How to manage GTD with high rate of priorities change

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Igldh

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I'm using GTD since a couple months and my life has been transformed, I'm much more productive now in my personal agenda. But I'm having troubles to adapt GTD techniques in my professional life. The problem is that my boss is very anxious and creative (dangerous combination) and everyday my tasks and priorities are changed. It's IMPOSSIBLE to organize what I have to do and actually do it the way I planned. I tried dozens of times to begin a day with a task list and finishing it. So I'd like to hear from you if it happens with you too, if yes how do you manage it? If it's not a problem for you, I'll be sure that I'm the problem.. :)

Sorry about my english, not my first language.

Thanks
 
People, such as bosses and spouses, can certainly make life difficult for you, but:

I'd say the core of GTD is not to actually pre-plan your day, but just to make sure you have all the next actions listed such that you can pick whatever suits any particular moment. And if something new comes up you just put it on your list or just do it straight away. This is very neat, and I like it a lot, at least in theory.

In practice, I usually try to go a little bit beyond that, not by planning things exactly by date or priority, because I do not believe in that, but by making a tentative "hotlist" for today (that I add to and subtract from as I go, depending on what turns up) or by trying to pre-group items that I will likely do at the same time in the near future (e.g. a few errands in the same part of town) or by simply marking next actions that are particularly "hot" or "cool" with special colors to make them easier to see. Etc.

But the problem you are having, that we probably all have to some extent, is the fact that reality keeps throwing stuff at us all the time. We simply must be prepared to adapt.
 
I'd echo what Folke said. I work in an environment where priorities are constantly changing as well. I may plan to work on a particular task but something happens at 9:00 am that takes up the rest of the day. No problem - you have your complete list of tasks/projects ready to go so when that something new shows up you can decide if it is more important than everything else on your list. At some point (at least once a week during the weekly review) you will look at your entire list and it may well be that some of the tasks you originally planned to do are no longer required with your new reality. No problem - delete them!

If it is specifically your boss who changes your priorities, it is even more important to have these lists handy. When she gives you something new to do, you can show her the list and ask if the new task is a higher priority than the previously assigned work.
 
I think SiobhanBRs response touches on some very important things when you work in a rapid changing environment.

I would encourage you to go away from the daily todo-lists over to action lists sorted by context- and only put the most important things on them. And then review them when you want to do work. This is so much more flexible than daily to do-lists when things change rapidly.

And also remember to "snack off your your inbox" through the day- 15 mins here, 20 mins there, so you can update your system with the recent changes from your boss.. :)

And at last: Be strict on blocking out two hours in your calendar for the weekly review every week. Maybe you´ll even need a mini-weekly review in the middle of the week- just to scroll over your projects and update the list, so it will reflect the current status.

This seems like a lot of work, but my experience is that when I manage to do this, I get things done much faster and my stress level decreases very very much.
 
Thanks for your attention!

I need to improve my control over the next action list, I need to use it more. Sometimes I forget that it exists and then I spent 2 or 3 hours doing somethings that popped from nowhere and after some time I realize that I should've stopped and used my list to decide what's best to do. I tried to use Evernote but it's blocked in my work network so I'm using Toododle and it's really helping to organize "what I should do".

Thanks
 
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