Getting Things Done, or GTD for short, is probably the best-known method of «time management».
However, David Allen, its creator, talks about «stress-free management».
What are the foundations of this method? That's what I'd like to explore in a series of articles, the first of which is below.
In reality, it's the others who talk about «time management». David Allen talks about «share management».
And that changes everything.
Respecting the organisation stages
For David Allen, the first cause of stress when faced with a disorganised agenda is the desire to organise everything without respecting the stages of the process.
There are five stages in the organisation of the workflow.
Thanks to Bernard Lamailloux for suggesting that I add a number to the stages of this map, which you can download for free on Biggerplate.
(click on image to enlarge).
First of all, we need to collect all the information, the « tips« the « things » (stuff, These are the phone calls, e-mails, letters - yes, they still exist! - sms, leaflets, conversations with colleagues, reports, memos, memos, etc.
All this information that drowns us because, very often, we try to grasp it all at once without distinguishing what it really means for us.
This is the second stage: processing this information. What does it mean to me? Is it important? What can I do with it?
Once we have the results of this first treatment, we examine the options open to us: do it myself? delegate? Put it in the basket? Postpone? Make an appointment? Do it straight away?
And then, when all is said and done, it's time to take action!
Getting Things Done: a philosophy of action
Getting Things Done, is not a time management method. It's a philosophy of action! It's a way of organising them so that they all fit into the time available. Without waste, without guilt and therefore... without unnecessary stress!
All this is still confused and theoretical?
Don't panic: in the following articles, I'll tell you more about this method and its advantages. But I can already tell you what I was told by a course participant two weeks after the session: « since I started using this method, I sleep well at night" .
What about you?
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