GTD

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The 2 minute rule

October 1, 2010 in GTD, Productivity by George | No comments

If you can get something done in two minutes or less, don’t write it down on some list, don’t let it rattle around in your brain…just do it. Right now.

I’ve written a TON on David Allen’s Getting Things Done book. (Here’s a Ten Minute Crash Course on GTD I put together.)

Having used the system for a long time, I’m convinced that, while the whole system is valuable, there are two things that are the most essential.

Happily, both of these things are easily applied, and will provide great results (higher productivity/less stress) with minimal effort.

The first is the two-minute rule.

Simply put, it states that if you have an “open loop” (i.e. something that you’ve thought about more than once, but have taken no action towards completing) that you can close in two minutes or less, you should just do those things, as opposed to writing them down on some sort of list.

It sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly powerful.

We all have these little “open loops” that occupy the same amount of space in our minds as the big things. In this manner, these small things keep you from accomplishing big things.

Some examples of things that fall under the 2-minute rule category for me:
1. Short email replies (I’m trying to adhere to the “Twitter approach” for emails; i.e. whenever possible, keep them under 140 characters)
2. Clearing the desk: filing/scanning the crap that collects on my desk
3. Paying a bill online
4. Scheduling/accepting meetings on Google Calendar
5. Synching/backing up iPhone/iPad (the actual backup may take longer, but I can do what I need to do in way less time)

Again, the point is to get these things that will often nag you at the worst possible time (i.e. middle of the night) out of your head, and done (and, again, don’t put it on some kind of list; it’ll often take longer to put these things on a to-do list than to just do them (by the way, to do lists don’t work).

As for the second easily-implemented-but-powerful GTD tip, watch this space.

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Whenisgood helps with scheduling

May 3, 2008 in GTD, Productivity by George | 2 comments

Very fine musician and student, Michael Girardot (check out his fantastic band, Antenna Inn), sent me a link to this very useful meeting management app.

Certainly a great thing for scheduling band rehearsals, etc.

One way to guarantee to make me happy, send me an email that starts (as Michael’s did) with the phrase: “I feel like being a maven.”

Thanks, Michael

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Excellent GTD summary

February 20, 2008 in Productivity by George | No comments

After some sweet npr plugging on GTD, 43 Folders has compiled a post of all their great resources for this essential organizational approach.

I talk about it a lot here at 9GS too, and if the 43 Folders information seems a bit daunting at first, do have a look at my 10 minute crash course on GTD

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Quicksilver script for Twitter

February 15, 2008 in tech by George | 2 comments

twitter

The jury is still out here at 9GS HQ with re Twitter. I’m trying it, and there’s something compelling about it, but – eh – just not sure.

If, however, your convinced that up to the minute updating of your activity is imperative, this very nice script makes it super easy to update your Twitter feed.

You’ll need the free Twitter client, Twitterific.

Once you have it loaded up, just paste this script into your script editor:

using terms from application “Quicksilver”
on process text tweet
tell application “Keychain Scripting”
set twitter_key to first Internet key of current keychain whose server is “twitter.com”
set twitter_login to quoted form of (account of twitter_key & “:” & password of twitter_key)
end tell
set twitter_status to quoted form of (“status=” & tweet)
set results to do shell script “curl –user ” & twitter_login & ” –data-binary ” & twitter_status & ” http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json”
— display dialog results
return nothing
end process text
end using terms from

…and put it here: ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions as Tweet.scpt.

Now, invoke QS, hit the “.” to enter text, type your update, and tab to “tweet” to post right to Twitter.

It’s all nicely described here.

Certainly makes it even easier to get the minutiae of one’s life out there.

I do think that for artists Twitter has some purpose. You could, for instance, use it as yet another way to keep your fans clued in to what you’re doing. Why, on the other hand, anyone would want to know what I’m doing on a minute by minute basis…who knows.

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if GTD is daunting, check this out…

October 22, 2007 in GTD, Productivity by George | No comments

Getting Things Done, and specifically David Allen’s work on this topic, is a central focus here at 9GS.

However, even with my 10 Minute Crash Course on GTD, some people feel that the system is a bit too rigid/demanding/doctrinaire.

To these people I suggest checking out this post which hits a number of GTD principles but from a perhaps more accessible angle. Specifically, the idea of breaking projects (though they don’t use the term “projects”) into small, manageable steps is very closely aligned to the GTD next action methodology.

Additionally, I’m delighted by the exhortation here to get those dreams you have for things you want to accomplish out of your head and into some tangible form; even if that’s just writing the idea down. This is a crucial step in concrete your ideas, and beginning to move them forward, and it’s something I stress in my writing and teaching on entrepreneurship

Certainly worth a look, though I don’t think it’s a substitute for the GTD system.

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