I was doing my daily routine of screening through my RSS feeds, and stumbled upon this article on LifeHack talking about 3 habits that make you more productive, a stripped down version of those complex GTD ideas people been talking about.

They mentioned that implementing the practices described in various GTD books, is just so damn complicated. I tried to check email just ONCE a day, and I can say that it is impossible (well, for me, I don’t know about you guys). Really, if you can’t do it, why force yourself do something that works for others, but not you?

One of the three habits mentioned by LifeHack, was to write down whatever you want to do. I do this, a lot. I steal (with permission) a lot of papers from the office, and write things down, things I need to do, things I think I might forget, and I also write down what is the last thing I did before leaving office. I tend to forget about what was the last thing I did, the next morning I get into office. But writing them down, I am able to recall what was the last thing I did in office, and what needs to be done next. I also use Things, at home, on my MacBook. It’s awesome to keep track of things I need to do, and just tick them off when I am done.

The other habit suggested was to defer tasks that is not important, and get to it later. I believe everyone has a flow, when they are working on something. When a distraction breaks the flow, it takes a while to get back to it. So, push things that are not important aside, and finish up the tasks in hand, before moving on to another. I am trying to do this properly, because I get distracted easily, and I can’t get back into the flow, which affects my productivity. Distractions such as Twitter, Facebook, news, chats, are evil, when you are trying to concentrate on finishing up some tasks. I hope to master the art of deferring, sometime soon.

LifeHack also suggested doing a scheduled review, to clear off your tasks, emails, etc. I don’t do this, mainly because I don’t get too many emails or tasks, and I usually get them done within the period I planned. But I think it is good, to actually do reviews, to keep track of the time you spend on various tasks, to properly organize yourself.

Although I’ve been trying and mess around with some GTD practices, I can’t seem to organize myself properly. I believe GTD requires a lot of disciplines, and patience.

How do you organize yourself? What’s your GTD practices?


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COMMENTS / 2 COMMENTS

For implementing GTD you can use this web-based application:

http://www.Gtdagenda.com

You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.

Dan commented on Jun 25 09 at 5:33 pm

Hey Dan,

Thanks for the tip. I am still not used to tracking my TODOs, using an application, still an old-school pen/paper guy :)

Andy Goh commented on Jul 05 09 at 6:05 pm
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