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Working the List
This is the final post in this weeks’ Periodic Review series. It is inspired as my own productivity practice has evolved quite a bit over the past two years, since I have been writing about Getting Things Done and other workflow systems.
In the previous posts we looked at how to manage your Periodic Reviews, starting with a high level of granularity and developing a personal method that works well for you.
In this post I am going to show you some of the tools that I use to manage my workflow.
I have tried and evaluated many different tools and applications, and changed everything more than once. Here are some things that I have learned about myself via this process:
- I do not like digital or online applications, for whatever reason, so I do not use them properly and any workflow system that I try to use that relies on one will collapse.
- I do like my notebooks and paper lists. I like them very much, and any workflow system that allows me to utilize these sorts of tools works. I mean really works. Since I started using the new notebook method in January I have not missed a Weekly or Monthly Review!
- It is important to make things as simple as possible but no simpler. For me this means two things:
- Having just enough complexity to keep things interesting without letting things get lost in the system.
- Requiring just enough effort that I get a feeling of satisfaction simply by completing my tasks.
Here is a short video of how I manage my lists:
If you can’t see the video, click on the title of the post
I realize that there are people out there that swear by their smart-phones or PDAs, but they just do not work for me. That is the most important part of any productivity workflow system – it has to work for you.
Later this month or in mid-May (UPDATE: the e-book is being finalized now and will be released in August, 2009) I will probably be releasing a new e-book that describes how to really get down to the core of what works for you in your productivity system. If there is anything specific to your own situation that you would like this book to address, please send me a e-mail with the form below.
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- Category: Productivity | Tagged: ,GTD, innovation, periodic review, video, working the list
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I have been reading your posts for a while now (they are very good, thank you!), as well as some other productivity feeds and books. One item that seems to be consistent is that if something comes across your desk which will take two-minutes to complete, then do it. If it’s a fire, then complete it. What I haven’t read about is how to manage a job where most everything can be completed in two-minutes or is a fire that needs to be addressed right away and where you still have big projects to tackle. It seems to me that I can not sit down and work on certain projects except after everyone else has gone home at the end of the day, because I do not have chunks of time to just sit and concentrate on the project until it becomes a fire which needs to be done tomorrow. I’ve tried scheduling time in my Outlook to allot for the work which needs to be done, but it just doesn’t seem to work, and I haven’t read any suggestions to help solve this.
I would appreciate some pointers. Thank you.
Hi Terri, thanks for your comment and e-mail.
I know exactly what you mean, it is very easy to spend all day on two-minute tasks and putting out fires – without doing any of your important work.
The best way that I have found for getting some parts of those big projects done is to set an appointment with yourself to work on it, no matter what! I suggest that you make it a Most Important Task for first thing in the morning, before you even look at e-mail or touch the in-box on your desk.
Right now I have several e-mails to read and my in-box is a disaster, but I have spent a good chunk of the morning working on a HUGE project. And I got a lot of it done. Now that the project appointment is complete I can address the rest of my e-mails and tackle the 2-minute drill that is my in-box.
Stephen I am just the opposite of you, I never use paper so I can definitely see how digital systems just don’t work for you as paper just doesn’t work for me.
You mentioned having the system be complex enough to be interesting without being cumbersome, that certainly I think holds true with most people. It seems that when my system loses the complexity that I stop using it, this is usually when I revamp some aspect of it.
Thanks for the posts.
Every time I get totally wrapped up in online or electronic tools for keeping tabs, I forget them. They aren’t in my face and in my pocket like a notebook is. In the Navy, I carried one all the time. Went through lots of them. They were of huge value to me.
Everyone these days at work keeps their ‘knowledge’ in Word documents or Excel spreadsheets. Down side? You have to absolutely remember that you created them, and where you put them. Not the case with a notebook you carry in your pocket.
Hi Todd, thanks for coming by. I agree with that! In fact, there is something to be said for the permanence of notebooks, too. I lost a bunch of stuff from college when 5.25″ floppies went away. I still have my journals from HS and they can be accessed today and tomorrow!