Summary of Chapter 2 “Getting Control of Your
Life: The Five Stages of Mastering Workflow”
Today, we will look at
the second chapter of the excellent book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.
If you like this summary, consider getting your own copy of the full book. :-)
To manage workflow,
there are five stages: We (1) collect
things that command our attention, we (2) process
what they mean to and what to do about them, and (3) organize the results, which we (4) review as options for what we choose to (5) do. Most people have major leaks in their collection process and
many have collected things but have not processed what action to take about
them. Others lose the value of their system because they do not regularly
review it.
One of the major
reasons many people do not have a lot of success with “getting organized” is
that they have tried to do all five phases at one time. Most, when they sit
down to “make a list”, are trying to collect the “most important things” in
some order that reflects priorities and sequences, without setting out many
real actions to take. But if you don’t decide what needs to be done about the
upcoming birthday of your best friend because it is “not that important” right
now, that open loop will take up energy and prevent you from having a totally
effective, clear focus on what is important.
Stage 1: Collect: In order
to eliminate “holes in the bucket”, you need to collect and gather together
placeholders for or representations of all the things you consider incomplete
in your world – that is, anything personal or professional, big or little, of
urgent or minor importance. In order to manage this inventory of open loops
appropriately, you need to capture it into “containers” that hold items until
you have a few momenta to decide what they are and what, if anything, you’re
going to do about them. Then you must empty these containers regularly to
ensure that they remain viable collection tools.
There are three
requirements to make the collection phase work effectively: (1) Every open loop
must in your collection system and out of your head; (2) You must have as few
collection buckets as you can get by with; and (3) You must empty them
regularly. It is also very good practice to always have at least one collection
device (e.g. a piece of paper and a pen) ready in any location you might find
yourself. This is because your best ideas often come when you relax away from
work. Be ready to capture these great ideas before you forget about them.
Stage 2: Process: This stage is all about getting those
collection devices (e.g. in-trays and email inboxes) empty without necessarily
having to do the work right now. David Allen teaches a neat step-by-step
process that goes through the following questions:
Is this item I just took out the inbox actionable?
a. If not,
then there are three possibilities: (a) trash it / throw it away if no longer
needed, (b) no action is needed right, but something might be required in the
future, so add it to your “someday/maybe” list, and (c) you file it as useful
reference material for the future.
b. If yes,
then you do the action directly if it takes less than two minutes (other
authors say five minutes). Delegate it if there is a better person to do it. Or
defer it to a later point of time, if you are the right person to get it done,
but it will take more than 2-5 minutes.
Stage 3: Organize:
For nonactionable
items, the possible categories are trash,
incubation tools and reference
storage. To manage actionable things, you will need a (1) list of projects, (2) files for project materials, (3) a calendar,
(4) a list of reminders of next actions and (5) a follow-up list to track things that you are waiting for.
A project can be
defined as any desired result that requires more than one action step to
complete. If you don’t have a placeholder to remind you about a project, it
will slip back into RAM. Your list of
projects will be merely an indexed list, while all the details, plans and
supporting information will be stored in separate paper folders, computer files
and other storage media. Once you have organized your project support material
by theme or topic, you will notice that it is almost identical to your
reference material and could be kept in the same reference file system. The
only difference is that in the case of active projects, support material might
need to be reviewed on a more consistent basis to ensure that all the necessary
action steps are identified.
Another key to
managing complexity is to start a someday/maybe
list in which you record everything that you might want to do at some point in
the future, but not right now. This is the “parking lot” for projects that
would be impossible to move on at present, but that you don’t want to forget about
entirely. You would like to be reminded of the possibility at regular
intervals. Eventually, you will probably have subcategories in that list called
for example books to read, seminars to
attend, weekend trips to make and many others.
Stage 4: Review:
It is one thing to write
down that you need to buy toilet paper, but another to be at the store and
remember it. You need to be able to review the whole picture of your life and
work at appropriate intervals and appropriate levels. So at least once week you
need to do a weekly review of your projects list, your calendar, your next
actions list and the things you are waiting for from other people.
You could, for
example, for each Friday afternoon at 4pm have a regular reminder popping up in
your Outlook reminding you to do just that: That is,
- Get all your inboxes to zero by doing everything that takes less than 2 minutes straight away and adding everything else to your next actions list. No item should remain in the inbox afterwards.
- Review this week’s calendar to ensure that you did not forget everything.
- Check next week’s calendar to gain a general overview and verify that nothing needs urgent immediate action right now.
- Review all your next actions, follow-up items and someday/maybe list
The more complete the
system is, the more you’ll trust it. And the more you trust it, the more
complete you’ll be motivated to keep it.
The Weekly Review is crucial for exactly that.
Last, but not least we
need some criteria to decide what to do in a given moment. That is, if all
time-specific and day-specific actions in your calendar have been completed,
you need to check your list of next actions,
but which specific one should you choose? This can be done via the following
framework:
- Context: Many action items require you e.g. to be at home or in the office. These are the first factors that limit your choice.
- Time available: If you have meeting in 10 minutes, then this would limit your choices further.
- Energy available: Some tasks require a fresh mind, others do not.
- Priority: This is where you need to access your intuition and begin to rely on your judgment call in the moment.
