Near the beginning of a new year, we often take stock of the big things in life. Am I happy at my job? Do I need to lose weight? It’s such a good time to take stock of — and clean up — major sources of stress and a fresh place to start large, complex projects. All of that is great, but this year I’d like to encourage you to think small steps, too.

In my GTD office tour, I made note of a small change I made to my system in 2009 which had a big impact on my overall mood and productivity: my tickler file. Yeah, I know. Really? But, yes…really. My old system (folders on a riser) was fine, but it was clunky. Keeping all the folders orderly meant constantly shuffling groups of 10 folders up and down the riser to keep the current folder at the front. It certainly wasn’t killing me to do it, but it was a small irritant. Barely noticeable, really. In fact, I had almost no idea how irritating the old system was until I switched to my new system:  folders within hanging folders on a portable file holder on my desk. Now, I grab the current file, check it, and pop it to the back of the holder. Oh, how smoothly those files glide back and forth! Oh, now nice and tidy they all stay so matter how often I go in and out of them in a day or a week! (I know, I’m a neat nerd, leave me alone!). Once I experienced the smooth new system, I noticed how much more regular I was about checking my tickler. Why? Because it was so easy it bordered on being fun.

You don’t notice how much a sticky door bothers you until you oil it. Next time you close the door, and it doesn’t stick, you feel a little thrill. Or, at the very least, you feel the absence of irritation. Thinking this way strikes me as being part of reducing drag on my system. Just as fixing leaks in my system frees up my brain to think more creatively, tweaking imperfections in that system makes me feel better.

So, in addition to tackling all those fabulously huge and glamorous goals you’ve set up for this year, oil the sticky doors, too. Check GTD Times and the discussions on GTD Connect for ideas (I found that sweet tickler file setup right here on GTD Times!)

You might be surprised at the big impact those small changes can make.

Meghan Wilker is a regular community contributor to GTD Times. She’s also been featured in David Allen’s In Conversation series on GTD Connect, spotlighting some of the most fascinating people in our network of GTD’ers around the world.

Meghan Wilker–mom, social media maven, and GTD’er-extraordinaire, brings her tips for surviving the holidays GTD-style. Enjoy!

This weekend kicked off the holiday season which, for most people, is synonymous with utter chaos. Often, work projects need to be wrapped up by end-of-year, we are inundated with party invitations from friends, clients, and vendors and — on top of all that — family commitments multiply. Oh, and then there’s that whole “buying presents” thing, which is made all the more fun by the current economy (aka “these uncertain times”).

Here’s how GTD can help you maintain your sanity this holiday season:

Calendar Kung Fu
If you haven’t already gotten a calendar management black belt, use the next two months to earn it. My favorite moves include:

• When party invitations arrive, put the party on your calendar immediately with a question mark at the end of it. This is your placeholder until you RSVP. Then, drop the invitation into your Action Support (or Tickler) folder and review your invitations once a week or so. Seeing all the placeholders on your calendar will help you decide which events to attend: Can I really make it to that client happy hour if we’ve got parties with our close friends the next night? Don’t overextend yourself by feeling like you “have” to attend everything you’re invited to; make decisions about what to attend based on which events are important to you. Sound snobby? It’s not. Your time is precious; don’t waste it!
• If you’re using a digital calendar, use the Notes field to remind yourself of anything you’re supposed to bring to the party, who your babysitter is for the evening, etc. If you’re using a paper calendar, your tickler file is a great place for these reminders.
• If you haven’t already found a good way to share calendars with other family members, now is a great time to start. Much pain and suffering can be avoided when you can see, at a glance, that a holiday party conflicts with Junior’s piano lesson and your spouse’s business trip. Here’s an article I wrote on sharing calendars with Google but, if you can get everyone in the family to keep it updated, a paper calendar can work just as well.
• Block out time on your calendar for gift shopping so you don’t find yourself wandering the mall on Christmas Eve in a panic. (Trust me, I’m speaking from experience.) If you’re a big shopper or bargain hunter, put reminders of big sales on your calendar so you don’t forget them.
• If you’re hosting parties, block out the prep time you need in the days and hours before the party.

Tickle Me Elmo (er, GTD)
The Tickler file can really save your bacon at this time of year: event tickets, invitations, directions, coupons and gift cards* — anything that you need on a specific day belongs in your Tickler. GTD Times just recently posted a great article on the importance and usefulness of the Tickler.

I also use it to “mail” reminders and affirmations to myself. If the holidays are a time of year that stress you out, it can be nice to get a soothing quote or reminder once in a while. Toss it somewhere in your Tickler and surprise yourself.

*If you know you’re going shopping on a certain day. Otherwise, I have a Gift Cards & Coupons folder on my desk where I centralize everything. I check that folder before I head out on any shopping excursion.

Simplify Shopping
If you have a fair number of people to buy for, consider creating a Google doc to keep track of your list. As ideas occur to you jot them on your Google doc. You can share the doc with others (like your spouse or other family members) and cross things off the list once they’re purchased. This helps spread the shopping load and takes a lot of noise out of your head.

Knowing what you want to buy ahead of time also allows you to do a bunch of homework on where to get the best price. It’s also a great place to keep track of links to places you’ve found to buy the product online. Then, on your “shopping day” you can place as few orders as possible (thus reducing the number of shipments and, in some cases, reducing shipping fees and/or packaging).

Weekly Reviews
Once things start getting nuts, Weekly Reviews are more important than ever. Don’t let anything encroach on that time; use it to clear your head and recalibrate. One of the most wonderful ways to use the Weekly Review at this time of year is to remember your priorities. Looking over your Areas of Focus might remind you that what you really want is to spend more time with your kids, not more money on them (which simplifies that whole shopping thing a lot more!). Or, it may help you decide to attend a client gathering instead of your neighbor’s cocktail party because you’re trying to do more professional networking. Whatever it is, the Weekly Review can often help remind you of where you want to spend your limited time and energy.

Happy holidays!

Meghan Wilker is a regular community contributor to GTD Times. She’s also been featured in David Allen’s In Conversation series on GTD Connect, spotlighting some of the most fascinating people in our network of GTD’ers around the world.

But, I also think it’s important to acknowledge that GTD isn’t about always being tidy. In fact, the moments when GTD is most valuable are the messiest and ugliest moments. Take this recent snapshot of my desk, for example.

This is what it looks like after a week that included four speaking gigs, two road trips (to get to some of the aforementioned speaking gigs), an all-day conference, and two birthdays (my husband’s 40th and my son’s first). Oh, and that’s in addition to my full-time job at clockwork.net, blogging at geekgirlsguide.com and trying to maintain some semblance of a personal life. Gaaaah!

But, you know what? That’s LIFE. It’s freakin’ messy. The minute something feels “done” or “perfect” — something comes along to mess it up. The real power of GTD is in realizing that it’s not about how awesome your desk looks, it’s about realizing that — for most of us — there is no such thing as “done.” We have to get comfortable with  that fact.

Ultimately, my desk tends to reflect my state of mind: when my desk is a mess it means that, before I just go about mindlessly cleaning it, I need to get my head back in order. What are my priorities? What do I need to do? What do I want to do? What can I realistically accomplish in the time I have?

In my own life, it played out like this: on Tuesday morning last week (around the time this photo was taken), I sat down at my desk and felt immediately overwhelmed. Every inbox in my life was literally bursting at the seams. Instead of freaking out, I grabbed a very large cup of coffee and began a Weekly Review. I immediately started to feel  calmer. I checked the calendar to ensure that I could spend the day getting things back into focus. My inboxes slowly started to dwindle.  (By the way, the most frustrating thing is processing one’s inbox while more input keeps coming in — getting to zero took me all day.)  I channeled my energy either where it was most needed (urgent  emails!), or where I most felt like letting it go (Did I remember to book that hotel for our anniversary weekend?). I ended the day feeling like things weren’t perfect, but they were good enough for now, and I’d finish the rest tomorrow.

I’ll be the first to admit that this discipline of defining the edges of my own work doesn’t come easily. I’m the type of person that will stay up until 1am to finish something because I feel compelled to, not necessarily because it needs to be done. But, I’m working on it. I’m working on learning that my time is finite and I could literally spend
the next 7 days in front of a computer working non-stop with no breaks for sleep or meals and I still wouldn’t be “done.” I’m not a widget maker, I’m a knowledge worker and my work is never done.

Yeesh, it feels uncomfortable to even say that!  “Hello, my name is Meghan and my work is never done.” But, it’s true. And the more I practice saying it, the more I believe it, and the less I feel compelled to keep my inboxes at zero all the time (which, I can tell you from experience, is a losing game). The more I believe that I’m never done, the more I can choose to close my computer at 5pm and give my kids my full attention or keep my iPhone turned off on a date with my husband. These things are just as — if not more — important that my inbox or my desktop.

So, the question is not: is your desk spotless right now? The question is: do you feel in control right now, and how long would it take you to get there? If the answer gets a bit messy, don’t worry about it.  That’s part of the game.  After having said all that, I totally want to see your awesome desk. (Send those along to us at editor@gtdtimes.com)

Meghan Wilker is a regular contributor to GTD Times. She’s also been featured in David Allen’s In Conversation series on GTD Connect, spotlighting some of the most fascinating people in our network of GTD’ers around the world.

But, in the weeks since we talked, I paid more attention to how GTD factors into our family life and realized that — though they are quite young — there are elements of GTD that I am already teaching my kids.

Of the five levels of control in GTD (capturing, clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and engaging), most of what my kids are learning right now has to do with capturing, clarifying and organizing.

Capturing & Clarifying
My kids have a few inboxes that are specific to them. One is in my car: a plastic basket that sits between their car seats. Any books or toys that come into the car go in that basket (when they’re not in use).

Every couple of weeks, we empty it out and bring the stuff back into the house (or, in the case of rocks, sticks and other “treasures” — back into nature). This has two benefits:
1. It keeps mom happy because I don’t want to have the kind of car that looks like something exploded in the backseat.
2. It keeps the kids happy because if they get bored in the car, everything is within easy reach while I’m behind the wheel. And, there are far fewer cries of “I can’t find my [insert name of special toy you can't live without here]!”

The second inbox is in my daughter’s “office” [pictured]. My husband and I share a home office (one room, two workstations); along the wall opposite our workstations, we’ve set up an area where our daughter (and, eventually, our son) can “work” as well. There is a table with two chairs, a homemade bulletin board, and a tower of drawers that contain art supplies, paper, puzzles and toys. On top of that tower is an orange box with a lid. Every art project she brings home goes into that box (super special items get featured on the fridge first). When it fills up, we go through the box and decide which things to keep forever. Those items get moved to a different box inside the closet (her first reference folder, I guess!), and the others are laid to rest. (If this seems cruel, then you have no idea how many art projects kids generate; if I kept them all, I’d need a bigger house. There are also lots of great ideas on how to archive kids’ art over at ParentHacks.

Organizing
One of my favorite GTD mantras — and one that I think is well-suited to young children — is the idea that where something is should map to its importance to you. In mom-ese, that’s pronounced, “Put your toys away!”

I make it clear to my kids that putting stuff where it belongs is not just about being tidy, but also about ensuring that the things you enjoy don’t get broken, and that you can find them when you want them.

In practice, this means my daughter has lots of drawers and containers that belong to her and I try to make it as easy as possible to remember what goes where. She and I have decorated special “treasure boxes” to keep things in. Doll clothes are all visible in a clear plastic pouch that once held a bubble bath set and a collection of plastic animals are easily found inside a former Robeez shoe bag. (Clear plastic pouches are THE GREATEST. Toys are easy to find, and Al Gore pats you on the back for reusing something and reducing waste!). In the tower of drawers near her desk, she knows that crayons go in the top drawer. My daughter has learned that the fun is ruined if she’s ready to color and the crayons aren’t there.

In grownup terms, there is a tangible benefit to putting your stuff in a prescribed location.

Reflecting
While I don’t literally sit down and do a weekly review with my kids, we — as a family — have a habit of picking up the house on Sundays. In effect, this is a weekly review for our family. We clean up the stuff that’s gone astray as we’ve rocked through another week. It prepares us for the week ahead.  We make sure all the laundry is done and ready for Monday morning. We check the calendar and the notes from daycare to make sure we’re bringing diapers and extra clothes when needed. We pick things up and ask, “What is this? Where does it belong?” and put them away. Monday morning is a clean slate.

While none of these ideas are unique to GTD, they are developing a base set of skills that will help my kids practice GTD when they are older. Importantly, they are learning some of the “why” behind them. Why do we keep our stuff organized? Because we can find it when we want it, and the things that are meaningful to us are less likely to get wrecked.

So, here’s the thing: I’m no Mommy Dearest. My kids’ desk doesn’t look like this every day of the week. It’s important for kids — and grownups — to have the freedom to make a big, fat mess. But, as the days of the week go by, and this little table gets covered with art projects and dinosaurs and doo-dads, I don’t sweat it. I know that come Sunday we’ll pick it all up and start again. And my daughter knows that all her special things have a place where they are safe.

The last, and most important piece of GTD that I hope my kids are picking up is that the best thing about keeping track of everything that you need to do is feeling good about deciding to not do any of it. On Father’s Day this year, I could tell that what my husband really wanted to do was hang around and read books. My best memory of that day is all four of us lounging in bed with a book (the nine-month-old was chewing on his, but he did have one!). There we were, doing nothing — and knowing that was the best possible thing to do.

Meghan Wilker is a regular contributor to GTD Times.  She is Managing Director at Clockwork Active Media Systems, a Minneapolis-based web and application development company. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and their two children. Meghan discovered GTD four years ago, when she read Getting Things Done for the first time. She’s been honing her GTD skills ever since. Read how she hacked Mail & iCal for her GTD system.