I recently watched Cal Newport's video on Daily Metrics Tracking for productivity.
If you are someone like me who is good at planning but struggle a bit in execution, then metrics tracking is an awesome tool to skyrocket your productivity.
A few weeks back, I subscribed to GTD Connect after a discount offer from the GTD Connect Team. I have been practising GTD on and off since 2015. As a tinkerer of productivity systems and an avid consumer of productivity content, I have tried out various methodologies to get a slight edge in my productivity. I always struggle with the new system and end up coming back to the GTD methodology. I feel like I'm wired for David Allen's GTD practice.
In one of the GTD Connect podcast episodes, David talks about finishing your thinking when stuff first shows up in your inboxes. It's called Clarifying. That's my kryptonite. I always find it difficult to define the expected outcome and the next physical action to move that thing forward. But, rather than asking that important question: “what is it?”; I start to go for what I need to do and start organising them into lists. This episode really made me realise that I'm doing something wrong!
Moving forward, when I pick a captured item, I shall ask the following questions:
What is it?
Is it action?
If yes, what is the expected outcome?
What is the next physical action to move closer to the defined outcome?
After answering the above questions, I can start organising the next actions in my fancy task management app.
He mentions an important productivity lesson we all tend to forget. It's about Life's Brevity.
There are plenty of books out there and thanks to the Hustle Culture, glorification of long work hours and idiotic Instagram motivational pages, we are forced to believe that “we can have it all”.
Let's be clear. We cannot have it all! We can have some of what we want but not all of it. So, to counter Hustle Culture and Burnout, let's embrace life's brevity and focus on what's truly important in our lives.
Here's mine in descending order of value-priority:
To serve our families, our individual health and well-being, and our recreational and creative needs optimally, many business like behaviors are required. – David Allen
I was reading David Allen's book, Making It All Work where he talks about how we can incorporate the best practices from our work life into our personal lives.
This made me pause and think about what best practices I can incorporate to handle the business of life?