Main idea

• Your mind is for having ideas. Not for holding them

Problem: Unresolved stuff

• We have an endless amount of incoming tasks, and many end up as unresolved stuff:
  • “Open loops”
  • Unfinished things
  • Committed to finish
  • Things you want different
• Your mind thinks it needs to do all unresolved stuff at once! (so it gets stressed)
• Our to-do lists are often just lists of unresolved stuff
• We think about all the unresolved stuff at times where we can’t take action on it
  • E.g. thinking about buying new batteries for a light torch, but you are not near a store
  • We can’t focus properly on the things we are doing, when other things fill our limited short term memory
    • We need to handle this, before we can manage to think about the big picture of our lives

Requirements for productivity system

• Manage actions: What we do with our time & ressources
• Horizontal action management: Scan across projects
• Vertical action management: Project planning

6-level hierarchy

• Purpose & principles (why you do stuff)
• Vision
• Goals
• Areas of focus & responsibility
• Projects
• Actions

Horizontal action management

Capture

• 3 success criteria:
  1. Capture 100% of everything
     • Big & small
     • Personal & professional
     • Urgent & nonurgent
  2. As few capturing locations, while still having enough
  3. Empty regularly
• Mind sweep with a trigger list

Clarify

• Process
  • Start at the top and take one at a time (don’t skip any!)
  • For each, determine:
    • Desired outcome
    • Next physical action
      • Seem less daunting
      • Being able to bundle tasks that are similar in context

Organize

• Actionable
  • Calendar: Time-specific actions
    • Don’t make your calendar into a To-do list!
      • We always get new input & changes in priorities
      • Having to move around things that didn’t get done
      • Dilutes the focus on what ACTUALLY has to be done that day!
  • Next-actions list
    • Make separate lists for different contexts
      • E.g. at computer, in the city, on the phone, etc.
  • Waiting for list (delegations)
  • Project list
• Non-actionable
  • Trash
  • Incubation
    • Someday/maybe projects you review regularly
  • Reference material

Reflect

• Have weekly review, so your mind don’t have to hold the information
  • Look through project list that contains all moving parts of your life (also the subprojects, if they are moving)
    • Works the best when you capture everything

Engage

• Choosing what to work on:
  • Four-criteria model
    • Context: What do you have available in your environment?
    • Time available
    • Energy available
    • Priority: Given the other 3, which tasks have the highest payoff?
  • 3 operating principles
    • Plan work
    • Do the planned work
    • Do things that come up

Vertical action management

The natural planning model

• Define purpose (Why)
  • What are your motives/intentions?
    • Can be used as decision-making criteria
    • Helps find new ways of achieving the same thing
• Envision outcome (What)
  • The reticular activating system: You envision the outcomes you’re after, and your brain will show the way!
• Brainstorm (How)
  • Mind mapping
    • Don’t judge
    • Quantity over quality
    • Don’t analyze or organize
• Organize (According to component structure, priority & sequence of events)
• Identify next actions
  • One for each part of a project that be moved

Lack clarity? Go back to the previous step in the natural planning model

• Define purpose, envision outcome, brainstorm, organize, identify next actions