Getting Things Done - GTD
Multiple To-Do Lists, a Medicine Against Stress
AUTHOR: Francisco Sáez
Do you have more things to do than you can get done? If you think so, most likely you suffer more stress in your life than you find desirable.
Having a little stress can be good for your productivity, but that does not mean you should live in a state of anxiety and continuous tension to face all you have to do in your personal and professional life.
“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.” ~ David Allen Tweet this!
The way not to feel overwhelmed by the amount of things you have to do is to learn to filter all that information, giving it the importance and relevance it should have in each moment.
You need a dynamic system that allows you to direct your attention to where it matters, without other things in your life interfering and causing you stress. What you need to know about that other 95% of stuff you must do is just that they are in a safe place, to which you will turn when you’re finished doing what is really important at the moment.
Using a single to-do list does not work. Imagine you have a simple list to which you add all the things that demand your attention:
Creating a list like this is very easy, you just have to write down what is in your head. But this does not solve anything. All there is on that list is still hitting your mind with the same force, and this is extremely inefficient.
You’re mixing things already committed with others that are not, and urgent things with things that can wait. You’re mixing tasks, events and projects. You’re mixing things you can only do in specific contexts. Also, some items on the list are not well defined in your brain, which adds even more stress (Do you wanna go to New Zealand on your next vacation or just start to figure out whether it is a viable destination based on price and time?).
To be calm, you should be able to answer the question “what to do next?”
A more efficient approach is to use several lists, as GTD does, where the elements contained in each of them have different meanings. Apples with apples, and pears with pears. So you can focus on each moment on what makes sense:
If today is November 30th, you know clearly that you have to deliver your company accounts (which, of course, your accountant should have prepared). If you are working on the internet, there are several tasks you can do, but the fact that tomorrow you have to publish an article gives higher priority to the action of “write this article.” So you send your accounts electronically and then set up the tools you need to write the article. All other things should disappear from your mind—at least for now.
You can also do nothing, because you know what you’re not doing. You can relax, go for a walk or enjoy the morning playing sports, because you know that in the afternoon you’ll have enough time to write the article, and all the other things are not urgent.
“You have more to do that you can possibly do. You just need to feel good about your choices.” ~ David Allen Tweet this!
Your system should allow you to filter in a a natural way what you should be doing now among all the things you have to do. If you’re able to focus your attention on a small subset of all of your tasks, you will be able to stay calm and be relaxed (although you still have many things to do).
Some defend that working with a single to-do list is simpler, but life is not that simple. That concept does not make sense in a world where you’ve just started to do something and your boss is calling you for a meeting, or a client is demanding you to find the solution for an urgent problem. You need the dynamism and flexibility that multiple to-do lists provide.
Related articles:
4 comments
Since I am new to both Facile Things and GTD, I am sure I'm interpreting this improperly. With that said, while both the David and you say that priority is last on the list when determining what to do next, it looks an awful lot like the Calendar is, in fact, a priority list of sorts. Don't you have to address calendar items given their sacred status regardless of your current context or amount of energy or time given their importance?
Since I am new to both Facile Things and GTD, I am sure I'm interpreting this improperly. With that said, while both the David and you say that priority is last on the list when determining what to do next, it looks an awful lot like the Calendar is, in fact, a priority list of sorts. Don't you have to address calendar items given their sacred status regardless of your current context or amount of energy or time given their importance?
Yes, if you use the Calendar properly it's first list you need to look at every day.
When David Allen talks about priority as the forth factor to pick the next action, he means that given a set of actions that you can do (you're in context, you've time, you're in mood) you should pick the one that seems more important to you, according to your priorities.
Yes, if you use the Calendar properly it's first list you need to look at every day.
When David Allen talks about priority as the forth factor to pick the next action, he means that given a set of actions that you can do (you're in context, you've time, you're in mood) you should pick the one that seems more important to you, according to your priorities.
Essentially, the order of things to use to choose your next action applies only when choosing from the next actions list. The Calendar is a separate entity from the next actions list and therefore is not effected by the four factors used when choosing your next action. So while the calendar is a priority, it is not part of the concept of priority in regards to next actions.
Essentially, the order of things to use to choose your next action applies only when choosing from the next actions list. The Calendar is a separate entity from the next actions list and therefore is not effected by the four factors used when choosing your next action. So while the calendar is a priority, it is not part of the concept of priority in regards to next actions.
Exactly! Well explained.
Exactly! Well explained.