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the key to managing all of your “stuff” is managing your actions.
the real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what the associated next-action steps required are.
Things rarely get stuck because of lack of time. They get stuck because the doing of them has not been defined.
during the day to clear the decks of their mundane “stuff” have spent the following evening having a stream of ideas and visions about their company and their future. This happens as an automatic consequence of unsticking their workflow.
Most people, however, do that kind of list-making drill only when the confusion gets too unbearable
There is no reason ever to have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought.
We (1) collect things that command our attention; (2) process what they mean and what to do about them; and (3) organize the results, which we (4) review as options for what we choose to (5) do.
separate these stages as I move through my day.
reasons many people haven’t had a lot of success with “getting organized” is simply that they have tried to do all five phases at one time.
Many people try to “get organized” but make the mistake of doing it with incomplete batches of “stuff.”
No More “Daily To-Do” Lists Those three things are what go on the calendar, and nothing else!
The “Next Actions” lists I advocate will hold all of those action reminders, even the most time-sensitive ones. And they won’t have to be rewritten daily.
No-action systems fall into three categories: trash, incubation, and reference
it’s critical that you separate nonactionable from actionable items;
If your reference material doesn’t have a nice clean edge to it, the line between actionable and nonactionable items will blur,
the magic of workflow management is realized in the consistent
After checking your calendar, you’ll most often turn to your “Next Actions” lists.
organized them by context (“At Home,” “At Computer,” “In Meeting with George”),
Every decision to act is an intuitive one. The challenge is to migrate from hoping it’s the right choice to trusting it’s the right choice.
