Yesterday was such a full day! Non-stop from 5AM to midnight. First the David Allen, Getting Things Done seminar and then rushed to the other side of the city for dinner with friend Adrienne at the Florian Bistro in the Civic Opera House. Then the lecture that preceded the opera (Simone Boccanegra) then the opera itself that went to about 11PM. Adrienne is a lot of fun - she'll be turning 80 next year. We "get" each other - mutual admiration society. I met her at the Women's Club - we're both on the Welfare Sewing committee.
Tonight my writing group in the back room of Panera Bread in Evanston. It's dicey how many writers we'll get given it's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Writers from all over the world sign up on line and commit to writing 50,000 words during the month of November. Each day they upload their work product and the site keeps a word count. James is doing it. Neither Liza nor I are this year. I can't imagine how I could do both this blog and the requisite 1,666 words/day for NaNo, plus run my business, get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas not to mention all the other stuff I do.
What I want to share today is what I got out of the seminar yesterday. The back story to my going is that I read the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey - I was profoundly impacted and have incorporated much of it into my life. In the book, he touts the methods of David Allen who wrote the book, Getting Things Done. Being a highly effective person is a tall order, right? Covey would have you reach for the stars but be very grounded in daily practices that support your dreams and visions. That's where David Allen comes in. Getting Things Done is now more than just the book - The David Allen Corporation has several websites, they do corporate and individual coaching, partnerships with third party companies who have incorporate the tenets into add-on products and offerings. And the David Allen folks have been highly successful because of a real need, especially in this busy time in history. We're bombarded with so much - hard to effectively manage the stuff of our lives.
Here are a few David Allen quotes I think you'll like:
- Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.
- Mind Like Water: A mental and emotional state in which your head is clear, able to create and respond freely, unencumbered with distractions and split focus.
- If you do not pay attention to what has your attention, you will give it more attention than it deserves.
- There is usually an inverse relationship between the amount something is on your mind and the amount it is getting done.
- You need to think about your stuff more than you think, but not as much as you're afraid you might.
- Use your mind to think about things, not to keep thinking of them.
- You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing.
- The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it. (this quote is from someone called Dee Hock)
- Distraction and stress are created by "stuff" - things that have our attention but which still need thinking and decisions and/or which have not been integrated into a trusted system
- You need to spend quality time, detached from the daily grind, thinking about, getting control of, and managing the daily grind.
- Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler (Albert Einstein)
- To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. (Lao Tzu)
- You've got to think about the big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction (Alvin Toffler)
- Talk does not cook rice (Chinese proverb)
- Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it. (Buddha)
- A vision without a task is but a dream; a task without a vision is drudgery. A vision and a task is the hope of the world (From a church in Sussex, England c. 1730)
Mastering workflow is broken down into five important steps that are continually worked in tandem: Collect, Process, Organize, Review and Do. Giving each of these areas focus creates something almost sacred which David Allen calls "a trusted system". By "trusted" he is talking about the trust you have in the tools and methods for managing everything on your radar. What happens when you don't trust yourself or your systems is that you use your brain to hold onto worries/chores/tasks - the same stuff taking up space and circling round and round in a crazy loop. And the opportunity loss is that, when you're brain is swirling with minutiae, it's not free for higher level, creative thinking. You never relax.
You are already familiar with trusted systems - my guess is your life isn't a complete shambles - there are some things you're doing well. For me, an example would be my Outlook Calendar. I'm religious about putting every appointment and event on the calendar. Because I trust myself implicitly and I trust Outlook to be there when I need it, I can put something on the calendar and then just forget it, knowing I'll review it regularly. If you DON'T have a good calendar habit your mind must be filled with nagging messages ("Don't forget to call Whole Foods this Friday to order the 25 pound turkey!" "You have an appointment with the dermatologist sometime on Thursday - better look for that piece of paper (or did I write it on the back of a catalogue) for the time!" "I think Nancy has a birthday sometime this month." That's just one little example of a trusted system that frees the brain from fretting.
Imagine if everything in your life was processed and put into a trusted system - a system that didn't allow things to fall through the cracks! What might open up for you is true peace of mind, clarity, focus on the things in front of you, goals achieved. Now you have mental bandwidth to be a life architect versus a low level manager!
David Allen's approach is really practical - sometimes seems simplistic (by design). Here's an example. In the stage called "Process" (after you've gone through the Collection stage and identified each and every item on your radar from "get the dog's heart-worm medicine" to "chart a career change") - in "Process", you are faced with stuff you've collected either physically (in an inbox), voice mail, e-mail, a red folder you carry around with you, etc. (he calls it Life's Random Inputs). Now what to do with the stuff! First question: "What is it?" Sometimes it's obvious (an invitation to a Halloween party). Other times you might have to scratch your head (a complaining e-mail from an employee - is is just a rant or is it a request for a raise?) Next question, "Is it Actionable"? If the answer is no, then it must either be a piece of reference material, trash or something you just want to incubate (brochure for a trip to Turkey - do I care about Turkey? Might I want to go there?) Much of the time the stuff is actionable, so next question, "Do I do it, delegate it or defer it?" If it's yours to do and you can do it in less than two minutes, then just do it. If it will take more than two minutes, defer it and put it into a trusted system where it won't slip through the cracks, or delegate it. If the action requires more than two steps, it's a project and most people end up with 50 or so projects to manage. Seriously!
Something like getting the dog's beach token is a project because it takes more than two steps. First the dog has to go to the vet to get up to date on his shots. He needs his Evanston dog license to qualify for a pass. Need a copy of his vaccination record. The form has to be completed and the fee paid. Finally the badge has to be affixed to a laniard to be visibly displayed. So, you make a little project plan and identify the very next step. You DO NOT put on your list "Get dog beach pass" - that is NOT a next step! Once the steps have been identified, what goes on your task list is JUST the next step which is a physical activity. In this case, "Call the vet and schedule an appointment for Joey."
Challenge today could be picking up a copy of the book if you haven't already read it. If you did, were inspired by it, but never got it together to implement the methodologies or you had a false run at it, maybe read it again and recommit. These days, what's exciting since David first published the book, is that there are all kinds of e-tools and apps that make all of this even easier. I learned about EverNote and Omniview and more. And there's more than one way to skin this cat! Implementing this will be the same but different for everyone. The the most important thing - creating a trusted system that works for you, that gives you peace of mind, makes you effective and frees you to be extraordinary.
Peace,
Sarah
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