clear.your.mind

Howdy!

Too much paper work? Too many things to do? You can’t get organized because you lack space on your desk? I’m sure you’ve come across problems before like I did a couple of months ago. I work on the Internet and things can get wild on your desktop; it’s too easy to create a folder on any OS, so you can end up having 40 folders with mixed documents in every each one of them. How many times have you just copied all the things on your desktop to another folder because it got too messy? Well, I know plenty people who have just this week!

Here I won’t give you any magic formula. I will just tell you how I was able to get myself organized. If that helps you, fine. First off… why you must get organized.

There’s a ticking bomb if you don’t

Recognize this? Well, this can happen often if you don’t get organized. How many items do you have right now in your drawers? How many of those are you using on daily basis? What about the papers in your inbox or your tray? Are there are some old, old bills you already payed laying there? Some useless emails you printed to follow a project and now there is no reason for having them in the middle of your face, maybe?

We’ve all had that desk. I had a desk at work and a desk at home, and both were so full of paper and trash that the only way I could know if I were at home of at work was because of the wallpaper on my PC. I couldn’t see beyond my computer! There was too much trash piled in behind and on top of it! No shame there, we just need to learn a few new tips.

First, I grabbed a HipsterPDA (more about it in the related links at the end of the page) and I started my GTD setup with it. It was quite difficult to throw away that amount of trash before GTD, but now I do my weekly review almost like an automate process and it isn’t that hard anymore. It get some time to get used to it, but you need to give yourself time!

For a couple of months the HipsterPDA just laid down at one side of my desktop without any use. I threw away all my papers and got organized, but it was quite difficult for me to follow the HPDA scheme because I work too much from my computer; I almost never go 5 inches away from it. So 20 of my 24hs, I’m at the computer. The HPDA wasn’t too useful by that time, so I did a couple of modifications.

Introducing: the PROJECTS HPDA

I needed something besides next actions for my week because it is hard to figure it out what is most important to do first! You have next actions but when you have several projects, next actions can get really messy. GTD works (for me, at least) if you are doing one, two project top, but when you are doing seven different projects that may be interconnected or no some how, you can get lost. So I just took another deck of index cards with a new binder clip and I created a PROJECTS HPDA. (ta-da!)

The PROJECTS HPDA works for projects really well until now; it is a simple deck of index cards (can be blank cards, can be ruled; whatever) held together with a binder clip. Then I wrote PROJECTS horizontally, on big black letters at the end of the deck. On the top of the deck I have my This Week card, and behind it, I have other next actions projects. Every card is a context for a project, not for a place, but for a defined project (because I’m 24/7 in a computer). For example: “@Book” for the book I’m writing, “@Marketing” for the marketing campaign I’m planning, etc. But those are behind the This Week card.

On the This Week card, the first thing you’re going to see is the Stephen Covey system for Sharpening the Saw (or Physical Actions) where you can write as many items as you want, I only write two for week (just because I don’t like to lie to myself). After that there is a blank space for filling my weekly Next Actions List. If the list is very long I just flip the card and continue it there.

For me, it works like charm. I’m able to see all my week next actions on a single visual scan. If for example, I need to write a book chapter on “@Book” I just add it on the This Week card and on the “@Book” card. When I have it done I just strike trough the This Week card and leave the “@Book” one for the end of the week. Then, on my weekly review I just go trough all my Next Action Cards holding the This Week card on one hand, when I read my @Book card I will see “write a chapter” unchecked and, on my This Week Card it is checked because I did it this week; so I only have to update my @Book card and that’s it. That is all it takes. It may sound a little complex, but it is a very easy way to follow your GTD scheme.

Introducing: the LIFE BALANCE HPDA

I needed something to balance my work and my life too now that I had my projects under control, so I created the LIFE BALANCE HPDA! (or LB.HPDA) Almost identical to the PROJECTS HPDA, the LIFE BALANCE HPDA works for having a visual help on the first index card of what you want to accomplish for the next X period of time.

I like to write medium term goals, so I have a THREE MONTHS GOAL card at the top of the deck; on this card you would find a VALUES box and nothing else. On the VALUES box I like to write at least three values I want to develop or master for that three months.

The objective is making an habits of these goals if I can hold them for three months. So far, I had a couple learned as habits but I need to work on them every while to make them a permanent habit.

Under the VALUES BOX you will find an empty space; there you can have all the Next Actions you would like to accomplish in those three months period. Once you check a good couple of them, you just need to go trough your Next Actions cards behind the THREE MONTHS GOAL card and update all those little cards. Check what is checked on the first card, and you’re done.

I use this the LIFE BALANCE HPDA to keep my personal and really important goals in mind. At the moment I have the @Books, @GoalList (regarding emaginacion), @Books per month, @Quotes and @Habits. I also have a @Values card where I hold every value I want to make an habit. My setup is really personal, you can see that, but that is what is all about. The LB.HPDA is sort of a “life time to-do list” where you can keep listed the important matters of your life, outside work.

What if I don’t complete an action?

I just roll it forward to the next month or the next week. That depends if that action is important to me, if its not, I just leave it for another time. I encourage you to do the same, chose wise between your actions or you may end up doing hundreds of next actions and for nothing.

But, it is difficult to keep it going?

Absolutely no (at least for me). I think that you can have it done in an hour because its very fast and easy to get organized. The interesting thing is that you can work it out with GTD and still not get lost. I do the normal GTD setup, I have an INBOX tray and weekly I go trough all those stuff on that tray to decide what its important and what no. I write down my Next Actions on every card, then I decide witch one of those is really important to pull a project off. This can vary; it’s not just “Call Tom on the Phone.” You can get into very serious decisions and you need to trust your instincts (is this action really important enough for me to invest my time in it? What is the outcome? What are the consequences of this action?)

The LIFE BALANCE HPDA and the PROJECTS HPDA lie on my desk every day. The Mac is a good help too–no more PC problems! I just grab one of my HPDAs and see what is going on this week, what I’ve accomplished, and what I did not. Whatever is on life or work situations I have a little amount of control. And it feels good ;)

Hope this can be helpful for you!
Cheers
Javier Cabrera
CEO, Emaginacion

P.S: Tom, thanks for your time today!

Related Links
Basics on HipsterPDA at 43 folders
Buy some index cards at Amazon (and support this blog!)
Buy David Allen’s Book GTD -time management system- (and support this blog!)