GTD - 6

And the final wrap-up....

He says that all of us could be doing more planning, more informally and more often, about our projects and our lives. And if we did, it would relieve a lot of pressure on our psyches and produce an enormous amount of creative output with minimal effort. 

I think that if we took advantage of the moments wherein we have dead time (waiting for an appointment, driving down the highway, etc) to brainstorm, we'd take some pressure off of ourselves.  We wouldn't feel like we're racing against the wall.

He talks about trusting people to do things they say they’ll do (and they never write anything down).  For me, the issue of delegating is a MAJOR matter of trust.  If I know that they're writing down detail, I feel better about their commitment to the task.

Overall, this book was certainly helpful for suggestions in organization.  It also had wonderful ideas for helping to organize thoughts in order to allow the brain to "rest" without stressing over things that have to be done.   While there was much that wasn't applicable to my line of work, there was much that was insightful!

GTD - 5

In this part of my reading I was intrigued by his example of viewing things from an altitude point of view:

• 50,000+ feet: Life 
• 40,000 feet: Three to five-year visions 
• 30,000 feet: One- to two-year goals 
• 20,000 feet: Areas of responsibility 
• 10,000 feet: Current projects 
• Runway: Current Actions

For me, right now the 50,000 is things dealing with my personal life and desires (marriage, family, etc).  The 40,000 deals with the ministry wherein I feel I'm called and where I want it to be in the next five years.  The 30,000 deals with the ministry and different projects I'd like to be working.  The 20,000 deals with overseeing things at the church and in my itinerant ministry.  I'm overseeing my booking agent and also dealing with the choir, worship, and band at church.  The 10,000 is the album that I'm facing and the arrangements I'm writing.  And my runway is my bills, household chores, homework, practice schedule, etc.

GTD - 4

The next three posts will be a list of some things that I thought were great from the book and my thoughts on each one.  Originally I posted this all as one big blog (before being assigned the final THREE blogs).  So, I'll break it up a bit into three blogs!

• I got it all together, but I forgot where I put it! 

For me, things absolutely MUST go in their place or my whole system is thrown off and I get behind. 

• If you put reference materials in the same pile as things you still want to read, for example, you’ll go number to the stack. 

My stacks have to be organized.  (i.e.  things to be filed, things to be paid, calls to be made)  

• “The Actions that Go on Your Calendar”    --- Calendared action items can be either time-specific (e.g., “4:00-5:00 meet with Jim”) or day-specific (“Call Rachael Tuesday to see if she got the proposal”) 

I'm constantly using my calendar for reminders (and setting the alarm) for events and to-do's. 

• You need to trust your calendar as sacred territory, reflecting the exact hard edges of your day’s commitments, which should be noticeable at a glance while you’re on the run. 

His point is that if you begin to fudge on your calendar and the commitments on it, you'll begin to not be able to trust the calendar as a place for reminders.

Overall, this chapter again helped to give practical advice for the organization of the "stuff" we have to oversee in our daily lives.