Jeffrey C. Long » Productivity

Eb and Flow of your system

jeffreyclong — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 12:40:12 +0000

A few months ago I went through a season of trying to absorb every little jot and tittle of David Allen’s book Getting Things Done. I listened to the audiobook, put ebook of it and Ready for Anything on my pocket pc. Listened to the CD of his seminars. And implemented a lot of his ideas.Lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve settled back into a routine and have not been giving so passionate of attention to the details of the system. But my routine now has some new habits that are helping me with my workflow.I think there is an important lesson here. We often have mountaintop experiences, either with God, or at a seminar, or reading a book that inspires us to passionately pursue some new avenue. This energy lasts for a little while and then dissipates. But rather then get discouraged that we don’t have the fire we once had, I think it’s more important that we make little changes from these times of passion that change how we live our lives when we come back down from the mountain. Life isn’t lived on the mountain. But every now and then we need to go there to get fresh, and then come back down to our everyday situation and apply some lessons that we learned in the process.

Making sense of what’s on your desk

jeffreyclong — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 11:22:12 +0000

I laughed a few months ago when I realized how many gadgets are on my desk. Currently there are 10. Laptop, cable modem, iPod charging, Pocket PC charging, remote phone, DVD burner, printer, answering machine, stereo and label-maker. And that doesn’t count my inbox, spool of blank CD’s, candles and stapler. Here’s how I make sense of it all.First, I had to corral all of my cables. Cords going to the stereo, DVD player, printer, and cable modem were constantly a sloppy mess. The solution was simple twist ties, which of course I didn’t have. So I improvised by straightening some paperclips and then using them as twist-ties.Second: keep a pile of 3X5 cards handy.I also have stickies, but I find I reach for the 3X5 cards more often. Without these, notes wind up going on scraps of papers that make no sense whatsoever. If I need to remember something or have an idea I want to jot down, it goes on a 3X5 card. Then it gets tossed into my inbox to be processed later. This constantly saves my bacon when it comes to desk real-estate.Third, do a desk sweep regularly. Regularly may mean daily for some of you, or weekly, or every few days. I do it about once a week, give or take. My goal is to do it at least as often as a weekly review, but I don’t have that habit established. But just take about 15 minutes and process everything on your desk. Put books back on the shelf. File papers. Throw away phone messages.Finally, periodic dusting. For those of you who know me this probably comes as a big surprise. But there is something about putting a final bit of polish on something that makes it more appealing to be around. David Allen makes this point when he recommends using a labeler on your file folders. For one thing, it’s fun to make labels. But it makes using your folders more attractive, and thus you are more likely to use them to corral your stuff. Same with dusting. I’m more likely to keep my desk under some control when it is polished.This post is licensed under the Creative Commons license.

Keep your files flat and active

jeffreyclong — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 10:49:33 +0000

One of the tricks found in Getting Things Done is to keep a completely flat file structure. No subfolders. I have found that this has really helped me both digitally and physically. I still have some degree of nesting going on in that I have some labeled “worship lists” “worship teaching,” but I don’t think that can be avoided.But my latest discovery has been the importance of keeping some folders active. Now in the front of my file drawer are the recently handled folders. Note, they are in the drawer and not on my desk. I’m trying really hard to keep things in their place. Stuff that’s not readily needed gets filed alphabetically. But current projects, and current is used fairly liberally are in the front, and sorted by most-recently-handled on-the-top. I have a similar system in my documents database on my computer. Everything that’s not current is filed, but the current stuff is in the front. This has helped me to have project reference material readily available, but also brought some sanity to my filing system.This post is licensed under the Creative Commons license.