Dumbest Hack Ever- Use Your Calendar
Ever since switching tasks and to-dos off of my calendar and into a GTD tool of choice, I’ve noticed my productivity is actually going DOWN. Why? Because I’ve learned that without at least SOME scheduling, I don’t match the right contexts to the tasks still at hand.
Scheduling Context Zones
Now, maybe GTD the book has this in there, and I’ve forgotten it over time. Remember, I’m more a disciple of Covey who tends to use GTD where I can. But I want to stress this feature/idea.
By slotting times on my calendar for @phonecalls or @email-followup, or (most important to me) @getoffyourass, I’ve learned that I actually slot my tasks to be done into those time frames. Because I use Google Calendar as my schedule tool of record, I’ve made it easier to switch my context zones around. So, if I had intended to do phone calls for 1/2 hour at 10AM, but a meeting gets in the way, I just move it to 11, or whatever. Make sense?
Make the Context Zones Match Your Roles and Goals
If you’re going to bother slotting time to get things done, take a serious look at what you’re slotting for contexts. Meaning, if you’ve got an @email-followup context every day, but you don’t have a @thinkupgreatideas context scheduled every day, think about that for a minute. Are you making time for the things that are important to you and your goals?
That’s it. Dumbest Hack Ever
But for whatever reason, it works well for me. Since getting this into the rotation, I’ve found that I’m getting MORE done, and getting more THAT MATTERS done. What’s not to love?
Chris Brogan is heading to Video on the Net next week, and needs to get more done between now and then. He keeps a blog at [chrisbrogan.com].
Tags: 
Loading ...
Comments
anonymous says on March 15th, 2007 at 3:53 am
The dumbest thing is the use of “off of”.
“Off” would suffice.
Javier Ferrand says on March 16th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Hi,
I’ve been trying to implement GTD without success. My job is all related to dealing with international purchase orders so each and every one of this is a project itself, then my context doesn’t work too much and trying to follow @nextactions list from every single task from my @projects which is actually called @orders becomes exhausting and confusing. I just get too much tasks from every single order to be done and I can’t find a system that suits me. I’ve tried index cards, it works for a while until I have sixty or so cards (each one with an order or quote in progress) and becomes a nightmare to search for a specific issue. I’m now using Evernote but I find it annoying to switch from emails to filling notes with updates and or adding tasks for every order and changing categories. I even tried GTDMail and it also gets bloated. Maybe this method of using the calendar is OK. I’d like to know if anyone can suggest anything different for me to use.
Scott says on March 16th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Drop contexts. That, at least for our home company, was the key to making GTD work for us. After trying to adhere to the GTD system for 14 months, one of our partners came about 6 months ago, and said, “Eureka: I don’t work in contexts. I work in Projects.” The lights all went on for all of us. So, now every gets filtered by Time Due, and Projects. No more contexts.
It’s so okay to make systems work for you. It’s so okay to break supposed rules.
Alex says on March 16th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Chris: For me, this really fills a hole in the GTD system. It’s easier to block those “@phonecalls” times in advance than hope they’ll somehow miraculously arrive. Thanks very much – I’ll add this to my Friday look-ahead-to-next-week routine. Sometimes simple really is better.
@Javier: It sounds like you’ve got too many steps broken out to be useful for your particular circumstance. If each order produces a similar or the same set of tasks, perhaps a checklist of the steps that an order generates would be helpful – rather than one page/card per step, keep a checklist for one order on one page and move through it. Conversely, you could have a single page-per-step list for open orders – for every step(1), you’d list the open orders, and crank through all the step (1)s you have, then on to step(2), etc. You could integrate either list with Chris’ calendar blocks. I’m having trouble expressing this exactly as I see it in my head, but I hope it’s clear.
@anonymous: don’t hurt yourself bending over backward to be a constructive commenter.
Jamin says on April 9th, 2007 at 3:32 am
Great hack! I’ve been ‘time blocking’ for contexts for about a year now. I tend to spot which contexts are growing too large and fast, then block some time to work in that context at a convenient time. Works a treat.
Calvin says on October 19th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Buy Sally McGhee’s book, Take Back Your Life! Very similar to David Allen’s book but better! She emphasizes using calendar for “Strategic Next Actions”. Very similar to GTD in a lot of respects, but extremely different in others. Teaches how to use Outlook as “trusted system”. You’ll love it!
Cheers!