Getting Things Done

• Author: David Allen
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

This book captured the core collection of ideas (probably can be referred as GTD) about how to be more productive and getting things done effectively & efficiently. The key ideas are captured in the five steps:

• Capture
• Clarify
• Organize
• Reflect
• Engage

Excerpts

Getting things done requires two basic components: defining (1) what “done” means (outcome) and (2) what “doing” looks like (action).

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We (1) capture what has our attention; (2) clarify what each item means and what to do about it; (3) organize the results, which presents the options we (4) reflect on, which we then choose to (5) engage with.

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At 3: 22 on Wednesday, how do you choose what to do? At that moment there are four criteria you can apply, in this order: context, time available, energy available, and priority.

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THE KEY INGREDIENTS of relaxed control are (1) clearly defined outcomes (projects) and the next actions required to move them toward closure, and (2) reminders placed in a trusted system that is reviewed regularly. This is what I call horizontal focus.

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Process the top item first. Process one item at a time. Never put anything back into “in.”

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But that’s not processing your in-tray; it’s emergency scanning. When you’re in processing mode, you must get into the habit of starting at one end and just cranking through items one at a time, in order.

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As soon as you break that rule and process only what you feel like processing, in whatever order, you’ll invariably begin to leave things unprocessed. Then you will no longer have a functioning funnel, and it will back up all over your desk and office and e-mail “in” repositories.

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And if you’re going to attempt to clear up a big backlog of e-mails staged in “in,” you’ll actually discover it’s more efficient to process the last-in first because of all the discussion threads that accumulate on top of one another, and you don’t want to respond to something prematurely before you’ve seen the whole discussion.

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A better admonition would be, “The first time you pick something up from your in-tray, decide what to do about it and where it goes. Never put it back in ‘in.’

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There are seven primary types of things that you’ll want to keep track of and manage from an organizational and operational perspective: A Projects list, Project support material, Calendar actions and information, Next Actions lists, A Waiting For list, Reference material, A Someday/ Maybe list