Focus on Home Office Productivity

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Increasing Productivity with “Getting Things Done” and “Zen to Done”

With my home businesses taking off, I found myself pulling out my favorite productivity and organization resources: David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (aka GTD) and Leo Babauta’s “Zen to Done”.

Both are related. Leo’s Ebook takes off from GTD and makes improvements on it.

I credit GTD for enabling me, in my last few weeks at the office, to clear my physical and Email inboxes and finally organize my cubicle. My colleagues couldn’t believe that my desk and shelves were all clear, with plenty of free space in my cabinets. Too bad I was weeks away from leaving my work. It was good, though, for the person who was to take my place. Imagine, all the necessary files were neatly organized alphabetically within arm’s reach!

GTD boils down to a system with 5 stages:

1. collecting - take in whatever needs your attention usually through an Email inbox and a physical inbox
2. processing - if something can be done in 2 minutes or less, then do it; otherwise, move on to the next phase
3. organizing - if something can’t be done now, then delegate it, file it under “waiting for” (if you need somebody else’s action before you can work on it) or file it under “next actions”. items that are not actionable are either thrown, put in a “someday/maybe” folder or filed in properly labeled folders that are alphabetically arranged
4. reviewing - go over your “next actions” list daily, weekly and several times a year
5. doing - do it

The above is an over-simplification of GTD, but that is the essence. It relies on lists and filing in folders, which works very well for me!

Zen to Done introduces the concept of routines and emphasizes the “doing” part. I had a problem with GTD not even mentioning routines. For a work at home Mom, routines are very important but you don’t want to put them in your “next actions” list every day!

In a way, Zen to Done tries to simplify GTD. It advocates for only one list of To Do’s, instead of GTD’s one list for every context (home, office, telephone, outside, etc). Zen to Done also recommends identifying only 1-3 Most Important Tasks for the day and the week. However, work at home Moms have probably at least 6 Most Important Tasks each day, 3 for the home/family and 3 for the home business.

Zen to Done also gives plenty of tips and tools for motivating yourself to get working. These are very useful, especially if you’re prone to procrastinating.

If I don’t follow the system I’ve designed based on these two books, I get overwhelmed and get little done. I feel anxious, as if my energies are scattered all over the place. But if I just stick to the plan, then my Most Important Tasks are taken care of, and I actually have enough energy and presence of mind to move on to the other items on my to-do list.

I would love to see Getting Things Done and Zen to Done reworked for a work at home Mom like me. Who knows? Maybe one of these days I’ll do it myself. Ok, that’s the first thing that’s going in my “Someday” list!

Interested in these resources? Click here to find out more and order:

Zen to Done Ebook by Leo Babauta

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