The Art of GTD – Habits for Success

Previous Posts in this series:

These habits for success compliment and amplify the potential positive impact the GTD approach can have on your life. Think about these habits as a way of creating alignment through your whole being towards the sole purpose of action directed towards your goals.

Capture It

Taking notes either using a pen and paper or digitally is the foundational step in giving yourself the ability to manage and prioritise your actions and tasks.

Find a medium that works best for you. It must be quick and easy to do and ideally available at all times – don’t make it any more difficult than it has to be.

The very act of capturing the information is you taking ownership of it and accepting your responsibility to take action. If things are not captured, they won’t get done.

I personally use a combination of my big book and the Todoist app as I normally have either my phone or my book to hand. My preference though would be to use my book. While using the app immediately save the step of entering tasks later, I as much as possible, try to keep me personal phone out of action in focus situations to let me do just that, focus.

Managing your Inboxes

Your inbox refers to the entry points on your radar for tasks and actions. Think of them as the top of the funnel where you capture actions to then eventually flow down to your focus list.

Now I am not referring to actual conversations and meetings, your inbox is where you can point at the actions, this means your email inbox, the notes in your big book, or your inbox folder on the Todoist app.

Different inboxes require different strategies. For emails the basic principle is that if the email contains an action, flag it to come back to later and also then put a task on your to do list to complete. How much you work and personal life revolve around email will very hugely from person to person. For me working in IT, it is a core part of communication. As such, I will complete this review of my inbox normally twice daily but at times this can be almost an hourly task to perform.

Big book consolidation really comes down to your schedule. The sooner you can review your notes and consolidate your actions on to your master list, the better. At a minimum though, aim to complete this at least once a day as part of your end of day focus list prep.

Apps such as Todoist often have the concept of projects and an inbox. Your inbox being the default location new tasks are stored to later then be categorised in to projects and scheduled. With planning being a core part of my profession, I tend to have planning time set aside meaning for me the bulk of my tasks get created direct in the projects and scheduled pretty quickly. On a few occasions I use the app to quickly capture tasks, and then much like capturing notes in the big book, I just roll in to my focus list review/prep session categorising and prioritising these tasks.

These are all simple steps which may feel like a big deal to begin with; however, I can say from experience that over time these habits can just become a natural part of how you do what you do. The effort invested to build these habits pales in to insignificance compared to the efficiency gains in your overall productivity.

Managing your backlog

Backlog refers to your master repository of tasks; so, this could be either your little book or your chosen task management app.

All roads lead to the back log.

If it is not in the backlog, it doesn’t get done.

If it is, it does!

Building habits to capture tasks and manage your inbox forms the funnel through which you furnish your backlog with all the things you need to do. The wheels start to hit the road when you form your focus list by selecting the tasks from the backlog that you will complete. With that in mind, you can set yourself up for success by cultivating some habits around how you manage your backlog:

Grouping – Have tasks grouped in to categories or projects so all related things can be seen together.
Mapping – Use a mind map to visualise all of the tasks in a given area and tease out more detail and chunk down. See the getting to the root tool for insight in to the questions to ponder.
Rank the groups – be clear about which groups are more important than the others.
Rank the tasks – just like ranking the groups, rank the tasks in each group to be clear about which is most important.
Chunk down – review each task and make sure it is clear and actionable. There needs to be a specific outcome so you know when it is done.
Size – Make sure each task can be completed within a day. If it will take longer, break it down in to smaller tasks and prioritise these against each other.

When it comes to planning this management of tasks, I find that I mostly tag this on to either managing by inboxes as a step when adding tasks to the backlog, or as part of prepping my focus list with it being the very first step I perform. This essential step will enable you to move at pace though your focus list, but the timing of doing it is really a personal choice and can be subject to the speed of change in your backlog. Often when I am in the early stages of a new project, I set time aside specifically just for this activity – refine backlog is a task on my focus list!

So, find a timing that works for you, but do not miss this step out.

Defining and Managing your Focus List

The hard work is done, the backlog is created, and now it is time to select the tasks you will complete. This is the easy bit!

Timing is key though; remember all plans are tentative! You reserve the right to refine or even completely overhaul your focus list at any point if you learn something new…

With that being said, my personal preference for focus list prep is at the end of the day. You have completed your days work and hopefully ticked off most or all the things on your list, so at the end of the day take 5 minutes to review your diary for the next day, scan your backlog and pull in the tasks that you are going to complete.

It is all pretty simple, but there are a few things to bear in mind:

Carry over – The first thing to do is roll over any items from your current list that have not been completed. However, if you spot this happening for a few days with a task, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is it really that important?
- Do I need to break this down further in to chunks I can achieve in a day?
Know your velocity – When starting with a focus list, it is easy to get too ambitious and put to much on the list. While commendable, you will deprive yourself of the feeling of success if you are not able to consistently complete everything on your list. Learn to know yourself and be realistic about your probability. You can always pull more in if you have time, so err on the side of caution – a smaller list gives a greater focus.
Quick wins – It is always nice to have a few quick little tasks on the list that you can tick off to build a feeling of momentum towards your goals. Be kind to yourself and include some quick wins.
Recurring tasks – If you are using a digital planning tool, they tend to have a recurring task future for activities that you perform daily or weekly. I myself use this for various things like meditating, writing, using the gym, and putting the bins out. Some of these lifestyle tasks can be classed as quick wins, so don’t hold back from putting them on your list. Leveraging recurring task features makes this all the easier to do.

So, in summary; prep it daily, keep it lean and mean, and be kind by including some quick wins. Use these insights to boost your focus and productivity with the power of ma focus list.

Set the tone of the day by “Eating the frog”

Once you’ve prioritized your most important work, it’s time to actually choose how to attack the day. How you start the day sets the tone for the rest of it. And often, getting a large, hairy, yet important task out of the way first thing gives you momentum, inspiration, and energy to keep moving.

Win the Morning!

When does your day actually start?

When you being work, or as soon as you wake up?

It is very easy for a focus list to only apply to a professional context. Win the morning is all about incorporating your morning routine in to your focus list so that you can start the day of with some quick wins (stretch, go for a walk, meditate) to build that feeling of momentum ready for you to eat the proverbial frog.

“Every moment we are alive is life.”

– Ramsey Bond

Get on With It!

Is something can be done in less than 5 mins, just do it straight away.

Avoid using your personal organisation strategy as a way to delay work and procrastinate.

The purpose of this method is to make you more productive and effective, not for you to make an industry out of organising your time. GTS is a means, not and end.

It may seem like a lot of habits to develop, and really it is. But I can say from experience that all of these habits naturally string together and easily flow from one to another. Start with simply writing things down and take it from there. Give it a few years and your whole approach to personal organisation will evolve. Then it will simply be how do what you do. An unconscious habit no more taxing that breathing.

What’s Next?

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 the next 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.