#Reading log
2016-12-18: As I’ve been reading this, the capture phase has shown remarkable results from day one. I keep a lot of things in my head with the intention that more important tasks will grow and the less important ones will just float away. But this can get tedious. Sometimes things don’t float away, they just simmer around until my head is overfilled. Now I capture everything that grabs my attention and put it in a system that will be reviewed the next morning. That way I can clarify what it means and decide if it’s important or not in a later stage. I can’t recommend this book enough for people who seek to be a bit more “on top of things” in their own world.
#The five steps of mastering workflow
- Capture what has your attention;
- clarify what each item means and what to do about it;
- organize the results, which presents the options you
- reflect on, which you then choose to
- engage with.
#The bottom up approach
Start with the most mundane, ground-floor level of current activity and commitments for personal productivity improvement. It’s easy to believe that it’s better to start with a top down approach, first uncovering the purpose and vision of what you want to achieve. Most people are too embroiled in commitments on a day-to-day level that focusing on the larger horizon is next to impossible.
#The six-level model for reviewing your own work
In order to know what your priorities are, you have to know what your work is. There are six different perspectives from which to define that.
- Horizon 5: Purpose and principles
- Horizon 4: Vision
- Horizon 3: Goals
- Horizon 2: Areas of focus and accountabilities
- Horizon 1: Current projects
- Ground: Current actions
#Control the open loops
Learn to effectively control the open loops and capture the things that have your attention. Every agreement you make—big or small—is being tracked by a less-than-conscious part of you. These are the “incompletes” that pulls on your attention. They are things that does not belong where it is, the way it is. Anything you consider unfinished must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind—in a collection tool that you know you’ll be coming back to regularly and sort through. Make your mind more like water by capturing everything that’s got your attention. It’s only when you start trusting your system that you mind can let go of tracking it.
#Think about the next action
What’s the next action? Once you’ve captured what’s on your mind, take a moment and think about what the next action would be. Write down the very next physical action required to move the situation forward. This will give you clarity and a way forward. It will create a feeling of being “in control”. Nothing has changed in the world, but everything has changed in how you are engaged with your world. Remember that you can never do a project, you can only do an action related to it.
#A project is anything that takes more than two steps to complete
Be liberal in how you define projects. Whenever there is more than one step to something you want to achieve—it’s a project. Create a list with the steps you know you need to do, and there you go, you have a project.
#Ultimately it comes down to intuition
No matter how much you planned and researched, in the end it comes down to your “feeling” if the decision is a good one. What is your gut telling you?