Write Down Everything!

For many years, I was proud of the fact that I could remember what needed to be done and the order in which I had to do it. I could easily recall who I needed to call and who I was waiting on to return my call. I knew who I was meeting for the week and where. I knew what deadlines were coming up and what projects were due. I was able to keep all of this organized in my head. However, when I joined the staff at County Line Church the number of projects, meetings, and people I corresponded with increased at a level I could not keep up with using my current system, or lack there of. On my quest for a better system I was introduced to David Allen's book, "Getting Things Done." The concepts of the book is referred to as GTD (Getting Things Done). It changed how I approached my projects and drastically increased my level of productivity. While I don't want to summarize the entire book I do want to highlight a few important principles that can help you move in the right direction. 

The number one principle of GTD is to write everything done. Everything. At first I didn't understand the power of getting that thought, reminder, phone call, or project idea out of my head and on to a piece of paper. It will take some discipline and a few tools to get you moving in the right direction. However, when you finally get this principle down you will find yourself worrying less and having more confidence as you own your projects rather than allowing them to own you. Most importantly, you can then work on creating and producing rather than stressing and fretting over what you were supposed to do or who you were supposed to call. There is a lot of freedom when you write down EVERYTHING!

The next step is to put what you need to do in its proper context. As an example, I have 7 contexts in which I place my to do items. They are "Contacts", "Computer", "Office", "Waiting", "Agenda", "Errands", and "Appointments." The idea is that when you group your to-do's in the same context it will help you to stay focused on your list. This also helps to shrink your to do's down into a manageable workload. Rather than staring at everything I need to do, I can pull up my contact list and begin working in only that contexts. This will also help you to plan ahead and "schedule" yourself to complete your "office" or "computer" work. 

This is not a system for everyone and it really depends on your line of work. However, the beauty of GTD is that it gives you a framework that you can adapt to your own context. As I mentioned earlier, I have many projects going on at once and will have a minimum of 4-6 meetings in a week. I am constantly thinking of new projects that will enhance the mission of our church or for ways to improve what we are already doing. It is imperative that I can keep all of this organized in a way that everything continues to move down the field. If any of this peeks your interest in the least bit then I strongly encourage you to read it!