My Way Of Doing Things

I like my life (work and home) to be as organised as possible, mainly because I like to cram as much into life as possible. On top of that, I have quite a short attenion span, and ideas often just pop into my head for the most random of things, and I need to jot them down before I loose that thought for good. As a result I've become adept at recording passing ideas, and keeping track of what to do with them, and how to fit them into my life.

The methods I've used are a combination of tried and tested ones - and a little gut feel. Below I include various links to the methods I use which might help in understanding ways that this system has been shaped. Some I use for my personal life, others such as project planning and analysis I've often used at work in IT and business process management and analyis.

Of course everyone is different and I welcome new ways of doing things for change is the only certainty. Feel free to drop me a message if you want to chat further about ways you approach things.

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Many years ago I encountered the Getting Things Done methodology and embraced it, along with a few tweaks I picked up while doing project management. Here are some of the key points I adhere to:

• Capture Everything - Record every thought. It might be trivial, it might be important, it does not matter. Record it in case you need it later.
• Fix A Date - Ensure all items have a date. Now the date need not be when the task has to be done by, it can, but it is there so that on that particular date a review can take place to decide if it is still relevant or if it can be put aside, or dumped. My rule of thumb is that put it about a week away if its new and not urgent. In a week's time I can have another think about if its long term or something to deal with quickly.
• Lots Of Lists - Have lots of classifications be it tags, lists, categories. Whatever. They will change over time as you find what works. The Kanban view can be very handy here!
• Have A Cycle - An aspect of Scrum and Agile methods is to have a short cycle of time to churn over a limited set of tasks that can be achived in that short time. This then ends with a review period and decision on what to do next.
• Regular Reviews - As an outcome of the previous item, regular reviews and reassignment. It can seem quite time consuming to be going through the long list on a regular basis, but you will find along with classifications, groups of priorties will surface and a natural bunch of tasks that can be dealt with together and quickily results in an easier time. Picking things off that can be quick is not a bad thing. It gets the list down and can give a good boost to enthusiasm to get more done. Just don't create tasks for the sake of closing them!
• Use The System - A method is only as good as the system that organises it all. In here we have the Review and Agenda pages which help give indications of what needs to be done. More will come in time as I work out how to apply my natural methods to a system. Also, take note of the Advanced Workflows as these can help move things around in a systematic way.