3- Energy availableAs the day passes, your energy and focus diminishes. tackle your most important, most difficult work first thing in the morning . Things that need to be done but require very little mental horsepower can help you stay productive at all hours of the day. 4- PriorityOf all the things you could do, what should you do? When you have a clear picture of what your goal is in each area of your life, it helps your decision become easier to decipher what work is more important than others.

Step 5 - Continued

Weekly review: You can do a 30-minute weekly review in three steps. 1- Empty all of your inboxesProcess everything you've collected in your inboxes that hasn't been dealt with yet. Start with you notes, then your lists, then your notebook, then your paper tray and finally your inbox. 2- Review your calendarReview events of past two weeks then look ahead to next two weeks. While doing that write down anything that reminds you to do something or sparks an idea.3- Update your listsUpdate all of the lists that you use for you daily workflow and determine if you need to follow up on something.

Step 4 - Continued

You know when you have this great idea but then forget it. Well, from now on this is what you're gonna do. First of all, when you ever catch yourself things "I need to, or I should" you need to write it down, these types of phrases mean you have something on your mind. If you don't these open loops can become a source of mental stress and distraction.

Step 1: Capture... everything that has your attention

In the image above, if you click on it, it is a visual representation of how you can clarify your ideas from step 1. Question #1: Is it actionable?If "No" refer to next pointIf "Yes" follow up with two more questionsQuestion #2: What's the next action?Question #3: Will it take less than two minutes?

Step 2: Clarify... what needs to be done?

Focus: GTD can help ou boost your focus, when you start doing things and get things rolling GTD can help give you the stepping stones on how to be more focused when doing your work. Creativity: GTD teaches you how to organize and prioritize. This can help give you a better insight on the bigger picture and change your perspective which can help you benefit from different opportunities and situations. There is a noticeable increase in creativity after learning how to GTD.

What can GTD (getting things done) do for you?

Refer to question 2 and 3. After answering question 2 and 3 here's what you can do...1- Do itIf it's less than two minutes, do it now. (e.g. Email short response, follow up with a quick phone call, new calendar invite(check schedule))2- Delegate itIf you're. not the best person for the job, decide who you think is and how you're going to pass on the information to them (e.g. email, call..)3- Defer itThings you need to do - just not right now.

Action Items

The organization framework for GTD has 7 parts to it...1- Next Actions ListsOrganize into things to do at work, things to do at home and agendas. 2- Project ListsAnything that requires more than one step to complete.. Consolidate it all into one list and mark them either "On Hold, In Progress or Completed". 3- CalendarUse for things that must be done by a certain day or time or things that need to be done as soon as possible.4- Waiting For ListKeeps track of things you're waiting to get back from other people.Continued in next point...

Step 3: Organize...information so you can find it later

It's now time to get to work, here's the four-criteria model that you can use to make intuitive decision about what to do next.  1- ContextAt any point in time, you can only do what you are capable of doing in your given environment. This is the reason your next action list is organized into things to do at home and to do at work. 2- Time availableDo you have enough time to complete a task, or at least make meaningful progress?Continued in next point...

Step 5: Engage... in the right activities

You're gonna want to set up a couple of different systems so you can write any ideas down whenever. Personal notebook: Get a physical notebook, one that you can carry around. Nothing beats paper and pen. You can jot down any ideas, events anythings coming up in this notebook. Paper tray: Get yourself a nice paper tray and put it on the corner of your desk. Even though it takes up a good amount of space on your desk, you will use it a lot. You can use it to put any memos, business cards, sticky note will be put on this tray. Note taking app: evernote, google keep, notion...

How can I implement this in my day-day life?

For your non-actionable items you can put it into 4 different categories. 1- TrashTrash is trash. If you don't need it, throw it out. 2- Someday/MaybeThese items don't require your attention at the moment but you might need to do it later. You can put a reminder on your calendar or write them down on a list. (e.g. a software that you'd like to try but don't have the time to download right now.)3- RemindersAdd them to your calendar (aren't at the top of your list). 4- Reference materialPotentially useful info that you want to keep

Non-actionable Items

5- Someday/Maybe ListsOrganize the things you want to reassess sometime in the future.6- Reference MaterialStuff that's interesting but doesn't represent something you need to act upon. (e.g. quotes from a book, notes, articles..)7- Project Support MaterialInformation that relates to a project you're working on. Google drive and gmail are both very useful tools you can utilize to organize your files and information.

Step 3 - Continued

Daily planning and weekly review are the two habits that keeps your GTD system running. Daily planning: Start with your calendar, it should give you everything you need to do for each day. Once you've seen what you are going to do prioritize your tasks off your Next Action lists. Taking a couple things from that list everyday can help get things done as long lists are intimidating, short lists get things done. Finally, review any other lists as needed. Weekly review continued in next point...

Step 4: Reflect... and prioritize your work

This diagram can help you make decision about what you are doing. this priority framework is based on a similar idea proposed by Stephen Covey in his book ( The 7Habits of Highly Effective People). Covey teaches that everything we do falls into one of four quadrants. A time management matrix can be created by one axis of relative importance, and second axis of relative urgency.

The Quadrants

This is based off of a article from Tyler Devries on how to get things done and what it can do for you. It is a long read so I do recommend stashing it so you can look back to it for reference if you forget. 

Learn the method for Getting Things Done (GTD). I'll show you how to get started using specific examples of the habits and tools that I use.

The Quadrants

Similar ideas to The Quadrants

The Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix

The Firefighter