Shobna Khunkhun
In chapter 4, David Allen walks through the beginning process of implementation of his productivity plan. I liked the breakdown of setting up the time, space, and tools. It's made clear that a large amount of time is needed in the beginning of implementation because it is a big project to start collecting and closing the "open loops" and stuff that has been sitting in ones mind. Ideally, this would be great to do before the semester starts but it's still not to late. I think though I'll plan out carve out a day this weekend before my midterm season rolls around.
Space and the tools one uses are also critical in a successful execution of his productivity plan. Regarding space, the notion that intrigued me was "an office space in transit." Essentially, once one sets up their physical central desk space it becomes easier to be productive on the go as well because you'll be conscious of little "windows of time" to close emerging open loops. I aspire to do such a thing in a more efficient manner than I do now. As a commuting student I find that some windows of time slip away from me. Collecting, processing and organizing open loops as they come in will mean less stress later on when tackling bigger projects from my central desk space.
The backbone tool for productivity is the filing system for David Allen. A good filling system is instantaneous, easy, and clean. After reading this chapter I went to my filing system and started organizing it just a bit using some of his steps. I found it was a majority of trash and reference files. Getting that organized was a good stress relief, however I have yet to organize majority of the constant influx of incoming papers (a process that will take that day).
I was also a commuting student. During the summer for two weeks, I had commuted from home to Berkeley via F bus or Bart while I was figuring out my apartment situation. I'll admit that it is a bit exhausting to commute continuously, but I would use that 40 minutes to an hour in transit to get some school work done or make notes of what I wanted to do/get done that week. Then there is the trip back, which is another window of time. I felt less productive once I settled into my apartment and didn't need to commute. That's because I didn't have that "forced" window of time where I had nothing better to do than focus on work.
ReplyDeleteHi Shoba,
ReplyDeleteI am one the same boat with you about "open loops." I also commute a lot and I always tell people that I live in my car. I've tried out Allen's idea of taking two whole days to truly set up a filing system that works for me in whatever working environment I am in, and it has done wonders for me. I would really recommend just taking the time to get those physical in-boxes, especially for your car, because it will do wonders. I can see how much it will help me, because there are countless times in which I leave my bills or very important documents in my car, and I won't realize what I have to do with those bills/documents until deadlines are extremely close, or in most cases, the deadlines have passed.