Black Belt Productivity

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I decided to break up the Chapter 2 material into 2 parts. This is one of the MOST important chapters in Getting Things Done^®. I did not want a really long post that glossed over the points, so I decided to post the first part today, and I will post Part 2 on Wednesday.

Thanks for all of the great comments on the Chapter 1. I really appreciate them. Jason and I are working hard to keep great content coming.
- Michael

Chapter 2: Getting Control of Your Life: Mastering the Five Stages of Workflow

David Allen (DA) introduces the backbone of the Getting Things Done^® (GTD^®) system in this chapter. The key to a successful GTD^® system is to make sure that every action goes through five stages:

1. Collect all of our actions into one place,
2. Process what the action is and what needs to be done,
3. Organize them,
4. Review what needs to be done for each before you
5. Do it.

Allen states that most failed implementations are the result of people trying to do ALL five stages at one time. I have been guilty of this on many occasions. I try to set aside time every day to process my collections from the previous day, and then organize them at a later time. I will get more in-depth about each stage shortly.

The first step is collection. There are many points of input in our lives. DA suggests reducing your inputs to a few as you can. I have 5 input points in my life now: 2 physical Inboxes (work and home), 2 email addresses, and 1 voice mail. I use my two Inboxes as my collection points (CP). Every action needs to be recorded to one of your CPs so that you can process it later. For me, any actionable emails get printed out and put into my Inbox. If there is a voice-mail that requires action, I write it down on a 3×5 index card and put it in my Inbox. I carry 3×5 index cards with me at all times for any notes or new actions that come up through the day, Then I drop them into my inbox when I pass by it.

There are three factors for success in the collection phase. Every action must be collected and removed from your head. This is huge for me because my memory is horrible. The more CPs that you have, the longer the other four stages will take. I have reduced my CPs down to two, which I empty every day, if possible. That is the third factor in your collection phase success, regular processing of your CPs.

After you have collected your inputs, you can begin processing each of them. Processing is the single most important stage. During this stage you go through every single scrap of paper that is in your CP.

The first question that you will ask of each item is “Is it actionable?” This will determine which organizational bin the item will fall into. If the answer is “No, it is not actionable” then you have three choices for storing your item.

1. It is trash…throw it out.
2. There is no action now, but there might be one someday.
3. This is a piece of information that I want to hold onto for now.

If you find that the item is actionable, then you have to decide:

1. If this is a project that you are working on, or
2. What the next action (NA) I need to take on this item is.

Now, DA defines “projects” a little different than most of us are accustomed to. A “project” is “any desired result that requires more than one action step.” (page 37) Now, our traditional way of thinking of projects has just been expanded. Everything that we have always thought of as a project is still a project (like staging a new server, or installing a new desktop from my life). But things like “Get new tires for my car” is also now a project. I have to see what size tires I have, call a few places to find the best price, take my car to the shop. That is three definitive steps to getting new tires for my car.

The other choice is to determine the next action for that item. The next action is just like it sounds, the absolute next action to take to move to completion of the project or item. Once you have decided what that is, you need to do something with that next action. You need to:

1. Do it, if it will take under 2 minutes.
2. Delegate it, if you are not the right person to complete the action.
3. Defer it, if you are the right person and it will take longer than 2 minutes. Put the item onto one of you next action lists, which will be discussed shortly.

Please come back on Wednesday for the second half of the second chapter in Black Belt Productivity’s Getting Things Done^® Primer.