The feeling that has plagued me the most this year has been this - "This shit is getting overwhelming, I need to get on top of this."
For clarity's sake, I should unpack the two keywords that give my feeling its meaning.
Shit - All the work I need to get done, All the ideas I need to process, All the people I need to follow up with
Overwhelming - Strong emotional effects clouding my thoughts and defeating me completely
After being drowned in a lot of shit, I think I can attribute the overwhelming feeling to three things,
- Having a lot of ideas and not noting them down - Remembering ideas randomly, not being able to remember them symmetrically
- Having no method to the madness - Processing a lot of ideas and things to do at the same time without any logical order or context or detail
- Procrastinating - Wanting to do a lot of stuff, but not doing any and getting anxious that I am not doing what I am supposed to be doing
I realise I need to fix this, but I do not retrospect often or religiously, which means that I do not correct the mistakes before getting trapped in the same cycle again. As a result, the network effect of my inefficiencies keep looping until I become overwhelmed until I'm no longer able to be calm, efficient or productive.
I need to fix this and I am going to beat this - I need a system. I need to establish a habit before I can act upon it.
I am going to borrow ideas from Getting Things Done by David Allen and build my task management and idea collection system. I am going to use Google Tasks to implement the system as it integrates well with my Google Calendar as well as being always accessible to me through the app on my phone. Google Tasks is also convenient because it lets Simply me drag my email from Gmail as tasks into a Google Task List.
The Setup
To logically bucket ideas and tasks, I am going to create different lists in Google Tasks. Large ideas or tasks are going to be broken down into sizeable sub-tasks and each sub-tasks will be labelled with a text pointing to the larger item.
List 1 - Inbox
Like every productivity video on YouTube has confirmed, I too can confirm that the brain is great for having ideas but not for storing them. Far too many times, I have missed noting ideas and tasks down and have spent far too much time trying to remember them and had poor productivity because I could no longer recollect them. I remember things randomly but can't remember things symmetrically.
I need a place to just dump every idea or task that my brain can think of. I am going to write the ideas and tasks down in the 'Inbox' list, with as much detail as possible. I am going to move the items into logical bins, act on them or expand on them at a later point. All I am going to do is just put every thought that needs some sort of action in the inbox right when I have it.
Oh and I am going to add a tag for every inbox item - something like [PER] for personal or [EGM] for my work project Engagements.
Decide - Unactionable?
I am going to sort through my Inbox two or three times a day and then move the items in my inbox into corresponding task lists. If the idea is not actionable right now, I am going to move them into one of three lists,
- List 2 - Trash: Ideas or tasks that do not require my attention, my thought or action on my part.
- List 3 - Reference: Ideas or tasks that are just references that I may need. Items here will be processed at the end of the week and moved to notes.
- List 4 - Someday: Important thing to do or a great idea but I can not act on it right now. An example task here would be, [PER] learn driving.
Decide - Actionable?
If the idea in my inbox can be acted upon right now or today or this week, I am going to put them in one of the following Lists.
But before I put something actionable into a List, if I can act and resolve the item in less than two minutes, I am going to do it right then. Period.
List 5 - Follow Up:
If a task or idea requires me to follow up with someone, I am going to add them to the ‘Follow-up’ List. In the details, I am going to note down who I need to follow up with and when this needs to be accomplished so that I can give the person a timeframe.
When I add items to the ‘follow-up’ list, I am also going to check up on the follow-ups that require further follow-ups and do it then and there. Any task in this List will not be set to complete unless the task is completed by the other person or no longer requires me to nag the other person.
I ideally want to finish items in the follow up bucket first thing in the morning.
List 6 - Today:
All items that I can do on my own, my calendar allowing, will all go into today's list. Anything that goes into today's List will be tagged with today’s due date so that it shows up in today’s calendar and I can move the tasks around with my meeting and get shit done.
All the recurring tasks, professional or personal, are going to be scheduled with a recurring flag corresponding to how often they need to be done. So if I need to parse through my bug queue every day, I am going to have a [WOR] Bug Queue item set to recur every day and even though I clear it today, it will show up again as an item tomorrow.
List 7 - Next:
All items that I can do on my own, but my calendar or priority not allowing, will go into the 'Next' list. While they go into the 'Next' list, I am going to tag them with a due date so that they show up in my calendar on the day it's due and I can move tasks around with my meetings and get shit done.
Each morning, I am going to parse the items in the ‘Next’ list and bring the items due today to the ‘Today’ list.
Process
I am going to make it a habit to,
1. Record ideas and tasks, as they occur to me, in the ‘Inbox’ list.
2. Parse the ‘Inbox’ List, once in the morning and two to three times in the day and move items into corresponding lists.
3. Act on all the items that take less than two minutes at the time that I am parsing through my inbox.
4. Complete all the follow-up tasks in the ‘Follow-Up’ List, first thing in the morning - Mark the tasks that have been completed as completed.
5. Look at my calendar and move tasks into ‘Today’ list into time slots throughout the day and act on them - Check the tasks off from the list as and when they are completed.
6. At the end of the day, I am going to check what tasks/ideas from today need to be moved into another list and plan for tasks/ideas in the 'Next' list.
7. At the end of the week, go through the ‘Someday’ list and see if anything can be made current.
8. Be consistent, and Not let this shit overwhelm me.