Getting Things Done

I loved some of the quotes that Austin Kleon pulled out from his reading of David Allen's classic Getting Things Done. I hadn't read Allen's book but judging by some of the gems that Kleon picked out it looks like it could well be worth it. These included the importance of clearing your mind of unnecessary burden:

'Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection bucket, that you know you’ll come back to regularly and sort through.'

And clearing time at the end of every week for review:

'Most people feel best about their work the week before their vacation, but it’s not because of the vacation itself. What do you do the last week before you leave on a big trip? You clean up, close up, clarify, and renegotiate all your agreements with yourself and others. I suggest that you do this weekly instead of yearly.'

This, I think, is a great way to reduce stress (when it feels like you're faced with a potentially overwhelming amount of stuff to do writing it all down often makes you realise that it is more manageable than you think). Allen writes about how powerful lists can be, and also getting ideas out of your head and onto cards (perhaps Artefact Cards) that you can re-arrange in order to reveal natural relationships or structure 

One of the worst habits that Allen mentions is something that I think many people are guilty of – using your email inbox as a to-do list. It's easy to get into the habit of using your inbox as staging for inbound tasks yet conflating email and task management is actually a really bad idea – not least because inboxes are not designed to be to-do lists, and using it as such means that you have to reassess every time you look at your email and also that what goes onto your to-do list is effectively at the behest of other people, not controlled by you.

Allen's solution to this is to be disciplined about 'Do It, Delegate It, or Defer It':

'1. If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it is defined.
2. If the action will take longer than two minutes, ask yourself Am I the right person to do this? If the answer is no, delegate it to the appropriate entity.
3. If the action will take longer than two minutes, and you are the right person to do it, you will have to defer acting on it until later and track it on one or more “Next Actions” lists.'

I'd also add that it's important to schedule blocks of inbox time rather than looking at it every few minutes. There are of-course some great task management apps now, like Wunderlist and Evernote (more on how to use Evernote for task management here) but I also think that a well written to-do list in your favourite notebook takes some beating. 

Allen recommends that when capturing tasks you break larger tasks down and always focus on the next physical action that is required to move something forward. And I really liked the point about keeping a 'someday/maybe' list, something that I've found has been a helpful way for me not to lose sight of things I'd like to do but maybe don't have time for right now:

'Someday/Maybe’s are not throwaway items. They may be some of the most interesting and creative things you’ll ever get involved with.'

Thanks to Austin Kleon for his notes (and for the continued inspiration).