> [!INFO] Application Note > [[Getting Things Done Application]] ## Part 1 - Overview Being present in the moment is integral to getting things done. We can practice this by: 1. Capturing all things that should be done or could pose useful in a system outside our head and mind 2. Lead yourself to make choices about all the “inputs” in our life so we can have a wide disposal of “next actions” to implement or renegotiate in the moment 3. Curating and coordinating all of that content, utilizing the recognition of the multiple levels of commitments with yourself and others you will have at play, at any point in time - We can’t be fully prepared for things that are new; we must adjust, but every adjustment is a possible crisis where we have to prove ourselves. However, we are forced to adjust constantly due to organizations in morph mode, the frequency of career changes, and the constant shifts in our cultures. Setting goals and scheduling our days helps, but it doesn’t accommodate for: 1. The countless distractions that pop up and prevent unbroken times of focus 2. A lack of personal organization that leads to the unwillingness to take on bigger projects 3. We may become overwhelmed by the amount of things we need to do - Being in control is being able to adapt to your environment - We tend to create “open loops” agreements that we unconsciously track - [[Break down tasks for clarity and gradual progress]] #### Managing Commitments 1. Make sure that other things aren’t on your mind, and if they are, give them a future date to work on it 2. Clarify what your commitment is and decide what you have to do to work towards it 3. Keep reminders of your organization in a system that you review regularly 4. We must use our mind to get things off our mind - It is important to think about our work before doing it to truly understand what we’re doing - Things can be on our mind because we want change regarding those things, so we should clarify what the intended outcome is - We don’t do things not because of our lack of time, but because we are unsure of details on how we would do it. As a result, to do things, we must: 1. Define the outcome 2. What “doing” looks like ##### Vertical and Horizontal Management - Horizontal management maintains coherence across all your activities that allow you to shift your focus from one thing to another due to your understanding on each task. - Vertical management establishes the details of your activities - Our mind may keep pushing a certain agenda into our consciousness despite not being able to do anything about it in the present moment #### Five Steps to Get Control of Our Life [[Getting Things Done Task Process]] #### Reflection - There’s a difference between writing down that you need to buy milk vs actually doing it at the grocery store - Reflecting allows us to step wback and look at the bigger picture, gather and process everything, review our system, update things, and overall get things off our mind Criteria for Choosing Actions Types of Daily Work 1. Doing predefined work - Doing planned things from our action and todo lists 2. Doing work as it shows up - Doing unplanned tasks that we must engage in as they show up 3. Defining work - Establishing new projects, cleaning up emails 5 Phases of Project Planning 2. Outcome visioning 3. Brainstorming 4. Organizing - Consists of identifying significant pieces, sorting by components and sequences and priorities, and including details to the appropriate degree ## Part 2 - Instructions - Efficient creativity and productivity revolves around the right focus in the right time - We must have a sufficient, personal office for proper organization ### Process for Complete Organization 1. #### Components - An “in” tray of things that you can sort eventually - Method of recording things (paper and pencil, google doc) - Quick reminders (post-it notes) - Dividers to organize (file folders) - Make sure it’s easy to make new folders as needed that provide sufficient storage - Purge files yearly - Calendar - Trash bin 2. #### Organizing - Being organized ensures the fact that you know where things are when they are needed 1. Organize your physical environment - Gadgets, reference materials, decorations, etc. 2. Organize your desktop - Random stuff 3. Organize your thoughts - Write down thoughts you have that are occupying your mind on separate sheets of paper 4. Organize your “in” ventory - Put things in the appropriate categories - Process one item at a time - Never put anything back into “in” - When unsure of whether to keep something or not, consider the current volume of your storage and your affordability in taking in potentially useful information - If things are of possible need later, just incubate it until that time comes 5. Do things - When confronting a task in our inbox, we can either - By the end, we should have trashed things, filed things, done 2 minute actions, and delegated things. #### 3\. Organization Buckets [[GTD Organization Buckets]] [[Innate tasks]] ##### Checklists - We can have various checklists ex) Core Life Values, Morning Routine, Exercise Regimens, Leaving the House, Year-end Activities - The skill of being able to efficiently create checklists is important ### Reflection - By now we should have captured every opened loop in our life and appropriately identified it, as well as organized it. Now, we need to be assured that what we are doing is what we should be doing, and that it’s okay to not be doing what we’re doing. #### [[Daily reflection]] #### [[Weekly Reviews]] [[Higher order periodic reviews]] ### Planning [[Prioritizing and planning tasks]] ### Informal Planning There are two types of projects that require planning activity: 1. Projects that require attention even after planning - Use purpose and principles, vision/outcome, brainstorming, organizing 1. Projects with the potential for beneficial ideas Organization helps get rid of negative feelings and gives us the ability to understand and deal with them - Procrastination leads to less self-trust - To prevent making broken agreements, just don’t make the agreement in the first place, negotiate it, or complete it - We know we have nothing on our mind when we are truly present in the now - Think about things instead of thinking of them - When you start thinking of things, divert back to your previous train of thought or  acknowledge it and think about them - Always think of what the next action is - Smart people tend to procrastinate the most because of their sheer workload - Sensitivity and creativity allows for them to produce the scenarios of being involved in such projects, and the negative consequences of not doing it correctly - Ceasing negative imaging allows for more energy - Knowing what the next action is forces clarity, accountability, productivity, and empowerment - Complaining about something means that there is room for improvement - Productivity thrives off of the definition of specific objects and next actions - The only two problems in life are knowing what you want and not knowing how to achieve it, or not knowing what you want. As a result, we can only make it happen or make it up - We should make it a habit to challenge the purpose of anything we do - Remember to uphold self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience - The GTD mantra is life-long There are three tiers of GTD Maturity: 1. Employing the fundamentals of managing workflow 2. Implementing a more elevated and integrated total life management system 3. Leveraging skills to create clear space and get things done for an ever-expansive expression and manifestation - GTD mastery includes being able to explore opportunities without the fear of failure or uncertainty - GTD mastery includes possibly creating your own system different from the GTD structure - GTD mastery includes utilizing our free focus for exploring the more elevated aspects of our commitments and values, as well as leveraging our external mind to produce novel value # Suggested Application 1. Set up a personal organization environment 2. Organize your organization system 3. Get in-trays 4. Get a personal reference system for work and home 5. Get a good list-management organizer that you can get creative with 6. Support your fresh start by making some little changes in your environment 7. Set aside time to go through the GTD process 8. Share what you’ve learned with someone else 9. Review GTD with someone else in 3-6 months 10. Stay in touch with people who are broadcasting and reflecting these behaviors and standards 11. Have a great rest of your life! # Application - Use the GTD principle as my main form of organization - Have Sunday as my weekly review - Reflect on progress, possible improvements, or changes of my system - Plan for the next week - Have the new year as my annual review - Start thinking about the purpose of things more, as well as the “next action”