Reading...
Play button
Play button
Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
27 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
|
GTD
|
He realizes that his system can be difficult and that he's often accused of going overboard with elaborate schemes. He responds with a shrug. "Look, the workings of an automatic transmission are more complicated than a manual transmission," he says. "To simplify a complex event, you need a complex system."
|
|
|
GTD Wired
|
THE AXIOM: Humans have a problem with stuff. Allen defines stuff as anything we want or need to do. A tax form has the same status as a marriage proposal; a book to write is no different than a grocery list. It's all stuff.
|
|
|
GTD Wired
|
GTD RULE ONE: Collect and describe all the stuff. Everything must be inventoried with distinction or prejudice. Errands, emails, a problem with a friend; It all must be noted for processing. Small objects, such as an imitation or a receipt, go into a pile. Everything else can be represented with a few works on a piece of paper ("find keys,""change jobs"). Once the stuff is collected, processing begins. Anything that requires two minutes or less is handled on the spot. The remainder is governed by the second rule.
|
|
|
GTD Wired
|
GTD RULE TWO: All stuff must be handled in a precise way. Allen offers dozens of clever tricks for classifying, labeling, and retrieving stuff. Expert users of GTD never leave old emails cluttering their inbox, for instance. Nor do they have to rifle through a bunch of paper to see if there's anything crucial they've left undone. Emails to be answered are in a separate folder from email that merely have to be read; there's a file for every colleague and friend; stuff that must be done has been identified and placed on one of several kinds of to-do lists. Allen calls his to-do lists next-action lists. which are subject to the third rule.
|
|
|
GTD Wired
|
GTD RULE THREE: Items on the next-action list should be described as concretely as possible. Breaking down stuff into physical actions, Allen says, is the key to getting things done.
|
|
|
GTD Wired
|
He compares the person working at a desk with a person walking through the forest. Any email could be either a snake in the grass or a berry," he says. "Which is it?" To resolve this question by reference to one's highest purpose would be inefficient. When it comes to processing incoming signals, Allen recommends sorting by the most immediate criteria: How long will it take, what is your location, what devices do you have at hand, what other people are present?
|
|
|
GTD Wired
|
Look at the list and think about the way it makes us feel. He guesses that our feelings include a mixture of grief and relief. The relief, he suggests, comes from the simple fact of making the list. But where does the grief come from? "These items represent agreements you haven't kept with yourself," Allen says. "What happens when you break an agreement with yourself is that your self-esteem plummets."
|
|
|
GTD WIred
|
He sets his own goals and uses his own methods to achieve them. Allen's list of open loops includes getting GTD adopted in schools, learning to type 80 words a minute, becoming better at small talk, and achieving a high net worth. This ambitious mind-set, with its combination of boldness and conventionality, says something about where Getting Things Done is coming from, and to whom it is aimed. The book is for people who are striving hard. "The people who take to GTD are the most organized people," Allen says, "but they self-assess as the least organized, because they are well-enough organized to know that they are fucking up."
|
|
|
GTD Wired
|
Among the normal array of equipment in Allen's office, one item stands out. It is an hourglass with two minutes of sand. Any clock would serve equally well to mark the strict interval GTD gives us to process something the first time we handle it, but Allen's hourglass is as much a talisman as a practical tool. In a medieval painting, it would symbolize death. Here, the hourglass is a symbol of virtue. It regulates our attention. It guards our self-esteem. The guru of Getting Things Done is living by the standards of the future, and his hourglass is an icon of an emerging civilization whose exacting demands we may all someday be expected to meet.
|
|
|
|
"I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do." The Author. Speaker is unknown but most will think it originated with Empire Records. Some say Mark Twain some say ancient Greek. Twain did say this - "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
|
|
|
|
No… it's just my low self esteemed is at an all time high. (answer to when someone says "wow your confident, cocky, etc.")
|
|
|
GTD
|
Our Jobs keep changing: The organization we're involved with seem to be in constant morph mode, with ever-changing goals, products, porters, customers, markets, technologies, and owners. These all, by necessity, shake up structures, forms, roles and responsibilities.
|
|
|
GTD
|
Our Jobs Keep Changing: The average professional is more of a free agent these days…Their aims are just more integrated into the mainstream now, covered by the catchall "professional, management, executive development" - which simply means they won't keep doing what they're doing for any exited period of time.
|
|
|
GTD
|
Old Models and Habits are Insufficient: More and more peoples jobs are made up of dozens or even hundreds of e-mails a day, with no latitude left to ignore a single request, complaint, or order. There are few people who can (or even should) expect to code everything an "A", a "B" or a "C" priority, or who can maintain some predetermined list of to-dos that the first telephone call or interruption from their boss won't totally undo.
|
|
|
GTD
|
The "Big Picture" vs. the Nitti-Gritty: In practice, however, the well-intentioned exercise of values thinking too often does not achieve its desired results. I have seen too many of these efforts fail, for one or more of the following three reasons: 1 - There is too much distraction at the day-to-day, hour-to-hour level of commitments to allow for appropriate focus on the higher levels. 2 - Ineffective personal organizational systems create huge subconscious resistance to undertaking even bigger projects and goals that will likely not be managed well, and that will in turn cause even more distraction and stress. 3 - ...
|
|
|
GTD
|
The "Mind Like Water" simile: is the position of perfect readiness... Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input; then returns to calm. It doesn't over react or under react. Learn and demand balance and relaxation as much as anything else... Anything that causes you to overreact or under react can control you, and often does. Responding inappropriately to your e-mail, your staff, your projects, you unread magazines, your thoughts about what you need to do, your children, or your boss will lead to less effective results than you'd like. Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve, simply because they don't operate with a mind like water.
|
|
|
GTD
|
Open Loop: agreements or commitments you make with yourself that are incomplete. You've probably made many more agreements with yourself than you realize, and every single one of them - big or little - is being tracked by a less-than-conscious part of you. Can include big or litter - End world hunger - hire new assistant - Replace electric pencil sharpener. It's called the ageing effect... it's why you remember..
|
|
|
GTD
|
The Basic Requirement for Managing Commitments: Anything you consider unfinished in any way must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or a collection bucket, that you know you'll come back to regularly and sort through…. You must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do, if anything to make progress toward fulfilling it.... Once you've decided on all the actions you need to take, you must keep reminders of them organized in a system you review regularly.
|
|
|
GTD
|
Define Projects in Two - five minutes: Write and describe, in a single written sentence you intended successful outcome for the problem or situation. What would need to happen to check this project off the list.... Now write down the very next physical action required to move the situation forward. The key is thinking, not allot, but just enough to solidify your commitment and the resources required to fulfill it.
|
|
|
GTD
|
In knowledge work… the task is not given: it has to be determined. What are the expected results for this work? Thinking in a concentrated manner to define desired outcomes is something few people feel they have to do. But in truth, outcome thinking is one of the most effective means available for making wishes reality.
|
|
|
GTD
|
I try to make intuitive choices based on my options, instead of trying to think about what those options are. I need to have thought about all of that already and captured the results in a trusted way. I don't want to west time thinking about things more than once. That's an inefficient use of creative energy and a source of frustration and stress.
|
|
|
GTD
|
The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow: We (1) collect things that command our attention; (2) process what they mean and what to do about them; and (3) organize the results, which we (4) review as options for what we choose to (5) do.
|
|
|
|
1 Collect: The collection tools - Physical in basket - Paper based note taking devices - Electronic not taking devices - Voice recording devices - Email. These collection tools should become part of your life-style. Keep them close by so no mater where you are you can collect potentially valuable thought-think of them as being indispensable as you toothbrush or your driver's license or your glasses.
|
|
|
GTD
|
Collect - Three Requirements to make the collection phase work: Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head. (2) You must have a few collection buckets as you can get by with. (3) You must empty them regularly.
|
|
|
|
Process: To work with "stuff" you must first ask "What is it" and "Is it Actionable". There two answers are Yes and No. If No Action is Required there are three possibilities: It's trash. There might be an action later and it needs to "Incubate" (someday/maybes/WF). The item is potentially useful information that might be needed for something later (Reference)
|
|
|
GTD
|
Process: To work with "stuff" you must first ask "What is it" and "Is it Actionable". There two answers are Yes and No. If Action is required two things need to be deterrmined - (1) What "project" or outcome have you committed to? And (2) what's the next action required? Some examples - Call Fred regarding fast track - Draft thoughts for the next email update - Talk to shona about the filing system we need to set up - Research and QC ACT for Gold Team needs.
|
|
|
GTD
|
Process: Once you've decided on the next action, you have three options: (1) Do it. If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it is defined. (2) Delegate it. If the action will take longer than two minutes ask yourself, Am I the right person to do this? If no, delegate it appropriately. (3) Defer it. If the action will take longer than two minutes, and you are the right person to do it, you will have to defer acting on it until later and track it on one or more "Next Actions" lists.
|
