Notes From Re-Reading Getting Things Done After 18 Months #2
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The Book: “Plan as much as you need to get the project off your mind” (p. 78). “[M]ost [projects] need no more than a listing of their outcome and the next action for you to get them off your mind” (p. 79). And: plan those projects that still commands your attention after determining Next Actions – or, those who can gain useful ideas by doing so (p. 212). Also: planning is a Next Action (p. 213).
Me: Do I do this properly? Sometimes projects that I’ve captured keep bugging me. I should probably remind myself to spend a little time on planning.
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The Book: Keep three trays: In, Out, and In Progress/Read and Review (p. 92).
Me: At home, I have no trays. But I make piles as I process: In Progress and To Trash. At my office, I’ve two trays I only recently have begun using for GTD. Currently, one’s In Progress and the other is In (with a pile of not-so-urgent stuff in it that I haven’t got around to process yet).
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The Book: Never put anything back into “In”.
Me: I do this. I feel good about saying to myself that I’ll decide what to do about something sometime later, confident that the thing will sit in the inbox until then.
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The Book: The result of the Processing phase is “a stack of ‘Pending’ reminders” to sort into their appropriate contexts or into the calendar (p. 169).
Me: I don’t know why I noted this down, but I guess I’ve been unsure exactly what constitutes “processing”.
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The Book: Don’t use support materials as reminders (p. 159).
Me: I do this. What’s wrong with using the bill as the representation for the Next Action?
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The Book: Someday/Maybe isn’t “a catchall bucket for ‘stuff’”.
Me: It has been for me.
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The Book: “Make lists ad hoc as they occur to you … from ‘Core Life Values’ to ‘Things to take Camping’” and “create and eliminate [checklists] as required “(p. 179).
Me: Right after reading Getting Things Done the first time, I created many checklists: for things to remember before leaving home for work, for leaving work for home, and so on. Now, the only lists I make are shopping lists and lists of what to bring on trips (which are really handy when planning what to pack).
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The Book: The Weekly Review involves going through the five phases of collect, process, organize, review, and do, “until you honestly can say ‘I absolutely know right now everything I’m not doing but could do if I decided to’” (p. 185).
Toss loose papers from pockets, etc. into the inbox. Process notes written during the week. Review the past week’s calendar. Check upcoming calendar, both short and long term. Review projects (including support material), next actions, waiting fors, checklists, Someday/Maybe.
Me: I’m making this a habit now. I realize how important it is.
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The Book: Low-energy things to do. “One of the best ways to increase your energy is to close some of your loops” (p. 194-195).
Me: I should create a checklist of low-energy things that I can do to regain energy/focus. Such as cleaning my desk, doing the dishes. Also perhaps lower the bar for what makes a captured action?
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The Book: “Six-level model for reviewing your work” (p. 200-201): (6) Life, (5) 3-5 year visions, (4) 1-2 year goals, (3) Areas of responsibility, (2) Current projects, (1) Current actions. Important to avoid clashes. “The healthiest approach [is to] manage [these] in a balanced fashion”, “I suggest going from the bottom up” (p. 203).
Me: I should probably think more about longer term goals. Somewhere David Allen says that it helps to have your Next Actions captured before thinking about your projects, and your projects captured before thinking about areas of responsibility, and so on. Perhaps that is true.
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The Book: The final words: “Keep everything out of your head; decide actions and outcomes when things first emerge on your radar, instead of later, and regularly review and update the complete inventory of the open loops of your life and work.”