Each Wednesday The Daily Saint hosts the GTD Cafe, focusing on David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology.
I subscribe to a number of newsletters which I find to be extremely helpful. One that arrived this week is called The High Calling and featured an article by James C. Schaap called The Influence of Small Decisions. Like many who read The Daily Saint on a regular basis, I've found GTD to be extremely helpful in decision making throughout the day. Here are just four instances when GTD can help us navigate the demands of daily life:
Waking Up: fix your rising time with an alarm that's set to the same time each day. Putting mind over mattress gives you a leg up on the competition.
Starting the Day with Purpose: Leo from Zen Habits has a great recommendation of setting three Most Important Tasks (MIT's) for the day. David Allen speaks often about the importance of prioritizing actions in a simple manner.
Managing Interruptions: it's a myth that a workday (whether at home or at the office) should be free of interruptions- just deal with them with grace and patience. All you can do is respond and react but it's your choice to make. Phones will ring, "friends" will stop by to chat, emails will arrive- all are getting in the way of your productivity...or are they? I appreciate David Allen's take on interruptions when he speaks of how true GTD practitioners absorb them when they come.
Finishing Well: rather than leaving the office with a desk full of paper and unfinished tasks rolling around in your head, put them down on paper and get that workspace in shape for the next day. You'll have closure on the day and the following day will already be more successful simply by the way you are finishing today. You'd never leave your kitchen a mess after dinner so why leave your workspace in disarray?
Quote for the Road
"It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters." Mother Theresa of Calcutta
Newsletters Worth a Look
Click here for my previous post about practical newsletters worth reading.