{"id":143245,"date":"2021-03-12T09:21:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T09:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=143245"},"modified":"2021-03-12T09:25:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T09:25:37","slug":"gtd-from-the-top-episode-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2021\/03\/12\/gtd-from-the-top-episode-5\/","title":{"rendered":"GTD From the Top – Episode 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome back to GTD\u00ae from the Top. In this series I\u2019m aiming to distil the core ideas behind the Getting Things Done\u00ae methodology into easily digestible bites. I\u2019m hoping that you\u2019ll use this series to reflect on how GTD might better help you or your organisation to be as productive, fulfilled, and stress-free as you want to be.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the series we explored the fundamental nature of our\u00a0commitments<\/em><\/a>, and the importance of both\u00a0achieving<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0maintaining<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>as concepts to understand our productivity.\u00a0 In the third edition I looked at the importance of\u00a0envisioning outcomes<\/em><\/a> as a way to influence both what happens in the future and to optimise our current engagement with our world.\u00a0 In episode four I explored best practices in organising<\/em><\/a> the information we use to keep ourselves productive when we want to be, and undistracted when we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Episode 5: How do you make best use of your system?<\/h3>\n

OK, so let\u2019s assume you have an organisational system that\u2019s external (not in your head) and that it is structured in such a way that it has the clean edges that we looked at in the last episode.<\/p>\n

How then do you make best use of your system? How do you ensure that it\u2019s giving you what you need, when you need it? What would you look at, and when?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve got a system that\u2019s organised as we suggest, the good news is that a lot of this will happen very naturally, and you\u2019ll be able to interact with your system intuitively. Let\u2019s say you\u2019re prepping yourself for a meeting with your boss. In that moment, what do you want to see? A list of the things you want to discuss with her, and possibly also the things you\u2019re waiting for her to do for you. If your system is set up with the \u201cagenda for boss\u201d lists and \u201cwaiting for boss\u201d lists we discussed last time, then there is no great mystery about what you\u2019ll need to review in order to be ready for that meeting.<\/p>\n

The problem for a lot of people is that the way they have their information organised doesn\u2019t support this kind of appropriate reminding. Faced with the looming meeting with the boss, they might need to first find and review a number of emails in various locations, several posts in Microsoft Teams, and some written notes from past meetings, also in various places. The problem with their system, such as it is, isn\u2019t that it\u2019s messy. It\u2019s that it doesn\u2019t support the kind of friction-free interaction with their information that would serve them best in the moment.<\/p>\n

So the structure of your system is key. An equally important factor is the extent to which you can trust that the contents of your system are an accurate reflection of your current reality. Even the best designed system, if it\u2019s filled with outdated content, will be a drag on your productivity and will increase your stress.<\/p>\n

To be clear, I\u2019m not making the case that your system is completely up to date every minute of every day. Frankly the world just moves too fast to make that a realistic option. But regularly aligning your system and your world is key to staying both productive and stress-free in the long term. That\u2019s the thinking behind what we call the Weekly Review\u00ae, one of the core best practices in Getting Things Done\u00ae. During a Weekly Review you take the time to make sure that your reality and your system match each other, by reviewing and updating its contents.<\/p>\n

So have a think about your own organisational system and the ways you interact with it. Is the experience one of friction-free flow? Or is there a rub?<\/p>\n

In the end, this comes down to a question of trust. The Cambridge dictionary tells us that trust is \u201cthe firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of something.\u201d If your system is structured in the right way for you, and you attend to its care and feeding on a regular basis, then you\u2019ll trust it. And the partnership between you and your trusted system will lead to amazing things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to GTD\u00ae from the Top. In this series I\u2019m aiming to distil the core ideas behind the Getting Things Done\u00ae methodology into easily digestible bites. I\u2019m hoping that you\u2019ll use this series to reflect on how GTD might better help you or your organisation to be as productive, fulfilled, and stress-free as you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_eb_attr":"","gtp_columnspro_styling":"{}","gtp_paragraph_styling":"{}","gtp_heading_styling":"{}","gtp_spacer_styling":"{}","gtp_video_styling":"{}","gtp_group_styling":"{}","gtp_cover_styling":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[310,311,29,320],"tags":[1254,51,53,4131,157,62,307,79,109],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143245"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=143245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}