Coachamatic

For a while now, I’ve been hearing folks wax poetic about David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done”, but I have to admit that it took me a bit to buckle down and implement his system in earnest.

I had been doing bits and pieces of the GTD system a la carte (such as the oh so helpful strategies for dealing with email) and experienced such immediate improvement to my workflow that I thought, “I wonder what would happen if I did the whole shebang–you know, went all out, got his book, studied his system and completely implemented it?”

With visions of complete and orderly world domination , I went for it, and so, far things are going great.

I’ve been doing GTD for a couple weeks now, and no major hiccups so far. It really is a process, and I’ve heard David Allen say that it can take 2 years to really “get it”, although the system isn’t all that complicated.

I think the “getting it” part has to do with accepting the zen attitude of “stop trying so hard, and you’ll get more done.” For those of us who are used to work being an endurance event, that’s a tough concept to wrap your brain around.

Intellectually, I understand the whole “mind like water” attitude. Now, if I could only convince my brain to calm down and trust this new system. There’s an adjustment period for getting used to any new way of doing things, so I’m willing to stick with it until it starts to feel completely natural.

Like I said, the elements of the GTD system are pretty down to earth ideas, but sometimes the simplest approaches are sheer genius.

Here are the 5 basic stages for mastering workflow that are the foundation for the GTD system:

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

Let’s take these one at a time, starting with #1–Collect.

You know how when you’re minding your own business, trying to make dinner, work in the yard, or spend time with your family and stuff keeps popping into your head unsolicited–”You need to do the dishes. Remember to buy your sister a birthday present. You’re out of post-it notes. And eggs. The ink in the printer is running low. You need to call that client back. Check your email–maybe something super-important just came in. Oh, and don’t forget your dentist appointment on Tuesday.”

All these ideas and reminders come popping into your head in the most disorganized fashion and lure you away from what you’re doing. How annoying!

David calls these pesky things “open loops”. Open loops are anything you’ve commited yourself to that you haven’t completed yet. They’re anything that’s hanging over your head as an incomplete task.

What we need to do is gather 100% of the open loops in our lives and capture them in “containers”.

Our collection tools are our email, voicemail, physical in-basket, a calendar, and paper and electronic notetaking devices.

There are 3 factors for successful collection of info:

1. Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head. Sometimes I hear folks proclaim with pride, “I don’t need to write things down–I’ve got it all up here in my head.” While it may be tempting to show off our massive brain power and test the limits of our memory, David cautions us to think more progressively.

David contends that our brains are amazing, wonderfully powerful tools, but they’re a lousy place to store a to-do list.

Our brains are not that good at prioritizing data, and they tend to think that the newest information we receive is the most important, which isn’t necessarily true.

Remember, if it needs to get done, and if we don’t herd it into a trustworthy outside system of containers, then we’re relying on our poor, easily distracted, overused, not-that-good-at-prioritizing-stuff brains to keep track of it–not a very bright idea!

Bottom line–we have got to come up with a better collection system than our brains.

Your collection tools should also become part of your lifestyle, things you keep with you everywhere you go. They should be as much a part of your life as your toothbrush, your glasses or your purse/wallet.

This doesn’t mean that you should be in constant contact with your email, voicemail and other systems. It means that you need to have some kind of container available to you at all times in which you can store your thoughts and incoming info.

This ever present recepticle can be as simple as a spiral bound notebook, binder or paper organizer. It can also be as high tech as an electronic organizer or laptop.

It’s just my personal preference, but I like to have a paper organizer as “mission control” for all my lists, calendar items and projects. I prefer it to be on paper, because when ideas pop into my head after work hours, I just grab my paper organizer and write them in the appropriate place.

You know, I’m a gonner if I have to turn on the computer to check or add something to one of my lists . For me, turning on the computer after work hours is like opening Pandora’s box–I don’t want to risk getting sucked back into “work stuff”. So, it’s paper all the way for me.

The big idea is that in order for your collection system to be effective, it has to be available to you in every context of your life. We all know that our minds never take a break. No matter what we’re doing during the day, there’s a good chance that random “stuff” will be popping into our heads and nagging at us. We need to have our system handy so we can zero-out our brains.

2. Use as many containers as you need, but as few as you can get away with. Again, we’re looking for a zen-like, streamlined, “doesn’t make your brain hurt” kind of system. If you have too many collection zones your system is going to feel clunky, and you’re going to have a hard time keeping track of tasks, projects and ideas. Simplicity is a beautiful thing.

3. You must empty your collection recepticles regularly. If you don’t process (empty) your collection buckets regularly (think about your email inbox), then you’re really storing, not collecting.

You can relax, though– emptying does not mean finishing. It just means that you take the item out of the “container”, decide what it is, determine what should be done with it, and if it’s not something you can do right then, you then organize it into your system.

Whatever you do, don’t put it back into “in”!

David wants us to start making front end executive decisions about information that comes to us. We’re to decide what is the next action for every email, voicemail, and piece of paper that we encounter from the get-go. He wants us to start zeroing out all our inboxes everyday. (Yes, I’ve been doing this, and it feels so good!)

So, this is the concept of “collecting” in GTD.

It goes hand-in-hand with the next step for workflow mastery–”Process”, which I’ll cover in my next post.

“Process” is a juicy phase; it’s the one where we start practicing our executive decision making skills and where we figure out how to get our inboxes empty without having to do all the work right that minute. Exciting stuff!

Posted on Nov 17th 06 by Sharon Sarmiento.

Sharon Sarmiento owns Streamline, the Virtual Business Management company. She works with internet tech & web media companies by managing the daily operations of online businesses and streamlining processes to maximize personal and business productivity. For free resources on productivity, creativity and virtual entrepreneurism, visit => http://www.eSoupBlog.com/

Other posts on Coachamatic by Sharon Sarmiento.