ADD and Becoming Productive - Part 2

We began this series by introducing you to author David Allen’s book that addresses stress-free productivity.  As you recall, there are five stages of mastering your flow of work:  Collect; Process; Organize; Review; and Do.  This article will focus on the second stage – Process.

 

Remember that your goal is to “empty” your brain of these things you must do if you want to decrease your level of stress.  In order to do that, you must identify and collect those things that are on your mind and then make a plan about how you will handle them.

 

Why is there so much stuff in your brain?  Simple. 

 

• You have not determined what you ultimately want the outcome to be
• You have not determined what the very next physical action should be that will move you toward completion
• You have no system for keeping reminders of what needs to be done, when, how, etc.

 

There are three basic requirements for managing your tasks if you want to be stress-free rather than frazzled, exhausted, and overwhelmed!

 

1. If it is on your mind, then you can’t clear your mind.  This is where the “collect” stage comes from.  You take what’s on your mind and collect into various categories that you will address at some point.
2. In order to complete a task, you need to clarify what it is you must do.
3. Once you’ve got the decisions made about your plan of action, you will need to develop a system of reminders that you can view on a regular basis – this makes up stage 2 – organize!

 

The first step in organizing your “stuff” is the ask yourself a simple question:

 

What do you need to do about each email, voice-mail, memo, or self-generated ideas that are collected?

 

The answer to this will form the basis for how you organize your work.  So rather than throwing all of your emails, for example, into a pile, you will organize your emails based on the action you have determined to take on each one.  Here’s how you do it.

 

Let’s say your basket of emails is full.  Take those emails and use as practice to learn the process for organizing.

 

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You are well on  your way to getting a handle on your workflow if you begin using the first two stages.  Next time, we will look at organizing your results!