Of all the productivity pieces of advice I have ever read the one that's always stuck with me and I continue to use is that outlined in David Allen's book Getting things done . In essence it boils down to - get stuff out of your head and onto paper in a todo list form. It's pretty simple and of course the book does cover a whole 'system' but that was my take away from it. It has been a while since I've read it and think another flick though will be a good idea.
The one thing that you need to remember when writing your GTD todos is not to just dump down abstract goals like 'finish project'. You have to break down everything into an 'actionable task'. At first this might seem like you're spending more time writing lists than getting on with stuff. But once you get in the habit it's remarkably effective. How many times have you had those todo items that just sit there and look scary or you sit down to do them then realise there's a whole load of stuff that needs to be done to prepare for it and you leave it for another day?
Once you have a load of bit size tasks things suddenly become manageable or you realise quite how much work you have to do, it really does force you to face reality. It also makes it easier to deal out tasks because you can quickly grab bits and hand them off to someone else.
There's a whole host of GTD apps and services, but to be honest I always keep coming back to paper and pen. There's nothing more rewarding than looking at a page of A4 at the end of the week with big 'ol lines though all those tasks.
The one thing that you need to remember when writing your GTD todos is not to just dump down abstract goals like 'finish project'. You have to break down everything into an 'actionable task'. At first this might seem like you're spending more time writing lists than getting on with stuff. But once you get in the habit it's remarkably effective. How many times have you had those todo items that just sit there and look scary or you sit down to do them then realise there's a whole load of stuff that needs to be done to prepare for it and you leave it for another day?
Once you have a load of bit size tasks things suddenly become manageable or you realise quite how much work you have to do, it really does force you to face reality. It also makes it easier to deal out tasks because you can quickly grab bits and hand them off to someone else.
There's a whole host of GTD apps and services, but to be honest I always keep coming back to paper and pen. There's nothing more rewarding than looking at a page of A4 at the end of the week with big 'ol lines though all those tasks.
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