GTD (getting things done)
Became a proponent of David Allen's Getting Things Done strategy in my early 20's. At that point, I had a very involved spreadsheet and was summing up trends in my networth on a weekly basis. While I'm not that meticulous anymore, I think it is pretty grounding to have a designated weekday to try to organize all of the chaos that has piled up over the week. FlyLady had this "BO" acronym for people who are born organized. I'm not sure I would go so far as to say I was born this way, but in general, people characterize me as having my act together.
Here is my general checklist...
1. Basket. I dump a lot of physical things that are work in progress and have next actions associated into a wicker basket. On Friday, I take everything out and make sure I have a to do list item to catalog each of them. There's also a lot of things I can pay/file/throw away. These are <2 minute tasks.
2. Notes. I keep a lot of random notes to self on my phone "note" app. I empty any of these brain dumps that still seem relevant now that I've come down off the caffeine high which generated them. Some go directly onto my to do list, others are longer term goals that go onto my bucket list. Some are records of things I have spent money on and go into the spend diary I started a little over a month ago. Some are things I want to buy and go onto one of my shopping lists.
3. Buy. 2 shopping lists persist on my phone- grocery items and home depot items because you never know when we'll swing by. Some miscellaneous or bigger ticket purchases end up getting dropped in there as they occur to me. I also have a "buy" tab in my 101 things in 1001 days bucket list tracker on google docs and a wishlist on Amazon. I scroll through these 3 collections. I move the less errand-focused items on my notes list into my 101 in 1001 list. I shop for discrete "near term" purchases on the bucket list and add to wishlist on Amazon. I move things off my Amazon wishlist and into my cart if they are necessary for upcoming projects and my financial situation isn't too sideways. The sweet thing is that by the time an item has cycled through 2 or more lists, 30+ days of reflection have elapsed where I can consider if I actually need/want the thing I'm about to splurge on.
4. Bucket. Back to the 101 in 1001 list in google docs. I have a short list of active projects and a huge list of way more than 101 things that I think would be epic to do at some point. First, I scroll through the short list (<20 projects) and increment any progress for the week. I also may add more to do's if progress has stagnated. If my short list looks particularly light and underwhelming, maybe I have accomplished some of the items, I will scroll through my big list and add new adventures. My "notes" app on my phone is typically generating long term bucket list items faster than I can clear the old ones.
5. Email. So there are the responses that take a little more focus than a quick "composed on my iPhone" missive. I also am notorious for emailing mini research to myself (and acquaintances with similar first names) as a reminder of next steps for my to do list. Things like 3 chairs at restoration hardware that I thought looked passable for dining room seating. Or maybe the start of lobster season in order to plan our next Scuba dive series. I go through these like I do my Basket and make sure they have associated to do's and that if anything is implemented, it doesn't have documentation dietrus left over in my inbox.
6. Languishing To Dos. So my to do list is sort of like the floor that I have swept a bunch of tabletop debris onto. This is why I tackle it close to last. I'll scroll through it and check off the projects I finished and didn't get around to noting. I'll also subdivided the tasks that are becoming fixtures into smaller, more manageable steps. This usually works well, but once in a while, my to do list balloons to over 50 things and I stop using it for a while to preserve my sanity. I use a "To Do" app from iphone because it only makes me commit to what is happening today and tomorrow. The rest is in nebulous categories of "upcoming" and "someday" that lets me get to these without feeling guilty I missed a deadline. It also buzzes me every morning to remind me to check in with it.
7. House Walk Through. This one is still very much an R&D item on the GTD list. I go through the house and make sure there aren't any to do's that are so obvious I didn't write them down. This helps feed content for the blog a day challenge.
8. Menus. Brand new item on the GTD check list. I try to come up with a couple recipes I would like to try any given week. This gives me stuff to add to the grocery list and increments my progress on bucket list items like cooking every recipe in The Moosewood Cookbook or constructing RL recipes for WoW in game item equivalents. That said, after printing out my work calendar for next week, it seems there is going to be hardly any time for gastronomic hedonism...
Here is my general checklist...
1. Basket. I dump a lot of physical things that are work in progress and have next actions associated into a wicker basket. On Friday, I take everything out and make sure I have a to do list item to catalog each of them. There's also a lot of things I can pay/file/throw away. These are <2 minute tasks.
2. Notes. I keep a lot of random notes to self on my phone "note" app. I empty any of these brain dumps that still seem relevant now that I've come down off the caffeine high which generated them. Some go directly onto my to do list, others are longer term goals that go onto my bucket list. Some are records of things I have spent money on and go into the spend diary I started a little over a month ago. Some are things I want to buy and go onto one of my shopping lists.
3. Buy. 2 shopping lists persist on my phone- grocery items and home depot items because you never know when we'll swing by. Some miscellaneous or bigger ticket purchases end up getting dropped in there as they occur to me. I also have a "buy" tab in my 101 things in 1001 days bucket list tracker on google docs and a wishlist on Amazon. I scroll through these 3 collections. I move the less errand-focused items on my notes list into my 101 in 1001 list. I shop for discrete "near term" purchases on the bucket list and add to wishlist on Amazon. I move things off my Amazon wishlist and into my cart if they are necessary for upcoming projects and my financial situation isn't too sideways. The sweet thing is that by the time an item has cycled through 2 or more lists, 30+ days of reflection have elapsed where I can consider if I actually need/want the thing I'm about to splurge on.
4. Bucket. Back to the 101 in 1001 list in google docs. I have a short list of active projects and a huge list of way more than 101 things that I think would be epic to do at some point. First, I scroll through the short list (<20 projects) and increment any progress for the week. I also may add more to do's if progress has stagnated. If my short list looks particularly light and underwhelming, maybe I have accomplished some of the items, I will scroll through my big list and add new adventures. My "notes" app on my phone is typically generating long term bucket list items faster than I can clear the old ones.
5. Email. So there are the responses that take a little more focus than a quick "composed on my iPhone" missive. I also am notorious for emailing mini research to myself (and acquaintances with similar first names) as a reminder of next steps for my to do list. Things like 3 chairs at restoration hardware that I thought looked passable for dining room seating. Or maybe the start of lobster season in order to plan our next Scuba dive series. I go through these like I do my Basket and make sure they have associated to do's and that if anything is implemented, it doesn't have documentation dietrus left over in my inbox.
6. Languishing To Dos. So my to do list is sort of like the floor that I have swept a bunch of tabletop debris onto. This is why I tackle it close to last. I'll scroll through it and check off the projects I finished and didn't get around to noting. I'll also subdivided the tasks that are becoming fixtures into smaller, more manageable steps. This usually works well, but once in a while, my to do list balloons to over 50 things and I stop using it for a while to preserve my sanity. I use a "To Do" app from iphone because it only makes me commit to what is happening today and tomorrow. The rest is in nebulous categories of "upcoming" and "someday" that lets me get to these without feeling guilty I missed a deadline. It also buzzes me every morning to remind me to check in with it.
7. House Walk Through. This one is still very much an R&D item on the GTD list. I go through the house and make sure there aren't any to do's that are so obvious I didn't write them down. This helps feed content for the blog a day challenge.
8. Menus. Brand new item on the GTD check list. I try to come up with a couple recipes I would like to try any given week. This gives me stuff to add to the grocery list and increments my progress on bucket list items like cooking every recipe in The Moosewood Cookbook or constructing RL recipes for WoW in game item equivalents. That said, after printing out my work calendar for next week, it seems there is going to be hardly any time for gastronomic hedonism...
posted by Bellepic at
6:45 PM
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