We’ve written about the Getting Things Done® (GTD) methodology before but at this busy time in a particularly chaotic year, we thought we’d pull out our favorite book and share the wisdom of David Allen with you so it is top of mind. This is only the tip of the iceberg, but these are changes that should be relatively easy for everyone to put into practice.
The reality is that we are bombarded with inputs all day and not only in the office, but in our personal lives as well. The vast majority require some action on our part, even if it is just putting it away for future reference. The problem is that without a system for prioritizing and scheduling the actions these inputs require, we wind up spending extra time looking for what we need, remembering to do something at a time when we can’t, or forgetting it all together. Here’s an example: you’re relaxing at home in the evening and decide to glance through your email while watching TV. There’s a message from your doctor’s office to schedule your physical as soon as possible and a phone number to call. Since the office isn’t open, you close the email and plan to call the next day, but you forget to do so when you arrive in your office — other inputs, like your full email inbox and the flashing voicemail light on your phone, push the doctor right out of your mind. The next time you think of it, it’s after hours again. When you finally do remember to call during office hours, you have to spend time scrolling through your emails to find the one from the doctor with the number to call. Something that should have taken a few minutes has now taken days.
In an office setting, juggling multiple tasks is even more prevalent. Each request is a priority until the next one is received. If you stop doing one thing to start another several times during your workday, you’ll wind up with a desk full of unfinished work when it’s time to go home. The GTD process provides a structure for getting out of this cycle.
The first thing to do is come up with a collection system. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or expensive, just something that will work for you. Common tools are the calendar or task functions that come with email programs. But if you’re more comfortable with ink and paper, a notebook or even Post-it notes could work if used properly.
The second thing to do is determine what happens to each item once it enters your collection system. As you receive each input, you will consider what it means — is it something you must do? If so, when does it need to be done? Is it something to read? Do you need to read it before doing something else or can it wait? Once you identify the nature of the input, decide whether you should act it on it now, schedule it for later, put it away for reference (no action needed), or throw it away. In the simplest terms, this is the process of prioritizing your work so that everything is completed at the right time. This is also the hardest part to master and it’s why using your email inbox or voicemail recordings as your to do list will not work. There’s no effective way to prioritize tasks stored in this manner, which means you’ll repeatedly sift through the same emails or messages to determine what needs to be done next. In our doctor’s appointment example, if I put a reminder in my calendar for 9:00 am the next day and included the phone number from the email, I would have been much more likely to complete the task on time and efficiently.
As we said, prioritization is the hardest part. No collection tool can determine when a task needs to be completed or replace the essential process of regularly reviewing and reprioritizing your work. Of course, everything being asked of you is needed ASAP, so it is up to you to set a realistic timeline or if it is not clear, ask the requestor. A student requesting a refund ASAP may have to wait a certain amount of time based on your institution’s process and/or policy. If it turns out that the student will get their refund at the same time whether you drop everything and process it now or wait until tomorrow, wait until tomorrow — but make sure you have a reminder to do it. Quite often our superiors need something from us, like reports with metrics for meetings with their superiors or peers. Since we all want to please our boss, it is common to drop everything to meet the request. Instead, ask this simple question, ‘When do you need it?’ With that additional information, you can appropriately prioritize the work.
Now that you’ve set up your chosen tool to collect and schedule your work, you need to make time to review it regularly because life happens and yesterday’s number one priority could be number three today. Let’s go back to the request from your boss for a report. The meeting they needed it for was moved up a day. If you are planning on delivering the report one day before the meeting, you’ll have to reprioritize it to get it done on time. As such, take some time each day to assess your scheduled tasks and make any adjustments needed.
Not only do you need to schedule your tasks, but you also need to schedule time to complete them. The constant barrage of email, IM, phone calls, meeting invitations, and student appointments can quickly fill your day. Incoming emails may interrupt your flow the most, even though when someone sends an email, they are not always looking for an immediate response. That little window pops up on your screen may even be accompanied by a ‘ding!’ to capture your attention. Remember, we’re no longer leaving our emails stacked up in our inboxes. Instead, we’ll need to go through the process of understanding and prioritizing the content. If you do that each time you get an email, you’ll never get to the work, so resist the temptation to open every email as it’s received. Instead, schedule a few times a day to process your email and if you can get away with it, do the same for returning phone messages, rather than answering the phone each time it rings.
Be thoughtful about accepting internal meetings during the busiest times of the year. We love to hold update meetings where we can share what’s happening in our departments, but like everything else we’ve been discussing, meeting attendance needs to be prioritized with your other work. If you can’t spare an hour this week, hopefully the meeting organizer is kind enough to share notes with the group. If not, ask a colleague to pass along anything that might be pertinent for your office and role. Obviously, you can’t do the same for external meetings, particularly with students and parents, but you can limit the amount of time available for external meetings based on other obligations.
In summary, you have a lot of people asking you to do a lot of things in both your professional and your personal life. To ensure you get it all done in a timely manner, you need to implement a system that will allow you to collect, understand, prioritize, and review the work. It also helps if you don’t have more work than can possibly be done in the time you have, but when you have open positions or a small team that is not always the case. That’s why the Higher Education Assistance Group created its Interim Staffing Solutions and Outsourced Services. Our experienced consultants can fill open positions at any level. So, if you need a hand, email info@heag.us to let us know how we can help.
Source: https://gettingthingsdone.com/