Jul 8, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 5 comments
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.)
2 minute rule
Okay, this is an official GTD Rule that all GTD practitioners know and love. If anything takes you two minutes or less to do the moment it has your attention, you do right then and there. Because it’s much more bothersome to defer it, track it, review it and do the next time round you think of it. Don’t think about it, Just do it. So if an email takes less than two minute to respond, do it then and there. If that call you going to make, can be done in two minutes or less, finish it right away. So, whenever there’s something that you need to do, and you feel like postponing it, first ask yourself will it take two minutes or less to do it. If the answer is yes, then simply just do it.
10 minute exercise rule
This is a great Rule that has immensely helped me. If there’s something really painful to do, like cleaning a cupboard, or making the first draft of a very difficult report, or plain exercising, have a rule that you would start doing it and spend just 10 minutes at it. When you break it down to that small a size, just 10 teeny weeny measly minutes, it gets much easier to handle. And after those 10 minutes up, you have three options:
i You can give yourself the option to stop doing the difficult task. If you really want to stop there, great, no problem.
ii However, 9 times out of 10, you would get so involved in the first 10 minutes that it would give you a greater sense of relief to complete the task or make significant progress on it.
iii Finally, if you’re not in the mood to continue on, but still dont’ want to give it up, treat yourself to a 2 minute break (it could be checking emails, web-surfing, or just a nice luxurious stretch) and can get back to the task for another 10 minutes and 10 minutes only.
6 month get-rid-of-it rule.
If you’re like me, you may have the habit of continously taking on more stuff to read than you can possibly complete. Web-pages that you’ve bookmarked to get back to, email forwards from friends that you said you’d read later, books lying around your bedside which you told yourself that you said you’re gonna complete someday. The 6 month get-rid-of-it rule, applies just not to reading material, but if there’s anything lying around that you said that you’d get back to, but haven’t been able to do so for 6 months or more, you’re better off just getting rid of it.
The logic is that each time you’ve passed by that pile (for eg. Reading material) you have subconsciously made the decision that what you are currently doing is of more importance that what is piled there. And you’ve been doing that for 6 whole months. Therefore, it could be that what’s in that pile is not really that important at all. And after all if there’s some information in there that you may need after some time, there’s always the internet. So for now you really can trash it. You don’t have to follow this rule religiously, but for the most part it does help get rid a lot of clutter and helps you focus on what really needs your attention.
3 minute email rule
Ever confused should you be sending an email to someone or if you’re better-off speaking to that person personally or over the phone. Well here’s where we introduce the 3 minute email rule. If it’s going to take you 3 minutes to draft and send the email then you might as well just send an email and do it then & there. However, if you’ve really got to think this through and the matter is not as simple as it sounds, then it most likely that an email would not resolve the matter and it’s something that needs to be discussed face to face.
Still Confused, have a rule to follow your intuition.
Not sure whether to buy this Printer or that one? Or if you should be taking part in some activity at all? Of there still something that you’re not able to decide over, don’t analyse too much, you’ve researched enough data on the internet already. Now, just close your eyes, breathe deeply, and follow your instinct. After that, put a reminder 3 or 6 months down the line to checkup on yourself. I put a note for myself in my Calendar or Tickler file reminding myself on the decision I had taken based on my gut-feel. So 6 months later it gives me a chance to relfect back and see whether the decision taken was a hit or a miss and if so then by how much.
Do you feel any of these would help you? Are there any rules that you have adopted that help you get more work done by the end of the day? Drop a note in the comments.
Jul 2, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 13 comments
photo credit: gideonstrauss
Me and Ali have written a lot about GTD in earlier blog posts. We’ve covered a bit of what GTD is all about, How GTD is made my traveling easier thanks to a Travel Checklist, How a Tickler file is used in GTD and also about a spiritual aspect of GTD. In this post I’ll cover how you can start learning about GTD and then eventually in a phase like manner begin implementing it. You will not know all about GTD by the end, but you can use this post to guide you to the various resources that would cover the basics of GTD enough to get you up and running.
So how does GTD Work?
The whole concept of GTD, revolves around the fact that we are most productive, most efficient, when we are relaxed. Similarly we are least productive, least efficient, when we are stressed. Look back at your life. When were you able to conduct a successful negotiation of a purchase of vegetables, your salary, or the buying of piece of property. Was it when you were frustrated and bothered or was it when you were Mr. Cool. It’s the same for every thing that we attempt to do. We get the most done, when we are calm, relaxed and focussed. Athletes call it ‘the zone’ and time disappears when in the zone. Being relaxed doesn’t being in-attentive, infact you’re super alert, in total control, and simultaneously not-stressed about a single thing. The question is how to get back to that state once you’ve fallen off? Well, that’s where GTD comes in.
1. Tell me where does it hurt
Well first of all identify a pain area in your life. What is it that’s not working for you at work and/or personal life. And then see if GTD has a remedy for that. For eg. I had a pain area of filing. I would get totally stressed when it came to filing. Your pain area could be that you’re just not able to handle all the emails that you get. They bother you too much. Or it could be that you may be super organised at Work, but it’s stuff at home you could use help with for eg. You might be missing to pay the bills, or your personal health is not getting enough attention etc. GTD is the ultimate time-management and stress-management system. If you have issues on focussing your work, procrastination, organising home/work space, identifying priorities and helping you find what’s your purpose on this planet, GTD can help you with it. It’s the true swiss-army knife set of skills that will have you the most prepared no matter what situation you are in.
But if the pain is not that great it’s kinda bearable, then it just may be that you would not be motivated enough to implement GTD to it’s fullest. So identify the pain area, picture it with complete clarity, feel it in all it’s agony and then go looking for a solution in GTD.
2. Various GTD resources for Beginners
I have been critiqued of having too many links in my Blog posts and I truly do wish I could run through all the basics here, but as easy as it is, GTD is just not that simple. However I’ve scoured the internet and the below would be top resources which would give you a good working knowledge of GTD.
1.Ofcourse, nothing beats the Book. Want to learn about GTD, learn it from the master himself by getting the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. Having that said, I had implemented GTD to quite an extent by learning from the various material available on the internet, before picking up the book. So if you’re trip to the bookstore will not happen till next month, the below links has more than enough info to get you going.
2. Chapter-wise Summary of the GTD Book: This is probably the next best thing to the book. The nice folks at Black Belt Productivity have beautifully summarised the essence of each of the 10 chapters of the book as individual blog posts. It’s bit of reading and once again it would not compare to the book, but would still give you a good overall idea.
3. Wired Magazine: This is a good one page summary of GTD.
4. This is a REALLY good one page summary of the various GTD Models. It would be more useful to visit this page once you’ve begun implementations and would like to go back for reference.
5. Finally, here an official GTD instructor from David Allen Co lists 10 habits of that beginners take-on to adopt GTD, which would quite useful reading when first learning GTD.
3. Set up your GTD System
Once you learnt all there is about GTD, before you actually go about emptying your head and making lists, you first need to set up your GTD system. Below are some general guidelines to help you:
i Carry a Pocket Notepad and pen with you always.
ii Set up your A-Z Filing System. If you’re dealing with lot of Paper, it will feel very rewarding to do this first before continuing the the implementation of GTD. Also it immensely helps having a filing system at home too.
iii Have an intray, at office as well as at home.
iv You’ll need a system for lists, it can be paper, digital or a combination of both. I use my Blackberry and Microsoft Outlook running on a Mac. This is the Engine of your system. Your success of implementing GTD is directly proportional to how motivated you are to enter stuff into your lists and refer to it multiple times a day. So although you don’t need to spend too much time, but do give it some thought what system you would like. Just take care that whatever system you adopt that it’s fast and it’s portable. So if you need to enter something in there, then to whip it out, look at it, put it back should take no more than 10 to 30 seconds.
Here are some links that can help you set up your list GTD system:
- Paper Based GTD system:
David Allen’s recommendation on how to set up a Paper Based System. (Note: This site requires you to register before downloading).
The Hipster PDA. A Paper Based System using 3”x5” Index Cards
Another Paper Based GTD system using Index Cards
- GTD System Using Outlook:
Official David Allen WhitePaper on setting up a GTD system using Outlook, (this costs $10.00 and it’s so Worth it!)
I’ve googled quite a bit and can’t find a free-version of really detailed note on how to setup your Outlook for GTD. But to put it simply, you put all your Next Actions and Projects in your Tasks, while having separate categories For each Next Action and Project.
- Online Systems for GTD:
If you are online most of the time during the day. You may consider an online GTD system. The few popular ones are:
Remember The Milk
Vitalist
Nozbe
So which GTD System should you go for?
Well only if you can type say 40 to 50 words per minute, it’s then that I would recommend to go for a Tech GTD System like Outlook or any of the Online Systems listed above. If you write faster then you type, start with a paper based system. If the above Paper based systems sound a little difficult to setup, then all you need is a notebook with Dividers, some post it flags and you’re ready!
4. Ready, Steady, Go!
Okey dokey. You know your pain area, you’ve learnt about GTD, you’ve got your system all set up, now you can finally start cracking. That would mean you can begin on the first stage of the Five Stage process of Getting Control which is Collect. You would have already learnt about the “Collect” Stage when learning about GTD in the above links, but if you want a referesher, below are certain links that cover the Five Stage Process of Getting Control:
- You can refer to the David Allen Article on this here.
Another one page summary of the 5 stages here.
5. Keep on Learning
It took me two years of studying & implementing of GTD till I feel I got a really good hang of it. So if this is the first time you would be studying GTD, give it time. The good news is that not only is it really easy, the results are very immediate and tangible. You actually can feel and quantify the difference in the quantity and quality of your work and life. It’s this immediate gratification that I got every time which propelled me to continue learning more and more tips & tricks of GTD, till I got to a stage where I believe I’ve got a pretty darn good GTD system.
Wish you all the best folks. Do feel free to post any questions you have in the comments and I’d more than happy to answer them.
Jun 8, 2008
Posted by Mohammed Ali in GTD and Productivity | 4 comments
photo credit: hawkexpress
I’m a fan of Eckhart Tolle. He’s most famously known for his work ‘The Power of Now’ and ‘A New Earth’. I agree when he says, that man’s Inner Purpose in Life is to know himself, and one’s true self can only be discovered by living in the present moment. When applying this teaching in our day to day lives, it means whatever task we take up, we should give our best by being in the Present, by being able to focus our attention 100% in the moment that arises.
Now this is easier said that done! The way a 21st Century executive is constantly bombarded from all sides with stuff, it’s easy to get stuck in the busy trap and lose focus in the work that needs attention. I’ve realised, that one’s ability to focus in the present moment is directly proportional to the quality that is given to that work.
This is what I love of about GTD! It’s not so much about Getting Things Done, as much as it is about the art of being focused with the activity that is being performed. I define GTD is a methodology of dealing with work that enhances your present-moment awareness.
Here are some great things GTD helped me achieve:
* Being more present & focused in the work that I’m doing, by getting control over my work
* Perspective: Aligning my day to day actions to my higher Goals
* A clear head! giving more space for Creative Ideas to flow
* Confidence in the choices I’m making regarding the work that I’m doing not doing
* Beat Procrastination!
I’d like to end by a quote from one of David Allen’s client on his experience with GTD when he processed his email Inbox to zero:
“Wow! Now I see all my work inventory in one place! And I now realize that I would let myself spend time on those emails before anything else, because that would seem the easiest choice to make. Now I can assess them immediately within the context of everything to do. They’re not lost, and they’re in proper perspective. I’ve been letting myself get sucked into the easiest being busy thing, instead of feeling better about better choices.”
If you’re new to GTD, I’d recommend the following resources:
* Book: Getting Things Done by David Allen
* Official GTD Website: DavidCo
* Blog: 43Folders.com, also see Getting Started
* David Allen at Google
* Wired: A Guide to GTD
Happy GTD’ing!
Jan 28, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 7 comments
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).
Have a Travel Checklist:
Even if you travel as less as once a year, I highly recommend making a Travel Checklist the very next time you start packing. It’s been an amazingly time-saving & stress-saving tool for me. The trick is to have it complete. If it’s not compete, then it’s only half-a travel checklist, and the other half is in your head & it’s giving you lots of stress.
I started mine using David Allen’s Travel Checklist as the initial draft and then customised it for my needs. I’ve saved it as a note in my Outlook Notes folder, which then automatically syncs to my Blackberry. You’ll find my entire Checklist below.
Feel free to use it, copy it and share it. I’m sure you’ll find quite a few things below that will make you go “Aha!” and want you to add it to your checklist. If so, or if you’ve found anything useful, do mention that in the comments below. Also if you’ve got any other Travel-tip would love to hear it.
Keep smiling ☺
Arif
Ps. I’m currently typing this being a royal house-guest of my wonderful in-laws at Mahuva in Gujrat. Thanks to my Travel Checklist, I had everything in place (laptop, charger, mouse, Reliance USB NetConnect) to make this blog post.
Arif Vakil Travel Checklist
To Carry in my Pocket:
Blackberry and Bluetooth
ipod with headphones
wallet (with enough money)
business card holder
pocket notepad
Pilot red & black pens
Sharbo pen/pencil in one
Laptop bag:
Macbook
power cord
Mouse and mouse-pad
Reliance usb connect
All gtd folders: (blue Ins, read/review etc)
2 books for reading
Dua book
Namaaz Compass
Sajdagha
Prayer Mat
Crocin red & blue
Red bull
Regular Bilt notebook to take notes
Business Cards
small yellow post-it
Empty cd
Cd writing pen.
Home keys in laptop bag keychain
Multi-plug converter (esp International travel)
Cable case only if feel necessary (ipod cable, camera cable, bberry cable)
Headphones splitter
Suitcase:
Running shirt
Running short
Running shoes
Climbing shoes (if going to Mumbai)
Deodrant
Laptop sleeve
Totebag / travel bag
Toothpaste/toothbrush/
Floss
If journey crosses Thu/fri: a Nail cutter.
Lens kit
Extra pair of lenses
Lenses
Spectacles
Lens cleansing solution
Hair comb
Underwear
Socks
Dress Shirts
Jeans
T-Shirts
Night Clothes (T shirt + pajamas)
Belt
Dress Shoes
A Bag to Carry Clothes that I have worn and now for Laundry.
Sweaters
Jackets
Slippers
Neck Support (for long journeys)
Phone Charger
Ipod charger (if travelling for 3 days or more)
Bluetooth charger (if necessary)
Tickets
Camers
Camera Charger
Video Camera if travelling with family or to meet family.
Car-tuner (esp if travelling with family)
Go through conference checklist if going to conference.
Handled (stuff to do):
Put forward tickler file.
Take support papers (credit card copy) from travel folder and put in Action support.
Browse through article/blogposts folder for read/review material to carry.
Collect laptop sleeve bag/tote travel bag from Ramesh
Ask Ramesh to get talking yellow pages tel number for city visiting and put in Addressbook
Hotel booked
Car P/U Arranged or taking airport taxi, decide (Ensure driver speaks hindi/english)
Mac Backed Up
Taken cash from accounts/atm
Print Off The Web:
Subway restaraunts in the area
Closest mosque
Weather checked
International
Passport
Foreign currency (eg Dirhams when Dubai)
If Traveling With Family:
Markers (for writing on cartons)
Jan 26, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 13 comments
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.
Reminders for Events: Misc invitations and seminars brochures which I need to be reminded of just a few days before to decide if I can make it or not.
Notes that I’ve decided to Process later: Some notes which I have taken during meetings, conferences which I did not have the mental-stamina to process right away I have put it to be processed some other day. When the later day comes up, I pickup the notes from my tickler file, and process them by asking:
- Is there any Project in this that I need to undertake?
- What is the Next Action on this?
- Or is this purely reference that I need to file away.
Digital Tickler File:
My Digital Tickler File is simply a Category in my Outlook that is named ‘@ATickler’. Here’s a screenshot below.
As you can see I currently have 112 items in my Tickler file. All these are things I need to do on a specific day only. I wouldn’t want to do the items before the day specified, that would be too soon and after the day specified, the item would just expire.
Therefore on that day, these tasks appear in Yellow in the Tasks pane of the Calendar view of my Outlook screen as can be seen below. I either complete the task that day while right-clicking the task and checking it complete. Or make a conscious decision to take up the task some other day and then right click once again and select the day to which it should remind me again.
Some examples from my 112 Tickler items are:
Reminder to expect Reports: I have a weekly/monthly reminder to expect the cashflow reports from my Accounts department.
So if I don’t receive it, I can followup on them.
Reminder for Backups: I have a monthly reminder to backup the hard-disk of my MacBook.
Reminder on the expiration of any subscription: I’m currently trying out the Aweber emailing service, I’ve put a reminder after a month to unsusbcribe if I’m not pleased with the service or not using it to it’s full potential.
Reminder to clean up my ipod ‘ToListen’ playlist & to Sync it: Review all unheard podcasts and tag the good ones as “ToListen”.
I’m subscribed to a number of spiritual, business, personality development podcasts. Currently I’m easily subscribed to some 40 odd podcasts. (side note: Five of which I listen to regularly I’ve blogged about here.) To get maximum value so that I hear the ones just what is most relevant to my needs, I have created a Tickler task that reminds me on a particular day every week to browse through these podcasts and tag the (using TuneTag for Macintosh only, sorry.
) podcasts I fancy as ‘ToListen’ and sync my ipod to it. Therefore next time I’m in my car I don’t need to go through the 50 podcasts I’m subscribed to see which of them should I listen to. I just open up my ‘ToListen’ playlist, select any one podcast/speech/Audiobook from the 10 I had pre-selected and hit play.
Misc FAQs on Tickler File:
Why is it called a Tickler File?
David Allen of GTD fame calls it that as it helps him get stuff out of his face when he doesn’t need to see it and then when the time is right it tickles him and the stuff come back into his face as he needs to see it then.
Isn’t the Tickler file just a glorified reminder system?
Yes, and a highly efficient and effective one too. The beauty of using this system is one you actually use the Tickler file to it’s limits. Use it to remind you 100% of the stuff you need to be reminded about. When you eventually have it set it up like that, you’ll finally taste what it feels like to have nothing on your mind.
Why have two Tickler Filing systems (ie a digital and a physical-paper-based one)? Isn’t it creating more work for oneself?
It’s highly efficient. When my hands are on my keyboard and if there’s something that I remember that I need to do on a particular day, I use the following quick steps to place my Tickler item:
1. Cmd + Tab to go to my Outlook screen (Alt+Tab for Windows users)
2. Crtl + Shift + K to create a new task
3. I type in my reminder in the new task that’s created.
4. Hit alt+d and type in the date for the reminder (tip: Outlook recognises text like tomorrow, next day, next week, even First Sunday of December, which it then converts to the relevant day).
5. Press alt+s to save and close the task.
6. Finally press Cmd+Tab to get back to what I’m currently doing (again Alt+Tab for Windows users.
That may look like it takes a lot of time, but after a couple of attempts, actually takes less than a minute to do.
Similarly, when my hands are not on my keyboard and I’m clearing away papers from my intray, all I need to do is swivel to my tickler file and get it out of my face by dropping it in to the relevant day folder it belongs to.
Why I use Outlook Tasks in a paritcular category, rather than putting it my Outlook Calendar?
- I can review or just scan all my items in my Tickler file if I ever want to.
- Very often a Tickler item gets converted to an @Agenda, or @Errands or @Waiting For and it’s quicker to changed it from a @ATickler into the other category if it’s a task already.
- The default filter function in the blackberry is very powerful. It’s really easy to zone into a particular Tickler item I need to from my blackberry as well if it’s Task item rather than if it’s a Calendar item.
If you would like some clarification to set up this system for efficient working for yourself, post your question in the comments below. I’ll be pleased to answer them.
