Now that you’ve decided to take control of your life and get yourself organized, the first step is to find out exactly what it is you have to organize. So here’s what you do: First gather everything you can that’s related to your work or personal life. Go get your emails, your bills, your memos, your to-do list, everything! Once you have all that stuff piled up high, break out a little notebook and start writing. What is it that you want to do or have to do? Do you need to get your car oil changed? Have you been meaning to build a website? What about that business plan you’ve been meaning to write? How about fishing with your kids? This writing phase can take hours! It’s a lot like pouring water out of a pitcher. First the tasks will come pouring out faster than you can write them, then the ideas will slow to a trickle. Make sure you write down everything! Once you capture these tasks on paper, you’ll free your mind from having to hold on to them. Just the knowledge that all of your tasks are written down somewhere will free your mind up to tackle more important tasks. When you finish writing down everything you need or want to accomplish, then the real work begins.
After gathering all of your paperwork and tasks, you need to implement the four “D’s”. Every time you pick up a piece of paper or consider a task you need to decide if you’re going to Delete it, Delegate it, Defer it, or Deal with it. If the task is something that isn’t vital to your success or to achieving you goals, delete it. Toss it, trash it, whatever! Just get rid of the dang thing. These tasks are draining your psychic energy for no reason. If the task is something that’s important to your success but you don’t necessarily have to do it yourself, put it in a file to be delegated to someone you trust. We’ll make a file for these tasks later so we can check up on their progress. Should you decide that the task is too important to delegate and it can’t be completed within two minutes, then defer it. Put these tasks in a separate file so you can turn them into individual projects or put them on your perpetual task war board. Later we’ll organize these items and turn them into action plans. Finally if a task will take you less than two minutes to complete, deal with it now. Get it done and out of your way forever! You’ll be surprised how many of your tasks can be dealt with now.
You’ve probably accomplished a lot at the end of this exercise but we aren’t done yet! Right now you’ve got two folders staring you in the face with the generic titles of Defer and Delegate. Now it’s time to turn these folders into actionable projects. Ready yet? Then go on to the next article: Powerful Project Management.