3 Simple rules for planning your daily work
I'm thinking of... , by Gutter
In the post “How to achieve Inbox Zero with GTD and Windows Mobile” we have recently shown how to collect our work effectively, emptying our inbox by applying four simple steps. The next step is reviewing our pending actions, and choosing which tasks are we going to do today. We recommend being optimist, that is to say, select more tasks than we can do, to later, uncheck those that we think that can be postponed.
At first, we must choose the urgent tasks. For doing that, we will need a view that allows us to review our tasks ordered by end date, such as the view that provides Needian – Get Organized in 1,2,3. In this view we will check for today those actions whose deadline is today or next to today (see this post for recommendations from GTD creator, David Allen, for managing deadlines).
Chossing urgent tasks (By Date) with Needian - Organize in 1,2,3
Secondly, we must choose the important tasks. The important tasks are those that will push forward our projects. Using Needian – Organize in 1,2,3, we will review our projects and their associated tasks, and we will mark for today those tasks where we are late or in those we feel we must prioritize. The Zen To Done methodology (ZTD) recommends choosing the 3 projects, called ‘big rocks’ that matter most this week and work exclusively on them. If we have selected three ‘big rocks’, we should focus only those. If you think that working in just three projects is not good for you, we recommend you to read the post of Zenhabits titled “Big Rocks First: Double your productivity this week“
Chossing important tasks (By Project) using Needian - Organize in 1,2,3
Next, we must review the pending work with:
- The contacts that we are going to interact with, for planning our phone calls or meetings.
- Review our tasks by place, for choosing those tasks associated with the places that we are visiting.
- Review our work by tool, for doing those tasks related with the tools that we will have at hand.
Take your time, and try to be distraction-free while reviewing what are you going to work on, because a wrong decision can delay an important project. If we invest our time in evaluating what to do with our money, why not doing the same with our time?
With this we have prepared a list of tasks for today. In a next post we’ll see how confronting it.
Which are your tricks and tips for planning your day?