I have always felt that you should never have more than one to do system – ie. you shouldn’t have things you need to do on two independent lists. Why not? Well, duplication means you can never trust whether the list you have in your hand is up to date – “Did I e-mail that photo to Mark? It’s still on this list, but I may have crossed it off on my ‘computer list’…”
The boundary gets a bit blurred when it comes to ‘what I need to do today’ lists. David Allen in his original book said that you should not do this for the above reason amongst others – one trusted system that you always use.
However, the last few months I have been getting a bit bogged down in the sheer amount of things I have going on. At first informally, but now in a more structured manner, I have been starting each day by writing down a list of the things I must get done today. None of the nice-to-do, but the things that I need to have completed to feel that it was worth me joining the rest of the planet this morning.
There are a vast number of daily planner out there – my favourite is David Seah’s beautifully designed Emergent Task Planner. But for my use, I just wanted something simple I can use everyday that doesn’t need any decision. I don’t want to have to fill in how long it might take, what project it relates to, or what time it must be done by. I just want a pure list of things to do in big letter so I don’t get distracted from the point.
So I quickly pulled together a What I Must Do Today Planner.
It’s not exciting. It is not earth shattering. But I include it just to illustrate my thought process. You see, by creating a new list every morning (I actually do it last thing the night before) you are increasing your work. In fact you are duplicating something you already have. SO the key to it working is that it must be very fast, very quick and very obvious.
I have a pile of these printed-out and on my desk at home and work. I just quickly grab one and scribble down what I know I need to do, then have a quick skim through my GTD system to check if there is anything else. It takes 5 minutes tops, but saves me 5 to 10 time this every day – I no long need to ponder over what to do next each time I finish something. And most importantly, I am much more focused on what I need to do – one sheet of paper with just what matters on it, is a great motivator.
So what do you do to make sure you get what you need to done?
