Consider The Flight of Time: My GTD Progress Part 2

by HijabMan :: posted 21 May 07

Okay, now that you all have read why I’m doing this, now it’s report card time for Phase I.

As I’ve mentioned [read: quoted from Wikipedia] before, Getting Things Done by David Allen is a sort-of organizational-time management system that I’m trying to implement in my life. And I am convinced it will make be a better person (not to mention a better Muslim, oh ho! I feel another post: Islam and GTD)

In a nutshell, according to David Allen, this is a description of GTD:

“Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up — not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you’re doing (and not doing) at any time.”

So, the first step in this approach is to collect/capture everything in my head, and every input that is coming my way. Allen suggests we ask ourselves, “What has my attention?” to aid in this collection process.

According to the Wikipedia entry:

Capture everything that you need to track or remember or act on in what Allen calls a ‘bucket’: either a physical inbox, email inbox, tape recorder, notebook, pda, or any combination of these. Get everything out of your head and into your collection device, ready for processing. All buckets should be processed to empty at least once per week.

Again, changing one’s learned behaviors (in my case, dysfunctional behaviors, hah!) is quite challenging. I have set up an inbox, but I’m still struggling with writing/recording the thoughts in my head during the day. I’m so used to depending on my brain, that I haven’t been able to consciously change my behavior to, “Okay, I need to write this down.” So, while my everyday thoughts aren’t all being captured yet, I’ve definitely made a huge effort in my apartment, and now all bills, mail, things I need to file, and take care of get thrown in ONE place.

The next step is processing. All of the items in my inbox should be processed at least once a week, and I should have a tickler file to see what I need to do. I’m definitely processing the inbox once every week (or two…), but I continue to rationalize my tendency to say, “Oh, I can do this later.” As a result, I do have things in my inbox currently- that I haven’t had the motivation to deal with yet.

As far as project-planning goes, I haven’t really gotten there yet. All I can say is that it helps me to think less of the big pictures, and more of the “next actions” associated with the project.

It’s funny, I liken it to washing the dishes. I keep spinning this idea that the dishes are so messy and I don’t want to do them that it becomes this HUGE rock that I cannot lift. When I finally get around to dealing with the dishes, they take 15 minutes and I laugh about how stupid I was for waiting so long!

I’ll give those of you who care another update in a month or so.

Now all I need is a man purse…

Affad Shaikh at 21 May 07 :: #

hey buddy, this book actually was read by this american muslim some time last year and well he loved the practicality in the book and thought it to be quite well put.

However, this american muslim (me) has not really implemented fully any of the things mentioned in the book and for that he (I am) is paying dearly with his life at home, at work and in general….so word to this Hijabman endeavor is to fully implement what this Allen fella is gupshaaping or else the consequences will destroy your very little universe.

Welcome! This site serves two main purposes: to entertain and educate the Believing and curious community, and to generate a bit of cash—God willing. But there’s a lot more about HijabMan.

Consider The Flight of Time: My GTD Progress Part 2

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