In my last post I wrote about the difficulty of staying focused and being productive, and decided to find solutions. I tried to look for simple, functional (and cheap) tools for implementing a practical system. After a few days of research, here is what I came up with:

1. I realized I’m not good at multitasking (actually nobody is). I discovered that the idea that we can multi-task is a myth. Humans can’t do lots of things simultaneously, instead we switch our attention from task to task extremely quickly. The switching of attention amounts to less productivity in the end because we lose time and efficiency in the process. The key is to focus on one thing at a time. The question is – how? I addressed this point when…

2. I read about “Getting Things Done”, David Allen’s action management method. Wikipedia has a good summary, and YouTube has a video of one of his talks. GTD is based on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks. This idea may sound obvious, but the theory and process behind it is quite enlightening. You follow these steps: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do.

To collect, you do a kind of mind dump into a “bucket” (notepad, word document, etc), of everything you have pending. Then you process, one item at a time, deciding what steps you need to take to complete those items. Then you organize those steps based on where the action needs to take place, whether it’s part of a project, how urgent it is. You should constantly review the lists to assess what to do next, add new items, check completed items. And of course, nothing happens if you don’t do the work.

The problem for me was – where do I keep this list, or these lists? I remember trying to use the application OmniFocus on my laptop. But the problem was that I didn’t want to keep bringing my laptop to work, or everywhere else for that matter. I also tried carrying around a notebook, but that was impractical, and hand-written lists started getting messy because they would constantly have to be revised, restarted, copied over, and would just end up scattered rather than focused. I decided that the best place for my list was online. So I took the next step…

3. I signed up for SimpleGTD.com. This is an online application that allows for the creation of lists that follow the Getting Things Done model. I can check it at work, at home, on a friend’s computer, while traveling, anywhere. According to the GTD model, when something requires more than one action to get done, it becomes a project. Each action in a project might have a different “context” in which it needs to be executed, (i.e. “home”, or “work”, or “shopping”). So if I log onto sGTD while at work, I go to my list of “Next Actions”, which are all categorized by context. I collapse all other contexts and leave only “Work” expanded. That way I have a shorter list of things to take care of right then and there, or throughout the day, which contribute to the eventual completion of several projects. But it can get a bit overwhelming referring to lists on my computer all the time.  That’s why…

4. I also keep a short list on an index card. As part of my job I need to move around a lot between the various buildings of my workplace. I am not always in front of my computer and will not be able to constantly look at my sGTD list. So I quickly jot down a few items that I can take care of throughout the day, or information that comes up while I’m on the move (“call Omeed after lunch”, “put postcard in the mail”). This list also helps in remembering grocery items.

Another factor in determining productivity is the ability to handle surprises, or large volumes of information, demands, responsibilities, and crises coming our way. The more clear our space is, the better we are equipped to handle new input. Email is a simple example of that…

5. I emptied my email inbox – and kept it that way. According to Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero system, “the problem of email overload is taking a toll on all our time, productivity, and sanity, mainly because most of us lack a cohesive system for processing our messages and converting them into appropriate actions as quickly as possible”. I had watched a video of his talk a while ago and decided to try out his theory that your inbox should ideally have zero messages in it, and each incoming message should be dealt with immediately – either deleted, filed, turned into an action item on a list, or – as I sometimes do – added to a calendar. This brings me to my next step…

6. I keep a very detailed calendar at work (on Microsoft Outlook). This is partly because I’m responsible for my own schedule and it’s very important for me not to forget any events or mess up their starting times. The types of events are color-coded and some of them are almost like to-do items. At the start of every week I review the upcoming week and add items of personal interest where there seems to be free time (“go on a run”, “go to the Shrine”, “movie night”). When emails come in that require an action on a certain day or time, I immediately drag them from my inbox to the calendar and create an appointment. But what if I need to look at my calendar when I’m not at work?

 

I’ve tried keeping a calendar on my laptop (iCal) or online (Google Calendar), and both worked for a while, but I found that it was better to keep my email inbox and my calendar integrated into the same application (Outlook) so that I could drag and drop events, and easily cross-reference email information with appointment information. I had no way of synchronizing two different calendars regularly, and it felt redundant to enter the same appointments into more than one calendar. For a short time I tried printing out a copy of my calendar and carrying it around with me. Then I came across a better solution…

7. Synchronizing my calendar with my mobile phone. This allows on-the-road access to an electronic calendar that I’ve carefully maintained while in the office, based on the cohesion of information between my Outlook inbox, my sGDT lists, and other factors such as my Gmail inbox, phone calls, or notes jotted down on the index card. A quick glance at my phone reminds me of where I need to be next and what I need to prepare for the rest of the day. But amidst a sea of micro-practicalities, I need moments for reflection, brainstorming, and perspective. Drudging through a grid-lock schedule hardly allows for creativity and thinking out of the box.

8. My little big picture notebook is meant for exactly that – keeping perspective. I’ve tried using it for making to-do lists but I did not consult it regularly enough, and the lists would get lost among disorganized pages. My Moleskine is probably not meant to contain structured content. I tend to write in it when I have 5 or 10 minutes to wait, or a few creative ideas floating around in my head. Once in a while when I have a couple of hours I look through it and gather the ideas into larger concepts that eventually become projects that reflect broader objectives and life goals.

If the Moleskine is what I use to capture ideas floating around in my head, then…

9. I use Del.icio.us to capture ideas floating around on the web. It is the quickest way I found to save, describe, tag and share interesting and useful links. And best of all, these bookmarks are saved online, which means I can access them no matter what browser or computer I’m using, I can save an unlimited amount of them without feeling cluttered, and because the tags are intuitive and comprehensive, I can easily find them later. The only links I save on the Bookmarks Bar of Safari and Firefox, for example, are ones I access regularly: Gmail, sGTD, WordPress, Vimeo, TED, etc.

Finally, I do one last thing to ensure my peace of mind about this world of information that slowly gathers as I try to develop a framework and a workflow for everything I do. 

10. I back it all up. I use the application Time Machine on OS X Leopard, which automatically creates a backup of everything on my laptop whenever I hook it up to a specific external hard drive. I keep this hard drive in a safe place at work, so that when I occasionally bring my computer to work, it can perform this task.

After about a week of implementing and trying out this new system, I do feel more at ease, and generally more productive. Obviously there are times when I still feel unfocused, since there is never a shortage of distractions. I suppose it’s necessary to be distracted sometimes, since we need time set aside for rest and relaxation. Even that, however, can be done in a directed fashion, which could help eliminate the feeling of always having a list of books to read, and never actually getting through any of them, for example.

Getting organized, it seems, is not only about designing a system and never deviating from it. It’s also about maintaining the system, being disciplined and consistent, but flexible enough that the system is regularly under review and being improved. If something doesn’t work, for instance if I never refer to my online list and items keep piling up, it might be time to switch to a good old-fashioned notebook. After all, there is nothing quite as satisfying as being able to cross an item off a list with real physical ink.