Tools for Thought

The two-minute rule was originated by business consultant Dean Acheson (no relation to the former Secretary of State), then incorporated into the Time/Design (Time/system in the US) methodology and later picked up by David Allen for GTD. Acheson, who also coined the Next Action technique, would guide his clients through an in-basket processing session by [...]

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As I’ve probably said too many times, I view time management as a subset of productivity rather than being synonymous with it. People seem to have a much harder time defining specifically what action step needs to be taken next to carry a project forward than defining when to start it or how long it [...]

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What GTD calls a “mind sweep” gives you permission to capture whatever’s on your mind without having to simultaneously make a decision about it. That’s a lot different than writing a to do list, where some things are clearly defined actions, some are goals and others are basically one-word notes. Unlike a to do list, [...]

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A traditional to do list and a next actions list are superficially similar, but there are a couple of key differences worth noting: Many of the individual items found on a to do list are multiaction tasks, or what in GTD are called projects. Even something as mundane a “Buy wedding gift” would be considered [...]

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Information overload is a misnomer. Whatever new information channels emerge over time, overload is the inability to prioritize. This was as true in the 18th Century as it is in the 21st Century. Anyone afflicted with information overload is preoccupied with information’s value rather than its relevance. Most information is valuable to the right person [...]

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Time management is essential to getting things done efficiently, but not necessarily effectively. That distinction might seem academic, but having seen just how deeply people treat time and output as synonymous, I want to take a closer look at the premise that more time spent on a task equals more productivity. If only I had [...]

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Productivity is more than a productivity system. No matter how much you externalize your thinking, your mind still has to take responsibility for managing that thinking. Calendars and list managers are simply storage media for relieving the overhead of remembering what you have to do, making it easier to make strategic choices about which action [...]

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One of the blank spots in the Getting Things Done system is the lack of a method for handling repetitive tasks, like exercising or writing. If done regularly enough, these routines would become familiar enough that not doing them would be an anomaly and feel odd. The trick is getting to that point in the [...]

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Not everyone needs a structured task management system. If you live on a farm or a monastery, you’re probably familiar enough with your daily routine, can be reasonably certain that it’s not likely to change, and don’t expect many interruptions to take you off course. For the rest of us, it helps to have at [...]

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It’s been said that in theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is. So I always like to personally test out different ways of working rather than assume that something will or won’t work, especially if I think it won’t. One of my last experiments was switching from the Palm [...]

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