If you're like me, GTD doesn't stand for "Getting Things Done", it stands for "Getting Too Much Done". Many of my daily tasks have sat on my list for weeks, and every time my eyes roll over them I just leave them be. I had to take a step back and evaluate why this was happening.
Result? My to-do list wasn't good enough.
Looking at the things I've left on the list, I realize that many of them aren't individual tasks, but rather smaller projects. The reason I've ignored them is because multiple things have to happen in order to cross them off.
For each task, GTD'ers have GOT to try and break them down to the simplest forms, which are simple action-oriented tasks. Take a minute to review your task list and try and break down some of those nagging overdue items. Look for the simplest next action that will move you along towards completing the project. Often I've found that breaking something up and doing a small, easy chunk of it has dramatically improved productivity and help me finish the task.
Check out our other posts on GTD for more details on how we get things done.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Quick Tip: Subdivide Tasks For Better GTD
Monday, March 24, 2008
Fighting Procrastination: Just Do It
By Jon:
I am an incredible procrastinator. The Internet is my best friend: Wikipedia, Flash games, message-boards, Google Reader, and on from there.... The Internet is filled with things that take my attention and time. I have to try incredibly hard to get over procrastination, and when I do, I'm stuck looking at a pile of e-mails, tasks, and things I should do "if I had the time."
The "Just Do It" concept [thank you Nike] hit me pretty hard one day when it finally clicked: nearly all my tasks, e-mails and thoughts don't take long at all to do. Cleaning up my inbox or cleaning up my office each take about 15 minutes if I focus and just do it. I used to spend fifteen minutes worrying about my task list and that I'd never get it done, and now in that time I can mark several items off.
Just doing something is considerably harder if you don't have a plan, though. Most of my e-mails are requests to do something, be it pulling a report or checking on something. I capture all those items into Todoist, my GTD app of choice. It allows me a simple and efficient layout that lets me focus more on the tasks than on the organization of the tasks themselves.
On these thoughts, here are some points that I've taken to heart:
- Doing something is often just as easy as worrying about doing something
- Looking at something twice is half as efficient as looking at it once and taking care of it
- Don't check your e-mail/tasks, process them
