Purpose in Getting Things Done
I'm currently reading "Getting Things Done" by Best Selling Author David Allen. He gives some really great tips, behaviors, and a system for being more productive.
What I found most interesting is that he takes time to suggest that it is critical to be aware of everything that is going on in your life from your life (till the day you die) goals, to your top goals for the next 5 years, yearly, and all the way down to a weekly and daily task level.
This is totally in line with how I have been doing my life and career planning for years but David helps with a many critical pieces for actually making it work.
The one I am focusing on for this week is "Purpose". Every project or activity we are doing or trying to achieve we should be able to answer the question "Why?". Why is it important that we do this activity? achieve this goal? etc. etc.
It's more powerful than one realizes. It provides clarity, a means of prioritizing, and gives an energy boost to move forward. If it doesn't or you can't answer of why, then it's probably a good sign of whether you should be doing the activity at all.
Let's start this week off with a bang!
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What I found most interesting is that he takes time to suggest that it is critical to be aware of everything that is going on in your life from your life (till the day you die) goals, to your top goals for the next 5 years, yearly, and all the way down to a weekly and daily task level.
This is totally in line with how I have been doing my life and career planning for years but David helps with a many critical pieces for actually making it work.
The one I am focusing on for this week is "Purpose". Every project or activity we are doing or trying to achieve we should be able to answer the question "Why?". Why is it important that we do this activity? achieve this goal? etc. etc.
It's more powerful than one realizes. It provides clarity, a means of prioritizing, and gives an energy boost to move forward. If it doesn't or you can't answer of why, then it's probably a good sign of whether you should be doing the activity at all.
Let's start this week off with a bang!
Labels: Business, David Allen, Getting Things Done, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, Health, Mental Health, Purpose, Things Done, Time management
posted by Mike T at
12:27 PM
2 Comments:
I read this book about 4-5 years ago when I was just starting my first 'real' job. The two things that have stuck with me the most are: 1) Prioritizing my email inbox. Now, the only time I have more than 10 messages in my inbox are when I've been out of town or am SEVERELY behind. 2) Determining the "NEXT STEP." It's so productive to my personal and professional life...what is the next thing I need to do in order to continue this project forward?
You've got me thinking that I could probably use another read of it. Not sure if I still have it buried somewhere or if I loved it so much that I shared it.
I think those two are definitely good ones although I need to work on figuring out the next step more often. I also latched onto the e-mail inbox but really my biggest one is to do anything that I can do in 2 minutes and then decide whether to put it in a next action space or for a specific calendar time or day. Then again, I have a lot of reading left to do
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