Kill procrastination! The GTD approach to newcomers

At the department's weekly meeting, each student tells the best of the week: the most recognized, the most reflective, the most confused. Among them, the most recognized themselves, on behalf of their own stage of the sense of accomplishment, in the outside world to achieve a sense of accomplishment before the first oneself to recognize themselves. the most reflective, to note, can not only anti-reflection, to record down, to see if they have a period of time in this reflective point of improvement. The most confused, you can throw to see if other classmates can give some help and advice.

So, every week, we're going to bring back one of our most confusing topics and share them next week. This week I brought back a new "time management" puzzle that was proposed by a newcomer.

So I changed the issue from "Time management" to GTD when I was thinking about some time management experience for the couple.

Gtd:getting things done! Get things done, this is the goal of time management, only effective to get things done, to solve other related problems: work seriously affect life, work anxiety disorder, no sense of accomplishment and so on.

Some of the symptoms of GTD problems are:

1. Busy: Every day is very busy, to-do list always have to do not finish the task.

2. No expectations: So every task can not achieve their own perfect, and sometimes can not make the other party satisfied.

3. Anxiety: But the heart is anxious is a big chunk of important things, there is always no obvious progress (such as product half-yearly planning)

4. There is no time to think, to innovate: To say is to be out of nothing, they want to do things, but where there is such a time ...

But then again, even if I write to others, it does not necessarily mean that my gtd is very good, I still have very serious procrastination, often do not want to do the knowledge and important things to the last moment. But fortunately there are some of the following methods, the consequences can be accepted ...

first, several principles

First, the three principles are in mind:

• Avoid being urged to ask: proactively inform deadlines, and report and deliver on a periodic schedule.
• Avoid over-commitment: prioritize and inform each other of the time plans they can accept, rather than the time plan they most expect. If delivered in advance, it's naturally better.
• Parallel! Parallel! Parallel!

1. Avoid being urged to ask

The great taboo of the newcomer: the person who is delivered to you task, repeatedly urges to ask.

"Who is that WHO, last time you made the data come out?" ”

"Wang, why hasn't the questionnaire come out last time?" he said. Do you have any problems? ”

Once the new person often needs to be urged to ask, can produce results, and more than once was urged to ask, it is already a big taboo. Most of the time, the loss of trust began.

Being urged means:

• You don't give a "schedule" and agree with the other person.
• You are not making the process as transparent as it can cause the other person to be disturbed.

Sometimes, even if the new person to the schedule, may occur near the deadline, but the lack of any intermediate process of communication, the other side will not be able to urge to ask, this will find that the original newcomer encountered obstacles and difficulties, perhaps ashamed to inform, but also ashamed to find a way, he has been struggling to find solutions.

Here's a lot more to remember:

The consequences of admitting that you are "incompetent" are far less than making a thing that could have been a success seriously delay or yellow. When you have obstacles that cannot break through in the process, be sure to expose the risks, communicate with the demand side, and seek help decisively.

In short, the best way to avoid being asked is to:

• Detailed confirmation of delivery criteria and results
• Negotiate with each other: Know the latest date of delivery
• Phased delivery and communication (see if things can break down into multiple deliveries, avoiding the risk of putting it to the end)
• When there is a risk of extension, be sure to expose the risk of extension as early as possible and negotiate with the other party to rearrange the dates or seek assistance.
• If possible, the process is transparent.

2. Avoid over-commitment: prioritize

New people are often good at speaking, and very much want to have more sense of accomplishment, expect to be quickly recognized and trust.

So sometimes, there will be excessive commitment, obviously do not do, a mouthful next, thought: Big deal I week 51 afternoon do not do anything else, all put into this thing good.

As a result, it is obvious that you will not be able to get out of the Friday afternoon, there are two temporary meetings, your eldest brother can not go, said: xxx, you give me a visit.

The performance of over-commitment is:

• Commitment to the criteria they cannot achieve: poor quality results
• Promised too Short completion time: Results are not delivered on time

So, when you commit, suggest that you:

• Communicate clearly the expected delivery criteria, if you have enough time, can go beyond the standard, but time is urgent, at least not lower than expected.
• Take out the list of things you already have, and prioritize. Don't let this matter affect the promises that have been made in other things. Although every demand side wants you to do it right now, and it's best to deliver it tomorrow, you know, their second expectation is to have a definite schedule, and if you tell him to do it in 5 days, 10 days, he'll be happy if it doesn't affect the project he already has. Because certainty is also important. Therefore, to be brave to say a few days before the beginning, and wise to arrange the period.
• Set aside some buffer (flex time to prepare for unexpected tasks that may not be postponed).

3. Parallel! Parallel! Parallelism: own parallelism and appropriate transfer

In the above row of subordinates, do not go to the serial to arrange work-otherwise your output must be very small.

My advice is that chunks of things go hand in hand with small things in parallel, and chunks can be serialized.

If all is serial, fall into one thing, the idea also easy to be rigid, then switch to other work, may let you a jiling, produce new inspiration also perhaps.

So when scheduling, do not do the same time only to do the same thing to row, but also can arrange 2 to 3 pieces of parallel requirements.

Ii. Several important methods

1. Initiative Planning (PLAN)

Do you have a responsibility farmland of your own? If not, communicate with your supervisor and superiors to clarify what your responsibility farmland is, and what the boundaries of everyone are. Then, think about it:

• Where is this responsibility farmland, in a wider business view?
• What is the best standard to do? Talk to your boss, what is the expectation he can conceive? Can you think of more?
• If you want to reach a vision, are these needs to be done now? Is there anything more important but blank?
• If a vision is to be reached, what should the short-term goal be? What should the long-term goal be? So what does the second half do?

Initiative planning, must not only think of what they want to do, but the way to choose.

When you don't tell people what you're going to do, a group of people will tell you what you're going to do, and you can't refuse to go back.

When you do not proactively identify the goals and values of your work, you cannot even prioritize these people's needs.

Then you will never be finished, always lined up waiting for you to intervene, analyze, push the various needs.

The key is: busy, blind, and the three words will be the same.

Too busy, will make you more blind, can not stop to think about what is really important to the thing. Then it will become more and more confused, less sense of accomplishment.

Resources are always limited, perhaps only 20% of your demand list is truly valuable, and of these, perhaps only 5% is the immediate most urgent, and 10% of them are short-term, but need to start plotting from now on.

Proactive planning can help you find your way, and if you can align your planning with key people, you can reduce the need to keep pushing you down a lot (because you can agree on why you're not doing it now).

One of the benefits of active planning is that it is more leisurely.

You build a backbone of your needs through proactive planning, like the main branch of a tree. A demand is like a subdivision of the branch, if you do not have a clear trunk, you will find that you can not take these branches, slowly, the whole tree will be deformed, you will not see the overall context of demand, nature will not be able to better manage the demand.

With the main branch, the demand comes, and you can clearly tell that the need should belong to that branch, so it would be easier to do the merging, pruning, and rearrangement of requirements.

2. Task decomposition (WBS)

Procrastination is an important cause of delay. One of the big reasons for procrastination is that you don't know how to chew the first bite and be intimidated by the complexity of the task.

Task decomposition can break down seemingly huge tasks into small tasks that can be easily done, allowing you to get the results faster.

For example, one of the tasks you get is to take a video and put it on the company's Staircase TV.

It's complicated to think, since the bosses didn't make a definite time plan ... So your subconscious mind is going to keep this thing up and about ... Until one day he was asked.

At this point try to break down the task:

• Plan and confirm (what kind of video is it, a documentary, an interview, or someone to play?) Or a candid? or animation)
• Script Planning and Confirmation
• Recruit staff and actors (depending on program)
• Shooting (1. Determine the shooting personnel 2. Determine the shooting plan 3. Shooting
• Post-editing
• Elevator Wall TV Resources booking and scheduling
• Other delivery channels BD and delivery
• ......

Then you will find that there are many opportunities:

• Many small tasks can be started immediately
• Many tasks can be assigned to others to do together
• The front and rear dependencies are very clear, can be issued project schedule, share to everyone.

When there is a clear plan, everyone will have a sense of security and clear their own delivery standards, you will not often be urged to ask.

Task decomposition is the basis of project planning and rational Division of labor.

3. Matrix Tools

Commonplace matrices are often best used. Such as:

• It's urgent and important: you'll die if you don't do it. For new products, it is often the most central requirement for the smallest iteration version to be delineated. Sometimes, it is also a sudden need to complete the task, such as the leadership of visiting reception and so on. This demand often cannot be postponed and must be allowed to jump in line.
• Important but not urgent: the short term will not have any impact, but the long term determines the competitiveness and survival of the product. For example, to allow users to upload images of the application, image storage space and optimization is very important. But when the product is just on the line, the amount of users not so much, not immediately lead to product experience problems. So they tend to accumulate a certain amount of time, taking into account alternatives and optimization scenarios.
• Urgent but not important: it seems anxious to respond immediately, but in reality it will not affect the product, the business status or the long-term. For example, an advertising channel suddenly empty out, need to run ads immediately. But in fact, the effect of this channel is generally insignificant, and even if this issue is not co-operation, it will not affect the long-term cooperation relationship. What do you do? is to "do better", if you have the spare energy or can be transferred to others, generally will also choose to do it incidentally.
• It's not urgent or important: not doing business has any impact, the demand has not surfaced, and the effect has not been clearly assessed, generally speaking, unless there is sufficient resources, will not put on the agenda.

However, for the "4th block", I have some different views, the first three matrices are often followed by demand, only "idler" can be yy out some ideas to lead the demand. Although it's not clear what quantifiable value is, it may also be a surprise. So, if possible, you can consider to set aside 10% of the energy to put on the "Just for fun" needs.

In the medium and long term planning of the product, if the life cycle is divided into four quarters, generally, the first quarter to complete the survival (minimum iteration version), quarter two to tamp the foundation, add more scenes and optimize the legacy experience, through the product's awkward period. Quarterly three to do two priority needs, quarterly four start optimization experience + synchronous innovation.

4. Lists (Check list)

In GTD, an important term is: Inbox (Inbox).

Any task/requirement arrives at you, and if it can be processed in 2 minutes, dispose of it immediately, such as replying to a very simple email. Otherwise, put it in your Inbox to avoid missing it.

Advanced tools, sometimes not even one of the simplest Excel lists to make your Inbox more free and flexible.

However, here is just an emphasis on the list, not limited to Excel or Wunderlist, or other to-do apps ... As long as the effectiveness is good.

5. Closing date (Deadline)

Since human nature is delaying, there is one trick to putting an end to procrastination, which is to set a clear, deadline that everyone knows. The so-called reign then born.

So, if I have something important, I don't want to do it right away. I will put forward the phased plan in advance, find the middle of a few review, confirmed meeting time Point, the beginning of the meeting to send the invitation.

Then I would have to force myself to be able to produce enough for the meeting to discuss two days before the meeting.

Sometimes, man's potential is to be forced.

However, make sure that you have enough quality to come out, to ensure that the goals of the meeting reached, otherwise it would be opposite, called a group of someone to see jokes.

This method is used with caution, but it is easy to use, you might as well try.

Summary:

Kill procrastination! The GTD approach to newcomers