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Quit Getting Things Done and Get Things Done

Stop planning what to do and just do it

By Darryl BrooksPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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This week I am changing my task management application. I would tell you what I am changing from and to, but that’s not what this is about. I don’t want you to follow me to a new platform. I want you to use the one you have. I want you to stop spending all your time planning what to do and actually do something.

Instead of telling you which app I am moving to, I could tell you the ones I’ve used in the past, but that would be a pretty big list. In fact, it would include every task management application ever devised that wasn’t an Apple-only product. And if you went back far enough, to my Apple IIe days, it would include one of those.

I could also explain to you why I am changing. I discovered a particular need in my workflow that the old system didn’t handle, but this one did. That is a good reason to change. And I came up with something that fits that description.

But it would also be crap.

The reason I am changing is the reason I have always changed; Shiny New Toy Syndrome. But that doesn’t quite fit the bill either, because I am moving from my second iteration on the last app to my third iteration on this one. So, the toy isn’t that shiny and it’s certainly not new. But this time, it will be different. I promise. This time, I’ll stick with this one.

Yeah, right?

A month, six months, a year from now, I will read or see something that will make me think about another app. And I’ll probably jump ship. I hope not, but I’ve learned better.

So, why do I keep switching? Sometimes, I’ve changed my primary job and sometimes, I’ve changed my marketing plan. But mostly, I don’t know why I switched. I’m sure there is some deeply rooted psychological issue that makes me change task management systems on a whim. Hopefully, it’s a new, wildly popular syndrome with a catchy acronym.

But that is not what I wanted to talk about. Based on my experience, I want to help you be more productive. I’m not pitching a particular piece of software or a method. I don’t want to talk to you about Getting Things Done, but about getting things done.

Like most everyone, at some point, I got on David Allen’s bandwagon and followed the GTD method. But partway through that period is when I first discovered the problem with most productivity methodologies. They were more about following the protocols than actually doing things. I know that wasn’t the intention, but in talking to people, that’s how it ended up being done.

I remember being on a forum dedicated to GTD, and we were discussing how we implemented the program. I mentioned that I had fine-tuned my system to where I didn’t have to do a weekly review. I only did reviews every two or three weeks.

THAT’S NOT GTD! some woman shouted on the forum. You have to do weekly reviews. Weekly reviews are what it says in GTD. Yeah, and Judge Wapner’s at five. That’s when I left the forum, and soon after switched away from GTD. I don’t remember what. Maybe the P.A.R.A. method or BASB. I’m pretty sure it was something with a lot of letters in it.

Sometimes, we don’t realize what we are doing until we watch someone else doing the same thing. Long before GTD, I was deeply involved with Microsoft Project. Wow, that was a box of Tinkertoys, wasn’t it? Dependencies and Gantt Charts and, oh my, a Critical Path. I was devising a social media marketing plan back in the early days. I spent many hours plugging in all the tasks and resources and dependencies, watching the bars on that Gantt Chart grow and shrink.

Another manager stopped by to check out what I was doing and told me she could use that for a project of hers. She bought a copy and was off to the races. A week later, she called me into her office to help her with a section of the project. It had about a million rows in it.

Then I looked at the Gantt chart. It spanned two days. She had spent a week tediously outlining tasks and resources for a project that she could have finished last Tuesday.

Then I realized I was doing the same thing. Spending 40 hours planning a 16-hour job.

I’ve watched myself go from one extreme to the other over the years. For a while, I used Outlook as my all-in-one tool, and it is very good at that. But it had one weakness shared by many others. It only has three of four levels of priority. I was working then and wanted much finer control over priorities. I wanted to know precisely what’s next, and nothing else, but I couldn’t do that with four priorities.

So I invented my own. I discovered a field called percent done, I could put it on the to-do list and sort by it. Hallelujah! I now had, count ’em, 100 priority levels. And I used them all.

Now that I am retired, I’ll swing back in the other direction. At various times, I’ll delete my current to-do app and go for several days with no list at all. I know, crazy, right? I get a little twitchy, but I get through it. And what I discover is, nothing bad happened. I didn’t even forget to take out the trash.

So, I load up one of the simpler, more basic task management tools and start over. I only load the time-sensitive tasks and the items that I absolutely don’t want to forget.

And that works for a while. Then I add things and more things on top of that. Soon, brush my teeth is on the list and I know I’ve gone over the top again.

Don’t get me wrong. Done right, any of these tools and methods will work. Millions of people have turned their lives around following David Allen, or my early hero, Ken Blanchard, of One Minute Manager fame. But there are too many like me that get bogged down in minutiae or believe the method is more important than results.

So, here is what I want you to try. First, we will break down your old system and then build a new one. Let me be clear, I don’t want you to change applications or methodologies. If you are following GTD using Todoist, then stick with that. If you still have your Daytimer binder from 1985, keep at it. Only if a clean slate will help you achieve a result, do I want you to change. We can adapt any method to this one, or vice versa. Just remember, it’s the goals, not the methods.

Print out your entire task list, from everything you have on for today, through that thing you noted for 2050. Next, go through the list and scratch out everything you don’t need reminding of. I know it’s nice checking things off, but the first two things on your list shouldn’t be wake up and get out of bed. Delete the crap.

Next delete everything you have been dragging along day to day for weeks, if not months. You didn’t clean out the garage last month or yesterday, and you probably will not do it today. If any of these things actually become pressing, you can add them back in,

Now, take one last look, and do a final cleansing. Everything on it should be something you need to do, will do and need reminding of it, or it’s part of a larger project that you are actively working on.

What’s left is your actual task list. If you are like me, it’s probably about one-third of the original.

Now, let’s build a simple and sustainable method for going forward. I don’t have a spiffy acronym, but I will borrow from most of the other systems out there.

Your new process needs five buckets: inbox, task list, projects, someday and reference. Put your newly cleaned to-do list in the task bucket. Give yourself a reasonable timeline and use priorities that make sense to how you work.

For me, I don’t set priorities according to importance or urgency, but when I will do it. There are things I do first thing because that’s when it makes sense to me. I like to schedule all of my marketing posts before 6 am. It’s not the most urgent or important thing I will do all day, but I don’t have to think about it again.

You do you. But make sure it is doable and sustainable. Look at today and tomorrow. Are you really going to do all that? If not, fix it.

Put nothing into your inbox now, but set up methods for getting stuff there. This is the digital version of the old wooden inbox that used to be on everyone’s desk. Everything that was yours got tossed in there. But don’t be the guy that lets it just pile up until it falls onto the floor.

Devise a method to get every email, note, and idea quickly and easily into that inbox. The beauty behind GTD and other successful productivity methods is you don’t have to remember things. Everything gets dumped into the inbox immediately, unless:

It’s a waste of time, in which case you delete it.

It takes less time to do than process, in which case you do it.

Every day, at least once a day, clean out the inbox. Completely. Don’t leave so much as a paper clip in it. First, pass it back through the above two filters. Do it or delete it. Everything left is either a task, project, reference material, or something you want to do someday. In which case, you put it in the appropriate bucket.

Someday and reference are for things you may need to get back to. Cleaning out the garage goes into the someday bucket. Look through it every once in awhile and see if there’s something you want to pull out and deal with. Reference is just that. Information you want to keep for future reference.

Projects is a kind of temporary inbox. And I mean temporary. At least once a week, or more often if necessary, pull out any project and break it down into tasks. Add those tasks to your task list. This may take a few minutes or a few hours but is worth it. Something as complex as creating a multi-site social media marketing campaign becomes a task on today’s list called Tweet a link to my new article.

That’s it. Keep it simple, maintain it daily, and make sure it’s working.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m supposed to clean out the garage. If you need me, I’ll be on the couch.

If you enjoyed this article, please give m a like by clicking the Heart, and if you really liked it, consider dropping me a tip below. Thanks for reading.

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About the Creator

Darryl Brooks

I am a writer with over 16 years of experience and hundreds of articles. I write about photography, productivity, life skills, money management and much more.

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