Open Loops

That Newton...What a Guy

Well, David Allen wrote and then made available to us his book, Getting Things Done.  We’ve read it and studied it.  We have begun the process of processing our “stuff” and now have our “Next Action” lists that are separated by context.  There is work to be done.  It’s planned and organized.  Yet, for some inexplicable reason, we just don’t do it.  The lists, though complete and organized, seem to grow rather than to diminish as the days go by.  Oh, it’s not like this everyday; it seems to go in cycles.  Some days the NA’s just melt from our list and on others, we can’t cross off a single one!  Our periods of procrastination seem to stall us periodically.  I find myself going through these, where some days click along like I’m in Dale Jr.’s #8 car zipping around Lowe’s Motor Speedway.  Then there are those other days where I can’t buy a completed next action.  So what’s up?

Marshall Cook, in his book, Time Management: Get More Done with Less Stress by Efficiently Managing Your Time, offers five reasons why we procrastinate:

1. You haven’t really committed to doing the job – You don’t think it’s your job to do, think it’s someone else’s job, or think its a waste of time.
2. You’re afraid of the job – Fear of failure, fear of success, or fear of finishing.
3. You haven’t placed a high enough priority on the action – There’s always something else more important to do.
4. You don’t know enough to do the task.
5. You just plain don’t wanna.

As a former teacher, I tend to go back to Newton’s First Law of Motion:  Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.  In simple terms, an object in motion (me or you) remains in motion (gets things done).  It’s inverse is also true:  an object at rest tends to stay at rest…unless it is acted upon by another external force.  This goes back to the old delegation adage that states if you want something done, give it to a busy man (an object in motion).  In his post, The Availability Conundrum, Jeffrey Phillips, over at Thinking Faster, has also noted an increase in productivity when his Next Action list is full and a decrease when the list dwindles.  In either case we all have to deal with procrastination from time to time.

So over the next few posts, I’ll explore ways to apply “external forces” that get us back in motion when something sidetracks us and we begin to “stay at rest”.  To get out of procrastination, you have to have some tools in your tool box that will help you get the job done.  I’ll share some of mine.

Small Corrections

It's been a few days since I've posted...the flu has taken its toll on me to the point of me taking a couple of sick days.  Even now, I'm miserable but wanted to post so no one would think I disappeared.  So today's will be a short one.

I went flying last Saturday in weather that was quite windy in my part of the country (NC).  Turbulence was real "interesting".  Up 50 feet, then down 50.  Bumps and moving sideways (that doesn't happen on the road and it takes getting used to in a plane).  For my part it was quite challenging because my lesson focused on flying straight and level.  I was always trying to maintain an altitude of 3500 feet but found myself anywhere from 3700 to 3300, so I had to make corrections (as long as you're with 100 feet of your target altitude, you're okay), to get it within acceptable limits.  I was in a hurry and, evidently, made sizable corrections, which caused us to go up and down like a roller coaster!  It wasn't until I learned the importance of small corrections taken more often that my flight became smooth and I was able to maintain my altitude.

I read various blogs and visit different GTD forums and hear people mention falling "off the wagon" and then having to implement GTD all over again.  For many, it was completely on or completely off the program.  It occurred to me that many simply needed to become situationally aware of where they are with GTD and begin to make more frequent but small corrections.  Doing this, keeps one on the program and doesn't require a massive re-implementation of the program.  Another thought is that people need to realize that one will never be perfect with GTD (we are human, after all), and that all we can hope for is to be close.

Just a thought...

A Next Action Paradox

There are two things about my next action lists with which I've had to wrestle.  After years of using to do lists, having them guide me in choosing next actions was no challenge.  In fact, they're so comfortable, I would normally write impromptu to dos on the list before I did them just so I could cross them off.  The hardest thing about next action lists for me, per the GTD methodology, was that they did not have due dates connected to them (which they did when I kept them on my Palm) and they did not have priorities.

The rationale is that a task either has to be done or it doesn't.  If it has to be done, it doesn't matter if it's an "A", "B", or "C" task, it simply has to be done.  David Allen also states that by relegating some tasks to a lower level, we perpetuate crises as we tend to work on the "A" (urgent) tasks while "B" & "C" tasks mature until the become "A's".  This process can happen, and often does, overnight.  We wake up one morning with a plate full of "A's" and wonder what happened.

The concept of no priorities is not new to GTD as this is also the advice of Kerry Gleeson in his book, The Personal Efficiency Program, where he cites the same rationale.

I thought it would be hard working without the priorities and deadlines, but I found that, due to my increased productivity, my tasks are being accomplished and are not falling by the wayside as I would have expected.  In fact, I'm getting things done well before the due date that I would have assigned to the tasks.  For next actions that must be done on a particular date or not at all, I use Allen's recommendation of either assigning a due date to it or placing it on a calendar page instead of a context list.

Who would have thought that an idea, such as eliminating priorities and deadlines, could yield an increase in productivity?

There's a Hole in the Bucket Dear Liza, Dear Liza...

One challenge that I've run into in my implementation of GTD, is that of having consistent and never-changing collection buckets.  Collection buckets are locations in which we store unprocessed reminder items that will turn into our next actions that we place in our system.  It seems, however, I'm always making modifications to my system, especially with my collection buckets.  This isn't unusual.  Even David Allen says in his Getting Things Done...Fast CD's that his system is in disarray at times as he is always stretching and challenging himself and modifying his systems to match.  I find this is true for me as well.

As for collection buckets, there are the standard:  the office inbox, email inbox, and home inbox.  I have those, but find that I need others as well.  So I've added the following from time to time:

• Jotter Wallet - For recording items on the run.  It consists of a wallet section (to ensure that you always have it with you) with a small pad and pen.  David sells one on his site for about $100.00, but if you don't mind a little leg work, you can create one of your own for a lot less.  At Office Depot, you can find a similar wallet by Wenger (and it includes a pouch for business cards) for about $10.00.  Then, a quick trip over to the pen section in Office Max will yield two compact pens by Zebra for about $5.00.  Savings:  $85.00.  Nice.  The reminders from here get tossed in my inbox and processed with everything else.
• Digital recorder - Small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, it's for those times when you just can't write:  While driving, on the golf course, bicycling, etc.  I'm always finding additional uses for mine, such as dictation of letters on the fly, as well as recording important meetings and phone calls (an attachment from Radio Shack makes this a snap).
• Cell Phone - I've used the voice recorder feature when I couldn't, for some reason, have my digital recorder.
• Voicemail - Calling and sending myself a voicemail about a next action is as close as a phone.
• Email - Using my Tungsten C or web-enabled phone to email myself a next action.  The nice thing here is that it winds up in my email inbox, which I process daily.
• My Palm's Unfiled Catagory - Writing a next action directly in the Palm's Unfiled category, this is recommended by Sally McGhee in her book, Take Back Your Life!.  I eventually dropped this one because it blurred the line between collection and processing my next actions.
• Moleskine Notebook - Simple, straight forward.  Toss the entire book into the in-basket and process it along with everything else.  Put an "X" across processed pages.

David states that one should have as many collection buckets as needed, but not more than necessary.  I've fiddled with this and feel that I will still make changes in my collection buckets.  But once I (and you) find the ideal number and type of buckets needed (this will be different from person to person), they should then remain static to make sure that we don't forget to empty them on a regular basis.  If we forget a bucket or two, then we lose confidence in our system.  If that happens, we tend to keep more things in our heads, which creates open loops that causes us undo stress and ineffectiveness.

Plan and use a limited collection of collection buckets and try to empty them daily.  What buckets do you use?

Frankenstein's Monster...Well, Er...Sort of

My trip to Office Depot was productive and I bought the basics for a paper-based system to replace my Palm.  I found that I could, indeed, purchase the components for a basic, no-frills, bare-bones system for under $15, but I felt I needed more.  I wound up spending $50, but that didn’t include the @context pages that the GTD system requires.  I designed and printed those myself as I could make them the way I wanted and printed them on color paper so that each context could have it’s own color.  One component that I splurged on was a FranklinCovey calendar refill for appointments and hard landscape items with due dates.

I know I could have purchased a pre-made system by FranklinCovey, Day Runner, or Day Timer, but they’re based on their own methodologies that don’t fit well with GTD unless they are modified, so I passed on those.  I even looked at the better leather binders to make it aesthetically more pleasing, but I could not find any with D-rings (on which I insist) so I settled on a simple binder.

It reminds me of Frankenstein’s monster as it is part FranklinCovey (the calendar), part Avery (dividers), @context pages (my own design), and a few other self-designed forms. But, since I’ve put this together, I’ve found that I’ve been reviewing my lists more often and found that seeing a whole page of next actions does, indeed, make it easier to choose an appropriate one on which to work.  I’ve even been more productive as I’m crossing off next actions that I’m completing at a much faster pace than with my Palm.  I’ll give it a week and then evaluate how it’s doing.

Will That Be Paper or Plastic?

I did what I had thought would be the unthinkable.  After 10 years of working with my Palm and after considerable investment in various programs to customize my Palm to suit me and my working styles, I've decided to make the move back to a paper-based system.  Ok, I just heard that collective gasp from all the PDA users out there.  How could I do that after all the advantages that a PDA has to offer!?!  Sorting...Alarms...Quicker updates...The amount of info that can go into that little thing!  Around my district, I'm even known as Inspector Gadget because I've always got my Palm out and using it.  How could I leave that?  Even David Allen uses a Palm!!  Frankly, I feel I've become too dependent on it and, because of this:

• I rely too heavily on alarms to remind me of appointments, which makes me tempted to not review my calendar as often as I should.
• Because I'm visual, I find it difficult to scroll through all my next actions to choose the most appropriate one to do.  I can only see three to four next actions on the screen at a time.  When I have 20 - 30 to look at, it's better to see the whole list, rather than small chunks, at once to make my decision.
• I've been finding discrepancies between my Palm desktop lists and my Tungsten C's lists.  I'm not confident that the list of next actions is complete to allow me to make great decisions on what to do next.
• A paper-based system doesn't need recharging.
• I still need to manage paper support for projects and next actions.  For me, these need to be portable, so I'm carrying a notebook anyway.
• In my art courses in college, it was said that human beings have an innate desire to "make a mark".  I'm feeling that desire.

In David Allen's Getting Things Done...Fast CD collection (which I absolutely love and listen to over and over) he makes a bold statement that one can walk into Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, or any other office supply store and, under $15, create an elegant and effective system.  I'm going to put him to the test on this and, in the next few hours, I'm heading for Office Depot to see if I can create a great system.  Keep following along and I'll update you on the progress.

Everything Old is New Again

Google has appeared to bless (or curse) me with 50 gmail account invitations.  Most of us are already using gmail and are having fun with exploring the various features and developing new hacks to make it do what we want so we can be more productive.  A gmail account is also by invitation only.  So, help me expend these invitations so I won't feel like I'm hording!  Here's the deal--

For those of you without a gmail account, but would like one, simply email me the answer to the following question (Use the "Email Me" link in the left sidebar).  Each of the first 50 correct responses gets a gmail account.  The rest of you GTD commandos can use the comment section to simply show off your GTD prowess (yes, it's OK if the newbies see your answer as the purpose is also to educate) and rub everyone else's noses in it.

The Question:  It's been said that there are no true "new" ideas, only old ones that have been updated.  So keeping that in mind -- One of the early productivity gurus who helped coin the concept of the "next physical action" in the early 1970's, likened it to a primate.  What was this person's name?

Hint:  "Management Time: Who's Got the Monkey?"

Good Luck!

Do What Your Teacher Says

The unique perspective that I feel I bring to the table regarding GTD comes from the fact that one of my degrees is in education.  I know how people learn.  I know strategies that shorten the learning curve.  I know what brain research says about learning.  So, from time to time within these posts, I’ll be dropping nuggets of information about how to learn and integrate GTD into your life and do so faster and with less effort.

The first secret that smart students know is that they never use only one textbook.  Successful students utilize several sources of information.  No one explains information in a way that clicks with all learners.  That’s why teachers can teach a concept to a child for months with no success, but when the student is moved to a new teacher (who explains the concept differently), he/she is suddenly successful.  When my sons were in school, we routinely bought several textbooks for each of their classes.  When one didn’t make a concept clear, we moved to the others.  Eventually, we found an author that explained in a way that my sons related to.

Shorten your learning curve with GTD, look for multiple sources of information and then study them.  There are, as you know, many blogs that contain a lot of GTD knowledge.  You can hunt them all down for yourself, or you can go to a centralized site that provides links to a lot of GTD sites where they have been pre-screened for their GTD value.  One site is the Office Zealot’s GTD Zone.  Loaded with GTD information, it also contains links to many GTD blogs, thanks to Marc Orchant.  So do what smart students do…use multiple sources of information.  But do it the smart way by using an aggregator site, specifically, Office Zealot and it’s GTD Zone.

Another GTD Blog?

I know, I know.  You're thinking another blog about "Getting Things Done"?  There's a lot of them out there, ranging from 43 Folders, The Slacker Manager, What's the Next Action, and Jason Womack to the Guru, David Allen, himself.  So what's the use of another one?  Well, it's not that I have so much knowledge in this area.  In fact, it's my lack of knowledge in productivity that has brought me to a point where I have to learn.  In my profession as a school administrator, I'm inundated with information, data, personal interaction, hundreds of tasks to get done (yes, I've counted up my to-do list tasks), and deadlines that I have to meet.  Many days, my to-do list has to wait due to the urgent items (usually in the form of students sent to the office for discipline and must be dealt with NOW) that walk through the office door.  So right now, my life is full of open loops that I have to close.  So, I thought if I have to go through this process, it might be fun to have a few friends along for the ride.  Who knows, another voice with another perspective might bring something new to the table.  So strap on that lobster bib and get ready for a big meal.