It’s been a while since I talked about Getting Things Done, often known as simply GTD.  As I’m beginning to find myself “slipping” on a few points, maybe it’s time to revisit them to give myself a little reminder – and hopefully help someone else in the process.  Getting Things Done is a book by David Allen, describing an entire system of time management.  A lot of Allen’s points are simply standard, “best practices” for time management.  Others, however, are pretty unique to Getting Things Done. Two, in particular, have been quite helpful for me.

Contexts

The first unique point is contexts. The idea of context is, of course, not new.  The application, however, is.

Most of us probably have a “long-term to-do list” – that is, a list of things that need to be taken care of at some point, but not necessarily today.  Allen’s “contexts” essentially break down this list based on the environments or resources needed to accomplish each task.  (Purists will probably gasp at that explanation, but that’s the gist of it.)

All tasks that require computer access would then go on a “computer” list with, perhaps, a separate “internet” list if computer access doesn’t necessarily mean internet access for you.  Things that can be accomplished anywhere are on a separate context list from those for which you must be at home.  So, essentially, like tasks and/or those you can accomplish all in one place, are grouped together.  (This sounds time-consuming, but it really isn’t.  We have to break the list up like this mentally, anyway, and it’s quicker to do it all at once in the beginning, allowing that part to be a no-brainer when it’s time to actually do something.  This way we don’t have to keep reading the whole list just to see which three things we’re currently able to do.)

This is not really a new thing.  Housewives, for instance, have designated certain days of the week for certain tasks for centuries.  But applying it to the entire “to-do list,” across the board is a pretty new application of the concept.  (Incidentally, I do break up my week into days, and these days are “contexts” for my list.  If I don’t need to do it until Laundry Day, it goes on the Laundry Day list and I can forget about it until then.)

Next Actions

The second unique point was so simply brilliant I found it absolutely staggering.  It has totally changed my time-management thinking.  That point is, the next action. Allen says that for each project or task that needs to be done, the next action should go on the list.

At first blush, that seems obvious, but you might be surprised at how often that isn’t the case!  The example in the book is that of making a telephone call to a service company (which type of service, I don’t recall).  Most of us would write down, for instance, “Call moving company.” But unless we already know exactly what moving company to call and where to find the number, that is not really the next action!

In most cases, we’ll find ourselves perpetually procrastinating on that task, and not realizing why.  It’s because there are other things we have to do before we can do it. The next action might be to look the number up in the telephone book.  Or it might be to call your brother and ask him for a recommendation.  Or to look online and compare several companies.  Whatever it is, that next action is what should go on the list, not the telephone call.  Life-changing, I tell you!

So there you go – a couple of time-management tips that work for me!