TL;DR
Have you ever struggled to find your flow and to get things done? We have and decided to try and fix the problem as best we could. Below, we unveil four steps to setting up the ultimate GTD system that has completely changed the way we work.
How to set up your GTD system
Step 1: download the Email Me App onto your phone (also compatible with Apple Watch)
Step 2: Create a free Asana account
Step 3: read our newsletter below to understand GTD principles, methodology and how to structure your system
Step 4: Make time for a weekly review
The case for a different kind of productivity
We obsess over managing and optimizing our time, so much so that terms such as Efficiency, Productivity, Time Management are as searched as Selena Gomez and more searched than Brad Pitt.
[From Google Trends, click here]
Why is it that we spend so much mental energy thinking about productivity? What is it about getting things done that attracts and eludes us? What does productivity actually mean?
In many Silicon Valley companies, labor is a fixed cost. This means that each employee is paid a yearly salary that does not vary depending on the amount of product sold. Productivity in a fixed cost world is measured by taking the amount of revenue generated per employee. Take a look at a Business Insider article that raises an alarm about Google’s flattening revenue per employee.
HBR summarizes the focus on productivity as: "the company producing more with a given set of inputs (capital, labor, and materials) or using fewer inputs to produce the same output has an advantage over the company producing less."
When it comes to labor productivity, the old school view is that the way of generating more output is to convince people to work harder. How can I get humans to generate more lines of code?
A common belief is that there are two ways of getting people to get more done:
Get them to create more per hour
Get them to work longer hours
The problem with #1 is that output per hour is difficult to quantify and to monitor, and so the lazy way is to go with #2 with the assumption that longer hours translate to more work production.
Yet all output isn't created equal. We believe it's important to focus on valuable output and impact instead of just quantity of output — and we don’t think longer hours are the way to get there.
We've thought a lot about this, have read countless books on the subject, and talked to the most organized people we know. We've realized four things. One needs:
A System
Technology that turbocharges that system
Time to review on a weekly basis
The motivation to do the next thing you need to do (some people also call it flow)
The System — Five Steps for Getting Control of your Life by David Allen
David Allen outlines a five-step method for achieving the flow state. "No matter what the setting, there are five discrete stages that we go through as we deal with our life, our work, and their consistent inputs and changes." The five-step method is: Capture | Clarify | Organize | Reflect | Engage.
Capture what has our attention. Three success factors for capturing:
Every open loop must be in your capture system and out of your head
You must have as few capturing buckets as you can get by with
You must empty them regularly
Clarify what each item means and what to do about it, then organize the results.
The most important question to ask yourself when you clarify the items you captured is: Is it actionable?
If the answer is no, there are three possibilities:
It's trash, no longer needed (archive).
No action is needed now but something might need to be done later (incubate).
The item is potentially useful information that might be needed for something later (reference).
If the answer is yes, there are four possibilities (that are not mutually exclusive):
Capture that outcome on a "Projects" list.
Do it if the action will take less than 2 minutes (then archive it)
Delegate it if the action takes longer than two minutes and you're not the appropriate person to do this (waiting for)
Defer it if the action will take longer than two minutes, and you are the right person to do it (action required)
Reflect on the options and engage
Check your lists as often as you need to decide what to do next
Do a weekly review to stay current and complete
Use your system to take the appropriate actions given the context
How to Capture your tasks and link them to Asana
We started using Email Me App 5+ months ago. It’s the lowest-lift way of capturing random notes or tasks wherever you are. You won’t trust your system unless it’s current and complete so this step is crucial to feeding your GTD system.
How it works
After you download the app on your phone (you can also download it to an Apple Watch to send voice notes on the go), set it up using an email (we use the Asana email that automatically converts emails into tasks in Asana - x@mail.asana.com).
Open the app, write the note or task and tap to send.
Receive the note in your inbox (or in Asana in My Tasks as Recently Assigned if you decided to choose that route). That's all. It's that easy!
Pro-tip:
Add the Email Me App to an easily accessible area on your phone. We recommend the dock if you have an iPhone so your thumb reaches it quickly. It’s easy to remember a task in the most inopportune places and Email Me fixes that problem. Remember: if something isn’t low-lift, you probably won’t use it.
Setting up your system in Asana
We started using Asana 8+ months ago, and we are big fans. It is the easiest way to fulfill Allen's "Clarify" and "Organize" stages.
How it works
Here’s the link to signup for a free account. Asana is a work management platform to capture, clarify, and organize your work. In the free plan, you have the right to unlimited tasks and projects, unlimited storage and many work views.
How we use it
Step 1: Signup for an Asana account
Step 2: Setup My Tasks
My Tasks is a place where you see all tasks that are assigned to you. Most of the below is software agnostic so you can replicate the system anywhere. What do the above sections mean?
In Tray are your untriaged tasks
Do today and Do later are your next actions. I triage tasks that I want to do today or on a later date. Every day when I wake up, I revise my Do later section and move anything that needs to get done today to Do today.
Waiting for is when you’re waiting on someone or something to complete a task
Incubate can also be called Someday/Maybe. These are things you want to get done at some point but don’t have a clear path to doing so
Steps to setting up your My Task sections
Add the email x@mail.asana.com to your Email Me App settings. This will ensure that all tasks or notes sent from Email Me will be sent to your My Tasks in Asana.
Rename the “Recently Assigned” section to “In tray”
Create the sections in Niki’s My Tasks in your own
Send yourself a task from Email Me App (or create a task directly in My Tasks) to try it out!
Step 3: (Optional) add automations
You can add automations that automatically triage tasks to your sections.
For the Do today or Do later (reminder: these are your next actions) sections I set up:
A rule that automatically sets the due date to today if I move a task to the Do today section
A rule that automatically moves a task to the Do today section if the due date is today
A rule that moves a task to the Do later section if the task is within the next 365 days.
For the Waiting For section (when you’re waiting on someone or something to get the task done):
I create a “Waiting For” Project in Asana
I have a rule that automatically adds tasks that I move into the Waiting For section to the Waiting For project
The reason why I have a Waiting For project as opposed to just the section is because My Tasks gets crowded very easily, so I effectively have the Waiting for section in My Tasks collapsed all the time.
For the Incubate section (your Someday/Maybe tasks):
Same as Waiting For, I have a separate Incubate project
I have a rule that automatically adds tasks that I move into the Incubate section to the Incubate project
I also have this section collapsed all the time, and use the project to check incubated ideas.
Step 4: Create Projects
Reference project: Also known as "Tickler", it's a place where you add stuff you may want to reference later (e.g., books you want to read, recipes you want to make, insurance info, ID cards, etc.) I usually don't assign any reference task to myself (or anyone), as to not to clutter My Tasks (or anyone else's).
Notes project:
What is it? Non-GTD, I just use Asana to take notes too.
I create a task for every note I take. I add the date at the beginning of the task. I add the notes in the description of the task. I don't assign myself to any notes to avoid decluttering My Tasks.
Read / Review project:
What is it? Things I want to read and review at some point. This is a good project to have for spare time (e.g., "I have 20 min before my next meeting, what should I do?" types of situations).
I drop anything I want to read or review whenever I have spare time. I always send these to "Do later" in My Tasks, unless it's time-sensitive.
Automations? None.
Agenda Contexts:
What is it? It's a catch all for any thoughts/questions/ideas that you want to bring to your meetings.
I have sections within this project that have each person's name in it, and I just drop anything that comes to mind that I want to bring up during a conversation with that person. This becomes my place to go to before every one of my meetings to make sure I get the most out of them.
Pro-tip: One of my favorite Asana features is multi-homing. It allows you to add your tasks to multiple projects, which makes it easier than ever to implement the GTD methodology (e.g., you might be incubating something but also want to talk about it in your next meeting with your boss).
Time to Reflect - The Weekly Review
Look at your calendar first… then your action lists. At Asana, the place you’ll check most often for action lists is My Tasks and Home. “If your calendar is trustworthy and your action lists are current, they may be the only things in the system you’ll need to refer to more than every couple of days.”
You should update your system frequently. You can’t fool yourself — “if your system is out of date, your brain will be forced to fully engage again at the lower level of remembering.” Here are some processes you can implement to keep your system current and complete:
The Weekly Review
Every week, you should do three main things:
Get clear: Gather all loose ends that have been generated throughout the week
Collect loose papers and materials
Review meeting notes and list relevant action items
Empty your head by putting into writing anything that’s on your mind
Get current: Eliminate outdated reminders in your systems and get your active lists up-to-date and complete
Review your next actions list (or My Tasks if you’re using Asana); mark off completed actions, or figure out what to do next
Review previous calendar data for remaining or emergent actions items
Review upcoming calendar entries and jot down any actions you need to do to prepare for your meetings
Review waiting for list, and add to an agenda or create a task for yourself to bump that person in working hours
Get creative: Create space to catalyze and access new, creative, and valuable thinking and direction
Review the incubate or someday/maybe list, and decide which tasks/projects to activate (if any)
When is the right time for the review? Allen recommends you block out 2 hours early in the afternoon of your last workday for the review, but you should decide on a time that works best for your schedule.