I recently had a particularly productive week just before taking time off work for holiday. It got me thinking about how I can use GTD to try to get these productive times to happen more often, rather than just before some time off.
I have heard David Allen say that many people experience that satisfying feeling of clearing the decks only once a year, before they leave for a holiday. GTD and the weekly review are a way of capturing that feeling every week by allowing you to take the time to clear the decks and gain perspective on your work by stepping back from the daily grind for an hour. It was interesting to compare how I feel at the end of each review to how I felt just before I left for holiday, and it was certainly a similar feeling of relief.
However, the extra boost in productivity during the week is not something that I find easy to recreate without the "deadline" of taking a week of holiday. I think that many people find that they tend to be a last minute worker and need the pressure of a deadline to get things into gear. I certainly have a tendency to do this and am trying to use GTD to help me to be more willing to get things done earlier, and therefore reduce the stress of having that looming deadline. I use the weekly review to see deadlines ahead of time (often at least 4 weeks) and try to at least get started on items early, even if they are finished closer to the deadline. This approach has certainly reduced my stress levels and given me more thinking time for more complicated projects, something that can be lost if you only start when the deadline is close.
The satisfaction of the productivity boost and being able to tick off a good number of actions from my lists is something that I hope to hold in my memory to give me the impetus to achieve this again, but without the deadline. It's not realistic to think that I can do this every day of every week - that would lead to burnout - but if I can find a way of entering this mode every so often that would be a great way to push things forward.
Showing posts with label David Allen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Allen. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Saturday, 8 October 2011
David's article in the recent GTD newsletter, Productive Living, about "listless lists" really resonated with me.
I had suddenly found that my @office list was repelling me last week and used a strategy that I think was discussed in the newsletter (and has certainly been mentioned in various posts around the GTD forums) to create an attractive list again: I moved quite a few items to Someday/Maybe.
I realised that my problem was that I didn't have a Someday/Maybe list that I fully trusted for items that I wouldn't get to this week, but want to get to within 2-3 weeks. I have remedied this by creating a short term Someday/Maybe that I will always check at the weekly review. I don't want to review my longer term items every WR and this was subtly preventing me from using the list to relieve the pressure on my everyday context lists.
I use paper and prefer to work from just one A4 page, so when I reach the bottom of the page I re-write my actions that are still to be completed on a new sheet and toss the old one. My work is such that this works quite well, as I have a lot of short actions that are longer than 2 mins but can be completed in 10-20mins and I can therefore normally cross off quite a number of actions over the course of a couple of days and don't need to re-write a long list when reaching the bottom of the page. However, my workload has been heavier than usual for the last couple of weeks and this has forced me to rethink where I keep a few of the NAs that are not as important. Moving them to the short term Someday/Maybe has been really liberating!
Once again David is spot on - re-negotiating your commitments as your priorities shift is vital to stay in control and ensure that you are confident that you are doing what you should be, when you should be.
I had suddenly found that my @office list was repelling me last week and used a strategy that I think was discussed in the newsletter (and has certainly been mentioned in various posts around the GTD forums) to create an attractive list again: I moved quite a few items to Someday/Maybe.
I realised that my problem was that I didn't have a Someday/Maybe list that I fully trusted for items that I wouldn't get to this week, but want to get to within 2-3 weeks. I have remedied this by creating a short term Someday/Maybe that I will always check at the weekly review. I don't want to review my longer term items every WR and this was subtly preventing me from using the list to relieve the pressure on my everyday context lists.
I use paper and prefer to work from just one A4 page, so when I reach the bottom of the page I re-write my actions that are still to be completed on a new sheet and toss the old one. My work is such that this works quite well, as I have a lot of short actions that are longer than 2 mins but can be completed in 10-20mins and I can therefore normally cross off quite a number of actions over the course of a couple of days and don't need to re-write a long list when reaching the bottom of the page. However, my workload has been heavier than usual for the last couple of weeks and this has forced me to rethink where I keep a few of the NAs that are not as important. Moving them to the short term Someday/Maybe has been really liberating!
Once again David is spot on - re-negotiating your commitments as your priorities shift is vital to stay in control and ensure that you are confident that you are doing what you should be, when you should be.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Keeping fresh and avoiding burn-out
I've been reading an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review - an interview with David Allen and Tony Schwarz. One particular answer from Schwarz regarding work and energy struck me:
"There’s a fundamental misunderstanding about how human beings operate at their best. Most of us mistakenly assume we’re meant to run like computers—at high speeds, continuously, for long periods of time, running multiple programs simultaneously. It’s just not true. Human beings are designed to be rhythmic. The heart pulses; muscles contract and relax. We’re at our best when we’re moving rhythmically between spending energy and renewing it."
This is an interesting concept and one that I have noticed in my own work, but haven't applied the lesson as diligently as perhaps I should. It is very easy to fall into the busy trap and think that you can't afford the time to take a break. But I often feel more energised and productive after a break.
The habit of pushing your body, telling yourself to get on with it and keep going, is one that is hard to break. It is also something that is embedded in many work cultures - if you are not seen to be at your desk, you are not working hard enough.
One way of including breaks, but still accomplishing something, could be to run errands. I work on a fairly large site and delivering or collecting items from others allows me to take a break from my computer and still tick a job off my list.
"There’s a fundamental misunderstanding about how human beings operate at their best. Most of us mistakenly assume we’re meant to run like computers—at high speeds, continuously, for long periods of time, running multiple programs simultaneously. It’s just not true. Human beings are designed to be rhythmic. The heart pulses; muscles contract and relax. We’re at our best when we’re moving rhythmically between spending energy and renewing it."
This is an interesting concept and one that I have noticed in my own work, but haven't applied the lesson as diligently as perhaps I should. It is very easy to fall into the busy trap and think that you can't afford the time to take a break. But I often feel more energised and productive after a break.
The habit of pushing your body, telling yourself to get on with it and keep going, is one that is hard to break. It is also something that is embedded in many work cultures - if you are not seen to be at your desk, you are not working hard enough.
One way of including breaks, but still accomplishing something, could be to run errands. I work on a fairly large site and delivering or collecting items from others allows me to take a break from my computer and still tick a job off my list.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
GTD on cruise control
David Allen writes an interesting article, in his recent Productive Living newsletter, about getting GTD on cruise control and staying there: http://www.davidco.com/newsletters/archive/0411.html
Persistence and practice is so important when trying to learn anything new, riding a bike, driving a car, implementing a new method of working. I always find it so surprising when colleagues don’t give themselves enough of a chance to learn these new methods in the same way that they might with, for example, learning to drive. It is fairly unusual to be able to learn to drive in just a few hours and then pass your test. Yet so many people expect the behaviours of GTD to stick really quickly and then become disillusioned with themselves when they don’t. Persistence is key, as well as acceptance that you can’t change things overnight. Some of the practices, such as the two-minute rule, can make an instant difference. But for the real “mind like water” experience, practicing, learning and refining your system to fit around your needs takes time and effort – and is well worth every moment.
I have been using GTD for nearly two years and would not yet consider my system to be on cruise control. However, I have had glimpses of the mind like water experience and the more comfortable I become with my processes, the closer I feel to gaining this more of the time. I can feel my persistence paying off every time my inbox is at zero and with every completed action.
Persistence and practice is so important when trying to learn anything new, riding a bike, driving a car, implementing a new method of working. I always find it so surprising when colleagues don’t give themselves enough of a chance to learn these new methods in the same way that they might with, for example, learning to drive. It is fairly unusual to be able to learn to drive in just a few hours and then pass your test. Yet so many people expect the behaviours of GTD to stick really quickly and then become disillusioned with themselves when they don’t. Persistence is key, as well as acceptance that you can’t change things overnight. Some of the practices, such as the two-minute rule, can make an instant difference. But for the real “mind like water” experience, practicing, learning and refining your system to fit around your needs takes time and effort – and is well worth every moment.
I have been using GTD for nearly two years and would not yet consider my system to be on cruise control. However, I have had glimpses of the mind like water experience and the more comfortable I become with my processes, the closer I feel to gaining this more of the time. I can feel my persistence paying off every time my inbox is at zero and with every completed action.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Making the most of your energy
Yesterday I was incredibly productive and managed to clear over 20 items from my list in a surprisingly short space of time. I found myself in “flow” with my work, taking small task after small task and getting it done, then satisfyingly crossing it off from my list. This has not happened for some time, as my head has been occupied with personal matters that I found hard to dismiss.
In the evening I looked back on what I had achieved with a sense of relief that my @Office list has decreased in size, and a sense of satisfaction. 20 items sounds like a lot, but I had a very large number of 5-10minute tasks that had shot my list up in size. I was lucky enough to feel an energy burst and be able to channel it to clear the list by nearly a third.
Had I tried to do this last week when my energy was very low it would have been impossible. My GTD system gave me a purpose and direction for my heightened energy state. Last week my system reassured me that nothing was urgent enough to be forced into doing it with little or no energy.
I love the fact that GTD addresses the issue of energy and does not expect you to be on top form every minute of every day. David Allen’s four-criteria model of context, time available, energy available, then priority takes account of the human factor and is sympathetic to our energy levels ahead of priority. Although there will be some days where despite energy levels, hard work has to be done, GTD helps me to get the maximum done that I can with the energy that I have. By using the weekly review, I try not to let deadlines creep up on me to the extent that I have no choice but to do them at low energy times.
In the evening I looked back on what I had achieved with a sense of relief that my @Office list has decreased in size, and a sense of satisfaction. 20 items sounds like a lot, but I had a very large number of 5-10minute tasks that had shot my list up in size. I was lucky enough to feel an energy burst and be able to channel it to clear the list by nearly a third.
Had I tried to do this last week when my energy was very low it would have been impossible. My GTD system gave me a purpose and direction for my heightened energy state. Last week my system reassured me that nothing was urgent enough to be forced into doing it with little or no energy.
I love the fact that GTD addresses the issue of energy and does not expect you to be on top form every minute of every day. David Allen’s four-criteria model of context, time available, energy available, then priority takes account of the human factor and is sympathetic to our energy levels ahead of priority. Although there will be some days where despite energy levels, hard work has to be done, GTD helps me to get the maximum done that I can with the energy that I have. By using the weekly review, I try not to let deadlines creep up on me to the extent that I have no choice but to do them at low energy times.
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