Introductory course “How to get things done?”

You may have thought to yourself that you get things done, but why doesn’t anyone notices that?

At the Prototron webinar, Paul Vaher talked about how to actually get things done and gave us a five-step guide to increasing personal effectiveness. A small summary is in front of you, but it is definitely worth watching the webinar itself.

“Our minds are not designed to hold ideas, but to generate them.” Such a line of thought has been written by Dave Allen, author of the book Getting Things Done.

A five-step journey to become a master of doing things.

Step One – Make it clear who has your attention.

Write down on a piece of paper all the things that are currently moving in your head. Don’t evaluate them or try to explain them, just make a simple list of keywords. Try to notice how you feel now that all these things are memorized on paper.

NB! Instead of keeping things in your head, save them to some external media: a sheet of paper, a booklet, a calendar notebook, a Word document.

Step Two – Find out what needs your attention.

Take the first keyword from the list and find out what it is.

NB! Try to control when you do something instead of facing another matter of urgency.

Step Three – Organize things that require attention.

Divide things that require action into categories:

Projects – lasts a long time and contains many small tasks;
Calendar – The activity is related to a time variable;
Next action – A specific action you can take. For example. Call Priit and make an appointment to inspect the car.
Waiting – The activity cannot be performed at this time because it is behind someone else’s activity. Non-actionable impulses;
Trash – keep as a reference – put it in your “Bucket list”

NB! Clear categories help you to have an overview of the tasks ahead. Confusion hides important topics that need your attention.