Why am I Not Making the Progress I Want?
Before I get too deep into this post, I’ll tell you that I have the answer to my own question. It’s not really a rhetorical question, though, because I didn’t have the answer until recently. Well, maybe I did and I didn’t want to admit it to myself. That’s probably closer to the truth. I’m a serious productivity junkie and making progress is very important to me. There’s never a time when making progress is not important, contrary to outward appearances at times.
What do I mean by “productivity junkie?”
I’m so glad you asked. I am in a constant search to improve my life, to do things better, use fewer steps, reach more people with an important message, keep my house neater without killing myself, optimize my income sources. I want to read books deeply and get as much out of them as I can. I want to learn everything in the world, except the medical arts. I want to get immense satisfaction from my vocation and my hobbies. I read newsletters, books, blogs, and books that promise to help me drive procrastination from my life, take action on my dreams, learn something quickly, start something and finish it, succeed at some objective or other. Here’s what I learned:
Systems are the key
Systems are the key to making things happen. I have some really great systems in place. Please understand that I didn’t say that I always stick to them, and therein lies the problem, or, as Shakespeare said, “Ah–there’s the rub.” It’s not enough to have systems; I need to work them as they’re intended to be worked.
Get things done
David Allen’s book Getting Things Done was the game changer for me, because it introduced me to a system that I could put into use immediately and build on and even adapt. The book is not a simple piece of work, because it forces you to consider several things at once while setting yourself up to focus on only one thing at a time. Also, the process of setting up the system is extremely messy. You’re bringing out stuff and dealing with it while you get it all put together, and there’s really no other way to do it. While it is important to have and understand a mission of your own, the work gets done at ground level.
I started using Evernote’s notebooks to keep track of my projects (as defined in Getting Things Done), and it would have worked, but then I discovered an app called Nozbe. I don’t know how well the free version of Evernote would have worked for me, because I have one of the paid versions, and Nozbe is not free either; there’s a free trial so you can see if it will work for you. Nozbe was designed around the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, so it really is the perfect software to help me with the spaghetti that is my thoughts.
The biggest thing that Nozbe and GTD has done for me was in liberating me from trying to remember things. If I have a thought that I want to think about later, or act on later, it goes into some sort of collection system. This system, for me, consists of my email inbox, my paper mail inbox, post-its and other scraps of paper like appointment cards, my paper-based planner, my nozbe inbox, my voice memos on my phone, and a digital voice recorder. (Voice memos rely on an internet connection, and for three years my commute didn’t always have me connected to the internet.) Once an idea has entered my collection system, I don’t think about it again until my coordination day, which is Saturday. (I used to do it on Sunday, but we started doing family dinners on Sundays and I don’t want to take time away from such a wonderful gathering.) The exception is if an item needs action before my coordination day, it goes onto my calendar immediately.
Setting up to GTD
I told you it’s a messy process, and it’s a bit time-consuming, but when you work the system, the system works. You need to set up a file system for papers you need to keep (I did that but I’ve improved it since then, and I’ll explain that later), an incubator, a reading/research file, and a “tickler” file. Allen didn’t call it that, but I worked once for an inventor who did. The tickler file consists of a file folder for each month, plus 31 daily file folders. You’ll have some things that don’t have relevance until some future date, and that’s how this gets used. You arrange the monthly folders chronologically beginning with the current month, and each of the daily folders chronologically beginning with tomorrow’s; the folders for days past will go behind next month’s monthly folder, in preparation for that month. As you approach a new month, you’ll look in the month’s folder and put the items from that folder into appropriate dated folders, then move the month’s folder to the end of the months group. Date- and time-sensitive items need to be noted on your calendar, with a note of the material in the folder. Checking each day’s folder should happen early in your day.
Here’s where the magic happens
On my coordination day, you’re going to gather your collections from your email, your paper mail, your post-its and other paper scraps, your voice memos, your other digital memos and process the material. By “process,” I mean that you will address each item and you will either 1) act on it, 2) schedule it, 3) create a project, or 4) file it appropriately. Allen’s rule is that if something takes less than two minutes, just do it. A project is anything that requires more than two steps. For things you don’t want to make a project for, you use an incubator file. These are articles you want to write, paintings you want to paint, trips you want to take, anything that is nebulous and fluid and not ready for action.
When everything is processed, you can look at your current projects and ask — and this is the critical question — “What’s the next action?” You can’t complete the project until you complete the next action. I sit in a few meetings a week, and the effective meetings focus on actions instead of things “we need” to do. When you understand the next action, you can plan it. If you are unclear as to how to complete the next action, you may be unclear as to what it actually should be.
I also use one project for my recurring tasks–housecleaning tasks, bills that need paid on a certain day of the month, insurance that comes around twice a year for each vehicle, my weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual review, even my annual document purge.
While I was in college, I used a project for each of my courses to help me stay current on my work. I got the assignment list for each course at the beginning of each term, so I was able to line it out for the whole term. I love seeing things get checked off my list. I use Nozbe’s calendar to schedule each “next action” and recurring task. On Saturday morning I get an email that tells me how I did for the week.
Where did I go wrong?
What happened to my system? How did I fall off the rails on everything I wanted to get done? The answer is simple. I quit working my system.
Today’s a new day. I’m going to try to commit to 30 days of working my system. I’m not under any sort of impression that some miracle of productivity is going to happen. I do believe I’ll get more of the things done that matter.
If you’d like to see how Nozbe works, or even how I used Evernote before I got Nozbe, drop a comment below.
What’s your system to accomplish the most important tasks in your world?
