If you are like most people I work with you wish you had 36 hours in every day. What if I told you that in order to raise your productivity all you needed was a three ring binder, some paper, some tabbed dividers, and a few hours of time?
You’d say I was nuts right? I would have said that if you had asked me that question last year at around this time. Since then I have fully implemented the GTD system by David Allen. It’s been working really well for me – especially now that I have the luxury of a solid eight hours of sleep at night.
If you’ve tried to implement GTD in the past and failed then this article may help you get back on track. In this article we’re going to do a 60 second drive-by of the GTD system (or you can cheat and buy the official GTD planner).
Step One – Building the Planner
The first step is to build the planner. What I want you to do first is take those tabbed dividers and label them like so:
- Inbox
- Calendar
- Action Lists
- Agendas
- Projects/Goals
- Project Planning
- Reference
- Contacts
Once those are done put them in the binder. The next step is to head over to diyplanner.com and grab the official template pack. It’s ok to get the Classic sized pack because Adobe can scale them up to fit the letter paper we will be using. Print out the appropriate templates that you like and add them to the binder.
Next it’s time to brain dump…
Step Two – Collection
This is the best, and hardest, part of the process. In this step we are going to take some blank paper and write down every action item we can think of. The whole point of GTD is that you carry nothing in your head. If you are having a hard time remembering all the items you committed to than the list of incomplete triggers should help you out.
Step Three – Process Your “Amorphous Pile”
Now that your head is empty it’s time to sort and organize that amorphous pile of commitments into a system that allows you to do exactly what you need to do exactly when you need to do it. If you are not familiar with contexts I’ve included a sample list that should suit 98% of the people who read this article.
In your “Action Lists” section label a page for each of these labels:
- @Computer
- @Home
- @Office
- @Errands
- @Phone
- Someday/Maybe
- Waiting For
Now go through your pile and take each item one at a time. Decide what context you will perform that action in and determine if there is anything that is preventing you from doing the action at this time. If there is, then this action is not a “next action” and should be part of a larger project. If not, then add it to the context list.
Step Four – Update Your Calendar
Phew… the last step. During the processing of your pile you should have come across some items that had to be done on a specific day and time. These items do not go into your next action lists but instead on your calendar. Move those items to your calendar now.
Working the System
Now that you have a good system for organizing and planning the work we need to know how to work it. What I do is first thing every morning is look at my calendar and take note of the items there. Then I hit the next actions list and process them one at a time starting with my biggest context – @Computer.
If I am sitting in a conference room and I have 5-10 minutes before the next meeting I grab out the @Phone list and my cell phone and start ripping through the calls. Finally when I get home for the day I look over the @Home and @Errands list and see what I can knock out on those lists.
Do you have any practices that have helped make your more productive? If so, I want to hear about them in the comments!
Bright, shiny objects! 
What do you think?