David Allen talks about the GTD Weekly Review, and how to do more executive thinking about your life. Technology changes over time, but this is timeless advice.
(This video is streaming from YouTube, so it may take a few moments to load.)
“Time management is really agreement management. At the end of the day, how good you feel about what you did (and what you didn’t do) is proportional to how well you think you kept agreements with yourself. Did you do what you told yourself to do? Did you accomplish what you think should have been accomplished? Wasting time only means that you think you should have been doing something other than what you were doing. Sleep is not a waste of time if you think you need it. Taking a walk instead of rewriting your strategic plan is not a waste of time as long as you think taking a walk is the thing to do at that moment. It’s when you wind up not having done that which you’ve agreed with yourself should be done that the trouble begins.”
—from David Allen’s article, “Time Management: What’s the Real Issue?”
Technology should enhance productivity, making it easier to get things done so you have more leisure time. But have tools that are designed to help really just added to our workload, distraction, and stress? In this concise interview with the SF Chronicle, David expertly frames the issue and helps you decide what to ask yourself.
Q: Do you think that we’ve seen technology move our workforce in an unproductive direction?
A: The whole planet is unproductive; it’s just that technology is making it more obvious. What’s important is knowing where are you and how do you allocate your resources to get where you want to go. That’s been true forever. It’s true all this tech is totally distracting all kinds of people, but then again, they are letting themselves be distracted. How come? Because they’re not clear about what they’re doing.
Q: So being distracted by tech is the symptom of a problem, rather than the core of the problem?
A: Yeah. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do. If you don’t know where you’re going, any tech is fine. It’s like: Why not? Why not surf the Web? There are worse ways to waste time. But it comes down to the situation: Who’s doing it, why are you doing it, and what are you avoiding by doing it?
Read the full interview here.
This thought-provoking Harvard Business Review blog post is sure to stir up conversation, in person or by smartphone.
Is Your Smartphone Making You Less Productive?
2:09 PM Friday April 6, 2012
by Ndubuisi EkekweMobile devices have exacerbated an always-on work culture where employees work anytime, anywhere. They’ve contributed to the blurred distinction between when you’re “on the clock” and when you’re not. Service industry professionals are especially tethered to these devices. There’s an assumption that using smart devices boosts productivity, since they allow us to work constantly. But, we’re also jeopardizing long-term productivity by eliminating predictable time off that ensures balance in our lives. Is the obsession of regularly checking email really helping anyone’s bottom line? Are the unrealistic expectations these devices facilitate not setting staff up for burnout?
You can read the full post here.
If you’re looking for practical time management training, watch a busy mom for a day. You’ll learn that moms are experts when it comes to organizing their to do lists by contexts. They can move forward on projects, even when others might not see the possibility for progress. Some might call it multitasking, but in fact it’s more the ability to rapidly refocus, using whatever technology is at hand, including Facebook.
Moms Rely on Facebook More Than Other Women
by Leslie Meredith, Senior Writer, TechNewsDaily
12 April 2012 07:30 PM ETForget the weekly playgroup to compare notes with other moms — many now head straight to Facebook. Moms use the social media site more frequently than women without kids, and with far more finesse.
Marketing firm Performics yesterday (April 12) released its study of 3,000 active U.S. social networkers, and found moms were more proficient than other women at getting information from Facebook. Fifty-six percent of moms considered themselves to be “experts” at using social networks compared with 36 percent of other women.
You can click here to read the complete article.
“There are very few times and places we really have the appropriate energy level, tools, and uninterrupted time frames to work on some of our “most important” work. The rest of the day, we shouldn’t be feeling guilty that we’re not working on “job one.” Rather, we should be maximizing our productivity by picking things to do (that we’re going to do anyway, sometime) that match the situation.”
—from the article “The Need for a Total Life To-Do List,” by David Allen
How have you organized your lists by contexts that support your productivity, even when you aren’t in a physical or mental place to work on job one?
Who distracts you the most? You might say it’s your boss, your coworkers, or your kids. But maybe it’s the software you’re using.
“The biggest impediment to concentration is your computer’s ecosystem of interruption technologies: IM, email alerts, RSS alerts, Skype rings, etc. Anything that requires you to wait for a response, even subconsciously, occupies your attention. Anything that leaps up on your screen to announce something new, occupies your attention.”
That’s from “Writing in the Age of Distraction,” posted three three years ago, and still applicable in 2012. Even if you downloaded your iPhone and Android productivity apps today, they will waste your time tomorrow unless you take control of them now.
Has your software improved your productivity as the world has become more distracting? Or is your software programmed to grab your attention in alarming ways that make your time-management job harder?
Wouldn’t it be cool if your GTD system could read your mind? It would automagically prioritize your action lists according to your context, time available, energy level, and what most has your attention in that moment.
Meet the iBrain. According to the developer, NeuroVigil, “The iBrain™ is a miniature electronics box attached to a light and flexible elastic head harness and electrodes that can effortlessly be applied to the head during sleep.” So far it’s just for tracking brain activity at night. But who knows? Maybe soon a miniaturized version will be the hardware that signals your leading-edge GTD software to help you make trusted choices throughout the day.
(The video is streaming from YouTube, so it may take a moment to load.)
From the Business Center at PC World, GTD is listed as a browser-compatible productivity system. That will be a relief to those who don’t want to be tied to any specific device, or to a paper planner.
Can a cloud-based productivity system work for you? Or are there times when you have to have your calendar, projects, and actions at hand because the cloud is out of range?
Getting Things Done
We rely far too much on our imperfect memories to help us organize tasks and get work done. Trying to keep track of multiple projects leads to human error as we forget important tasks and waste time worrying over which project we should be working on at any given moment.
The solution: As soon as you remember a task, write it down so that your fallible, distractable brain isn’t the only place where you’re storing a record of it. This is the core principle of Getting Things Done. If you use it while working online, identifying your next task is a simple matter of consulting your to-do list.
Hi Folks,
The real power in GTD is not really in the hand writing or typing we do onto lists—it’s in the executive and creative thinking triggered as we engage with them. This month I explore the one list that can easily be the most powerful in terms of maintaining ongoing control and focus in work and life—the Projects list. Here’s a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they can get along without it.
All the best,
DAVID’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT
IS A PROJECTS LIST NECESSARY?
People started keeping calendars a century ago. Why? Because life’s time-based commitments got more complex than they could trust their mind to manage. If you think that a Projects list is unnecessary, then throw away your calendar and trust life will just let you know what you should be doing, in the moment. [Read more →]
