Hello In[FOCUS] Reader,
Welcome to the 2nd installment of Organizing Your Workspace!
Our organizing bible is David Allen’s Getting Things Done. He has by far the most in-depth and complete organizational concepts that we were able to find, so much so, it would be the longest post in IN[FOCUS] history if we tried to teach you everything we’ve learned. In part I, Corbin and I shared with you exactly how far we had to go to increase our efficiency by organizing our office and workflow. Today, this will be more of a teaser for the 3rd and final installment, but also an overview for what you can learn when you read Getting Things Done or listen to the audiobook.
Here are just a few of David Allen’s life-altering strategies and some examples (at the bottom) of how we are implementing them:
The Major Change: Getting Everything Out of Your Head
The Two Key Objectives:
- capturing all things that need to get done out of your mind and into a trusted, logical system
- disciplining yourself to make quick decisions about all the inputs you let into your life, so you’ll always have a plan for next actions that you can implement at any time.
Your Daily To-Do list doesn’t work:
- calendars should be sacred, everything for your day should be able to be completed
- not completing the day’s tasks and having to move them to future dates is unproductive and demoralizing
- the very heart of his Daily Action Management Organization are your calendar and Action Lists
Collecting All Your Life Stuff, So You Can Get It Out Of Your Head:
- every open loop is in your collection, so it’s in your head
- have as few as possible in-baskets, but as many as you need
- empty regularly by reviewing them all
Collection Tools (Your In-Baskets):
- physical in-basket
- paper-based note taking devices
- electronic note taking devices
- recording devices
- email
The above bullet points are the tip of the iceberg from the wealth of knowledge we’ve received from David Allen’s program. Here’s how Corbin and I have implemented it thus far:
Our upcoming goals to accomplish a more carefree, efficient life:
- desks with greater workspace and storage capacity
- physical in-baskets
- large paper filing system
- shelving for closet, The Container Store can customize to fit your storage needs
In the third and final entry in this series, we will show you how we executed what we’ve learned from Getting Things Done and how it has benefited our workflow and business!
Dave and Corb, Soulbox
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