PNTV: Getting Things Done by David Allen (#124)

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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another great book, Getting Things Done by David Allen. Getting Things Done. DAVID Allen, GTD Getting Things Done. It's an amazing way to, as David says, the art of stress free productivity. We want to get more done with less stress. We've got a little Philosopher's notes here, a little mind map action. These five big ideas, what we're going to cover, we're going to jump straight in. So David tells us that his work is focused on two key objectives. Two key objectives? What are they? Well, number one, we need to capture everything. Capture everything. What's that mean? It means that you have a lot of things going on in your mind that you'd be better off if you got them into what he calls a trusted system. So capture everything in a trusted system. Capture everything. Trusted system. What do you do when you have ideas, when you have things you need to do? Whether it's buying something at the grocery store or a phone call you gotta make or an email you gotta do, or a task you need to do at work? Does it just kind of float in your mind? Well, he says that's like having a thousand programs open on your computer. It's going to drive you nuts. We need to create a clear mind. We have a mind like water. He says it's just calm. You're going to have a ton of things open in our minds. And the way you do that is by capturing everything and putting it in a trusted system. I use something called Omnifocus. I'll put a link to that below. Basically, capture everything. Trusted system. Get it out of your head onto something that you know you can come back to when you need to. Big idea. We can obviously spend a whole weekend talking about that. We are not going to. Next thing is Next actions. So the two objectives that basically the whole work is based around are capturing everything and setting up next actions. So you want to take the ideas, the things you have going on, and you want to articulate them at the front end into actionable steps so you know what the next step is. You need to take on any given project. Capturing everything. Next action steps. It's a quick look at the two key objectives. Now let's look at some other details we can apply. Make it. Make it up. Make it happen. He talks about his friend. Come on, Pen. Forget this red one. He's a little tired. He need to retire it. Make it up. Make it happen. One of his friends says, look, there's only two problems you could have in life. One, you know what you want, but you don't know how to make it happen. Or two, you don't know what you want. So he says, look, at the end of the day, getting things done is about two very simple things. Make it up and make it happen. So we have outcomes, out comes plus actions. What do you want to see happen and how are you going to make it happen? And then do it. Make it up, make it happen. What do you want? That's really all it comes down to, knowing what you want and then knowing what you need to do to get there. So think about that. If you're struggling or you're frustrated, whatever, in a specific project or in general, step back and ask yourself the question, what do I want? Going to talk about that some more in the final idea here, so we'll pause on that for now. Next super practical idea is the two minute game. So this is huge. All the great personal development, time management, lifestyle management gurus tell us we've got to have a standard where if something takes us less than two minutes to do, we do it, period. I call that the two minute game. And that can be an email that you get sitting in your inbox. Really, it's only going to take you 30 seconds to reply to it, but you let it sit there, which will be part of our next big idea too. Just handle it. Maybe you've got a little copy, you've got to write for something on your website or whatever. It's going to take you less than two minutes. Don't say you're going to do it or put it into a trusted system. Just do it. The moment you identify that something needs to get done, you get it done. You have a dish, you just had lunch, you have like a dish and a couple of utensils. Don't put it in the sink, put it in your dishwasher. You get the mail out, you got the mail. It literally take you a couple minutes to go through it, maybe write a check or two and you're done. Or you can put it on your counter and watch it grow with everything else there. If something takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. Have fun with this one. And it just, it's nuts what happens and how much velocity is created in our lives when we do this. It feels so good to get yourself into a state of flow rather than avoiding little things. You get it done. Really, really cool idea. Roy Baumeister. I mentioned in the Philosopher's Note that Roy Baumeister, the guy who wrote the book on willpower, literally one of the world's leading scientific researchers on the power of willpower. And again, we know scientifically, as I mentioned again and again, Willpower out predicts IQ for academic performance by a factor of two. Willpower out predicts everything in every modality, everything you want to achieve in your life. Willpower is going to be the greatest predictor of whether you'll do it or not. And Roy Baumeister says unequivocally, this is the number one thing you need to do if you want to manage yourself. Well, if something takes less than two minutes, do it. That's some pretty strong advice. Two minute game that's tied to our next big idea here. Inbox Zero. So how many emails are sitting in your inbox right now? Do you cringe when I even mention that or ask that question? If it isn't zero, you're being sub optimal. You're being less efficient than you could be. David Allen says that Inbox Zero is way easier to maintain than Inbox 1000. Inbox Zero is easier to maintain than Inbox 1000. How is that possible? Well, because you have 1000 open loops in your mind. If you have something that you got an email about and you didn't respond to, you didn't handle it well, where did that go? It's sitting there in your consciousness somewhere. And if you have 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, a thousand of those open loops is what David Allen calls them. That's a lot of RAM being used in your mental, emotional, spiritual computer. You want to shut those programs down by getting your inbox to zero. There are a lot of ways to get to Inbox to zero. If you're having a problem with that, Google that. There's some great ideas, but for now, I'm just excited to set a new standard. This is my standard inbox zero. I hate having anything in my inbox, and it's just not okay. If I go into my inbox, I get it back down to zero, period. And I don't go into my inbox unless I have the time and the space and the commitment to get it back to zero. And now I'm not checking email much. These days I trade emails with two people, so it's easy for me to do now. But when I had a lot more going on, it was still the same standard. And what you'll find is that it's actually not that hard to do. What trips you up what tripped me up, and I think what would probably trip you up is it's not that it's hard or that it even takes longer than two minutes. If something takes longer than two minutes, then you reply to the person, you say, hey, look, I'm going to get this for you by Thursday of next week. And then you put it into your trusted system, you capture it and you identify what the next action is and you plan to take it so you can deliver on that commitment. But you don't need that email sitting in your inbox. That shouldn't be your reminder that you have something to do. Your trusted system should be. But what I found is that the emails that wound up lurking in my inbox were the ones I just didn't want to make a decision on. It was maybe a difficult conversation or something I didn't really feel like thinking about, but it actually wasn't that hard. When I set the Inbox Zero standard, it forced me to make a decision. So Inbox Zero is a phenomenal decision making muscle builder that also closes all those programs down so your mind can be still and empty rather than congested with all this stuff. Inbox Zero is huge. Highly recommend it. I know that might freak some of you out, but it's good, trust me. You will feel so ridiculously relieved. Winning if you get there and then staying there. So that's Inbox Zero. And then finally David asks us, and I end the philosopher's note with this. Have you imagined wild success lately? Have you imagined wild success lately? We talked about make it up, make it happen. There's really only two problems you can have. You know what you want, you don't know how to get there, or you don't know what you want, or, well, what do you want? What does wild success look like for you? Either in a new project or a project that may have stalled, or just something that's important to you or relationship or whatever, what would wild success look like for you? Pause and think about that, journal about that, and then get clear on your purpose. Why is that important to you? David talks about really high level, the drilling all the way down into the next baby step. So what's wild success look like for you? What's your purpose of why you want to achieve that? And then brainstorm some things that need to happen in order for that success to occur. Just let it rip. What do you need to do all the different activities? Then take a little bit of time and go through those potential activities and identify what actually needs to get done next. Then Identify your very next action item. Big picture purpose. You've got a bunch of things you could do. You organize that into some stuff that's pretty important and then you figure out what your next action is. That's essentially what we need to do to get things done. That's the essence of making it up and making it happen. So there you go. Key objectives Capture everything. Know your next actions. Make it up. Make it happen. Two minute game. That's a good one. Inbox zero Good luck with that. And what does wild success look like for you? Think about that. Hope you enjoyed this quick look at GTD and I look forward to sharing.

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