Well, I've finished my last day at work.  As a result of the fact that I've cleaned up all of my loose ends, I'm left with very little to do today - that will no doubt be a completely different story from my life a month from now.  

The timeline for my last day was:

Last day of work:

8:00 Last day arriving at work

8:10 Pour last cup of coffee

8:30 Login and go through morning routine last time

9:30 Fill out timesheets for the last time ever

9:45 Last scrum at Refractions

10:00 Last coffee with Graham at work

1:15 Last JV lunch (while working at Refractions) downtown with Bay

3:30 Sent out goodbye e-mails to co-workers

3:45 Deleted archived e-mails from my computer

4:00 So long Refractions

While cleaning up my desk this week, I came across two of my logbooks that I had maintained when I first started.

I originally started maintaining a logbook when, during my first review, Paul Ramsey (the former president of Refractions, and someone for who I have a great deal of respect) mentioned that he noticed I worked better under pressure and when there was a lot on my plate.  He recognized that that he too operated in this manner as well, but that something to work on would be to track what I was working on and to try and maintain a more consistent pace.

The logbook was my first attempt to do this, and really, my first attempt to begin any kind of system.  About three years back, I realized that although I was now twenty-seven years old (thirty now!), with both a high-school and a university education, no one had ever taught me any kind of system for managing my tasks (really, for managing my life, both at work and at home).  Before I even made this realization though, I knew that I wanted to pursue Paul's advice.

The logbook was the first attempt to accomplish this.  Looking through the book is a bit nostalgic: projects that I've long since forgotten, and that have long since died.  Attempts at organization that I now recognize as convoluted and problematic.  Lists of TODO items that remain unchecked to this day (did these ever actually get done?).  Even with all of these flaws, I still recognize the value that these first attempts brought me.  They provided me with a starting point.  They set me down a path, and gave me a base from which I could start evolving my own system.  You can never go for a run if you don't take that first step, and that's exactly what this book was.

I scanned in some representative pages from each month, along with an appendix that I had created at the back, so that you can see how I started progressing along the path towards a full-fledged system like GTD, and get a feel for the missteps that it's okay to make as you attempt to get yourself organized (if you choose to).  Let's repeat that one more time - it's okay to make mistakes.  Take that first step!

The first two images are simply scans from the month of January and February.  Although the domain and context of what I was working on isn't relevant, you can see from the way I was taking notes that there was still much to be desired.

The first scan shows an action item at the bottom, but with nothing to differentiate it from the rest of my notes.  How would I know at a glance that this is something that I have to act upon, versus something that I can just use as reference for later on?  What about the state of this action item?  Did I ever actually complete this task?  Did I just neglect to complete this?  Did it simply stop being necessary?  There's no way to tell what happened here.  While I'm sure that I did in fact complete this item, you can see that it is important to create ways in your system that allow you to determine the answer to these questions quickly and at a glance.  Otherwise we're just taking up valuable mental cycles that could be devote to more valuable tasks.

Unfortunately, I only realized now that I scanned in the wrong pages from my appendix, so I no longer retain the code I used to mark up the pages.  The main colour used were blue and green.  Blue items indicated discussions I had with co-workers, while green items indicated useful information or knowledge to reference back to later.  Orange  indicated important TODO items.  Whenever I had a page where I had created one of these items, I would colour the top or bottom corner (or both if I had multiple items on a page), allowing me to quickly determine if I had something that needed to be referenced on a given page.

This system quickly got out of hand, as it is impractical to flip through pages of a book trying to find the correct coloured corner that corresponds to a piece of information I need.  There is no ability to categorize a given piece of reference information, as it sits forever on a page in the book.  I have no folder that I can put the information in, and no ability to search through the book, other than sequentially flipping through each page.  Obviously this system left a lot to be desired, but it was a starting point.

Once I started PMing projects, I moved away from a static book and to a system that was more focused on the GTD approach to managing tasks, using looseleaf paper, and folders to organize it.

That's the end of my time spent PMing.  Onwards to new challenges!

• Attempt to implement a paper tickler system, similar to what I use at the office

This attempt failed fairly quickly.  I don't enjoy amassing large amounts of paper around the house, I don't have a convenient place to put a tickler file that isn't ugly (I don't spend a lot of time in our office, preferring to do most of my work in our dining and living rooms), and I wasn't checking it on a very frequent basis.

• Implement a rough system using Terminal windows
  

This step represented my change from a paper-based system to a digital one.  Not a bad start, but a long way to go.  You can read about this step and the one following here.

• Change over to using Stickies to manage tasks

This marks the start of my system actually becoming fluid and working well with my own tasks.  It is within this framework that the majority of the rest of my tweaking will occur.

• Only the TODO window is fully expanded

The old system had four windows expanded by default - TODO, Blog, To Buy, and Projects.  However, this creates four windows that demand my attention by default.  By changing to a paradigm where I start and finish with just the TODO window being expanded, my eyes are immediately drawn to this location whenever I load up my system.

There wasn't really a need to have the other windows open either - if I want to make sure that I blog soon, I simply put "Blog" as a todo item on my list.  When it comes time to actually write, I just expand my blog window and look over the potential topics that I've recorded, choose one that interests me, and get writing.

Likewise, items under projects simply require my review from time to time.  Whenever I feel like I have enough time on my hands that I can begin to tackle one of them, I open up the window and choose one of them.  Items that I need to purchase, can simply act as a list that I reference when Bay and I head out the door on the weekend to run errands and possibly spend some money.

As an aside, I highly recommend maintaining a list of items that you intend to buy.  Having those items written down and made tangible really makes it easier for you to focus on what you will be sacrificing when you spend your money frivolously.  If I check this list before heading out the door on a Saturday, it just makes it that easier to think "Hmm, this thing is cool, but if I get this, I'll have to wait even longer to get those bike gloves I wanted".

• Location Tickler has been expanded

I'm still trying to figure out the best way for this tickler to work.  The location tickler started to accrue a number of items that were related specifically to people, rather than locations.  Tasks that require another person are generally a little easier to act on than a specific location, as I can complete an item marked "Lend book to Davin" when I either go to Davin's place, or when he comes to my place.  On the other hand, a task marked "Drop clothes off at Salvation Army" requires that I physically be at the Salvation Army.

It is possible that over time these two items will merge back together.  For now, I maintain the two ticklers separately (though physically close to one another on my screen) because I want to be able to check only the People Tickler when I have people over, and both the Location and People Ticklers whenever I'm leaving the house.  The goal here is to make the process of reviewing the ticklers as efficient as possible, in order to encourage myself to actually use them.

Don't underestimate this last point - I'm still working to develop the habit of actually checking the ticklers whenever Bay or I leave the house.  I have an active item for Vancouver that says Bay and I need to return some items to Ikea.  However, Bay left the house to head over to the mainland this Friday, only to realize that we'd both forgotten this needed to be done.  That's okay, it's just another aspect of working to learn a new habit.

• List section

The list section just holds a number of lists that I maintain.  Ideas for dates, gifts, vacations, and other things that I think up, want to remember, but haven't had a place to store them up until now.  Whenever I have an idea that falls into one of these categories, I capture it wherever I am, and then add it to one of these lists when I get home.  If I don't yet have a list for this particular idea, I create one and add it to that.  Easy.

• Dance Lessons

Writing ongoing lessons means that I need to keep a stock of fresh ideas and techniques to teach my classes.  The process by which I do this usually involves jamming at the studio, Steve's place, or my kitchen when cooking, and playing around with various techniques.  Whenever I do something that strikes me as worth pursuing, I make a note in the appropriate sticky.  There are a number of different stickies under the dance heading, because there are a number of different techniques that all fall under the Popping umbrella.

When teaching a class, I find that it's better usually to stick to one or two of these techniques, in order to get people familiar with a couple of different ways of moving throughout the class, rather than jumping all over the place.  Having these stickies makes it easy for me to sit down during the week and say "What do I want to teach the class this week".  I can review the items that I've captured, grab a couple from each list, and then put together a lesson plan based on that.

• More meaningful use of color

When I initially put together the sticky system, my use of different coloured notes was more whimsical than anything.  I tried to apply colors that helped separate the open windows from one another, and to denote headers for various lists, such as the Location Tickler.

This time, I've updated the use of color to follow a more specific pattern.  Headers are generally coloured green to make them stand out a little more.  Beneath these headers sit the actual contents of each category, such as the names of people I need to talk to, specific locations, etc.

Any person or location under a tickler that has active items associated with them/it is colored red so that I can quickly get a feel for where I have tasks with just a glance.  This is in addition to updating the sticky itself to note how many active tasks I have.  So, for example, I have one active task with my friend Rob.  His sticky is coloured Red to indicate this, and there are also the words (1 ACTIVE) beside his name.  At a glance I can quickly determine where tasks are piling up.

My mom is on a committee at her work to try and figure out some ideas to make things better/easier/more enjoyable for employees when the company makes some sort of change.  Such as when everyone at the company needs to learn a new procedure or piece of software or company rule

• Why attempts to affect change are resisted
• Aiding the acceptance of change
• Things we should avoid

1. Management discusses a perceived problem
2. Management determines the way to solve the problem, and the required changes
3. The required changes are passed down to employees via memo that says something cheerful like "Exciting changes are coming to company X!"
4. Employees read the memo and notice that the changes are not exciting
5. Employees feel annoyed at management for introducing inefficient/annoying changes

• Poor transparency
  

The visibility of this entire process is completely opaque to the employees, right up until the very end.  They have no way of knowing what led to the development of these new procedures, why these new procedures are being instated, and least of all that they were even being considered in the first place.  A memo at the end of a pipeline is a bad way to communicate upcoming changes to your staff.

• Optics (these are different, though similar to, transparency)
  

What about the optics of this process?  Well, there are none.  As far as the staff can tell, this is a completely arbitrary change that has just been passed down from high up on the mountain.  Some people may be in love with the feeling of power that being able to make unquestionable judgements like this provides them, but these people do not make good supervisors.  There are exceptions to every rule, but people generally like to be included in processes that affect them.  There is zero inclusion in the process I've outlined above.

• No vested interest in success
  

Is there anything in the process that I have outlined above that would cause employees to be vested in the success of this new change?  I can't see anything.  Some of you may argue that, "If they don't follow this new procedure, they will get fired!".  While this may be true, the only thing this approach to introducing change will motivate your employees to do is accept it enough to not lose their jobs.  We're not looking to have people perform "good enough".  We're looking to introduce change that will make people better and more efficient.  We don't want to be "good enough" managers, we want to be awesome.

• Be transparent

Employing transparency is important to the success of most changes.  No one appreciates the feeling that they are pawns just waiting for the next arbitrary decision to be foisted upon them from some mysterious being high above.

People are creatures of habit.  We don't like having our daily routines change, and we've evolved to resist changes like this so that we can create efficient routines that work for us. The greater the amount of lead-in time that you can provide people with, the better they are going to be able to adapt to that change.

There is obviously a balance here.  Telling someone that in five years, you're going to change the system they are learning is a bit too far off for anyone to realistically work towards.  However, doing this initially, and then maintaining transparency throughout the development process is an excellent way to keep people abreast of what is going on, and help them adapt their mindset to the changes that are in the hopper.

Transparency allows you to ensure that employees are able to adapt along with the system, and keeps things in the forefront of their minds.  Many people shy away from transparency because they feel that letting people see into the decision-making process will cause them further aggravation.  You can determine how much transparency you want to provide employees, but opacity is never desirable.  If you're worried that they're not going to like hearing about the changes that are being planned, think of how much worse they'll take them if the first time they hear about them is from a memo telling them that they have to change next week.

• Consider the optics

Okay, so what do I mean by optics, if not transparency?  Optics are the way that your actions are perceived by those around you.  Whenever any of us undertake an action, we have complete knowledge (or at least, in theory we do) of why we are taking that action.  When you are on the management team that is planning, designing, implementing, and rolling out a new change in policy, you have full view of the entire process from start to end.  You understand why the policy needed to be created, you are aware of the decisions that went into creating this new policy, and you are aware of why the policy is being rolled out at a specific date.

(Incidentally, I'm using the term policy here, but this applies to anything that will affect changes in other people's workflow and routines)

Your employees, however, do not have perfect knowledge of your process.  Depending on how transparent you have been, and how much lead-in time you have provided them of the upcoming changes, they may have either a rough idea of why and how this policy has come into being, to no idea whatsoever.

Good optics are one of the main reasons to try to be as transparent in your management as possible.  If people can see that you are willing to make visible everything that you do, the optics associated with that are that you are:

1. Being up front and honest
2. Have nothing to hide
3. See them as equals and worthy of understanding what goes on behind the scenes

This last point bears further elaboration.  Even if your employees aren't your equals, it is best to make them feel as though they are, for the sake of optics in situations like these.

When rolling out new decisions and changes, always be sure to consider the optics, honestly, from the perspective of those that do not have access to the amount of knowledge that you do.  If this sounds easy, let me assure you, it isn't.  It requires people with a good deal of empathy (a very important quality in a manager) to be able to understand how other people think and feel in a given situation.

• Get people to vest interest in the success of a change

In my opinion, this last point is by far the most important.  When you are asking people to make changes to their workflows and habits, you are asking them to put in effort that they wouldn't otherwise have to do.  If you aren't willing to consider this aspect, then you are going to find yourself with a staff that aren't willing to take on the burden of new changes.

It is my own experience that the best way to get people onboard with new changes, and to invest in a decision, is to include them in it.  Nothing fosters a sense of personal value in the success of something like collaboration does.

When you get people to collaborate with you on something, it is no longer only you that stands to benefit from the success of that finished product.  The success is shared by all of those that have collaborated.

Ask for feedback, even if you don't intend to do anything with it.  Share the core problem that you are attempting to address with people, and find out if they have any thoughts on it.  Is it even really a problem for them?  Have they considered solutions to that problem before?

There are so many reasons to take this approach, but I will outline just a few (this post is already turning out longer than I intended):

• You may learn something you hadn't considered

Two heads are almost always better than one, and it is this principle that you can look towards as one of the many benefits to soliciting other people for feedback.  Learning the right way to request feedback is a skill in and of itself, and I generally wouldn't recommend taking an approach like holding a company meeting and asking people to shout out any feedback they have (although this can work in some situations as well).  What's the worst thing that can happen?  You may get some ideas that you had already thought about or won't end up using.

• People want to be listened to, and to feel important

Simply asking people what they think about something is one of the best ways to make them feel like you care about what they have to say.  We all want to believe that we are intelligent, creative, and have good ideas.  Even if that doesn't hold true for all of us (and certainly for any of us all of the time), it is still nice to feel this way.

A lot of the time, people just want to feel that they've been heard.  In my experience managing projects, I would say that a significant amount of suggestions, ideas, and feedback are more about people wanting to feel like they've been listened to, rather than to have their ideas actually implemented.

Make your employees feel important by soliciting them for ideas, and listening to them.  And please, be earnest when you listen to them.  Don't just nod your head rapidly, counting the seconds until they shut up.  Be genuine in your interest.

• It doesn't require a lot of effort

The above two items should be sufficient enough to follow this advice, but if you're still hesitant, do it simply because it doesn't need to require a lot of effort.  You don't need to go and shake hands with every employee and spend thirty minutes talking to them; sending out an e-mail to everyone explaining what you're doing and requesting feedback can be enough.

The management team considers the problem, determines a solution, and then three weeks later, sends out the following memo:

GREETINGS PEONS,

Because Megacorp pays for the garbage removed from the premises based on the volume disposed, we will be instituting a new policy to allow only smaller (1L) garbage cans in cubicles, starting next Monday

The management team considers the problem, and sends out an e-mail:

Hello Staff,

Because Megacorp pays for the garbage removed from the premises based on the volume disposed, and in an effort to continue our company's drive towards a greener approach, we are considering new policies to cut down on the amount of waste generated on a daily basis.  We are interested in any and all feedback, so if you have any, please send it to lordborak@megacorp.com.

Thanks!

Hello Staff,

Thank you to everyone for your excellent suggestions.  After consideration and review, as well as considering the feasibility of each of them, the management team have decided that the best way to proceed is to reduce the size of garbage cans in each cubicle to a 1L container.  If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to send them to lordborak@megacorp.com

Have an awesomely great day!

Hello Staff,

As e-mailed previously, the new garbage can policy is being rolled out next Monday.  Thank you to everyone for your cooperation, and speaking up about your concerns.  We appreciate everyone making the effort to help Megacorp cut down on waste, and to drive towards our shared goal of "living greener"

I managed to get to the bottom of my relatively large inbox at work for the first time in a while, and so I found myself with a little bit of downtime. Rather than waste the time perusing Google Reader (Great web-app, excellent productivity destroyer!), I figured I would instead devote some time towards writing about the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology.

This entry actually stems from a presentation I decided to give at work. Since I'm the only project manager at work, I hoped that it would be interesting for co-workers to see how I go about managing the large volume of tasks that constantly filter across my desk.

There are already a lot of websites out there by various gurus of productivity (some self-proclaimed, others widely recognized as such), but most of those delve right in to the details and discuss ways to optimize the system to suit your own needs. I don't care - I want to write about this subject, and I think I'm pretty decent at articulating concepts, so here's hoping that this post provides some benefit to some people that are not intimately familiar with the subject matter.

Before I begin, I will state for the record that I am not a GTD guru, self-proclaimed or otherwise. I am simply taking this opportunity to provide my own insight into the subject.

What is GTD?

Let's start at the top. GTD is, at its core, a time-management methodology. It is a way of dealing with the myriad of distractions that bombard us on a daily basis, and handling all of the various tasks and todo items that crop up as a result.

Who can use GTD?

This is hardly ground-breaking, but the people that will benefit the most from GTD are those that experience the things I've mentioned above frequently. People in management positions will typically be bombarded with e-mails, phone calls, etc. on a fairly constant basis throughout the day. The more focused your task at work is, the less likely you are to need to implement a new system in order to stay organized and get everything on your plate finished.

That being said, I feel that GTD can benefit everyone to some extent. Although I use it the most at my day job, I find plenty of the principles apply on a daily basis at home.

The principles

At its core, GTD is built on some fairly simple principles (note: simple does not equate to easy).

The principles, at least, the ones that I make use of, are:

• Two-minute rule
• Zeroing your inbox
• The paper system and the 43 folders (the tickler)

I'll explain each of these items in turn.

The two-minute rule

The core of the two-minute rule can be summarized as follows: If a task takes two minutes of less to complete, you should do it, right now. Simple right? I take this concept one step further, and say that every item that pops up can be dealt with, to some extent, within two minutes. In this context, dealt with does not necessarily mean you can complete the task. It just means that you can either complete it, or file it away, or make a note of next steps, or break it down, etc.

This sounds so very simple in theory, but in practice it takes disicipline to limit yourself to two minutes of interaction for a given distraction when you're in the middle of focusing on something else. Don't worry - we've got some other tricks up our sleeve to help.

If there is one thing that everyone should take away from GTD, it is this rule. In my mind, everything else about GTD flows from this one single principle. I feel that implementing and sticking with a two-minute rule is the best way to ensure that you avoid procrastinating, and ... get things done. You may find that it is difficult initially to make this happen, as you don't have a system set up to enable this. I'll talk more about this shortly, and follow-up this post with another one detailing how I maintain a similar system at home.

Zeroing your inbox

The next concept is that of zeroing your inbox. The goal here is that you complete each day with an empty inbox. No straggling e-mails, no tasks that you probably could deal with now, but should instead pick up on later.

This is the concept that most people find the most difficult. Many people where I work like to use their inboxes as a task list, or a holding place for things they have not yet had a chance to work on. This is a bad habit, as it creates mental clutter, and generates additional overhead when you need to focus. A blank inbox provides many benefits, but the most significant one for myself is the ability to immediately determine whether or not I have dealt with a new distraction (if it's in my inbox, I haven't).

In addition to my e-mail inbox(es), I use a physical inbox for my paper system. This must be zero'd out at the end of the day as well. No cheating!

Okay, so what do you do with all this e-mail that you're supposed to be removing from your inbox? That's where the paper system comes into place.

The paper system

The paper system is how I keep track of my tasks to be completed. To me, one of the benefits of the paper system is that having an action item or a task attached to something tangible provides it with more weight, and allows me to physically deal with an item when I have completed it (believe me, it feels great tearing up an action item once you've completed it). On that note, I have found that it is generally not appreciated when you touchdown-spike the crumpled up piece of paper off of your co-workers forehead. Still, it's pretty fun.

The idea is to have only one task per piece of paper. Your system may vary, but my paper system has three components: the tickler (more on this shortly), the physical inbox, and the physical waitbox.

The physical inbox is the place where I store all tasks that I intend to complete before the end of the day. "But where do these tasks come from?", you ask. I will tell you.

Every incoming e-mail, every phone or face-to-face conversation, and every set of meetings that I attend get broken down into tasks. Remember our two-minute rule. As soon as a distraction comes up, determine what the next steps and action items are. Ideally, you want one action item per piece of paper. These action items are then sorted into the tickler, or placed at the bottom of your inbox. Each task should contain the action to be completed, along with any necessary context (does it relate to an e-mail? Print off the e-mail, and write the individual task underneath that). Ideally, you want to be able to pick up the piece of paper, and without any further effort, be able to act upon the item.

If this is getting confusing, don't worry, I'll have an example soon.

What about the waitbox? The waitbox contains any items that I am ready to act upon, but are delayed waiting on something. Whatever it is that I am waiting on, the anticipation is that that thing will be resolved today. If it is not, I file the item in the tickler.

A good habit is to check your waitbox each time you come back from a break, which should be roughly three times a day (morning, lunch, and afternoon). If you're not taking regular breaks, then you should also consider doing yourself, and your back, that favour (I'm not advocating long breaks, but give yourself a ten minute walk. It's not good to sit for too long).

When reviewing items in the waitbox, ask yourself the following:

• Can I act upon this now?

If so, either do it now, or put it in your inbox

• Am I still waiting for something, and will that thing be done before the end of the day?

If so, file it back in the waitbox

• Am I still waiting for something, and will that thing not be done before the end of the day?

If so, file it in the tickler for an appropriate date

Okay, enough teasing about the tickler. Let's talk about that.

The 43 folders (or, the tickler)

The tickler is composed of two different sets of accordion folders. The first one is your monthly tickler, and has slots labelled from January to December. The second one is your daily tickler, and has slots labelled from 1 to 31, for days of the month.

The tickler serves two purposes. First, it is a place to file away anything that you are not yet ready to deal with, but will need to acknowledge at some point further down the road. Did an item come up that requires talking to someone on vacation? File the action item in the tickler for the day that they return. Secondly, the tickler is a system you can trust to remind yourself when you need to act on an item.

I use the word trust in the previous paragraph because this is an integral part of a successful time management system. If you can't trust the system that you are using, you will inevitably waste time going back and forth trying to confirm to yourself that you have in fact not let something slip through the cracks, and now we're right back to where we started. You'll probably spend some time doing this initially, but we want to minimize the initial part of that learning curve, not integrate it into the system itself.

How does the tickler remind you of items you need to act upon? Simple. At the start of each day, you pull out all of the items filed in your tickler for that day and move them to your inbox. At the start of each month, you pull all of the items filed for that month out of the monthly tickler, and determine whether you can deal with them now, later on today, or later on in the month. File them in the physical inbox, waitbox, or daily tickler accordingly.

At the end of your day, if you have any items left over in your inbox, sort through them and determine, realistically, when you will next be able to deal with them, and place them in the tickler, accordingly.

How about an example?

I feel like this has been pretty dense so far. Hopefully any example can keep us on top of things. Let's say I get the following e-mail:

Hi Adam,

I am no longer able to pick up orders from our application, as I should be able to. Also, could you send me an update on the Budget?

Thanks,

Jorge Mexidando

So, how would I break this out? As I see it, there are two main tasks here:

1. Forward along e-mail to one of my developers, and ask them to look into it.

This is a task that will certainly take me less than two minutes, so I will do it immediately.

2. Respond to Jorge's e-mail

This task is not something I can do immediately, as the next step is to update the budget. I will print out this e-mail, write on it that the next step is "Update Budget", and then file it in my tickler, as I do not have enough time today to complete this task.

For the record, I don't actually have any clients named Jorge Mexidando. I wish I did though, because that is an awesome name, and I would probably call them by their full name at every opportunity.

What will it do for me?

Okay, so that's that. What exactly will GTD do for you? Well it will actually do a couple of things for you:

• Reduce mental clutter and overhead


• Minimize your overhead so that you can actually focus on doing stuff


• Allow you to multitask efficiently

When I presented this information at work, a co-worker asked a very pertinent question: "What about situations where you forward along an e-mail to your co-workers, and then they never respond?". There will always be situations like this. When your team is very busy, you will have to take on additional overhead and put a reminder in your tickler to follow-up on your question.

More important than that though is the fact that using GTD to clear out tasks as efficiently as possible will free your mind to keep things like this in mind. No system is perfect, but the more you are able to keep outside of your mind and put into a system that you trust, the better equipped you will be to handle situations like the one my co-worker mentioned.

What won't GTD do for you?

Well, it won't stop you from procrastinating, and it won't prevent you from being lazy. GTD is simply a system for making yourself more efficient at doing work. If you are still prone to procrastinating, GTD will actually make this easier for you, as you can simply repeatedly re-file items back into your tickler.

Most important of all, GTD won't solve all of your problems. There's no such thing as a silver bullet, and that maxim remains true in time-management just as much as any other domain. While GTD will minimize the amount of time that you lose to mental overhead, it will not make you a superman, able to handle more tasks than you are capable of. If you've got too much work, the only solution is to remove some of that work from your plate.

So, where do you go from here?

Most important of all, follow the rule that "If it isn't broke, don't fix it". If you have a system that is currently working for you, or you are able to manage your existing tasks without wasting time, you probably don't need GTD. I don't recommend changing over to a new system unless you feel that you will have a use for it.

If you think you would like to give GTD a shot, try and determine how well this system will integrate with the way you currently manage your tasks. If your current system is drastically different, you will need to look for ways to start moving in this direction. I'm an advocate of gradual changes that stick over drastic ones that feel great at first and then get discarded after two weeks, so look for ways to start integrating GTD principles into your routine that will stick. The easiest place to start is probably working towards emptying out your inbox. This is a fairly simple task, and seeing an inbox with no e-mails will give you a huge sense of accomplishment, and the motivation to keep making changes.

It's also a good idea to get into the habit of determining what action items and next steps arise out of incoming e-mails and requests. This is a good way to look at all new items that pop up on your plate, and will help you trim away the fat and focus on the essentials.

Above all, be fluid in your approach. If you like some of the principles of GTD, but don't think that all of them will work for you, then try to adapt as much as possible. I'm a big fan of agilility in all things that we try to do. Adopt what you can, evaluate where you stand after a few weeks, and then adjust your approach as needed. Don't view any stumble as an outright failure - it is simply an opportunity to adapt your approach and then move forward again.

Adapting a new system is something that will take time and some effort initially. One pertinent question I saw asked online was "How will I know when it's time to stop tweaking my system?". You will be able to tell that it is time when you have integrated it into your daily routine. When you no longer need to think about what to do with a new piece of information, or find yourself worrying whether or not you've properly filed something, you've probably reached a point where you can now just use your system.

Above all, remember that GTD is a system that exists only to enable you to get things done. If you find that you are spending more time trying to make GTD work than you are actually completing tasks, that's a good indication that you need to tweak your system. I can't guarantee that GTD will work for you, but it's done great things for me, and I notice that it is starting to bleed more and more into my home life as I take on more personal projects and add items to my todo list.

I've been posting desktop screenshots for a while now, but the next post I will make related to the subject of GTD will detail how these shots actually help my productivity at home. If there are any questions or thoughts, please speak up and post them in the comments.

Meetings suck. They’re annoying to setup, they seem to drag on, they’re rife with disagreements, conflicting opinions, people talking over one another, and half the time you end them feeling like you’ve discovered more problems than you started with. They’re also what I spend almost half of my working life doing.

I don’t usually blog about work. I’m not sure why - I spend a ton of time at it, it’s something I think I’m relatively good at, and I’ve learned a lot as I’ve gone through the years at the company I’m currently at. Maybe I figured people wouldn’t be interested, or maybe I just felt that I didn’t have anything inspired to say. Whatever the reason, today I’m putting an end to that silence and I’m writing about meetings!

So, meetings suck. Everyone agrees with this. Everyone will also agree with the fact that they are a necessary evil. If anyone has ever tried to resolve something using e-mail and consensus, you know that it’s absolutely silly, takes forever, and you inevitably restart the entire process six or seven times.

Since getting people together into a room is necessary, the best thing we can do is take steps to make the process as smooth and efficient as possible. Here are some of the topics I’m going to cover:

• Agenda
• Leading a Meeting
• Speaking in Meetings

This should be a breeze… let’s move on.

Agenda

An agenda is essential to having a successful meeting. It’s that simple. Putting together an agenda is very simple, and the end result usually strikes people as insignificant because it doesn’t require a large amount of work. However, an agenda serves many purposes. A good agenda has a few things in particular:

• Table of contents


What, really, I’m recommending tables of contents? Hell yah I am. Most of the time, people will look at your agenda very briefly, then resume whatever they’re working on. It’s the way our lifes work these days - constant intrusions by e-mail, instant messaging, and co-workers require that people lend their attention to something new only briefly before returning to their work. As this is the case, it is important that you provide people a way to glean as much information as possible, in as fast a manner as possible. Provide a table of contents so that someone can quickly skim over your agenda, determine why they are invited to this meeting, what is being discussed, and if there is anything that has been missed. Don’t skip this item.

• Purpose


Most people leave this out, because it seems unimportant. Of course everyone already knows why we are having this meeting is the common perspective. But why should that be the case? The person that called the meeting usually (definitely not always) knows why the meeting is being called, but the other attendees often are getting pulled into meetings simply because of applicable domain knowledge they may have. Providing a quick summary of the purpose of the meeting helps ensure that everyone gets on track. Sometimes, just sitting down and trying to think about the purpose of the meeting can help you realize that you don’t even need to have a meeting. If this is the case, you’ve just avoided wasting everyone’s time. The purpose of a meeting should be something that you can summarize in one or two sentences, and nothing more. Here’s a good summary of purpose:

The purpose of this meeting is to provide the client with three options on how to proceed with our development, and provide our recommendation

This is to the point, and gives a quick outline of what we should expect to see in the meeting. Here’s a bad summary of purpose:

The purpose of this meeting is to provide the client with three options on how to proceed with our development. Even though we feel that option A and B are not the best choices, they are both cheaper than option C, which may help the client make their decision. Additionally, option C will require more work, so the client will want to consider that.

This gives away too much information, and spends too much time delving into the details. Let those get taken care of when you are actually meeting.

• Talking Points


The talking points for an agenda are the main bulk of an agenda. They should be simple, concise, and convey only enough information to jog everybody’s memory about the issue to be covered. If this is new material then that’s fine, this should convey just enough information to give people an idea of what needs to be discussed.

• Summary of talking points


Under each talking point should be a summary of the point itself. This should fill out any remaining information and set the tone for any discussion that needs to be had. Eg.

• Production server currently broken


The production server has not been operational since December 24th. Until this is fixed, all work on development is impeded and cannot proceed. Would client like us to shift focus towards fixing this problem, or wait until the server is replaced?

Leading a Meeting

Before you even begin, someone needs to be leading a meeting. This is important for a number of reasons, but you can think back to the start of any group project as a helpful analogy to determine what happens without an effective lead. At the start, when you’re assigned your group, everyone is timid, unlikely to be pushy, and reticent about putting their opinion out there. Some of these things are good (pushy people are annoying and counter-productive), but people not saying what’s on their mind and speaking their opinions is a negative in the long run.

Having someone lead a meeting means having someone that will move the meeting forward. We’ve all sat through meetings where the first two hours was spent on one agenda item. This is not a good meeting. People go round and round the same point, without ever actually reaching a conclusion.

What should an effective meeting lead be doing? These things:

• Ensuring that everyone gets a chance to speak


An unrealistic meeting is one where everyone leaves feeling like they got what they wanted. A good meeting is where everyone leaves feeling that they were heard. When meeting to reach a compromise, the former is usually unattainable. However, making sure that everyone feels they got heard is almost always something that can be achieved, and something that is important. An effective lead will look and listen for cues that someone has something to say, and make an effort to bring that person into the conversation. Cues like the sharp intake of breath before someone is about to speak, a frown, or even shaking heads and rolling eyes are all indications that someone has something to say. Meetings often have people talking over one another, and it’s important to make sure a mental note of someone that was about to say something but got interrupted. If you are a leading the meeting, part of your role is to make sure that that interrupted thought gets heard.

• Keeping the meeting on track and sticking to the agenda


If you’re not convinced yet, here’s another great reason to have an agenda: It helps you make sure your meeting is staying on track, and gives you something to point to when you need to bring others back to the discussion at hand. It is inevitable that discussions will start to diverge and move off of track, it’s just the way conversations and people work. As an effective lead, you need to first be able to identify that this is happening, and then bring things back into the fold. The easiest way to identify divergence is to ask yourself if the current discussion actually relates directly to the purpose of the meeting. If it doesn’t, that’s a pretty good indication that the discussion needs to be stopped and taken offline. Most people are hesitant to step up and suggest this, but the important distinction is to make sure that you recognize that the current topic is important - it’s just not necessary to the purpose at hand. Suggest that it may be important to schedule another meeting to deal with the divergent topic, and then bring the meeting back on track. If you still find this approach too aggressive, just ask the question: “Are we getting off track here?”

• Identifying when it’s time to move on


This point is similar to the previous one, but with an important distinction. Sometimes, the meeting will be on track, but you will feel that you’re starting to go around in circles. I wish that I had a pragmatic way to determine whether the topic is starting to get circular, but there isn’t one. Some hints to watch out for are reiterations of points that have already been made, the same problem being revisited. For me, it’s generally when one of my eyes start to twitch, or I notice that I’ve got all of the fingers in my hands pushing against each other which such force that I’m close to fusing atoms. However you reach this conclusion, once you’ve arrived there, you need to speak up about it, and ask how to proceed. “It seems like we’re going around in circles here. Does anyone have any ideas for how we can get past this?”. Maybe the point being discussed isn’t actually that critical to your purpose. Maybe the problem that is going circular is actually a tangent, or can be worked around. This is often the trickiest parts of a meeting, but it’s essential to moving things forward. If you’re not making progress, maybe it’s just time to take this specific item off the table, go away and do some investigation and thinking, and then reconvene at a later point.

• Summarize the resolution prior to moving onwards


Once your meeting attendees have reached a conclusion/decision/resolution for one of your talking points, summarize it before moving on. This will help crystallize the concept in everyone’s mind, and acts as a final opportunity for someone to bring up anything that they may have forgot earlier.

Holy crap this is getting long. We’re almost done though, let’s keep pushing forward.

Speaking in Meetings

Not everyone will need to worry about putting together agendas and leading meetings. In fact, most of the people out there will never need to worry about this, as they have no aspirations or desires to move into management positions. Even though I think it’s valuable to know how to do these things anyhow, this last step is important for everyone.

A lot of people in the tech industry are not known for their social ability. Speaking in public can be a tricky proposition for many, and meetings act as a miniature opportunity to do this. There’s a few simple mantras to keep in the back of your mind when you are speaking to make sure that you present yourself and your ideas in the most coherent manner possible:

• Don’t rant


It’s so tempting sometimes to rant, but it doesn’t serve any purpose. Not only that, but it’s rarely professional. Ranting is carthatic and helps to get something off of your chest, but find a better time and place to do this. One where you don’t have a captive audience and where you are not taking up the time of six or more busy people. Resist the temptation.

• Don’t digress


Most people don’t realize that they are digressing, and until it becomes natural, it’s something you have to mentally ask yourself when you’re speaking. Have you made your point? No? Then finish doing so. If yes, then stop talking. It’s that simple. I have been in many meetings where people make their point, then provide back up details. And then back up those details with further background. Ad nauseaum. This is time consuming, and difficult to handle, because while technically the material is still relevant, it is unnecessary. Present your point as succintly as possible, and then leave it up to the attendees to ask if they require further background.

• Summarize and stay on point


In line with same point above, make sure that you are speaking succintly. Don’t throw in a lot of unnecessary words to make your point, and don’t ramble on. Say what you need to say, and then let other people comment. Have you been talking for longer than a minute? If so, you should really check in with yourself and consider whether or not you need to keep going. Most points can be explained in a minute. If you’re explaining something complicated, are you doing it as efficiently as possible?

• Engage everyone


This is the easiest item to act upon, and doesn’t require a lot. The tricky thing about meetings is that typically dominant or management-oriented personalities will emerge. These are the people that most often ask questions, and as a result, they’re the people that get addressed. However, everyone in a meeting is there for a reason, and it’s important to engage all of these people when you are speaking. Make a point of making eye contact with them when you are speaking, and avoid addressing only one person. If you don’t engage your audience, you’ll find that they pay a lot less attention to what you’re saying. Make eye contact and engage and you’ll ensure that your point gets across.

• Do you really need to speak?


Okay, last one here. This is a common mistake. Someone makes their point or completes their explanation, and then a coworker will jump in and reiterate the point that has been made. Clarification is good, but it’s important to really ask yourself if it’s necessary to add what you have to say. Keep in the back of your head that the goal of a meeting is to discuss what needs to be discussed, and then to get out. Everytime someone new speaks, there is additional mental overhead for people to change focus, zone in on what is being said, and then consider anything else that needs to be added. If you are merely reiterating a point that has been made, stop yourself from adding to this overhead.

Okay, that’s everything for now. This turned out to be way more material than I had originally anticipated, and I still have half a sheet of notes for another entry. I know that addressing the two people and one cat that read my blog is silly, but if anyone has anything specific related to management that they would like me to write about, please leave a comment. Suggestions are helpful!