Getting Things Done - David Allen
In the last in this series of BlackBerry articles, I will explain how I organize my life in the BlackBerry. This is a new development for me but I have found it works great, especially because the functionality of the BlackBerry has all the key elements of organization. Also, I have to give credit for the organization method overall to David Allen and his book, “Getting Things Done.” He provides the concepts for which I applied to Outlook and the BlackBerry.
Things that pop into your head
The first thing Allen talks about in his book is getting things out of your head. He contends that people are at their best when they are able to focus on one thing at a time, particularly the more demanding the task is. He says that many people work less than optimally because they try to keep track of their life in their head. An endless loop is created of things you “can’t forget to do” and so all you can think about while you are trying to concentrate on a key task is that there might be something more important that you should be doing instead. That’s hardly the attitude when focusing on the task at hand. These things that pop into your head should quickly be entered as “tasks” in your Outlook/BlackBerry environment. You can then forget about them and continue on with what you are working on at the moment, and you can do so with complete confidence that you will later see the task you just set up and figure out what to do with it at that time.
I have a task list — now what?
I have found that it is best to build a habit of sorting out the tasks at the beginning or end of each day. I think the end works well for a good number of people because it allows for them to get anything that needs to go on the calendar on a little faster (possibly for the next day) and I think people can sleep better knowing they will have a trigger for everything they know they have to do (and thus an empty task list).
What are the triggers?
Now we know what to do with our random thoughts, and we know we are going to create triggers. How are we going to prioritize and put these triggers in the correct place? David Allen suggests everything fits into about five categories:
- Things you can do right now, in less than 2 minutes
- Things that need to happen at a specific time, or at least a specific date
- Things that can happen at the first block of extra time but have some contingency (like a phone, computer, or simply being in a specific location)
- Projects that are going to happen over time
- Things you might or might not do some day and should keep in mind in case there is a “right time” to do them
This is not directly taken from his book, but something derived from it that works well for me. The first category is a no-brainer. If you can get it done in two minutes right now, get it done and off of any list.
The second group of items there should go on your calendar. If it’s a meeting or something else that needs to happen at a specific time, place it on the calendar to block that time. If it doesn’t need to happen at a specific time but it does need to happen sometime that day, make it an “all day” event (and be sure to mark yourself “free” if you are in a corporate environment so that your entire day isn’t blocked off if people use your free/busy info to schedule meetings in Outlook). I used to put everything on the calendar at specific times, but I found that as soon as one thing with more priority than what was on my calendar showed up, my whole day was shot. Instead, put the list of those things that just need to happen sometime that day at the top of the day as “all day” events and knock them off one-by-one when you do have the gaps in your schedule. My way of operation is to delete them when I’m done with them. Some people might keep them for a record of when they performed the task. I will also use this spot to put reminders of things that are a ways out, but I want to be reminded of them at a certain time. A good example of this is when you find your favorite musician is going to be in town, but the tickets don’t go on sale for a month or two. A few days before the on-sale date I’ll put an all-day event at the top so that I can, at that point, check to see if I have the date of the concert free and also schedule the time the on-sale begins to make sure I get good tickets.
The third, fourth, and fifth groups will all go into “notes.” The third group — the items that have a contingency — will go into a note that specificies the contingency. For instance, I have notes titled “At any phone,” “At any computer,” “At Work,” and “At home,” just for a few examples. Anything that I can do at any phone goes in the “at any phone” list. So on and so forth. This way when you have gaps in your schedule and you don’t have anything at the top of the day on the calendar, you can go to whatever scenario you want and start knocking that list off. A lot of times if I am at a phone and a computer, I will opt for the computer because I can knock out phone calls while I’m sitting and waiting for lunch (on my cell phone). Usually the location-based tasks take precedent over either of those because I have a lot of computer and phone access. I think this is pretty self-explanatory.
The fourth group, projects, also uses notes. This time, though, I make a note for each project and name it “Project - Choose a new software vendor,” as an example, or “Project - convert all VHS tapes to DVD.” Inside the note I might list out all of the components of the project, as far as I know them, and then individual tasks to keep the projects moving will get moved into the other spots we have already discussed. The two-minute things — like email a vendor to inquire about a possible demo — you just do and delete it from the project note. The “need to happen at a specific time or day” items get on the calendar. The contingency-based tasks get placed in the corresponding note. Make sense? This way you are always keeping the tasks moving, but you have the bigger picture in its own note.
The fifth group’s items — the things you may or may not do some day — all get placed in one note. David Allen refers to this as the “someday, maybe” list.
Summary
If you implement this, you will notice that you are constantly going over the items in the first three lists because there are more than 2 minutes in a day, so you can take care of those, and you are always using your calendar and seeing the day- and time-specific items. You also will often be meeting one of the contingencies, so you will get a look at those items regularly. The fourth and fifth groups are something that can get lost in the shuffle with this method. This is where the idea of a weekly review comes in. It gives you a chance to go over all lists and make sure that there aren’t any that are becoming more urgent because they haven’t been taken care of. It’s a chance to get new project-related tasks in one of the other, more visible spots. Last, it’s a chance to consider if any of the “someday, maybe” items might apply to something else you are going to do. For instance, if you wanted to see a baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium and you are going to New York on business in August, that might be an optimal time to knock one of those things off the list (or at least find out that your schedule won’t allow for it that time).
All of these components are places readily available on your BlackBerry. You have the tasks for the things that pop into your head, you have the calendar for things that need to happen at a specific time or place, and you have the notes section to store the contingent tasks, project overview, and the list of things you might want to do or try some day. All of this organization can be kept on the little device you never go anywhere without, and that is the power of this organization method and your BlackBerry.
[Note: By no means is this comprehensive of David Allen's book, and I highly suggest reading it or listening to the audio book. It applies to everything you do, business and personal. My post is to maybe help use the BlackBerry as a way to organize your entire life, and this really would work with any device that had these necessary feature-set.]
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Tags: BlackBerry, David Allen, Organization, Time Management
