And deep work “is a fundamentally different activity than knocking off organizational tasks.”īut there’s no reason that you can’t consider spending six hours in your studio making art or doing deep work a single task. “Creating real value requires deep work,” says Newport. ![]() GTD doesn’t work for everythingĬomputer scientist and productivity writer Cal Newport criticizes Allen for his “task universalism,” or the idea that you can break all projects down into simple tasks you bang off your list one by one. You’re supposed to teach your mind not to ruminate and wander to your task lists, which can prevent you from fully being present.Īllen originally published Getting Things Done back in 2001-and since then, his methodology has been criticized for several reasons. Channeling this state of being in the zone feels awkward at first, says Allen, but has big payoffs. The aim is to have a calm, focused engagement on the task at hand. Now that you’ve externalized the information and to do lists cluttering your mind, it’s time to act. The review consists of “going through the five phases of workflow management–collecting, processing, organizing, and reviewing all your outstanding involvements. ReviewĪllen suggests conducting a weekly review to ensure you’re staying on task and moving toward achieving your goals. Use whatever task management and organization tools you feel most comfortable with, whether it’s a calendar app or a to do list for each project. OrganizeĬategorize all the tasks you’ve deferred by grouping them by project, context or deadline. If it’s actionable but will take more than two minutes, either delegate the action to someone else or defer it to a future date. Can it be done in under two minutes? If so, do it immediately. Then ask yourself what action you’ll need to take first. If the item isn’t actionable (e.g., a receipt you can’t expense), consider tossing it out. ![]() Go through everything you’ve collected and ask yourself which items are actually actionable. Some people find it useful to visualize ideas at this stage with a bullet journal. You can use physical containers for paper documents or idea-collecting apps such as Evernote. This could include anything ranging from plans for a book to learning a foriegn language or your desire to buy someone a birthday present.Ĭollect all ephemera that commands your attention, such as bills or mail you need to respond to, in one place. Jot anything down that is “pulling on your psyche” onto paper or in a digital format of your choice (e.g., an online task list). The core of Allen’s system involves using this five-stage method to deal with your workflow: 1. Whether you want to write a book yourself, create your own company or simply stop forgetting the birthdays of the people you care about, the GTD method can be a useful tool for getting there. “It’s only on your mind because you know there’s still some thinking or some decisions about it that you haven’t made.”Īllen designed GTD for anyone who wants to free their mind to be creative, strategic or more present. So how do you know if you’re “appropriately engaged” with the things you need to do? “The more it’s on your mind, the more it’s not happening, the more you’re inappropriately engaged with it,” according to Allen. Some even draw parallels between his central premise–that we should empty our minds of the task-related information to properly engage with the present moment–and Eastern mindfulness philosophies such as Buddhism. “If you don’t have psychological space, you could have two hours of free time and waste it.”Īllen’s converts-who include the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith-often credit his system with helping them unlock creative flow states and higher levels of cognitive thought. What they lacked before using his system was “psychic bandwidth,” he explains. He says the leaders he works with often report having a “stream of ideas and visions about their company and their future” the very next day after implementing his system. ![]() According to Allen, GTD will unlock powerful bursts of creative energy and free you from the mundane realities of your task-driven existence.
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