Optimizing productivity is one key trait of successful business owners. Last week, I wrote about keeping an uncluttered workspace to boost your productivity. Managing clutter can reduce stress and keep you “in the zone”. We hope you found that article useful in your work life or personal life.
This week, let’s talk about a popular productivity boosting method that could help you manage and complete tasks. Productivity consultant, David Allen, author of the bestselling book “Getting Things Done” talks about the steps to organizing tasks according to priorities in a time- management method called “Get Things Done!”
How to GTD
Work is made of a list of things or tasks that need to be done in order to complete a job. Sometimes, we go in blindly hoping to just wing it from task to task with no concrete plan. The creator of the GTD system calls these task “open loops” and defines them as ‘anything pulling our attention that doesn’t belong where it is, the way it is.” The GTD system helps us work around those “open loops” by gathering all your tasks – immediate, long term, big picture, personal, professional—in one place (usually a journal or plain pen and paper – that’s how David Allen does it himself), thereby freeing your mind of the stress of having to remember them.
Basically, the Get Things Done or GTD method is made up of 5 steps: Capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. You answer each question about a task or action item.
Here it is in action:
- Capture. Write down everything that you need to get done for work (hourly tasks, daily tasks, monthly tasks, ad hoc tasks, task re:project outcomes etc.)
- Clarify. Is the task do-able? Can YOU do something about it? If you can’t, get it off your list. However, if it is actionable then you have to decide what the next steps are. Action every item that you can do in 2 mins and get them off your list. Do it right away. Think about the items that you can delegate or that require other people’s help. Delegate and get them off your list. Narrow down your list, rinse, and repeat. Now you should have a streamlined list of actionable items that you are responsible for.
- Organize. It’s time to put those action items into categories. You can make these categories yourself based on what you need. File stuff under emails to respond to or phone calls to make or people to follow up on. You can also file them under deadlines such as: to complete today, to complete within the week etc. Create categories that work for you and fit your needs. There are many variations to how you can organize tasks into categories and that would be a discussion for another day. For now, find the best thing that works for you.
- Reflect. Check your list. Check it twice. Have you covered everything? Revisit it once a week, or once a month, or whatever schedule works for you.
- Engage. Start checking off tasks from your list. You have a working battle plan of what to do and how to do it, complete with action items and/or deadlines. That should make it easier for you to know what to do next because no you have a concrete plan of action..
This diagram from wikipedia outlines these steps.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done#/media/File:GTDcanonical.png)
The internet is filled with GTD resources – apps and forums, and the method has a huge following. Try it out and let us know how you like it in the comments below. We would love to hear from you. As always, remember to: Stay Humble, Hustle Hard. Good luck!
Written by Jaie O.- The Help