Simplicity Part VI: Getting things done by doing fewer things

As I work on implementing David Allen's excellent Getting Things Done system in my life, I'm also working on paring down the sheer number of things I do, and getting my priorities really straight.

Some tasks are inevitable.  My mother, who will turn 90 in a little over a week, has had two hospital stays in the past three months, one for a broken hip, one for a blood clot.  This generated a great deal of work for me, including taking her to follow-up doctor's visits, and dealing with the prescriptions and much of the administrative detail.    Family emergencies have to be dealt with, no matter what else is going on with one's schedule..

On the other hand, many things I do constitute wasted time and scheduling noise.  Even many of the things which can be justified in the grand scheme of things (political activism, for instance) translate into a great many scheduling collisions, and often unrealistic todo lists.

So I'm faced with a series of questions:

What are my high level priorities?

What's the relative importance of recreational down time to my "saving the world" activities?

How many discrete tasks is it prudent to put on the schedule for any given day?

I have the luxury of time to think about those things at the moment.  I've retired from my "day job", and  my new business is in that formative stage where I can stop and resume when other things arise (in other words it isn't bringing any money in yet, so interrupting it costs me little money).  Even taking my mother to the doctor's appointments results in time in the waiting room to think and write.

I have figured out one thing already, though.  Part of my ability to "get things done" is going to require not only paring down physical objects in my life, but arranging my life so that I have fewer external committments.  Note that I didn't say "no external committments".  I'm a very socially engaged person, and I value my family and friends.  It's also not possible for me to drop all community and political activity.  I'm a born activist.  I just have to be a lot more selective, and learn to say "no" to overcommittment.  In fact, the most  compelling reason to pare down things is so that the things I do commit to are done well.

So in focusing on a few important aspects of my life, I hope to have more time for friends and family, not less, and for my business life to go better, not worse, and for all the community interests I have to result in more effective work, not less.

Clutter is not just a word that applies to physical objects scattered around the house.  It also means poorly considered, disjointed, badly executed things festooning my todo list.

Comments

[Jon Anscher]

I think this is a great reminder of the core purpose of GTD—which ironically does not get much attention in David Allen's first book. In the end, GTD is about opening your life to be able to spend time doing higher level thinking about your horizons of focus. If you regularly spend time on your purpose, vision, and goals, those eventually can impact the decisions you make about "stuff" and how it fills out your tasks, projects, and responsibilities.

[Larry Johnson]

True, Jon. The first time I tried out GTD, I found myself managing "stuff" with little thought about how any particular task or document got there to begin with, or whether I should even be dealing with it.

David Allen is correct that the day to day system has to be action driven. If it isn't you wind up with something like all the "mission statements" hanging up on company walls, which are generally only thought about while they are being written.

But if I don't have some sort of front end filter based on higher level objectives, I end up with a system which more efficiently processes things I shouldn't be doing to begin with.

[Jon Anscher]

I completely understand. I always try to remind myself that GTD is a paradigm, not a system. It's easy to get caught up in putting things into the system and forget that we need to be making realistic decisions about items as they come across our desk.

[Joe]

Congrats on making the move. I like your new site a lot and I'm lokniog forward to the giveaways and interviews! Topics about writing that interest me:1) Web-only sites that pay writers a fair wage2) Tips on doing investigative reporting3) How to catch up when there are 450 unanswered emails in your inbox4) Do you always have to respond to fans who send you unsolicited mail? What about to people who write under bogus names to flame you?5) Benefits to being a jack-of-all-trades v. benefits to being a niche writer

[Sathish]

you for your kind words and you are quite right this is not something you do' and then stop' real food needs to be the only cchoie from here on. There is no place in a healthy diet for processed junk food. Red wine, very dark chocolate and berries and cream should be seen as treats. Sweets and fizzy drinks should be seen as punishments! Keep up your fab work too x

[todo list menager]

Your all the post is so interesting so when is the next post coming? -

[free to-do list]

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