{"id":5029,"date":"2011-05-11T17:14:05","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T00:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/2011\/05\/11\/"},"modified":"2021-05-23T17:03:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T00:03:46","slug":"life-at-the-project-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2011\/05\/life-at-the-project-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Life at the project level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>David Allen received this email from Ben, a GTD enthusiast who has been customizing his home and work system for greater productivity. This is a terrific example of how GTD can be adapted to suit your needs, using the combination of digital and paper that works for you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Hello David,<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to let you know that I listened to your CD recordings about \u201cGetting Things Done\u201d earlier this year. Since then, I applied many of the things that you suggested and have found myself to be much more efficient at home and at work. You might be interested to know a few of the ways that I have applied your suggestions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2011\/05\/myway.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5031\" title=\"myway\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2011\/05\/myway.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"313\" height=\"207\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Originally, I created a 3-ring binder with tabs organized by what context I was in (home, office, computer, etc). Although that was very helpful, I have moved toward doing as much as possible on my computer.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>1. Collecting things<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I used to have two e-mail addresses, but I canceled one and redirected people to the other. Now all my e-mails are in one place. This requires less mental energy since I don\u2019t have to worry about checking both accounts.<\/li>\n<li>I carry a small paper notebook in my back pocket wherever I go. If I think of something important at dinner, I stop to write it down. I anticipated that my wife would be offended that I am thinking of work stuff at home, so I explained to her in advance that writing these things down actually helps me focus more on home life.<\/li>\n<li>I created a Word file called \u201cSomeday maybe,\u201d but the list of things got so long that I subdivided it into several files and put all these files in a folder called \u201cSomeday Maybe.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2. Identifying information<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If a certain e-mail has an actionable item for me to do, I move it to the Actionable e-mail folder.<\/li>\n<li>If I send someone an e-mail and I want a response, I also send a copy to myself. When I receive that copy, I move it to a folder called \u201cWaiting for.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>I look through my Actionable and Waiting For folders a couple of times a week. If someone has not replied to a \u201cWaiting For\u201d item, I hit \u201cReply All\u201d and follow up with them.<\/li>\n<li>In all my face-to-face meetings, I make sure to clarify what the next steps are and who is responsible for them.<\/li>\n<li>I have separated the reference material from the actionable material. It\u2019s amazing how much that helps clear my mind<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. Tickler system<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I am using Microsoft Outlook\u2019s Task feature to remind me of things that I will want to do in the future, but I don\u2019t want to think about now. For example, a month from now might be a special event where I\u2019ll have volunteers helping out. I can create a task in Outlook reminding me to show appreciation for them afterward.<\/li>\n<li>Outlook can schedule tasks to recur at various intervals. I have taken advantage of this for many things, and it really frees up my mind by not having to juggle so many details.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. Primarily looking at life at the level of \u201cproject\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have a paper card for each current project and each one for the near future. The title is the name of the project, and below that I have the specific action steps needed to accomplish the project.<\/li>\n<li>I have arranged these cards in order of importance (not urgency). Each day, I must work on the most important project until it is done or until I have done all I can for the day. Then I can move on to the second most important project. I fight the urge to jump to something that is urgent so that I can focus on what is most important. Occasionally, a less-important thing does need to happen today, so I first spend an hour or so on the more important ones, then move to the urgent one. That way I am at least making progress on the important ones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;\">Thanks for all your suggestions. I look forward to getting more efficient each year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Ben<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Allen received this email from Ben, a GTD enthusiast who has been customizing his home and work system for greater productivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[123,125,22,745,29,69,46,94,107,114,742,122],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.6 (Yoast SEO v22.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Life at the project level<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Allen received this email from Ben, a GTD enthusiast who has been 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