Work, Stuff, Organizing, and Getting Things Done
This week, we will define some words in ways you may have yet to think about.
Work, stuff, organized and getting things done
The right words can help you get things done—words like work, stuff, and organized. Read on while I set this up for you.
Don’t you love it when a spontaneous action occurs at the right time that benefits you? Of course you do; we all do, and the next two posts are great examples of good things working out at just the right time!
Last week’s post was dedicated to time management, daily routines, and how we manage the work week to ensure we get the most out of the finite hours we all have and do the things that advance our goals. Why? Well, we already know. So we can achieve our dreams and live our best lives! For the next two weeks, we will get into more detail about how to best use our time. Because learning is my passion, I read and study a lot of material, and when I find something that I think may be useful to you, my readers, I like to share that information with you. Like I’ve done with a few previous posts, I will go off-script for two weeks and share this new information that will help you in your quest to use your time in the most productive way.
How organized are you?
I believe I am a well-organized person, and I described in generality how I manage my day in last week’s post. I left out a lot of detail about how I use project files, logical storage systems, notes to myself, tricks, and other methods to ensure I accomplish my goals. Because of two books I read over the last two weeks, I had one of those Aha! moments, it occurred to me that just because I am organized, not everyone is, and perhaps some of you can benefit from what I’ve learned.
As well-organized as I believe myself to be, over the past few weeks, several things I have been working on for a long time came to a head (the situation reached a point where it must be dealt with). I have a lot of irons in the fire (involved in several different activities), which has caused me to question my organizational and time management system and start researching potential other methods to better keep myself organized. I concluded that I am generally well organized because, like many things in my life, I worked very hard at it. If you have not heard from me already, you will hear again in the future that hard work is the great equalizer. I attribute my success to working hard to achieve the desired results. Hard work is a way to overcome a difficult past or a lack of education. There is a term, often misused and abused, that says we all should “work smarter, not harder.” I agree that smarter is better than harder, but many of us may not be as smart in a particular topic as we would like, and we compensate by working hard, perhaps too hard and not smart, to get what we want.
So, my organizational system works because I work very hard at it. The other thing that occurred to me while pondering my organizational and time management system is that I put a lot of stress on myself that I wish I did not have. For example, I make notes to myself because I am a note-taker, so I remember these random thoughts. Then, the note must be dealt with. Multiply this with a very active mind, and you can conclude that I cause myself stress by working hard, staying organized, and keeping up with all I have going on. In short, the question I’ve been pondering recently is this, “Is there a better way?” Incidentally, before I go on to answer that question, this is a question we should continually be asking ourselves in all areas of our lives. This is LEAN thinking at its best.
In the past five weeks, I’ve read four books. Of course, going on an Alaskan cruise for a week, along with the long flights, gave me a lot of time to read, but I read a lot anyway. I will describe two books in this and the next post; one I will explain later, and one was a very interesting, quite amazing book called “The Blind Woodsman.” I’ve thought about how to incorporate this book into a weekly post, but I’ve only decided to mention it to you, and if you choose to read it, you will not be disappointed but amazed at this true-life story.
The purpose of this post is to get you to think more about your time management and organizational systems and to ask yourself if how you spend your time results in getting the things you want. After writing last week’s post, I realized that not everyone may be organized and may need a little help in getting that way. Why aren’t people organized, even though abundant information suggests that being organized is good (Google “Are people organized” and read for yourself)? I think the biggest reason is that unless one is taught how to be organized, one may not see its importance or how to get to that state. I may go so far as to say that you may not know you are unorganized unless you are organized. Huh? What? Hmmm…This is where we will spend the rest of our time today.
Side note: Of course, some medical conditions cause becoming or being organized to be more difficult for some folks, such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or what was known as Learning Disability (LD) when I was young, and other similar conditions. I hesitate to mention this in this post because I am not a medical professional and don’t want to risk offending anyone. I chose to bring it up instead because these conditions can be successfully treated, and I know people who have overcome them to achieve superb results. Perhaps someone will recognize themselves or someone they know and love in this discussion, which could result in good things happening for them.
Getting things done
That was a lot of words to say that the book I just finished reading is entitled Getting Things Done: the art of stress free productivity by David Allen (Note 1). The book was originally authored in 2001 but was updated in 2015, so except for discussing Artificial intelligence (AI), it covers most of the technology and systems in use today and is relevant. Let me say that regardless of whether you think you are organized or not, reading this book will be helpful to you, and I encourage you to read it. What I especially like about the book is it takes a holistic view of your life and encompasses and integrates your work and personal life. He also discusses ways to manage your daily and weekly schedule and long-term tasks, projects, and reference material you may need to retain over long periods. I especially like how he incorporates both paper and digital systems, utilizing the best of both methods. Note: We’ll discuss paperless and wireless offices later in this post, so please continue reading for that discussion.
While I’m not going to summarize the book for you in detail (please read it and action those items you need to), there are a few terms and definitions from Mr. Allen I would like to share with you as each of them caused me to stop, ponder them and in some cases, act. Reading this book helped me to decide on a new organizational system I intend to implement. More on that later. For now, let’s review some practical terms from the book:
Getting Things Done (GTD)-This is the gist of the book. I’ll quote Mr. Allen directly as he defines it: “…strategies for how to have more energy, be more relaxed, with more clarity and presence at the moment with whatever you’re doing and get much more accomplished with much less effort.” My favorite part and most applicable to me: “A person can have an overwhelming number of things to do and still function productively with a clear head and a positive sense of relaxed control. That’s a great way to live and work at elevated levels of effectiveness and efficiency.”
Mind like water-This is defined as having our mind in a state of perpetual readiness and without stress. Having a mind like water is a key to organization, productivity, and reduced stress, an almost zen-like state of calm attentiveness. To be honest with you, I am still trying to get to this state myself.
Work-Anything that you want or need to be different than it currently is. For years, we’ve been told that we need to separate our work and personal lives, and I love that Mr. Allen states in unambiguous terms that the two are integrated. Let me discuss two points regarding integrating personal and work lives from my experience:
I’ve never really believed we could separate work and personal lives; frankly, this line bothered me when I heard it, and I never really could support it. Think about this: If you have financial problems, creditors are after you, your car needs repair, or you struggle to feed your family, this is on your mind 24/7. If you have a sick child at home, your mind is on that child. If you are having marital problems, you don’t just go to work and shut that off; our minds do not work like this. One of the things I have appreciated about implementing human factors in aviation is the focus on human behavior and the effect on work and safety. In this case, unless things are humming at home, distraction, stress, and fatigue are issues that prevent us from separating work from our personal lives. To perform our best at work, we must be sure things at home are controlled. Back in the day, and perhaps still to this day, there was a reason the military expected their officers to be in control at home, including such things as keeping their credit sound. In the same way, the church requires its leaders to live to specific standards. These standards begin at home and are proven over time (1 Timothy 3).
Thinking of work as something that needs to be done without applying boundaries frees us up to better integrate our lives holistically. For example, if I want to attend a college football game on Saturday evening but need to spend half a day at work and mow the lawn, both tasks, this work, need to be accomplished. If it’s early fall and still warm outside, perhaps I mow the lawn in the morning and work in the afternoon when I can enjoy the air conditioning. If it’s a bit cooler, maybe I reverse the order. If you’ve never considered working this way or think you can effectively separate your work and personal lives, perhaps you have something to think about this week.
Stuff-Anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined what it means to you, with the desired outcome and the next action step. Mr. Allen states that most organizing systems haven’t worked for most people because they have not yet transformed all the stuff they are trying to manage.
Project- Mr. Allen defines a project as any desired result that can be accomplished within a year and requires more than one step. In my mind, many projects are longer than a year. Think of construction projects, for example.
Task-While Mr. Allen does not explicitly define what a task is, he alludes to it. As I interpret him, a task would be anything that takes less than two minutes to disposition and takes only one step. Whether I’ve interpreted him correctly or not, I think this is still a good definition of a task, and combined with projects, it seems to make up what work is.
Productive state- A sense of being in control, not stressed, and highly focused on what you are working on. You know when you are in this state as time flies and you accomplish much. We desire to increase the opportunities to be in this state.
Managing action-This is the key to managing all our stuff. When we have a clear mind, clarity, and definition of the next steps of what we need to do, we can get things done. This requires us to define what done means (the outcome) and doing (actions). Properly managing actions is elusive for many people.
Getting it all out of your head-This is a state where you are fully organized and in control of yourself such that you don’t have to be consistently thinking about what you need to do because your system will prompt you on precisely what you need to do at exactly the right time. Ah, yes, this is where I want to be!
Tricks-These are small actions we take to, speaking in LEAN terms, mistake-proof our processes. Examples include putting your wallet and car keys in precisely the same place every time you take them out of your pocket. Placing our lunch box and briefcase next to the door so we don’t forget it. Tricks help us clear our minds of small things we need to do by using a system to ensure they get done without thinking.
Organized-where something is that matches what it means to you. This is a straightforward definition of a very complex issue. Do you consider yourself organized? If not, then you have some work to do. If you consider yourself organized, the question becomes, is your organization at a level where you have a clear mind and a stressless existence? While I’ve always thought I was organized, I’ve learned that I still have work to do! How about you?
When you read this book, you will find that some of Mr. Allen’s recommendations contradict mine. For example, Mr. Allen recommends establishing a “Someday/Maybe” list. These are typically big things or major undertakings that you don’t want to, or can’t, deal with now, so they reside on this list. Presumably, you will look at this list sometime in the future and decide you can now do those things. I recommend listing these items in your goals list and prioritizing them, along with the necessary steps to accomplish them. In my vocabulary, a “Someday/Maybe” list is an objective instead of a goal. Goals have action steps to ensure their completion and are time-bound. Objectives? Not so much.
Other options to help you be better organized
Other organization systems might include FranklinCovey (Note 2) or 43 folders (Note 3). Timedoctor.com has a good list of several such tools (Note 4). Earlier, I mentioned that I wanted to incorporate a new organizational system. It looks like it will be 43 folders for me.
Before I close for this week, I want to discuss a paperless and wireless workspace briefly. I use a combination of paper and paperless systems that make up my organizational process. It works for me, but as I’ve mentioned, I think I can do better, and I am working hard on that now. Today, we are seeing many offices moving to paperless and even wireless. That means there are no paper files, forms, or paper at all, and perhaps no hard-wired computers or even phones. You will typically see such systems in IT organizations as they tend to be on the leading edge of things like this. Envision all your paper files stored in the cloud or on a company server. Perhaps even eliminated. Maybe even your phone has disappeared, and you use your computer to make phone calls. Now, if we can do this at the office, is it possible to do it at home? I’ll leave that answer up to you to decide. But one thing I consistently say, which is still valid as we discuss how best to get things done and live stress-free, is to find what works for you. Sometimes, like I am doing now, what we have works, but is this the best we can do?
That’s all for this week!
What’s in it for Me
If we want to excel, be successful, achieve our dreams, and live our best lives, we must be efficient and effective in managing our time and being organized so we accomplish tasks and projects that advance our goals. We can probably learn to do things better; we must have an open mind and a willingness to learn and change.
Call to Action
Sign up for the course in any of the available methods today. Ponder how you manage your day, week, month, and year. When you reflect on any of these periods, are you satisfied you accomplished what you wanted? Your action for this week is to answer that question and bring into focus any needed resources to improve.
Recommended Resources
Purchase and read Getting Things Done by David Allen (Note 1). Be sure to get the 2015 addition. If you want an intriguing read about overcoming difficulties in life and a current TikTok sensation, read The Blind Woodsman by John and Anni Furniss (Note 5)
Up Next
Parkinson’s Law
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
FranklinCovey https://weekplan.net/academy/glossary/franklin-covey/
43 Folders https://fortythree.me/home/why-43-folders/
Timedoctor https://www.timedoctor.com/blog/time-management-tools-and-techniques/
The Blind Woodsman by John and Anni Furniss https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Woodsman-Publishing-Autobiography-Overcoming/dp/1497104513