The Art of GTD – A Web of Organisation

Previous Posts in this series:

Being a detail guy, I like to cover all the bases and ensure there is consistent structure in all aspects of my life. So, in this post I will share some specific insights in to personal organisation in a professional context. My profession is software delivery management, so while the specific examples provided may not resonate with all readers, the underlying motivations behind these choices should still ring true.

A Web of Organisation

Big book, little book, focus list is the core of my personal organisation approach, but being efficient with your use of time does not stop there. In this section I am going to share some hints and tips for building a web of organisation that aids you to reduce cognitive load when catching things to enter your funnel of activity.

The tips to follow are all focussed around working in digital environment so may not be relevant to all.

Configuration management

Configuration management is umbrella term for how we store and organise information. These concepts can relate to more classical use of Microsoft office and explorer or more modern approaches such as using an online Wikki.

Storage Location – out stuff where you can easily access it.
Folder Structures – aim to have logical and consistent folder structures. If creating folders for a project, use numbers to drive the ordering with the lowest numbers relating to information you discover at the start and the highest numbers being for assets you will use towards the end.
Folder Names – Aim for simple and easy to understanding. 3-4 words max.
Archiving – Inside a folder, create an archive folder. Use it to stash old versions and or out of date materials.
Version numbers – This one is more of a classic MS thing; put a version number in the name of your document and also somewhere in the footer. After circulating for review, when it comes to making further updates, first create a new copy of the document and increment the version number. This helps you keep track of who has seen what information. To really boost this, add a table at the start of the document and list out all the versions with a summary of the differences.
Date stamps – If you are going to date stamp a document in the name and use that to sort it in place of a version number. Use this format: YYYYMMDD. This way windows file management will list them in true date order.

Email Disciple

Be diligent with your inbox and leverage an archive to keep is clean and actionable.

Review your inbox frequently by scanning each new mail and determining if you need to either take your time to read in more detail, digest to pick up some actions, or simply disregard (like most cc emails!).

Once scanned, either apply some sort of flag or category for follow up and then throw all non-flagged emails in to your archive.

To support this, I use categories and sort my inbox by categories so I can clearly see what is new and needs review and what requires action.

Colour Categories

Using categories instead of flags in outlook is something I have been doing for quite some time, but in recent years have taken it one step further.

Initially my preference for categories was to avoid the use of horrible red flags (we are conditioned to perceive red as “negative” colour associated with anger), and to use categories to allow me to both denote action is required while grouping things together in to related topics or projects.

Using colour categories in outlook is just how I roll now, but the additional step I have taken is to apply the same colour categorisation to both all the events in my outlook calendar and in my task management app. The purpose of this is to reduce my cognitive workload when searching for information by making it easy for my brain to spot related things. And it works!

If I ever want to scan my calendar for a meeting on a particular topic, it stands out like a sore thumb! Yes, my calendar does look like a technicolour patch work, but the trade-off is I can quickly tell what I am doing and easily compartmentalise my time to focus on related areas in half day blocks rather than unconsciously slipping in to a scattergun context switching mode.

Meetings

Agendas

Aim to always define a clear purpose and desired outcome for your meetings. People’s time is valuable and it is disrespectful to try and steal it in an inefficient way. Moreover, you want to be effective and efficient with your own use of time, so before booking a session in, first be clear with yourself about what prep needs to be done so all the right information is at hand and you have an idea of how to navigate the conversation to achieve the desired outcome.

Your meeting invite sets the tone for the session, so simply start as you mean to go on.

Pre-reads

If you are going to share some information to review before your meeting and you expect people to have read it and come prepared to have a meaningful conversation; aim to share the materials 48-72 hours before. Yes 2-3 days may seem a lot, but you are not the master of other people’s time, so you need to give them ample opportunity to allocate time to prep.

Durations

Don’t limit yourself to 30-min or 1-hour meetings, this leads to people’s diaries being block booked with zero thinking time. At a minimum, adjust your default settings to create 25-min and 50-min meetings then challenge yourself to make them as short as possible

Reserved Prep time

Book yourself a meeting with yourself to prep for a meeting. Yes – I am advocating having a meeting about a meeting! 😊

What’s Next?

The journey of GTD almost complete, so in the next and final post of this series we will look at the benefits and practical applications of this tool.