I’ve been feeling stuck on several projects so I decided to re-read David Allen’s GTD
The basic technique is to get everything out of your head and onto paper and decide on ‘next actions’ so that you can see how to progress with projects and so achieve more of what you want with less stress. Lots of good ideas in there.
Whilst reading these, I’ve set up an application called Remember The Milk for online task management and have tweaked it to fit in with the GTD ideas. Everything that is demanding my attention, in one way or another, is now down on paper. This includes lists of projects, in all areas of life, and next actions, sorted by tags into different contexts, such as ‘email’ and ‘errand’.
I’ve started to use Google Docs so that I can access my files from anywhere rather than having them stored locally only on my PC.
Something I read on Zenhabits led to me thinking about how I organise my email and use my time whilst at my PC. I decided to move all my email to one gmail address and am now using integrated gmail so that I can see all my online stuff on one page. I can now see and access my email, from several accounts (including Yahoo, tasks (rememberthemilk), calendar, my feeds via Feedly, my own website, twitter, facebook and Google Docs easily.
Julia Cameron in Artists Way
In the last couple of weeks, since starting focusing on ‘next actions’, I’ve done the following:
- Cleaned out the cupboard under the stairs
- Tidied two drawers in the kitchen.
- Created a workspace (desk etc) of my own (previously shared)
- Emptied intray
- Mended broken lamp in living room
- Cleaned shared office desk
- Removed broken desk lamp
- Rearranged music room/study so I can sit to play facing the window
- Taken four bags of stuff to charity shops
- Replaced a dead shrub in the garden with a new one
The interesting thing is that I’ve also written more, made more art and played more music.
Tasks such as:
- finish the book
- write a song
- organise the next three month’s meetings at Speaker’s Club
are too big to be called ‘tasks’ and can be overwhelming. They’re ‘projects’ and need breaking down into specific tasks so that it is possible to move forward.
Tasks such as:
- spend 30 minutes reading what I’ve got so far
- ask M where to find recording of the guitar piece I wrote in January that he was playing the other day
- phone E to find out how a topics competition is organised
. . . are much easier to deal with.
‘Next actions’, it seems to me, are like baby steps. I think I might be able to get unstuck if I take one step at a time.
