Jumbled To-Do Lists: Productivity’s Dirty Little Secret?
- Posted by glen on November 1st, 2006
Today I just decided to do something different. For one day I’m throwing GTD contexts out the window in my daily planning. No disrespect to The David, I’m just switching it up for a bit. I’ve got a theory.
Contexts are ways to organize what you have to do into the tools or loca
tions you would use them. For example, organizing the list of people you need to call would get the context “@phone”.
I was getting a little overwhelmed by seeing the uneven lists of chores broken down by the tools I use them, especially the “@computer” list. I’m a web developer, and most of my work is done at the computer. Ugh. So, to alleviate my aversion to productivity while online, I decided to mix up all of my lists I had made for today. They contained housework, computer work, miscellaneous errands around town, people to phone, blogs to write, etc. etc. etc. I just threw them into one big list and started hammering away at it. And so far the results have been surprisingly good.
There’s something that I should note before we go any further. There was a teeny bit of planning while jumbling the list. I purposely placed items equally spaced apart so that I could be at the computer for a good length of time without having to drive somewhere. So for example, I didn’t put “email Mr. X” in between “close bank account” and “go to grocery store”. I’ve found if I’m at the computer too long, my productivity lags. A lot. So by mixing up my other chores and not worrying about contexts, my day (thus far) has been more productive.
I know, I know. This concept is nothing new. I’ve even mentioned it a couple of times before at LifeDev. But it’s always nice to see real-life examples, isn’t it?
P.S.- If you don’t want to get all crazy just yet with your lists, check out this article by Merlin at 43Folders about simplifying your contexts. It looks like it should help.
November 1st, 2006 at 7:47 pm
I did the same thing. I found that I was actually more productive when I used one list. I then began creating a daily ask flow (I wrote about it and posted a template at lifehack.org). It has greatly simplified my process and allowed me to work more efficiently on all the various projects I have going on.
November 2nd, 2006 at 12:15 am
Tony,
That’s awesome! Here’s the link to Tony’s template if anybody’s interested.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/course-of-actions-task-flow-mapping-your-day.html
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:23 am
[...] Arrrgghhh! Glen of LifeDev fame is turning his back on “his Daveness”. Today I just decided to do something different. For one day I’m throwing GTD contexts out the window in my daily planning. No disrespect to The David, I’m just switching it up for a bit. I’ve got a theory. [...]
November 2nd, 2006 at 6:23 am
I used to stick to “The Dave’s” context structure religiously however being a web developer too I found I had 200 items on my @computer list and maybe one on my @phone. I tried creating my own “contexts” based on the actual projects I was working on which made sense to me however this felt like I was using GTD “Incorrectly” so I gave this option up after a while.
What I do now is just note everything down in my Moleskine as it comes to me. I put an letter next to it as to whether it’s a work thing (W) or home thing (P) and then these have their own sub-categories such as “E” for email, “P” for Phone etc. With these also goes a little icon to show if it’s an action, I’m waiting for it or it’s been deferred. To be honest I’m finding it a lot easier to work through my list in this way as I can now pick and choose an action and also look at the list and see what I have the “energy” for.
Plus there’s something really satisfying about looking through the long, long list and seeing so many items crossed off!