Getting things done

Yesterday TJIC put up one of the best how-to-get-things-done lists I've ever seen. Here's a brief extract to whet your appetite.

Eat the frog. Which is to say – acknowledge that scrubbing the toilet / updating the server / whatever is going to suck . . . and then do it.

. . .

If anything takes two minutes or less, do it immediately.

When you don’t know what the first step is, the first step becomes “figure out the first step”. This often immediately sublimates to “Google it, or pick up the phone and call someone”. I’ve seen folks dither for years over some financial transaction. “I don’t know what the tax implications are!”. Pick up the phone, call your accountant, and ask him. You don’t have an accountant? Send an email to your buddy who uses an account and and say “Give me your accountant’s contact information”.

. . .

Use Brownian motion. Maybe you don’t want to take the laundry basket down to the laundry room . . . but you’re walking past the basket, and then you’re walking past the stairs, so move the basket to the top of the stairs. Then, the next time you go down the stairs, you’re primed, and there’s no way to forget the task.

However, aside from moving stuff that’s already out, never leave things out as memory joggers. The checkbook you leave on your counter to remind you to pay the doctor stands out crisply against the empty counter . . . but then the empty light bulb box next to it (reminding you to buy light bulbs), and the dentist bill (reminding you to pay it) soon just crush the entire counter into a pit of chaos. Capture the to-do items in your one single list.

. . .

Decide where you want to be in 10 years, and close the delta between “here” and “there” by 1/3,650th . . . today!

There's much more at the link. Excellent stuff! I'll be printing it for future reference.

Peter