Getting Things Done

The last few weeks of each year are traditionally occupied with looking ahead, getting direction, and setting yourself up for failure as you break all those resolutions (and plans for a better you) by yelling at the kids, deliberately stomping on the cats tail, and (my personal favourite) giving some digital direction to some fellow on the road who is disturbing your equanimity.

So I guess you’ve heard that old story about getting focused on the important things in your life?

Anyway, the story is about a professor who holds up a bucket in front of his class while talking about filling your life with the important things before bothering with the minutiae. He fills the bucket with a few big stones until no more can fit, and he asks the class if it is full. The innocent pupils declare that, indeed, it is.

Then he starts to dribble gravel between the big stones. When he can fit no more gravel in, he asks them if it is now full. Most of the kids agree that it is, except for a few smart alecks.

Of course, because he is the professor and is never wrong, he then starts to dribble sand between the gravel and the big stones. And, of course, he manages to deposit a fair amount of sand in the bucket. He asks them if it is now full, and a few die-hard optimists agree that it seems so, while wondering what else the crafty old codger has up his sleeve.

Finally, he starts to soak the bucket with water, which seeps between the sand and the gravel and the big stones.

And the conclusion, even though most of us do not have rocks ion our heads, is that the bucket is a little like our lives. If we fill them with the dross, the unimportant stuff, then there will be no space for the important issues – the big rocks, metaphorically speaking.

Unfortunately, the professor was not around the day we fell out of the womb. Between that time and today, life has kind of filled up with a lot of sand, gravel, and water, along with a few unidentifiable chunks that we don’t really want to look at too hard, just in case.

This is the traditional way we learn to prioritize and it sure leads to a lot of anxiety before we head right back into our old ways. It’s called a top-down approach where you take time to identify the big things in your life and then try and align the little things. It doesn’t work too well. At least – not with me. And I’ve read a Congolese rain forest on the subject.

But, today I find myself absolutely confident that I am on top of everything that is important to me. My email tray (200 items/day) ends each day empty. Every project is on track. My accountant assured me yesterday that he cannot recall seeing anyone quite so in touch with his business and his life. I think he felt I was a little obsessive-compulsive. I am not. But, I do have a new system, and time on my hands once again.

And so can you. It’s based on an exceptional book by David Allen – Getting Things Done. And it is based on the reality that most of us are already overloaded and buried below tons of gravel. David follows a bottom-up approach of getting you out of that hole and into a functional state – which is pretty useful for us business owners.

Read the book, and within a week you will have a filing system where you can put your hand on anything within a minute. (My biggest frustration used to be the amount of time I spent searching for stuff that wasn’t where I knew it was.)

You will have a simple mechanism for never forgetting anything. Amazing how well you sleep at night knowing that nothing is going to slip between your fingers. No more late night sweats!

You will have identified all the major projects that are important to you and will have a mechanism for dealing with each of them so that they stay on track.

Unfortunately, you will never again be able to say that you don’t have time, but you will be able to substitute with a simple and gentle “No, that is not in line with my goals.”

If you read nothing else this year, this book is critical.