Week 19 - Manage your work flow
A while back, I talked about David Allen's Getting Things Done and thought I would use this week's assignment as a place to help you get more organized. One of the concepts of getting more done in less time is "managing your work flow". I know from personal experience that this can have a huge impact on productivity (or it it isn't being done effectively, a huge detriment to getting things done!)
The five stages of managing your work flow are: collect, process, organize, review and do. Let's go into detail...
Collect- Have designated places for your note taking, calendering and in boxes (electronic and physical). EVERYTHING should be collected into 3-4 places. It is very important to get everything collected, out of your head and into one of these places. Empty and process your "collection baskets" as often as possible.
Process - Is it actionable? If no then you have three options:
1. Trash it
2. Incubate for a later date
3. Reference (information that might be needed later)
If yes, it is actionable, then ask yourself these questions:
1. What project or outcome have I committed to?
2. What is the next action required?
THEN YOU....
1. Do it
2. Delegate it
3. Defer it
Organize - I will quote directly from David Allen on this one:
"For non-actionable items, the possible categories are trash, incubation tools and reference storage. If no action is needed on something, you toss it, "tickle" it for later reassessment, or file it so you can find the material if you need to refer to it at another time. To manager actionable things, you will need a list of projects, storage or file for project plans and materials, a calender a list of reminders of of things you're waiting for."
Once you process everything, it is vitally important to organize things so you can easily move forward. Don not skip this step!
Review - On a weekly basis you should be reviewing your projects list, calender, next action lists and waiting for lists.
Doing this weekly review (I also recommend a review of goals at this time) allows you to stay focused on your most important tasks. The weekly review is the time to:
- Gather and process all your "stuff"
- Review your system
- Update your lists
- Get clean, clear, current and complete
Do - I often recommend that you use the following question throughout the day "What is the best use of my time right now?" to help you determine where to spend your time. Allen suggests a four-criteria model for choosing actions in the moment:
1. Context (can it be done where I am at)
2. Time available
3. Energy available
4. Priority - "Given your context, time and energy available, what action will give you the highest payoff?"
Thanks for following my weekly coaching tasks, you should be more organized and focused on your marketing... if you are just jumping in, see all Monday's Coach posts here.
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