If there is a survey of procrastination among Gen Y and Z, there will surely be a considerable amount of the population having the habit of procrastination. Usually, the query lies in the thought of how to do it and if they will be able to complete the work soon… “The most effective way to do it is to do it,” said Amelia Earhart. The methodology behind the aptly named Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity hack. Have you got stuff you want to get done? Just go get it done. Sometimes, there’s a little more to it than that…
To Do Or Do Not; There Is No Initiative
Management consultant David Allen developed the GTD method in his 2001 book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.” The book’s description summarises Allen’s method’s premise: “Our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. We can achieve effective productivity and unleash our creative potential when our minds are clear, and our thoughts are organised.” Are you ready?
The “CCORE” Tenets Of Getting Things Done Strategy
The secret of the system is all about prioritisation. To lay it all out, GTD is broken up into its five core tenets.
- Capture. Write down or type up your to-dos, ideas, and thoughts as soon as they navigate through your brain. Make the capturing process too easy to put off.
- Clarify. It’s easy to write “clean the house” on your notepad, but what does that mean? That one item includes a bunch of other little to-dos that are less intimidating and require less thinking to jump right into. First dust the bookshelf, then sweep the hall? Isn’t that a little Easy?
- Organise. Break down those items further into different groups of priority and category. Cleaning up the broken glass in the kitchen is probably more pressing than getting your high school yearbooks in year-ascending order. It’s also handy to set due dates at this step if you can.
- Reflect. Spend some quality time with your to-do list to see where you can jump in first and what to do next. Reflect on where you’re making progress and where you’re not. (Hopefully, you got to that broken glass.)
- Engage. This step is the actual GTD part. Now that you have all your tasks in their appropriate buckets and broken down into digestible bite-sized chunks, it’s time to do the doing.
A challenge — or benefit — of this system is that it is very customisable. This strategy doesn’t give you specific step-by-step instructions but more of a schematics of a plan that’s up to you to detail. It doesn’t give you fancy tools or software suggestions to help you on your journey either. It’s all about just getting it all down. Who says a specialised notebook is more effective than a scribble on the back of a receipt? Whatever works, works. It’s time to Get Things Done!