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October 22, 2007

Matching Brain Toast

One of the temptations when starting with GTD is to over-engineer it. I see it all of the time. The more creative people are, the more they want to create a sophisticated system for their lists with lots of bells, whistles, cross-referencing, categorization, color-coding, flagging systems, ad nauseam. Believe me, I can go shoulder to shoulder with anyone about all of the cool implementations for GTD. But if you saw my system, most of you would be amazed how simple it is. It's really just a simple set of lists that I can easily get stuff in and out of. That's my primary criteria. The categories are sorted by the primary tools, people and places I need to get stuff done. I don't use reminders, follow-up flags or priority codes. I'm not saying any of that stuff can't work, but often those things slow me down because they make me think more about my stuff than I need to. My guideline is that it should take about 30 seconds or less to get something onto a list. More than that, and my brain starts convincing me it's easier to hold in my head than do the "work" it takes to get it on a list.

One of our coaches, Ana Maria, has a great tip for setting up a system: create it based on what would you feel like maintaining if you were sick in bed with the flu. Start there. Think about it. If you create your system based on always being in your "zone" and having the energy and attention span required to use a complex system for your stuff, then you've got a challenge on your hands when you're not in that place. Think of all of the times when your brain is toast and what you felt like doing--as little as possible. That's how my system is setup--to meet me at brain toast, not brain complex.

I do lots of GTD classes for high-tech companies. I had an engineer come up to me at the end of my class recently who said he'd been playing around with GTD for 2 years, got lots of good tips out of the class, but was still struggling trying to find the "perfect" software program for managing his lists. He was convinced he would need to build it. My advice is to keep it simple. In my experience, many of the programs out there trying to automate GTD make it too complex and miss the point. A simple system can be profoundly efficient.

Progress means simplifying, not complicating.
- Bruno Munari

Posted by Kelly at 09:19 AM | Comments (9)

October 21, 2007

The belt that keeps the pants up

For as hard as travel can be--I log about 100,000+ air miles per year--there is one huge benefit: I get long stretches of uninterrupted time to get my system clean & current. I relish a cross-country trip where I don't have any new input coming in and can do those things that if I were in my office mode doing "real work" I probably wouldn't as easily take the time to do. I'll do things like clean out old stuff from my laptop, get to my nice to read stuff, process my paper and email inboxes to zero and most importantly do a Weekly Review.

If you've been around GTD for a while, you know that this time for your own processing, especially the Weekly Review, is really the belt that keeps the pants up. It's what David Allen calls your Defining Work time. And, it tends to be one of the harder habits to create, despite that part of you who knows how great it would be to have total confidence that your stuff is clean & current and you're doing what you want and need to be doing.

If you don't have built-in time like I do on a plane, here are some other things I've heard can work to create that time for yourself:

* Come in before anyone else or stay later than everyone else. Not always a fun one, but sometimes it's the only way to plow through stuff.
* Block your calendar for your own processing time. I heard of someone going so far as to put "Meeting with CEO" on her shared calendar so people wouldn't overbook the time.
* Do your Reviews in a place you know you won't be interrupted, like a local coffee shop, at home or in a conference room.
* Give yourself a goal you can win. If some part of you is staying you need 2 hours of uninterrupted time to do a Review or get your Inbox to zero, and you can't remember the last time you had that kind of time, well then you're setting yourself up to fail. You'll never "see" 2 hour windows of opportunity. Pick a smaller chunk of time. I figure 15 minutes of focused review time is better than nothing. Clearing out 100 old emails from your Inbox is better than nothing.

In order for me to be able to do this virtually anywhere, my system is pretty portable. I have a couple of key folders that are always parked in my travel briefcase:

In
Action Support
Waiting For Support
Nice to Read
Out

I also sync all of the lists on my laptop to my handheld so that I can be updating my lists whenever I feel like it, and don't have to be chained to a laptop. If a handheld is not your thing, print your lists.

Of course, there are plenty of times too when watching the world go by at 20,000 feet is the best use of my time, and that's OK with me. The lists will still be there.

This is a view looking down on beautiful Santa Barbara, California.

Posted by Kelly at 12:53 PM | Comments (4)

October 04, 2007

You either trust your system or you don't

In my opinion, there's no middle ground: you either trust your system or you don't. In many GTD seminars I do, after seeing my lists and all of the things on them, someone in the audience will comment, "What if your system crashes and you lose everything?" I have backups. My desktop synchs to my handheld and it's also all regularly backed up onto a USB drive. It's also all password protected with multiple layers of security, thanks to our IT group. Some will take that further and say, "Well, what if you lose those backups TOO?" Sure, and what if the sky falls down and a woman is elected president. Oh, the drama of what ifs!

Here's what I think is the real underlying issue: if you've never tasted having nothing in your head and having it all in a total-life reminder system, it's nearly impossible for your brain to think there is a better system. It's one thing to empty your head and decide what you're going to do about that stuff. But if your brain doesn't trust the decisions are going to get parked in a place better than holding it in your "Psychic Ram," it won't let go. Your brain has to trust that the place you are keeping your lists is as good or better than your brain.

I encourage people to do whatever they need to do to create a system they trust. If you have any nagging doubt about what you're putting on your lists and choosing to keep it in places that are not as foolproof (like your head or scattered notes), I would say you have an opportunity to shore up the leaks. For some people that's knowing there is a backup. For others, it's about the privacy issue--who will see what I put on my lists?

Whatever is holding you back from creating a trusted system can make a difference in your success with GTD.

Posted by Kelly at 02:26 PM | Comments (6)