system in your organisation so that:
- if a commitment is given (to submit a report or to complete any task within a given time) it’s achieved within that time?
- if anybody files a note, receipt or printed email it is retrieved within 30 seconds or less from the time you think about it?
- everybody is four times more productive than now but also with significantly less stress than they’re facing currently?
- all get to experience the other tons of benefits, mentioned at the bottom of this post?

Hey, but you are already there. Practicing GTD? Hell, no more practicing…you’re perfect. Papers filed, Project List is upto date, you’re constantly living in this blissful meditative state & experiencing mind-like-water. You’re the man. The GTD stud. But now you would like to get all those around you to experience the benefits of David Allen’s justifiably popular and successful Getting Things Done model. How would you get more people in your office to embrace this system?

What a book. It’s motivating, sparks a great number of ideas and it’s worth a buy simply for the list of resource of websites, books and companies that it has. Warning this Blog Post has spoilers of what the book has ahead, but it’s still a damn good read (the book I mean).

The book is divided into four sections, with the help of the acronym DEAL:

Definition:
The cover of the book states, “Escape 9-5, Live anywhere, and Join the New Rich”. Who are the New Rich? The New Rich, don’t only take money to be their currency, but two other essential ingredients that are necessary to be actually living the life of the wealthy, rather than merely collecting for it. i.e. Time and mobility. Without which you may have all the money you will ever need, but if you’re unable to create that time/mobility for yourself, that money may as well be in a chest buried in the jungles of Congo.

In this section, Tim goes in depth and helps you chart out your Dreamline, TMI (Target Monthly Income) and your Worth per Hour. All tools that help you join the leagues of the New Rich.