This is Productivity Bible!

It was written by David Allen, a really well known management consultant and executive coach who presents ways to maximize productivity. Allen introduces a system with five main phases: collecting, processing, organizing, doing and reviewing. He helps people showing people how organizing yourself can help you achieve your goals more efficiently.

First of all, you need to collect all of the thoughts in your mind. This means going through every task and plan that you
have and WRITING IT DOWN. For example, every morning, I write down all of the tasks I need to do that day. I also keep lists of tasks that I want to do that month and other tasks that I’ve always thought of doing, but haven’t got around to (such as learning Spanish).

Secondly, you need to have a processing schedule. This means to follow a schedule of checking your email, voice mail or mail. For me, I check my office email three times a day and my personal email once a day. This helps me ensure I don’t get caught up responding to an non-important e-mail.. Also, when I check my e-mail, I divide it into two categories: Respond immediately (if it takes less than two minutes) or write down on my to-do list that I need to respond. Also, use your calendar to schedule tasks that will need to be conducted on a future date.

Next, you need to organize your to-do list. Try to focus on completing IMPORTANT tasks instead of URGENT tasks. For example, If I am working on a big consulting contract and my client calls, I will drop everything to make sure he/she is getting the best service possible. Next, I would need to do contact some of my other clients to confirm the meeting we have planned for next month ( this is an important task but not urgent since I still have a lot of time to finish it). Finally, after finishing the two tasks above, I would call my best friend to say Happy Birthday; this is the urgent task (today is her birthday) but not as important as the two tasks above.

When you have a well-organized to-do list, DO IT! At this stage, you are not checking your email to avoid distractions. Look at the list, do the first task, finish it, then move on to the next task. Remember to work on the task that matters the most!

Finally, you need to review your lists daily. At the end of the daily, delete all of the tasks that you have completed. Then, see what needs to be done tomorrow and put that on the new Today to do list. Review your calendar to see if you have meetings or tasks that need to be completed tomorrow. Then, review your other lists to make sure they are updated. This exercise should take less than ten minutes. It is very important!

Getting Things Done has really helped me improve my productivity. I strongly recommend reading this book It will help you
dramatically improve your productivity and to live a stress-free, happy effective life! 🙂