Getting Things Done
GTD is the acronym for Getting Things Done, a method of improving productivity and organization created by David Allen and explained in his book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. landline000 introduced me to it, and when I visited him and shadogoddess42 in August, I started reading the above book and being nosy about landline000's GTD system. While I was there, I decided I wanted such a system for myself. I want to be more efficient and less stressed out, and Lord knows I have plenty of room for improvement in both of those areas.
I ordered Getting Things Done while I was in Seattle so it would be waiting for me when I returned home. (It wasn't, but it came soon enough.) Labor Day weekend, I intended to spend the two full days the book said I might need to do the "collection gathering" process, where I write down everything in my environment and in my head that I want to change, remember, do, whatever, and then put that into an Inbox; and then to go through that Inbox, top to bottom and in order, and start sorting things into appropriate categories or, if they take less than two minutes to do, doing them immediately.
I started it Sunday night. I set up my inbox and a basket full of scrap paper I'd sliced into quarters, got a pen and put the book next to me for moral support...and then I started with where I was, all the things I wanted different. After I was done with my immediate surroundings, I walked around doing the same thing, then brainstormed back at the counter where I'd set up.
By the time I was finished, I felt lightheaded--though that could have been dehydration, despite all the water I was drinking. I also felt a huge sense of relief. For once, I didn't have to rely on my faulty memory to keep track of all the stuff I have to do and want to do, but haven't done yet.
I started going through my Inbox on...what, Monday or Tuesday night? Whichever day it was, I got about halfway through before I had to crash. Wednesday night, I crashed without touching it except to add the few things I'd written down during the day (I carry a pad and pen around now to catch anything I think of or need to do while I'm on the go). Rusty slept in my room that night, incidentally, and didn't fuss or anything. Also, I saw 9 with jameson9101322.
Thursday, jameson9101322 came over and helped me shelve and alphabetize all the books that had been taken off the broken shelves. We alphabetized all the fiction and put the rest in sections according to book type. I need to organize those sections, but that can wait--and it is also on my list of things to do, so I'm not worried; it'll get done. Thursday, I also got much of my room cleaned up and my office area (I have one of those now?) cleaned up and organized--including the stationery stuff, which got moved into a bigger set of bins because it was exploding out of its original home.
Finally, I also got to the very bottom of my inbox. Emptied it. Oh, the jubilation! The rejoicing! The elation! ^___^
So tomorrow, I think the task will be sorting through the project lists and organizing those so all of them get done in a timely and efficient manner.
Oh--one more thing! My Mission101 list, which I haven't looked at in a while, has the desire on it to mail 100 letters/postcards/packages/whatever during the 1001 days the mission is active. I am at #60 right now. My start date was August 10th, 2008. My end date is May 8th, 2011.
All things considered, I think I'm doing pretty well. ^_^
I ordered Getting Things Done while I was in Seattle so it would be waiting for me when I returned home. (It wasn't, but it came soon enough.) Labor Day weekend, I intended to spend the two full days the book said I might need to do the "collection gathering" process, where I write down everything in my environment and in my head that I want to change, remember, do, whatever, and then put that into an Inbox; and then to go through that Inbox, top to bottom and in order, and start sorting things into appropriate categories or, if they take less than two minutes to do, doing them immediately.
I started it Sunday night. I set up my inbox and a basket full of scrap paper I'd sliced into quarters, got a pen and put the book next to me for moral support...and then I started with where I was, all the things I wanted different. After I was done with my immediate surroundings, I walked around doing the same thing, then brainstormed back at the counter where I'd set up.
By the time I was finished, I felt lightheaded--though that could have been dehydration, despite all the water I was drinking. I also felt a huge sense of relief. For once, I didn't have to rely on my faulty memory to keep track of all the stuff I have to do and want to do, but haven't done yet.
I started going through my Inbox on...what, Monday or Tuesday night? Whichever day it was, I got about halfway through before I had to crash. Wednesday night, I crashed without touching it except to add the few things I'd written down during the day (I carry a pad and pen around now to catch anything I think of or need to do while I'm on the go). Rusty slept in my room that night, incidentally, and didn't fuss or anything. Also, I saw 9 with jameson9101322.
Thursday, jameson9101322 came over and helped me shelve and alphabetize all the books that had been taken off the broken shelves. We alphabetized all the fiction and put the rest in sections according to book type. I need to organize those sections, but that can wait--and it is also on my list of things to do, so I'm not worried; it'll get done. Thursday, I also got much of my room cleaned up and my office area (I have one of those now?) cleaned up and organized--including the stationery stuff, which got moved into a bigger set of bins because it was exploding out of its original home.
Finally, I also got to the very bottom of my inbox. Emptied it. Oh, the jubilation! The rejoicing! The elation! ^___^
So tomorrow, I think the task will be sorting through the project lists and organizing those so all of them get done in a timely and efficient manner.
Oh--one more thing! My Mission101 list, which I haven't looked at in a while, has the desire on it to mail 100 letters/postcards/packages/whatever during the 1001 days the mission is active. I am at #60 right now. My start date was August 10th, 2008. My end date is May 8th, 2011.
All things considered, I think I'm doing pretty well. ^_^