Getting Things Done

By Rebecca Purdy, Deputy Director, Central Rappahannock Regional Library

Have you ever had a sleepless night because your mind is spinning with everything you need to accomplish at work? Have you ever felt a sense of panic as you darted from one meeting to the next because you haven’t yet begun that project that’s due next week? Have you ever sat down at your desk with the precious gift of an hour and not known where to begin?

I encourage you to develop a system to track your in-depth, multi-step projects that have multiple tasks and contributors. Yes it takes time to develop and refine a system, but I promise it’s a worthwhile investment. I have read many project management books through the years, but the one whose techniques I have incorporated the most successfully is David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Here’s how I’ve taken some of his recommendations, and tips from other sources, to develop my system for project management.

I recommend the following components:

• A list of your projects by due date. This allows you to prioritize your time with what really needs attention next, not just what’s clamoring in your head.
• One place to see all of the following elements of your projects; it’s another form of big picture thinking!
  • All of the tasks that need to happen in order to move your project forward. This allows you to review them and make informed decisions on what you have time and energy to begin or complete. The best part though is that when you realize another step in the process, you can get it into your system, freeing your mind for something besides worry!
  • Any actual deadlines–David Allen cautions against setting arbitrary deadlines and I’ve learned the hard way to follow his advice. Fabricated pressure detracts from where my focus should be and unnecessarily increases my stress. It’s not worth it; stick with what’s real.
  • Tasks that you are “waiting for” staff members, vendors or your boss to complete. Forget everything I wrote in the bullet above and consider adding a date, but think of it as a “check-in” instead of deadline. When it comes to staff, I will frequently select a meeting date a few weeks out as a chance to touch base about their progress, answer any questions or provide any additional support.
  • Related emails–Emails are frequently generated that are rich with important information and tasks for a project. It’s very helpful to capture that without having to retype it (a waste of time) or edit it in any way (which risks removing a key element you thought wasn’t important at first.)
• The ability to set recurrences or reuse your project list–Frequently the next actions or an entire project are recurring. Why reinvent the wheel? Instead recycle your efforts and use an automatic reminder to make the project pop up automatically when it’s time to start on it again.

Personally, I use Toodledo which is available as an app and syncs to their website.. I use their folder option to create project headings and, if there’s a deadline, I add it to the front of the title so that I can sort them by date. The component that really sold me was the ability to email tasks directly to the app and easily add them to my project folders. Others have had success using Google docs (the table of contents feature can be used to list your projects) and Trello. It doesn’t matter which system you use as long as it captures those roaming thoughts in your head and helps you successfully complete your projects!