GTD
“Getting Things Done” is not a new concept, yet it’s lost on many people who — like me and my team — have more coming at them than time to accomplish said work volume generated.
Setting up a way to handle the influx gives one time to focus on “what’s now” and “priority.” And while I’m no expert, below I’m sharing parts of my system in hopes it can help others. Your system need not follow the steps, but any system will help.
- Use a form of Inbox Zero. I use three folders: +Action, +Hold, and Archive. The “+” is to keep those folders above “Archive” in alphabetical order.
- Find a GTD-like system for personal task management. Some prefer Outlook, OmniFocus, or Things (which is my personal favorite, as it syncs nicely with my iPhone). The key is to treat “Today,” “Next,” and “Sometime” as the containers.
- Centralize group task management. We use a modified Bugzilla, but many apps exist. These can be set up to remind once/day to all team members what’s due, or the home log in screen can display the user-specific activities. Bonus: it’s all documented for everyone to use.
- Document repeatable activities. Spend the extra 10 minutes putting repetitive info in a wiki, like TWiki. It will save you time down the road to point to a URL rather than finding that local copy or e-mail.
- Carry a notebook (or something that can document tasks in a central place, like Things on an iPhone) to every meeting. I’m convinced this is where most tasks get forgotten — meetings.
There are a no. of different solutions that accomplish the above as well. The above helps me get through a couple hundred e-mails, tasks, and team activities per day.
Find a system and use it — your time is worth the learning curve.