No time for processing

[pxt]

pxt,

I loved your way of being squeaky clean and staying on top of things .

What exactly did you mean by "scoping down"? And what criteria do you use for that?

Mic

Hi Mic,

In this thread we were talking about software project work. These usually consist of a large number of features with varying degrees of importance and therefore it's quite easy to rate them in terms of importance and then trim the list you decide to commit to.

The more credibility you have, the more ruthless you can be in this trimming, and therefore the more successful you can be in delivering what you promised which is quite rare in this business.

I find that making my GTD system visible to others builds that credibility. People know that if they come to my desk, I will capture what they have told me in front of them, communicate back to them what my next action will be by email and I always do it - nothing slips through the cracks, thanks to the GTD workflow.

 

[lizacrew]

You talked to me about X, you said Y, and my next action is Z. Since you have to do this anyway, why not think it through in an email - this is the clarifying step - and you send them the result in a click.

 

[Cesar]

I used to go through periods when it was really hard to take the time to process things.

Besides the obvious problem with not processing things, I felt like it weighed on my psyche to know that I had all those unprocessed items.

In other words, I felt like I was falling behind, and NOT getting things done.

Whenever I think I don't have time for processing things, I remember a friend of mine from elementary school whose mom owned a restaurant.

I remember vividly watching her do her bookkeeping at night while watching TV. Because she would spend her whole day cooking and running the restaurant, she didn't have time for that during the day.

Processing is like bookkeeping. As you need to stay on top of your books to run your business, you need to process your inboxes to run your life.

You must find the time, and the best way to do it is to make it so it becomes part of your routine. Just as we always have time to eat, brush our teeth, and watch that one TV show, we need to make "processing" part of that sacred list of tasks we do without thinking.

Here's an interesting article on how to establish a habit:

http://www.dragosroua.com/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/

Processing has become part of my daily life, and I do it constantly.

I know that David Allen says once we start processing our inbox we can't stop until we finish it, but I've found that sometimes I'll open my inbox folder and just process an item or two while I wait on hold on the line, for example. It needs to become second nature.

I hope this helped!