Still Getting Things Done

Recently, I dug into a book that had been sitting on my desk for about a year, waiting for some attention, but which never seemed to rise to the top of the stack.  Then, at the BHHS/Pru convention in Nashville, I attended Stacey Harmon’s session on Evernote (of course!) and she mentioned David Allen’s Getting Things Done as a key element in her use of that app and her workflow system, which is covered in detail in her great book Untethered, by the way.  I finally got the message and started reading GTD and was surprised to find a system—I’ve read many books on this topic—that actually made sense and seemed to be a real key to organizing not just one’s work, but one’s life!

Allen’s primary point is that we get things done best when we can focus on the task at hand, free from distractions.  Rather obvious, of course.  But he goes on to clarify that by distractions, he doesn’t simply mean a ringing phone or a barking client, but rather all those nagging little voices in our minds, interrupting and reminding us—constantly, it seems—not to forget that we have to run a CMA for that presentation tomorrow or call the brick mason to ask about that chimney repair by next Tuesday or, yes, to take the dog to the vet on Saturday and get to little Sally’s soccer match by 6. 

So, Allen’s first epiphany for us is that our personal and professional lives—especially in terms of planning and controlling our activities and attention—cannot be separated, so we should develop a system that recognizes and accounts for that integration rather than trying to deny it.  He goes on to clarify that the only way we can manage all those competing little voices is to make sure every one of our “projects” is stored in a “bucket” where we have complete confidence that we’ll never forget or miss one!  By creating and maintaining our bucket of projects, Allen says, we’ll have the confidence to quiet those nagging voices and focus on the task at hand, yielding far greater effectiveness in the use of our time, ie, making more money—and more happiness—per hour!

GTD was written before the advent of Evernote, but Stacey Harmon, in her book Untethered, has adapted Allen’s GTD approach and developed a workflow organizing template that makes Evernote the perfect bucket, since it’s with us on our laptops, our tablets, and our smart phones nearly everywhere, letting us be fully in control.

One hint:  when you grab something from your figurative “inbox,” if it would take less than a couple minutes to deal with it, DO IT RIGHT AWAY and be done with it!

I’ll write more on the GTD approach in the future, but for now, just think for a moment how effective you might be if you could really focus on the task at hand! 

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching