Getting things done

Allen, David (2001). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

So I've read a book called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen. I'm experimenting with getting my own GTD system set up.

The book describes various key disciplines, or best practices for being organized and productive; however, there are a few key disciplines that I've started practicing that are making a difference for me. These are:
- Inventory of all my projects
- Identify at least one next action for each project
- Associate each next action with a context in which the action can be performed

Inventory of Projects:
I find it useful to have a list where I've written down all my projects. It gets them out of my head and into a tangible form, and it's good to have a place to list any project ideas that come up. It's like the adage, a place for everything and everything in its place - well, that applies to ideas too.

Next Action:
The discipline of identifying a next action for each project helps keep my projects moving along. Even if I don't feel like working on a given project right now, as long as I can think of what next action I can take and write it down then even that helps keep the project moving. Often the projects that stall are the ones for which I don't have a next action. I haven't got this done for all my projects yet, maybe about 40%-60% of them but that's enough for me to feel the difference. I feel like I can keep all of those 40%-60% projects moving along rather than feeling like I can only handle three or four at a time.

Context Lists:
The GTD notion of a context is that it is a place or set of resources that I have access to in order to accomplish my tasks. Some examples are @Home, @Office, @Computer, @Errands, @Calls, etc. The idea is to have a separate list for each context; bydoing so, I can look at all the tasks that I can do in a given situation without being distracted by tasks I cannot do right here. For example, if I am at work and something occurs to me that I need to do at home, I put it on the @Home list. While I am at the office I can look at the @Office tasks and not get frustrated because I have an @Home task that I can't do.

Having separate context lists also helps me see where my bottlenecks are. When I see that my @Errands list is growing and giving me anxiety then I know I can run a series of errands say on a Saturday morning and knock a bunch of things off my list. Similarly if my @Home list is getting too large and I know I've been going out a lot then I know it's time to spend some time at home getting stuff done.

I have a challenge making calls while at work, and some calls need to be made during business hours. When my @Calls list starts piling up then I know I need to make a special effort to take a break from work and take care of those calls.