On productivity and the three steps

I haven't been as actively blogging as I was planning to, but nevertheless I'm starting a new topic for this blog: productivity. This will be along the lines of Getting Things Done (GTD) kind of productivity, i.e. I don't care whether someone becomes more productive selling cars, working as an i-banker or just slacking (yes! there is such a thing as more productive, believe it or not), it's all about doing more of what you want to get done.

The reason I'm starting this topic is that I've recently developed simple methods for myself to become more productive and more effective in general (hey! I'm blogging again, do you need more proof? :) and judging by my conversations with people whom I have discussed this with (basically anyone who doesn't run away within 2 minutes, he he, ergh...) I think I have some basic lessons to share.

I'm not pretending to be a pioneer in this field (just search for "GTD" on Google) and I've learned a lot of good techniques from various places, such as David Allen's various books and blogs and other good sources, too many to quote here (and to be honest, most of them provide just a small nugget of my overall system, so hard to track).

Let's get down to the real work. First of all, the basic setup of any task management is what I'll refer to as a "system". A few suggestions on that topic:

• You need a "system", but don't let anyone tell you their system is the right one. You need to develop your own system, and it has to meet your needs. For example, do you travel or commute a lot? You probably need a system that's very portable and allows you to both capture and retrieve information on the go. Sit in front of the same computer 99% of your waking hours? Your system can probably be predominantly on a single system with occasional printouts as needed. Use Outlook? Consider using Outlook as your starting point. Don't use Outlook? Probably not a good idea to force yourself to use Outlook for task management. And the list goes on and on.
• The "system" will not do the work for you. Probably the most common fallacy of task management. No matter how good your system, it will never have a button saying "what now?" and when you press it you get your next task. The system supports you, but you need to work to make the system work.
• Don't spend weeks setting up the perfect system. Set up a few basic methods, try them out, and then build more as you learn your own work methods.
• Stay with the system. Once you've set up a system, follow it through for a couple of weeks at minimum and see if it's working for you. In most cases, it will take quite a bit of discipline
  

Wow, enough abstract fluff on systems. Where do I start? Well, before we start developing a system, I would recommend that you read (or at least skim through) David Allen's classic book on productivity, Getting Things Done (see link at bottom of post if you want to buy it on Amazon).

Done? Well, all you have to do then is to wait for my next blog post, where I'll start explaining my system, starting with the basics (that's also when I'll explain what I mean by the "three steps" :)

- Gummi