Time Management

C

chacha

0
Hello veterean gtders,

A recent quora answer on time management

https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-...-a-required-daily-routine-or-an-urgent-matter

Some bloggers recommend that you optimize your productivity using David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) method. This method is based on the idea that starting with the smaller and easier tasks creates a snowball effect that will help you tackle the rest of your tasks, including the larger ones, more easily. However, I don’t think this is an optimal usage of anybody’s time. Most people are creative and most able to tackle demanding tasks first thing in the morning. So why would you spend the time where you’re cognitively sharpest to respond to emails, pay your bills, or work on other easy tasks? It seems like a waste of your cognitive resources.

I am very comfortable with GTD, but this challenged me to think. I am in a profession with constant interruptions, I am pretty good at saying NO, but I take my obligations a little too seriously.

I would like your wise take on this

chacha
 
I think this person on Quora doesn't really understand GTD. GTD isn't about tackling the small and easy tasks first - it's about breaking down each task into its steps and tackling those. A task can be clear, define an action, and still be complex and require mental focus.
 
I agree, but it did raise some questions. When should you do your daily and weekly reviews? I see value in doing it when you are sharpest. Wouldnt that make the rest of the day so much easier? Or should you do your prioritised projects at that time?
 
I find that I cannot complete my weekly review if I do not complete it first thing in the morning. I consider the review, which defines my work and priorities, a complex item that should only be tackled when my brain is not fatigued. I used to do Friday afternoon reviews and when Monday rolled around, I'd forgotten this or that. It's been Mondays at 8am for years now :)
 
chacha said:
Some bloggers recommend that you optimize your productivity using David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) method. This method is based on the idea that starting with the smaller and easier tasks creates a snowball effect that will help you tackle the rest of your tasks, including the larger ones, more easily.
Click to expand...

Nothing to comment here. A false statement. Period. Like "GTD recommends starting with tasks related to vampires to make sure your blood is safe." :-D
 
chacha said:
I agree, but it did raise some questions. When should you do your daily and weekly reviews? I see value in doing it when you are sharpest. Wouldnt that make the rest of the day so much easier? Or should you do your prioritised projects at that time?
Click to expand...

For me, the most important factor is the likelihood of interruption--it's more important than my personal mental freshness. There's one day every two weeks when I'm almost guaranteed not to be interrupted, so that's the day that I try to do the most planning. Similarly, I'm less likely to be interrupted at the end of my day than the beginning.
 
GTD is not meant to do the easiest things first. David recommends to choose a task to to in this order:
  1. By its context
  2. By time available
  3. By resource
By context
Ask yourself What can I do now?. When you are at work in your office, all your undone work in your context home are not possible to do now. Choose an action out of your context office or out of any context that is relevant in the moment.

By time available
If you still have 30 minutes before the next meeting, choose an action that takes no longer than 30 minutes. That also means that you can reject an action that might be more important but tasks more that 30 minutes.

By resource
After having applied the first two criteria ask yourself if you have the energy to do the action you think you should do. If not, choose another one for which your energy level is sufficient.

I follow this process of selecting a suitable action and I am very happy with it. Remember, all actions in my action list can be done as soon as possible following the scheme above. My action list doesn't contain any action that has to be done on a particular day or at a particular time. Those actions go to my calendar and are done when the time is come.

Concerning your question when to do the daily and weekly reviews I can tell you how I do handle this.

I use a GTD software that allows me to define for every project how often it should be reviewed. For most of my project I set up an interval of 10 days. The software collects all projects that are ready for a review. I go it through once a week or if I have just a bit of time left.

The daily review is done at the end of the day. At this time I look through my inbox that contains everything I collected this day.

During the day I collect everything that will need my attention in my inbox. If there ist something urgent among it, I do not put it in my inbox because I would review it in the evening and that could be to late. Instead, I decide immediately what to do and take the appropriate action or put it in my calendar for today. But with using the GTD methodology consequently, urgent things do not happen too often. I have always the control over my workload and if other people make this urgent I always can decide if this is more important to me than the current action I am working on and if I can handle my workload planned for today even if I agree to this unplanned action.

Greetings, braintertainer
 
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