Getting Stuff Done
How To Get Stuff Done
Lots has been written about productivity and how to get your finger out and stop procrastinating. If you’re self employed, or have a bunch of projects that keep you occupied outside of your normal day job, then you may well feel that most of the time you could be a bit better organised and get more out of your time. And while you’re worrying about the fact that you don’t think you’re productive enough, you’re actually not being productive.
I’ve read lots of books on the subject (some of which were a waste of time, go figure) and I’ve used all kind of different apps and programs to help me figure out what to do, when. And I think I’ve managed to condense all that info into some really simple steps, so you don’t have to bother reading all about it. So here it is. I’ve called it ‘Getting Stuff Done (without having to read all the stuff about Getting Things Done)’
I’m going to explain this as if all you have is a pad and a pencil. We can talk about apps and hi-tech stuff later. This looks LONG but it isn’t really. It’s so stupidly simple, but I want you to understand what I’m talking about.
How To Get Stuff Done
1. Random thoughts about what you should do, could do and might do in your life clog your head up when you should be concentrating on something you’ve decided to do RIGHT NOW.
So, always keep a list handy (we’ll call it your INBOX) to write down ANYTHING you think of at any moment. It’s going to be an unorganised messy list. All you have to worry about with the INBOX list is making sure it is always there when you need to write a thought down whether it’s ‘Write best selling novel’ or ‘Clean Up Dog Poo In Garden’. It doesn’t matter what it is, write it in your INBOX list. No thought or idea too big or small, once you’ve written it down in your INBOX you can stop thinking about it - more importantly you can stop WORRYING about it. Worry = procrastination.
To put it bluntly, living in a world where you’re repeating ‘Must Remember The Milk’ and 25 other things over and over in your head can get in the way of you enjoying a nice walk, drive or even reading a book. We worry about missing and forgetting things. If you can get used to trusting a place where you write everything down you’ll have a clearer head - and you’ll be able to think of nicer things, free from worry.
2. Every morning (or at an appointed time every day) look at your INBOX list and add stuff to it. Mornings are good because you think about all the things you want to do that day, and get reminded about the other things that are already on the INBOX list.
This is easy so far. All you’re doing is writing a list, which I’m sure you’ve done a million times.
For instance:
INBOX
Ask Dave about flying lessons
Post letters
Tidy Desk
Write best selling novel
Learn Spanish
Now we’re actually going to do something. This is all about doing stuff, remember?
3. If there’s anything on the INBOX list that can be done in around five to ten minutes (my scientific method is ‘something I can do pretty quickly’) then DO IT IMMEDIATELY.
On the list is ‘Tidy Desk’. I’ve been putting this off for weeks, when to be perfectly honest about it it’s at most a ten minute job, and I can probably do it in five.
So I TIDY MY DESK.
<This is me in the background tidying my desk>
My God, I’ve done it! Been bugging me for ages.
I cross ‘Tidy My Desk’ off the list.
So, is there anything else on the list I can do in five minutes? Hmm, calling Dave will be more like a ten minute chat that could spiral into twenty, to post the letters I’ve got to actually leave the house and that novel will definitely take longer than five minutes.
So I’ve done all the quick stuff. NEXT.
4. Move stuff for later into your diary. Lists are for things to get up to NOW. Diarys are for things you need to do later. Keep them separate, and you’ll be able to focus on the here and now much better.
My INBOX looks like this:
Ask Dave about flying lessons
Post letters
Write best selling novel
Learn Spanish
And you know what? I’ve just realised that Dave isn’t back from holiday till next week, so there’s no point at all in phoning him today. But I don’t want to keep looking at ‘Ask Dave about flying lessons’ anymore ‘cos it’s irrelevant for now. I can’t really cross it off my list as ‘Done’ because I’m unable to do it now.
I decide to call Dave next Monday, so I write ‘Call dave about flying lessons’ in my DIARY for NEXT MONDAY. And then cross ‘Call dave about flying lessons’ off my INBOX list.
I can now forget about the whole flying lessons thing, knowing I’ll be reminded about it next Monday when I see it in my diary.
5. Spot projects. A project is a task that is complicated and has more than a few steps. ‘Write best selling novel’ is most definitely a project. There’s no way I can just cross off ‘Write best selling novel’ today, or even in the near future. I’m going to have to think about that one.
So as I’ve realised that ‘Write best selling novel’ is a project all of it’s own, it’s going to require it’s own list. And in that list I’m going to attempt to break the project down into as many steps as possible, in the order that they need doing.
I get another piece of paper, or use another sheet off my pad, and write NOVEL at the top. I then write down all the things I need to do to ‘Write best selling novel’ underneath it. Like the INBOX idea, I don’t worry about the order to start with, I just brainstorm everything I can think of that needs doing to have a best seling novel.
For instance:
WRITE BEST SELLING NOVEL
Sketch out ideas
Buy novel writing software
Talk to Gerald for advice
Buy a new pen
Book writing holiday
Look into art council grant
Read ‘War And Peace’
Ok I got bored making that list, and these are the only things I can think of that need doing to get me closer to the goal of writing a best selling novel at the moment. But it was a good exercise to do as I can now see what needs doing. The question is, which should be done first?
6. Organise project lists into a doing order.
I re-write my ‘Best selling novel’ project list into an order that makes sense.
For instance:
WRITE BEST SELLING NOVEL
Talk to Gerald for advice
Buy a new pen
Sketch out ideas
Buy novel writing software
Look into art council grant
Book writing holiday
Read ‘War And Peace’
Before I do anything, I should talk to Gerald, my famous author friend. He can probably stop me making some stupid mistakes before I launch into my bid to be a world famous author.
After that I should buy a new pen, or I won’t be able to sketch out my ideas. Can’t do that the other way around.
Once I’ve done that I should buy that software to help me make my ideas more concrete.
I can then look into that arts council grant, seeing as I’ll now have something to talk about regarding my ideas and sketches.
I can’t book the writing holiday unless I get the grant, so this comes next.
And as the novel I want to write is all about war and stuff, I better finish reading War And Peace as I’m only on page five.
7. Cross projects off your INBOX list as you create them.
I’ve turned ‘Write best selling novel’ into a project now, so I can cross it off my INBOX list.
My INBOX now looks like:
INBOX
Post letters
Learn Spanish
Hmm. Looks like ‘Learn Spanish’ is a project too, it’s way too complicated to cross off my INBOX list. I’m going to have to turn that into a project..
..so you do the same thing with ‘Learn Spanish’ as you did with ‘Write best selling novel’.
My ‘Learn Spanish’ project, once I’ve brainstormed it and then put it in an order, looks like this:
LEARN SPANISH
Look online for Spanish websites
Buy a teach yourself Spanish book
Find a Spanish teacher
Once I’ve done that, my INBOX now looks like this:
INBOX
Post letters
I decide that I’m going to ‘Post Letters’ later today, and just leave it in my INBOX as something I just generally need to do. It’s an easy task, and isn’t going to upset me sitting there looking at me like that.
But now I’m just sitting here. I’m going to do ‘Post Letters’ later. But I’m sure I’ve got things to be getting on with..
8. Choose some projects to work on and make a TODAY list.
You’ll probably have a lot more than two projects going on as in my example. But you need to work out which ones to work on TODAY. Luckily, as you have already figured out the order that things need to happen in these projects you need only concern yourself with the FIRST thing you need to do for each project.
I’ve only got two projects on at the moment, ‘Write Best Selling Novel’ and ‘Learn Spanish’ so I decide to do the first thing on each of those lists. I write a new TODAY list and it looks like this:
TODAY
Talk to Gerald for advice (re book)
Look online for Spanish websites
I decide that’s not really enough to do today so I decide to also ‘Buy a new pen’ (next on the ‘Novel’ list) and ‘Buy a teach yourself Spanish book’ (next on the ‘Spanish’ list)
I’ve realised that in my main INBOX is ‘Post Letters’ too, and I can do that while I’m out buying a new pen and buying a Spanish book. So I fiddle my TODAY list around into the order to do it in. It now looks like this:
INBOX
Buy a new pen
Buy a teach yourself Spanish book
Post letters
Talk to Gerald for advice (re book)
Look online for Spanish websites
And why this order? It’s because I’ve decided I’ve had enough organising my life and think I should leave the house before I come back to talk to Gerald and look for Spanish websites.
I leave the house, and do my stuff - buying a pen, a book and posting those letters.
When I come back I can cross the stuff off the TODAY list. And get on with the next things.
9. When you start each day, move the stuff that you failed to do the day before back into your INBOX. In other words, yesterday’s unfinished TODAY things get put in today’s INBOX.
Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew. That’s ok. There’s always tomorrow, which will become today soon enough.
10. Once a week, review your stuff.
Lists get mangled, things come up and spiral off into other directions, and stuff that needs doing branches off into sub-projects. Ideas become reduntant - actions you thought were essential become irrelevant. So you need to go through your project lists once a week and tidy them up. It helps you reassess what needs to be done next and what doesn’t need to be done at all.
That’s it!
I could say more about all this, for instance ‘Read War And Peace’ is more like a ‘goal’ than a to do list kind of thing. With stuff like that you should set a date and decide (in this case) to read the damn thing before next Friday or any set date you like. Another good thing to do with these kinds of goals is to set aside time to do them each day or on certain dates - kind of ‘book yourself in’ to them, even put them in your diary. For instance, decide to read War And Peace for an hour today between 7pm and 8pm and then some more in two days at lunchtime for an hour. Book it in your diary like an event. If you don’t you may find these thing you’d like to do will never get done, will keep staring at you, and you’ll feel guilty and think about doing them instead of actually doing them.
I could also go on about a concept called ‘contexts’ but unless you’re managing an awful lot of resources in an extremely hectic life, it’s just not worth the bother.
Personally I use some Mac / iPhone software called ‘Omnifocus’ for my lists, and to make it work for me I have had to radically simplify it or it’s too cumbersome. It’s still the best software I’ve found however as it’s the only thing out there that lets me see a really simple view of all the first things of each project I’m working on in one list.
And as I’ve said in a previous post, if you still find yourself staring at lists of things that need doing instead of actually doing them, you could always give yourself a kick by using the Pomodoro technique.
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