actually Getting Things Done

getting things doneOne of my favourite books of all time, in the productivity space is Getting Things Done by David Allen. Its a great read and i was able to take away a few key things that enhanced my ability to get things done! Probably the most important one is his process for looking at emails which can easily become the scourge and time eater of your day, but its also really handy for the short jobs that crop up during the day. If its quick then just Do it on the spot, if its going to take a bit longer then Defer it (but make sure you capture than in some system like flagging it a list or calendar entry or just Delete it. These days with email being what it is I don’t tend to delete , I just let it run off the bottom of the screen..it’s pretty much the same thing.

One of the important things I learnt from his book is the importance of getting rid of ‘psychic baggage’, that is anything that stops you focusing on what you should be doing right now…but more on that later!