David Allen's "Getting Things Done" in Terms of Being More Focused

Who have been bombarded with so many thoughts in their mind? Raise your hand!

We’ll not going to go through what kind of thoughts these are don’t worry. But I want to pinpoint that sometimes most of these “extra” thoughts that enter into our minds even when we’re in the middle of doing something are good thoughts. They are ideas that you had last week, or last month, or have been lurking at the back of your minds for months now. They are good ideas. We want to start this project, we want to travel the world and blog about it, we want to buy a new car, we want to write this book and so on and so forth.

That’s why I love David Allen’s methodology so much. One of David Allen’s methodologies is the Someday/Maybe category. In this category we list down all of our aspirations/goals/projects etc. Then we forget about it.

Forget about it? What?! are you crazy?! I want to do those things! They’re my passion!

Wait!

These things are future things. And you are in the present. 

You should focus on your present to be able to fully focus. Because focus will make you follow through. So if at present you have this project, for example, a stocks trading application that you want to create, since you’ve already determined in yourself that this is the most important and what you most love to do right now then set aside all other aspirations/goals/projects (I’m sure you have more than one aside from the stocks trading application) into the Someday/Maybe category. Then forget about it at this moment. This will help you be more focused on the present moment with actions that correspond to your current goal.

In David Allen’s Getting Things Done book I want to focus my review of why his methodology will help you get more focused and be in the “zone”.

(taken from David Allen's book "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity". No copyright infringement intended.)

This chart is, in a nutshell, David Allen’s methodology of Stress-Free Productivity.

Two main factors that had me personally experience being more focused is, first, in being able to contain thoughts in my mind and categorize them and put them down on a paper and get them out of my mind. Second, in the way of effectively doing this process.

The chart above tells you how to do this process. The process of getting “stuff” out of your mind and putting them on paper (or digital application) and categorizing them (this goes the same for “stuff” that will come into your mind).

This was my original pen and paper Getting Things Done Planner 7 years ago.

The Process

1.The In-Basket

This is where you put all the “stuff” that comes to you (or is already existing in your mind). They can be actionable or non-actionable items. They can also be physical items. What you do is you gather all of them. List them down on a piece of paper or in a software application. If they are physical put them in a physical basket (e.g. stapler lying around your home office, etc.)

When I started Getting Things Done 7 years ago I was surprised at the amount of “stuff” that had been in my mind. Doing the process helped me clear my mind.

Right now I have many sub-categories inside my Someday/Maybe. Some of them are:· Books to read – which are further categorized into different kind of books. All in all I have 63 books in my Someday/Maybe.
·  Trips I want to go to
· Projects I want to do – I have 97 of them!
· Projects that I want to do (but not as much as the above 97 projects) – I have 27 of them
· Skills I want to acquire – 14 skills
· And other sub-categories
The surprising thing about this experience for me is that by getting them out of my head and putting them in a list and not just a list but doing the process and organizing them the GTD way they don’t bug me anymore. I don’t get distracted because of these “stuff” anymore. I just get to review them from time to time and pick one that I will do next.
Personally this clearing of the mind comes from knowing that you have these “stuff” and you have already listed them down and categorized them. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves right now. Before we talk about organizing these “stuff” let’s put all of them in the In-Basket first.

2. What is it?

This is the start of processing a “stuff” and determining what to do with it. This leads us to number 3 question.

3. Is it Actionable?

Do you need to do something about this “stuff”?

a.     If No, you either trash it (because you no longer need it), you put it in Someday/Maybe category (so that you can refer to it at a later date but it also will help you not get distracted by it.), or you put it in Reference category. Someday/Maybe category can be action items as well but you define them as non-actionable in the present because they are not yet possible to do or you’re not sure yet if you’ll do them (e.g. “have a cruise ship tour” but you don’t have the budget yet or you’re still too busy with work and you won’t be able to do it yet, not even in the coming months).

From time to time I review my lists including my Someday/Maybe category. In David Allen’s book he’ll teach you the importance of regularly reviewing your lists and how to do it effectively. I have moved several Someday/Maybe actionable items to my Next Actions list and have accomplished them. Some Someday/Maybe items I have also deleted already upon reviewing and decided I don’t want to do them anymore.
Having a clear mind is like taking a bath. You have to do it regularly or else you’ll smell. In GTD case, you’ll be messy and disorganized. 

b.    If Yes, you go to the next process

4. What’s the Next Action?

a.     If the “stuff” is a big undertaking and consists of several actions to accomplish you can put them in Projects category. Here you can create project plans which in turn will also be actionable items until you are in the level of detail where you have listed down all the physical actions that you need to take to accomplish the project.

b.    Will it take less than 2 minutes? If yes, then you Do It. Right now.

                                               i.     If no,

1.   You either Delegate It (put it in Waiting For category)

2.   Defer It (either put it in Calendar if it’s date/time specific or put it in Next Actions category)

This process is explained further in David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”. This just scratches the surface and just serves as an introduction and a personal review of the methodology that I have been using for 7 years now. The book also comes with very effective tips and methodologies for planning, for mastering your workflow, for effectively making action choices, successfully accomplishing projects, and many more.

GTD enables me to be efficient because:

- It puts away stuff that should be in someday/maybe out of my mind and lets me focus on the important tasks at hand in the present.

- It helps me feel more confident and assured that what I am doing right now is what I have determined to be doing and it’s important.

- It helps me eliminate FOMO

- It helps me identify effectively what I can do at the moment - based on my energy, time available, place, and priority

- It helps me to be in the “zone”

- It helps me not to be overwhelmed by “stuff” I need/want to do

“work” in GTD doesn’t simply mean work in the strictest sense where you are in the office for example, but “work” also applies to your personal life (like, fetching the kids from school or having your room renovated). Thus, GTD enables you to organize your work life and your personal life as a whole.

Follow through even when

To help you follow through, get access to the private beta of my Time and Task Management App for Android

References

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/follow+through
http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-ceo-sleep-schedules-2013-10?op=1/#ck-dorsey-twitter-founder-and-square-ceo-1
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stmartinspress/20-brilliant-authors-whose-work-was-initially-reje-7rut?utm_term=.bfMrYeV7LW#.usLmk46QDg
http://www.businessinsider.in/18-People-With-Incredible-Work-Ethics-That-Got-Them-To-The-Top/Dallas-Mavericks-owner-Mark-Cuban-didnt-take-a-vacation-for-seven-years-while-starting-his-first-business-/slideshow/23998234.cms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Swank
http://thelincolnlist.com/5-huge-losers-that-became-successful/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnazar/2013/10/08/14-famous-business-pivots/#3d219f321fb9
https://www.buzzfeed.com/barbizonmodeling/10-models-and-actors-who-were-rejected-before-beco-t2mv
http://bodybuilding.about.com/od/bodybuildinginterviews/a/Bodybuilding-Motivation-Learn-The-Inspirational-Story-Of-Ifbb-Pro-Shawn-Rhoden.htm
https://www.buzzfeed.com/maggyvaneijk/it-aint-about-the-ass-its-about-the-brain?utm_term=.vhjNKnYao0#.rowoLO8B54
https://www.quora.com/What-were-the-most-ridiculous-startup-ideas-that-eventually-became-successful

Why you might want to try my Time Management App for Android

I use You, Inc. (Time Management App for Android) personally and professionally.

There are 2 main parts of my app. One is the To Do List part and the other one is the time tracker app. Here's why it's useful for me:

The To Do List Part

  

• I loosely follow David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology. Although I don't strictly follow it the important take aways is the clearing of the mind from stuff and being able to narrow down our focus to important things right now. If you're not familiar with GTD methodology I highly recommend getting familiar with it.

• My To Do List also has a Calendar part in it where you can put your events. This is separate from the tasks list.

• I can separate my tasks into different categories.

The Time Tracker Part

  

• Tracks the time I allot professionally as well as personally
• Lets me visualise my allotted time in a day/week/month
• I can categorize my activities and be able to have a larger perspective of where my time went
• I can easily determine when I last did something
• I can place my Time Tracker Widget on my Android Phone's home screen to easily make time tracking a habit

I can tell you exactly when the last time I worked out (2 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days ago) and exactly why that's the case. And it gives me the objective perspective on things and helps me focus on my top most priorities.

I know that on average I am spending 1 hour - 2 hours smoking and that's ok for now because before I used to smoke 2 - 3 hours on average per day.

I know when I was able to reach my target hours working on my own project for this week and make up for the hours or loosen up the next week.

I have my eyes set forward to my goals. Knowing exactly where I am and what direction I am now and how I got here.

Making Time Management Finally Work For You This 2017

It's the time of the year again when we make a list of the new habits and goals we want.

We want to remove bad habits from our life and have good ones instead. 

Indeed, every new year is a motivating time to create such a list (although, personally, I'd recommend not limiting to new year's to make a list).

Our grand plan that will change everything in our lives and catapult us to the peak of success.

 But the sad thing is just about 8% of people achieve their new year's resolutions.

Why is this so?

The biggest reason we fail is lack of follow through. 

After all, success means follow through. And failing means lack of follow through.

The road to success will almost always not be a straight line. 

You'll encounter twists and turns.

Lack of follow through has some common reasons 

They are

1) It is not really what you want.

That's why when something else comes along you get easily distracted and might pivot or change your goals completely. Here are tips on how to determine what you really want in life.

2) You were unable to change who you are or part of who you are. 

If you keep doing what you've been doing then you can expect the same result. Because insanity is doing the same things but expecting different result. If you want to achieve something you don't have you got to do things you've never done before. Determine the things you need to change about yourself.

3) Not being able to keep yourself on track

By tracking your progress (or lack thereof) you can determine where to adjust your efforts and where to continue your efforts. Plus, tracking your progress motivates you when you're doing good and helps you put things into perspective when your progress is not that good.

4) Not being able to plan from the start and not being able to revisit that plan regularly.

One of the most effective methods to planning is to follow the S.M.A.R.T. plan method.

Having a system around your goals frees you up from the fallacy of your willpower

Time

You have to have a system that works within your routine when it comes to your time. Or adjust your current routine to make time for your goals consistently in such a manner that's natural to your day as much as possible.

Environment

Having the ideal environment is quite underestimated when it comes to effectively achieving your goals. I can't state enough how having the right environment eases your struggle to achieving your goals.

Community

Having the community that is aligned with your goals gives you the proper perspective on things, motivates you to keep moving forward, helps you acquire knowledge from other like minded people, and prevents loneliness on your journey towards your goals.

Have tools to help you stay on your system of achieving your goals

Getting Things Done

This is my favorite productivity methodology and the one I am using right now in a major way (I compliment this methodology with Kanban, Pomodoro, 80/20 Rule, and Don't Break The Chain methodology)

Kanban

I use the Kanban board in Trello especially for my software development projects. It enables me to easily keep track of my todo and my done tasks.

Pomodoro Technique

I use Pomodoro technique but not strictly. For coding, I use a 2-3 hour Pomodoro technique and not the traditional 25 minute technique because I find that I can focus 2-3 hours in coding productively and 25 minutes just breaks my focus unnecessarily. I set browsing the internet to 10 minutes only for breaks. For reading books I usually set a Pomodoro technique of 1 and a half hours.

80/20 Rule

I love this technique because it enables me to give my focus on my most important tasks that contribute to my big goals. It keeps me from being distracted by the 80% of things that don't contribute to my big goals.

Seinfeld's Productivity Secret/Don't Break the Chain

Perfect for acquiring new productive habits and breaking bad ones. Consistency is the heart of habits.

Now that you

• have your goals
• know why you fail
• know how to follow through
• have the tools to help you follow through 

Not Limiting Yourself to New Year's to Make a List

Every New Year most of us make a list of our New Year's Resolutions. That's a good start for improving ourselves and having a better and more successful year.

However

We should not limit ourselves to writing New Year's Resolutions only on New Years. In fact, we can start any day and any month of the year we want. It's just that during New Year is when it's most motivating to start a list of our goals. What I'd recommend is, if you caught yourself not having a New Year's list in the middle of the year, for example June, write one immediately! There's no better way to wake up than knowing that you will make this day another productive day that moves you closer to your goals.

If you have an existing list before (probably last new year) then it's not too late to:

Re-evaluate your goals
Re-evaluate your plans and action items with those goals
Re-evaluate and make your goals more specific if they're not specific enough

(Explain each 3 items) (Give example with fitness goals - how it was the highest priority before and now it's secondary but I still do it.)

Determine The Things You Need To Change About Yourself

One of the ultimate purpose of life that one can define for his or her life is improvement. Whether this is self improvement or transcending towards the improvement of others' lives.

Having said that, achieving one's goals often and almost always involve self improvement. The kinds of self improvement one must have depends on the kind and level of achievement one is targeting. These self improvement might come in the form of more self discipline, more efficiency in one's work, being more vocal or having improvements in communication skills, etc. One must be able to determine himself what additional skills or existing skills needs improvement. This is were feedback is invaluable. Feedback can come from other people or from one's self. Getting feedback from one's self is often tricky because we tend to be less objective towards our own efforts. This is where having a journal and having an activity log greatly helps.

Importance of keeping a journal and activity log in changing ourselves

1) It keeps a record of our progress and our non-progress - This is a valuable tool in determining what works and what doesn't towards moving closer to our goals. We may find that we must change something in our habits, or we may find that we need to be more efficient in areas that we can pinpoint in our journal. We can indeed look at our efforts in an objective manner when we have a journal.

2) Keeping a journal provides accountability in everything we do - This is very important. The devil is in the details and often we shrug off little details in our everyday activities because they are little. But keeping a journal will expose these little activities as having big effects in keeping us from getting closer to our goals.

3) We can review our journal and help us pinpoint the cause for our negative behaviors which in turn will help us change these behaviors for the better.

4) Keeping a journal helps us know our selves better in a deeper level but also in an objective way.

Tracking Your Progress

All companies worth their salt track different metrics of the company. Companies track their profits, losses, efficiency, inventory, etc. They have tools like Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, etc. So why shouldn't you, as an individual, track your own progress? Whether you are a freelancer, an employee, or a small business owner, you should also track your progress. In and outside of your work life.

What to track?

Your efficiency

Are you doing your work in the most effective but least time possible? Are there any constant distractions and obstacles that you have identified that might negatively affect your efficiency?

Financials

You cannot ignore and not track your financials if you want to keep on doing what you're passionate about and be closer to your goals unless you're already rich. Financial troubles might be an obstacle to your bigger goals if not prevented to happen in the first place. Prevention is better than halting your goals to fix your financials troubles.

Obstacles

Different obstacles for different people with different goals. Tracking your progress will greatly help in identifying these obstacles. Whether the obstacles are your own bad habits, environmentals factors, financial factors, etc. you have to be able to identify them and remove or minimize them from your everyday operations. Tracking your progress allows for the opportunity to identify even the littlest of obstacles to be the culprit that is keeping you from achieving your goals faster.

Bad habits

These are one of the types of bad habits and I specifically listed them here as items that are very important to track because almost always we are our own worst enemy.

Expected/Estimated date of achievement

Do you need to move your expected/estimated date of achievement? Tracking your progress with regards to your efficiency, current obstacles, and progress towards your goals will help you determine this objectively.

Your relationships with your loved ones

Are you spending enough time with them? You can spend time with your loved ones (and you should!) without feeling guilty of not giving your all and your best to your passion project by being able to see where your hours are spent. How many hours have you spent in working towards your goals? 60 hours? Nice! I can take a break this weekend and spend time with my loved ones.

Your social life

How are your connections? Do you still attend networking events? You might be missing on good opportunities that are related to your goals if you're not careful and let your social circle rot. From time to time go out and spread your wings again. Get away from working on your goals and be out there. You never know, being out there might actually speed up your progress towards completing your goals.

How to track?

Keeping a journal is a very effective way of tracking your progress towards a goal

Importance of tracking your progress

1) It helps you in formulating new strategies (if necessary) and pivot directions (if necessary)
2) It helps you keep your focus no matter how long the goal takes to finish
3) It helps you make decisions base on trends
4) It helps you identify inefficiencies in your efforts day-in day-out
5) It helps you measure your progress objectively
6) It helps you measure your efforts and progress objectively

How To Determine What You Really Want In Life

What would you do if money is no question?

Determine what makes you truly happy

By this, I don't mean eating ice cream happy. Not that kind of happiness but a more deeper kind of happiness.

By this I also would not mean travelling, fine dining, trying out surfing, skydiving, shopping, etc. Although there are many people who are really passionate about these things and have made a career out of them most people really just want these things for fun and happiness. I'm talking about what are you most passionate about? The one thing that will make you "work" for hours end and days end. Then you can call "working" not working at all since it's your passion. You will never work again a single day of your life. So what is it? What would you rather be doing if money is no question rather than go to work as an employee to be able to eat and pay the bills and save a little and have a little fun every now and then.

If you have an answer to this question then congratulations. Most people don't really know the answer to this question and just go in their daily lives without a real sense of adventure or quest.

If you'd like to know what you really want in life you have to dig deep inside of you. Most people don't give time to reflect on themselves. 

Don't lead a half-life, Matthew, I'm trying to help you find your passion. When you find your passion you'll never work again. Of course, you'll probably work extremely hard, but it won't seem like work. Because it is your passion, your purpose, your reason for being here.

- from the book "Success Secrets: Letters to Matthew" by Richard Webster

Think of the things you would like to achieve. Become the best software developer you can be? Become the greatest salesman? What do you want to become? Be as high level as possible. We are talking about dreams here and not just goals. Dreams encompasses goals. Dreams are all about emotions. After listing the items. Maybe you have 3 or 4 of them, now sit down and relax your body and close your eyes. Imagine what would it be like if you are to become the best software developer you can be. Imagine the money you will earn. The opportunities to work on your own time anywhere in the world. Let the feelings brought about by these imagination fill you. Now think of the things that you have to do to achieve this dream. Obviously you will need to work extremely hard. You will need to sacrifice time for other things for this dream to come true. Was it ok for you? Would you be able to accept these sacrifices? If not, are you willing to? No matter what, no matter how hard it will be? Do the same thing for the other items in your list. Afterwards, reflect on this experience, which dreams of yours gave you the most ecstatic feeling? Are you now ready? This item will be your dream. This mental picture of yourself achieving your dreams will be the reason for your life.

 Now that you have determined what you really want in life it's time to plan out and identify your goals that are aligned with this dream.

Failing Means Lack of Follow Through

when you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word * succeed * , you find it simple means to follow through..

The lack of success, or the failure to succeed, is the lack of follow through. So in order to succeed we must follow through our goals. But, of course, it's easier said than done. But now that we know what the essence of failure, which is lack of follow through, we can now face the enemy and try to overcome it.

What are some of the most common reasons for lack of follow through?
They are

1) It is not really what you want.

That's why when something else comes along you get easily distracted and might pivot or change your goals completely. Here are tips on how to determine what you really want in life.

2) You were unable to change who you are or part of who you are. 

If you keep doing what you've been doing then you can expect the same result. Because insanity is doing the same things but expecting different result. If you want to achieve something you don't have you got to do things you've never done before. Determine the things you need to change about yourself.

3) Not being able to keep yourself on track

By tracking your progress (or lack thereof) you can determine where to adjust your efforts and where to continue your efforts. Plus, tracking your progress motivates you when you're doing good and helps you put things into perspective when your progress is not that good.


All of these 3 are equally important.

Some people have determined what they really want to do with their life but they fall short because they were unable to change some of their bad habits that are becoming more and more of an obstacle in achieving their goals. Some people needs to enhance their skills in order to move forward and achieve their goals and in this regards they might have failed in enhancing these skills resulting in failure to achieving their goals. It is important to note that not all bad habits will keep you from achieving your goals. In fact, there are very successful people who in spite of their bad habits or vices were able to still reach success. In this matter, perseverance in spite of these obstacles in our selves overcomes these things to achieve success.

Some people have determined what they really want to do with their life and have the right kind of values and skills and good habits but they still fall short in achieving their goals. This is where Not being able to keep yourself on track matters a lot. It's like a hard worker with the mission vision of the company but then the company lacks the CEO. In every company, keeping track of progress is of paramount importance. Tracking one's progress enables one to see where he or she can be more efficient by examining previous efforts and results. Tracking one's progress enables us to at least have a vague prediction of the future or be able to determine likely scenarios in the future and thus be able to allocate our efforst in the future more effectively.