Defining Your Work

“Everything you’ve told yourself you ought to do, your mind thinks you should do right now.” 

– David Allen

Last week we dove into Chapter 2 of Jordan Raynor’s awesome book, “Redeeming Your Time.” We made it through the first three practices of this chapter. If you struggle with overwhelm, losing tasks, or any other of the multitude of time management issues we all deal with, chapter 2 of this book will be the most difficult for you. But like most things in life, doing the hard work described in Chapter 2 will bring the greatest rewards.

Chapter 2 is where Raynor teaches you his version of Getting Things Done (GTD). It is rare to find someone who has fully implemented a system like GTD. Most of us muddle through life dropping the occasional ball and with at least mild anxiety about balls that might get dropped (unless you are one of those people who just don’t care). 

As a follower of Christ, I really want my yes to be my yes. I really want to walk in the peace that God promises. I have found I cannot do either if do not implement a system that captures all of my to-do’s (open loops) that I review at least weekly. 

So, to get that peace, to be someone that people can always trust to do what I say I am going to do, I must implement a system. Let’s keep pushing ahead with the next practice of Raynor’s approach to GTD. 

Practice 4 – Define Your Work

In practice three, we got everything out of our inboxes (digital and physical) and our heads into the “Inbox” of our Commitment Tracking System (CTS). The inbox is the holding area for everything. David Allen calls this practice “getting clear.” The goal is to have everything out of your mind and any other space you store or receive things and into your one, singular, trusted system. Once it is in your system, then you decide what to do with it. 

One key thing about practice three is to never attempt to store things in your head. Always capture everything that you might need in the future or that could be an action item. This can be in a notebook you always carry or a digital device.  

In practice four, we take the stuff in your inbox and decide what to do with each item. This is where relief begins. Knowing all that you’ve committed to can be overwhelming. Having a plan on what to do with those commitments brings peace. 

To move towards that peace, ask yourself the following questions about every item in your inbox. FYI – My questions are slightly different than Raynor’s. Once you start working your own system, you will probably alter it to suit your needs. The key is to have a framework to start the practices. 

1 – Is there an action for me to take related to this item?

Many things in your inbox are items you’d like to reference in the future, but there is no action for you to take at this time. If there is no action for you to take on the item you simply need to store it away. 

How to store is worth another article, but I’ll tell you what I do. When I first started with GTD, I bought a Brother QL-800 label printer and a stack of manila folders. Anything I wanted to keep went into a folder, got a nice printed label on it and I stored it in hanging files. David Allen’s book has a whole chapter on setting up this type of system. If you are wondering why to bother with a label printer, just try it. You’ll be amazed at the mental peace brought by those beautiful little labels. 

Over time, the stuff I was storing got overwhelming. Storing that much paper was becoming too slow and taking up too much space. 

My next step was to invest in a Fujitsu ScanSnap desktop scanner. They are expensive (around $400) and worth every penny. When you are trying to clear your inbox as quickly as possible, having a scanner next to you is key. If you want to keep the item for later, just scan it into your digital system. 

But how do you store and retrieve all that digital stuff? Great question. My first step is a tool called Evernote. It is magical and you can start with a free version. My scanner scans immediately to Evernote. Once it is in Evernote I give it a tag or multiple tags that will help me find the information when I need it. The great thing about tags (over folders) is I can put as many tags on an item as I’d like and when I search for any of those tags, this item will show up in the list. This is a huge improvement over folders where I often lose stuff under multiple levels of folders. All I can say is praise God for greatly improved search functions over the years. 

Another storage mechanism I use is a Research_Learning folder on my computer (which is also stored on the cloud). Anything I am putting significant time into learning about gets a topic folder in my Research_Learning folder. These folders allow me to store Microsoft files like Word and Excel where I often make notes, run calculations, etc. This is stuff I can’t do in Evernote. 

One day, I am sure I will get out of Evernote and get everything under the Microsoft umbrella (Microsoft’s Evernote alternative is called OneNote). But, this is my system for now. 

If an item is not actionable, you store it or trash it. 

If an item is actionable, go to question two. 

2 – “Am I still committed to closing this open loop?” or “Would anything happen if I never completed this?”

Raynor deletes roughly 25% of his open loops during this step. I use a “Someday/Maybe” list as a place to hold items that I’d like to do, but don’t have to. When you do your weekly review, you give your Someday/Maybe list a very quick review to see if you’d like to bring anything up to do this week. The key is to know that nothing in your Someday/Maybe list will “bite you” if you ignore it. 

If you are still committed to closing this open loop, go to question three. If you are not committed to closing it, delete it. If you are not sure, put it in your Someday/Maybe folder.

3 – “What is my actual desired outcome?”

When you were putting items into your inbox, your goal was speed. Just get the open loop out of your head, off your desk, or out of your email and into your CTS. Now, if the open loop made it past the first question, take a minute to define the outcome you (or the one who gave you the task) desires. Then, move to the next question. 

4 – “Will it take more than one action to close this open loop?”

This one is deceptive. A simple item like “Pressure wash the house” actually requires multiple steps. I’ll need to get access to a pressure washer, I’ll need to clear the open areas around the house to keep things from getting soaked. I might need a longer water hose or extension cord. I’ll need to determine how much time this will take and put time on my calendar when the weather is expected to be good enough to do the work. 

Pressure washing the house is a project that will require multiple steps to complete. Pressure washing the house is a clearly defined finish line that will require multiple steps to complete. It goes on your Project list with the actions that will be required to complete it. 

If the answer to question four is no, skip to question six. 

5 – What is the Next Action?

Next Action items are a concept developed by David Allen. It seems crazy simple when you start using it. The idea is that every project has a “next best step” to move towards completion. 

The key is that we cannot actually “do” a project. So the project sits on our list taking up mental RAM until we define the “next best step” to get it done. Projects seem overwhelming. Next actions are often relatively easy and quick to do. Next steps can be fit into your day in little gaps, like when you are waiting in line or stuck in traffic.  

6 – Will it take less than two minutes to complete?

It is more efficient to do a task that takes less than two minutes to complete than it is to put it into your CTS for action later. When your inbox is full of an overwhelming list of open loops, two minutes multiplied by all those open loops will seem like way more time than you have, but just do the task anyway. Get it off your list. You may not get to the bottom of your inbox, but you will have that open loop off your list. Congratulate yourself! You will get to the bottom of the stack. It will just take longer than you want it to!

If the open loop will take longer than two minutes, put it into your “Next Actions” list in your CTS. This will allow you to get to the bottom of your inbox much faster. 

If the item has a real deadline, put the date it must be done next to the item in your CTS. But, don’t put deadlines on items that you “want” to get done by a certain date. Why? Because your days will blow up and knowing that a deadline is real will allow you to see your “must dos” at a glance so you can keep that ball from dropping. 

Also, don’t put items that are not date-specific on your calendar. Why? Because your calendar will get overwhelmed and you need to keep it clear to focus on appointments you have made with yourself and others. This one is hard for me. Feel free to duplicate a deadline task in your CTS and your calendar while you are implementing your system. Once you have the review process down pat (which is a later Practice), you will be able to trust your CTS and stop putting these items on your calendar. Right now, I put my hard deadlines and appointments in red on my calendar and all reminders in yellow (I use the categorize function in Outlook calendar to do this). That way, I can see at a glance my must-do’s versus my reminders.

And if you are waiting on someone to take care of an item for you, put that into your CTS. Microsoft To-Do allows me to use tags, so I will put the item into To Do with a hashtag and their name so I can easily search by the person’s name to see all the things I am waiting on from them. 

Agendas are another cool list that comes standard in Microsoft To Do that I had never heard of. The idea is that you keep a list of the things you want to discuss with someone the next time you see them. Using agendas is a great way to get that thing you want to talk to that person (or group of people) about off your mind without bugging them with an email. You just add the item to their Agenda and you can rest easy that you won’t forget it next time you speak with them. 

We’ve got one more practice to go in Chapter 2 – Maintaining Your CTS. We’ll cover that in the next article.

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