Chapter 2 and 3 Response, Larry

Chapter 2 and 3 Response

Larry Zhou

In Chapter 2, Allen gets to the details of getting things under control.

First, we need a basket/inbox to collect everything in our mind. Open loop makes the whole inbox ineffective.

Second, we need to go through the inbox to empty it. In this stage, we need to make the judgment if the issue is actionable or not. Actionable means that if we can take action upon the issue. A name card without any importance could be trash or reference. See a doctor is sth. actionable. If it is as big as end the poverty, we probably should put it in a tickler file.

If sth is actionable, we think about what's the very next step to move it forward. If this very action takes less than two minutes, do it right now. Otherwise, it's probably a project that we should forward it for project review.

I find the thinking process quite interesting. I had a to do list from time to time but it never worked. One thing is that there were a lot of open loops that I found my list not trustworthy enough. The other is that I never try to make the actionable or not decision.

Chapter 3 is focused on how to move a project forward. First of all, you need to envision the outcome. I have one honor thesis proposal due October 15th. I need to figure out how long the proposal is, what requirements it needs to fulfill, how well defined the research question needs to be, etc. An outlined outcome gives you the goal to work from the start.

After that, you need to brainstorm ideas to get from here to the outcome. Kinda come up with different ideas we can think of to solve the questions. The next steps are organizing and identifying the next step. We have to sort through the brainstormed ideas to identify the significant pieces of actions we have to take and the sequence of them.