Welcome to another stage in The Productive Life journey. Today I am going to explore Key #2: Manage Your Actions.
About a decade ago I got a print copy of David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. I could not put it down. I thought I was being productive before this stage of my productivity adventure started but I knew there was still the occasional thing that I was letting slip through the cracks and it drove me crazy! I really do not like disappointing people (after all, I am an Upholder on Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies model – you can take the test for free here: bit.ly/Test_Tendencies).
The biggest win for me in reading and implementing David Allen’s book and creating an action management system was developing the habit of capturing EVERYTHING that I commit to do, or need to do. I am sure you often have people asking you to do things for them and you promise to do it but then it slips your mind because you bump into someone else who has their own requests and then other stuff comes your way and before you realise it, you have forgotten what you promised to do!
The value of Getting Things Done (GTD for short) is that you commit to doing something right away if it will take you less than 2 minutes to do (this is The 2 Minute Rule) or you capture it in your action management system that is out of your head and you don’t forget to do it. You can use paper or an app, I know what I would do without the app that I use as a Capture Device which is called Nirvana. In fact, I am never more than a few second away from a capture device. This is actually just the first of five steps of the GTD Workflow Model that I introduce in this chapter of my book.
When you buy my book, you will be given access to a folder of resources and one of the documents contains all the GTD Templates that I have created that has earned me the reputation of being a machine when it comes to getting things done. Honestly, I am no rocket scientist but I have a system that makes me productive! Discovering a system like this will literally change your whole life. No one needs to remind me of things I promise to do because my system reminds me and honestly, I sleep so much better at night because my mind does not have to keep waking me up to remind me of stuff I need to do. I use my mind to help me be creative and create systems for people or things that need to be improved – not to remember stuff.
How are you doing in this area? Do you get into trouble for not getting things done? Maybe you feel a little like this sometimes…
It may cost you a little to invest in my book, but I can guarantee that you will reap the reward as you become known as the person who gets things done and you will no longer get into trouble with your family, friends or colleagues for stuff you don’t get done! You will learn how to manage your actions as you work through this chapter of my book!
In my next message we will explore Key #3: Build Your Habits and I will help you learn how to keep good habits and break bad habits!
Your Productivity Coach
Mark Tittley