Through 38% of "Getting Things Done"

Again, while I felt like I was reading a commentary on a corporate workplace, I was able to find some "nuggets" that I felt could be applied to my place of work.  (It was though I felt like I'm the blue collar reading about the white collar worker.)

He mentions at the beginning of Chapter 3 that "the key ingredients of relaxed control are (1) clearly defined outcomes (projects) and the next actions required to move them toward closure, and (2) reminders place in a trusted system that is reviewed regularly.  For me the reminders being in the trusted place has been implemented some time ago; however, the "next actions" idea was new for me.  As an interim minister of music without a formal secretary, I do rely on the volunteers and other secretaries to help me accomplish some tasks.  I think that this week I'll try to not just list the goal, but the "actions required to move them toward closure."

Other "nuggets" I found were:

"But as a general rule, you can be pretty creative with nothing more than an envelope and a pencil."

"In my experience, when people do more planning, more informally and naturally, they relieve a great deal of stress and obtain better results."

"Have you envisioned wild success lately?"  I love this one.  This goes hand-in-hand with another statement he made, "You often need to make it up in your mind before you can make it happen in your life."     It actually reminds me of a phrase my pastor used to have the church say as we were preparing a massive building project of a 1,000 seat sanctuary:  "If you don't see it before you see it, you'll never see it." 

While I remember brainstorming in high school as a part of a class project, it's not been something that I've implemented much in my life.  Don't know why!  As I read his thoughts on it, I found myself eager to try that again in terms of worship planning.

Because I spend MUCH time in the car (driving to each concert venue), I have a lot of ideas that pop in my head -- concerning many areas of my life -- and often times they're gone by the time I get home because I don't have anything with which to capture them.  Allen states, "You increase your productivity and creativity exponentially when you think about the right things at the right time and have the tools to capture your value-added thinking."

His dialogue on setting up an office space was, again, one of those things that I read, but felt didn't necessary apply to me -- at least not entirely.  There were good suggestions, but many of the things he suggested are not tools that I need (or want to need) in my day-to-day routine.  However, I loved his comment on the Brother labeler as I have one on my desk to simply label my filing cabinet folders wherein I keep my bills.   Good call!

He also busted me on the suggestion of keeping extra folders on hand -- and yes -- I'm still using HANGING folders!  ;-)   But I do run out a little more frequently than I should and things get piled.  So, score one more for Allen!

Let's see if he gets any more in the next chapters!