Teens are overwhelmed, partly because they don’t yet have the skills to manage the unprecedented amount of stuff that enters their brains each day. – from LifeHacker.com
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
“You can do anything, but not everything.”
― David Allen, (GTD) Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World
SUMMARY
This week I worked on making my GTD more clear for myself in the future, and I worked on planning my time to be most efficient with what I had written in my trusted system.
PRACTICE ROOM (TUTORIALS)
CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)
- Capture: Put it down somewhere, get it out of your head
- Process: Is it organizable?
- Organize: Plan, get a calendar / planner, etc.
- Review: Are tasks going according to plan? adjust if not
- Engage: complete tasks
These videos helped illustrate how a GTD can help any process run more smoothly and efficiently. Being able to get everything down on paper, and then plan how to execute those tasks before you attempt them allows you to be more efficient, and learn more about your process for the next time.
LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)
- Most people have 30-100 projects, and 150-220 next actions right now.
- Need maps of everything for focus and accountability, then make good intuitive decisions of what to do next
- You will add more significant projects as you go
- Doesn’t take long to get where you want to be, just write stuff down.
Examine Two GTD Maps: Basic and Detailed
- Detailed map by guccio@文房具社 icensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
- Basic map from BiggerPlate.com embedded below
GTD-based Trusted System
I use a paper planner and a pencil to write down what I need to get done. Once I finish something, I check it off with a blue pen.
OUTSIDE (PRODUCTIVITY & THE BRAIN)
- To help clear your mind, go for a 15-minute walk
- Bring a notepad
- Walk and relax and allow your mind to wander
- If you land on something that needs your attention, write it down
- Continue throughout your walk
STUDIO (CREATING MAPS)
- Watch David Allen summarize the steps
- “Very simple folks! …
- Just WRITE STUFF DOWN
- Decide the ACTIONS and OUTCOMES embedded in them
- Get yourself a MAP OF ALL THAT so you can step back and take a look at it.
- And then, basically, you USE THE MAP TO DECIDE, “OK, here’s the course that we’re going to go on.”
- You then LAUNCH the ‘ship’ on a trusted course in the short term, as well as on the long horizon that you’re moving on.
- And then, on a regular basis, you need to REASSESS, “OK, we need to take in NEW DATA, CLEANUP, RECALIBRATE, and REFOCUS for the next leg of the journey.”
- It’s that simple…”
- “Very simple folks! …
- I have written everything I need to get done for this week in my planner, and will add to it as more thing come!
WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED
I learned how to effectively use my GTD this week. I wasn’t getting the efficiency I wanted with getting things done and turned in, so I started deciding how many assignments I wanted to have turned in for each class by the end of the day. This allowed my to know my goal, and work towards it.