August 2009

The “Getting Things Done” productivity system is, by far, the best I’ve seen. It is a system that is easily integrated and highly effective. One of the keys to implementing the system is making the GTD workflow your “normal” way of working.

It is a simple process outlined as follows:

1. Collect
2. Process
3. Organize
4. Review
5. Do

The “collect” phase is the “ubiquitous capture” that I’ve talked about in other posts. It basically means that you “capture” any thing and everything that is on your mind. By capturing it in an external device like index cards (or whatever works best for you) you are able to get it off your mind. According to David Allen, the creator of GTD, once you have all these umpteenbillion things you’ve been thinking about out of your head on into an external capture device, you can then use your brain for what it does best – problem solving, creativity, productivity – instead of as a mental “to-do list.”

Whatever collection devices you use is your “in-box.” You will most likely have multiple in-boxes, though they should be consolidated and minimized as much as possible. You will have your email in-box, probably some manner of physical in-box on your desk, a basket on the cabinet at home, your PDA, whatever. The main point of the collection phase is to get everything out of your head on captured in a trusted system that will free up your mind from worrying about it.

After you get all the umpteenbillion things out of your head and on index cards, or in your PDA, you need to “process” them. The process phase is when you go through your in-box and decide what needs to be done about the stuff that has found its way in there. There is no “perfect” set time to do the processing of your in-boxes. It just depends on what works best for you. I like to go through my in-boxes close to the end of the work day. That way when I begin the following day I have a clear plan of what needs to be done from the previous days “processing.” I will also do a quick processing after finishing some big task to see if there is anything that needs to be dealt with right away.

The number one rule for processing is the 2-minute rule. If you pick something up out of your in-box that would take 2 minutes or less to complete then do it right then. It would take longer than that to put in on a list to review for later action, so go ahead and do it. You would be amazed at how much gets done just by implementing this simple rule.

If the 2-minute rule doesn’t apply then there are simple questions that move the processing phase along. For each item that comes up in your in-box, that would take longer than 2-minutes to deal with, you ask the following questions:

• The first, and most obvious, question is “What is it?”
  You have to know what it is before you can know what needs to be done about it.
• Next, “Is it actionable?”That is, does it require me to do anything about it? Not everything that gets collected in our in-boxes is “actionable.” Some stuff is just stuff.
  • If the answer is “no” then I need to determine what where to put it. It can’t just stay in my in-box, I’ve got to get it out of there. It needs to go in one of three places:
    • TrashIf its trash throw it away and move on.
    • Someday/Maybe ListIt may be an idea or goal that you don’t necessarily need to do anything on right now but that you might want to do something about sometime down the road. Keep these things in a list to be reviewed periodically. My most active someday/maybe list is my “Sermon Ideas” list. When I read or hear something that I think makes a good idea for a sermon I write it down on an index card and then when I process them I may think that it would make a good sermon but I don’t want to write it right now. It goes on the “Sermon Ideas” for future consideration.
    • Reference MaterialReference materials are things that find their way into your in-boxes that aren’t “to-do” items. They are pieces of information that you want to file and keep for future reference. David Allen has some excellent suggestions for maintaining a functional filing system in his three books detailing the GTD system. For those of us that dream of having a paperless office, I have not seen a better digital filing system than DEVONthink Pro Office 2.0. My one word description of it is “amazing.” You’ll, no doubt, be seeing my review of this organizational software very soon.
  • If the answer is “yes” then we figure out what it is that needs to be done about it. One of the most important questions in the GTD system is “What is the Next Action?” If the next action would complete the item with no further action required then put it on a list to do it when and where it can be done. However, if the most literal next action needed on that item would just move it along toward completion then it becomes a project. A project is anything that requires more than one action to complete. Put it on a project list with its necessary next action. When that next action is done you ask the question again, “OK, now what’s the next action?” What would be the next most literal thing that would have to be done to move that item forward toward completion. Again, the GTD books go into much more detail about why this works and how to do it. I highly recommend the books.There are three considerations under the “yes” answer:
    1. Do it.Remember the 2-minute rule! If it can be done in 2 minutes or less then just do it.
    2. Delegate it.We aren’t always the best one to handle everything that comes into our in-boxes. Pass it on to whoever is. Now its in their in-box and out of my life, nice.
    3. Defer it.Those things that take longer than 2 minutes, that you can’t get rid of, need to be deferred. It needs to go to a project or next-action list to be dealt with at the right time and in the right place.

Next, I’ll review the “Organize,” “Review,” and “Do” phases of the GTD system.

Hope this helps, let me know what you think.

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