“Your mind is for having ideas, not keeping them.”
– David Allen
Most if not all people blame their lack of productivity or feelings of stuckness to a lack of time. They swear that only if they had more time they would be able to cross everything on both their physical and mental to-do lists.
In his book, Getting Things Done David argues that what most people need is not more time but more space in their brain. They need the mental clarity and capacity that will enable them to function efficiently thus getting more things done.
That is when he introduces his famous system that is loved by many success leaders around the globe. He promises that this system will not only result in productivity but that it will also reduce our stress about our work. Which is why he calls it stress-free productivity.
He drew me when he said that this system will make you more relaxed and confident that what you’re doing is exactly what you need to be doing.
Have you ever been doing something that needed to be done but you couldn’t help but feel like you are wasting your time? Like there is something better, that will yield more results than answering your emails, creating pins, or hanging out with your friends?
What if you never again doubted whether you are being productive or not?
The Getting Things Done System:
The stress free productivity is achieved through following this consistently and defaulting to it to organize your life.
This system is perfect for people who feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they have, people who feel like they are on an never ending treadmill of tasks, people who don’t know where to start with their productivity and obviously people who want to spend less time worrying about their work and actually doing their work.
Let’s break down the GTD System:
1. Capture
In this stage you capture ideas as they flow in your head. That way you are not stuck trying to remember that important thing you thought about at lunch. You can keep a small notebook with you at all times. Instead of getting distracted when you remember something or have an idea, you simply capture it. In this digital age you can even use your notes app or any other prefered method.
If you are just starting out. It would be really helpful to do a mind dump. Take your notebook and put down all the thoughts in your head. Things you have to do, should have done, would like to do and all things that are stressing you out. Empty your brain on that piece of paper.
2. Clarify
This is where you take all the raw ideas that you captured and clarify them. Look at all the tasks and group them into actionable tasks, things that you need to take action on, such as replying to emails, filling up an application, calling a friend.
Then there are non-actionable tasks, things that you cannot take action on. This may be things like a book you think you might be interested in reading someday.
The 2-minute rule: If an actionable task takes 2 minutes or less to complete, do it immediately. This may things such as replying to a short email, taking out the trash, tidying up your desk, or sending a text.
3. Organize
Now this is where you assess your work and what the best way to organize your tasks is. Maybe you are someone who works with projects, which then you can group your tasks by projects then further organize the projects in their respective folders. (I’ll mention the guidelines for organazing from the book in a bit)
For example, I integrated the GTD System to the Notion system I already had going on. I have different pages for Academics, Blog, YouTube, Goals, Self-Reflection.
I have different pages within the pages, like in Academics I have different pages for my different modules, where I keep test dates, resources, contact details of lecturers and many other things.
A Guideline for Organizing Your Tasks:
- Projects – Grouping things by projects, keeping different folders for the different projects and putting tasks under their respective projects.
- Time – These are things that are time sensitive which are essentially appointments. You can put these immediately in your Calender.
- Areas of Focus – Here you group things by the different hats that you wear, being a blogger, a student, full time employee, a manager, or a parent. You put the different tasks where they are relevant. This agrees with the way I had already organized my life.
- Agendas – These are things that you have to bring up with someone else maybe someone handling a specific part of the project.
- Waiting for – When you have to wait for someone else before you take action. Like you are waiting for your editor to finish editing the video for you to post it.
- Next Actions – This is what this system is all about. Making work manageable and I feel like this where all of this lies. If you master doing this, then you are halfway there. Here you clarify exactly what is the next step to take in order to complete the task. All the steps are clear, small and manageable.
For example, Task – Write a blog post.
-Go through my blog ideas list and choose one idea.
-Set a 30 minute timer and write down everything I know about the topic.
-Search the topic on Google.
-Read the first 3 articles about it.
-Write down what the articles had in common, what are things that they emphasized?
-Do they validate your ideas about the topic? Is your experience on the topic universal?
-Watch 2 videos about the topic.
-Go through the comment section of the videos.
-Do people resonate with your knowledge of the topic and things from the 3 articles?
-Outline the blog.
-Play around with topics until you find one that fits.
-Write down the different topics you’ll talk about.
-Now fill her up.
-Add relevant images.
-Edit the article, spelling, grammar, delete unnecessary paragraphs, rephrase things.
-Add links to the article.
-Proofread the article.
-Publish the article.
See, each task is clear, simple and very doable. Right after doing a certain task, you know exactly what to do next.
‘Write a blog post’ cannot be an item on your list to do because what exactly does that mean? Where do you even start? It needs to be broken down like I did above.
- Reference – These are things that you can reference later such as an instructional video to help you do something.
- Someday – These are what I like to call dreams. Things that you’d love to do someday but there’s not really an actionable plan behind them. Things that’ll you get to someday.
Review:
You need to set time aside to review this system weekly or monthly. Delete things that need to be deleted. Organize things that need to be organized. Make sure that the system is actually making productivity stress-free.
4. Engage
You’ve finished organizing the system. Everything is in its place. It is time to take action. Actually use the system to get things done, take the first step, then the next step, until you complete the task.
Thoughts:
When I chose this book for the Bookclub I didn’t know about the GTD System. I wasn’t expecting a productivity system. I thought it was a how-to book that would teach us how not to get overwhelmed by our work. I mean it did teach us that in a sense but I am disappointed that it is not a how-to book.
I reluctantly started implementing the Getting Things Done system in a way that makes sense for me. It was nothing life changing. Nothing you haven’t heard before, just that the pieces of advice you always hear about staying organized were compiled together and given a name.
Many people swear by the Getting Things Done method but honestly, I don’t get the hype. I like the way my life is organized right now on my Notion.
This was not revolutionary for me cause I didn’t need another productivity system however if that is what you need in you life then this will be extremely helpful to you.
Implementation:
If you are someone who has been struggling with keeping track of everything in your life. You miss appointments and deadlines and you forget things that you have to do. Or if you feel like your current system for getting things done is not working then this will be helpful for you.You can organize your tasks using the Getting Things Done system.
You can organize your tasks using the Getting Things Done system by following the steps given above.
According to this video, the best apps to use are TickTick, Trello, Todoist. Upon further research I found out that people really recommend pairing the Getting Things Done system with Todoist.
Find a place which will most likely be an app where it will be easy to capture, clarify and organize your tasks.
If you desperately need to organize your life. If you need to learn the importance of organizing and the significant difference it can have on your life recommend that you read this book. Otherwise I think you’re fine cause I was so bored reading this book.
If you want to check out other self-help books. You should read this article about books that changed my life.
So tell me, did you like the book?
If you’re seeing this before the 10th of May, leave a comment below which self-help book you’d like us to read?
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