When I first read about Getting Things Done and how it may be the lawyer’s best friend, I wanted to jump in with both feet and a shovel. My office was a mess, my apartment even worse.
The problem was that I didn’t know where to begin. I know we’ve talked about the steps involved in GTD, but we’ve got some work to do in order to make sense of things. And I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t help out with that.
Let’s start with Step 1 which is the collection phase.
You cannot start doing what needs to be done if you don’t know all that needs to be done. That’s why the first step is to do a brain dump and get it all down on paper (or a screen, a notepad, whatever). Once it’s memorialized, you don’t need to remember anymore. You’re free, and can’t forget anything because you don’t need those powers of recall. Where do you get your tasks? They are either from physical records or mental ones.
First, the mode of collection. You need index cards for this. Each one gets a single to-do placed on it so you can shuffle them around and re-order them later. I’m normally a techie sort of guy, but this is one time when a physical and visual aid is best.
Let’s go to the MENTAL aspect of your tasks. Write down every task, project, idea or plan you want to do. Don’t stop, don’t slow down – remember, this is literally an information dump from your brain to paper. Don’t worry about not writing beautifully or in an organized way. Remember that this step involves collection – not organization.
I find it easiest if I walk from room to room in my apartment, space to space in the office. I stop at every desk, closet, piece of furniture, chair, and workstation. I open every drawer, fiddle with every stray folder. Things that need to be taken care of are hiding between sofa cushions, and your job is to pry it loose. Once I’ve stopped moving from place to place, I perform a mental walk-through over every aspect of my life. I think about goals for my health, family, career, spare time (ha ha), social life, parents, finances … all of it.
Now that we’ve done the brain dump, we need to round up all the physical reminders of what needs to be done.
Your existing to-do lists are the first stop. If you’re like me, you’ve got hundreds of scraps of paper sitting around, Post-It Notes with scribbles and phone messages with notes jotted on the back. Your paper calendar has margin notes, your answering machine has messages to be returned, and your notepad on your smartphone has lists of lists. Dump it all on that single list.
Next, don’t be shy about asking people around you – family, co-workers, friends, colleagues – what needs to be done. Write it all down.
Get as granular as possible. If I need to sharpen my pencils I’ll write that down. If I need to clean out the paperclip container on my desk, I write that down. Nothing escapes my list.
Ready for the next step? Good, because we’re still just at the beginning.
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