Once I've read about this 'Get things done' concept. It seemed to address my those-days issues with consistent forgetting about deadlines and promised tasks.
I don't want to discuss whether and how vanilla it has to be so it's really effective but to give you a brief overview: it's a system allowing you to focus on task execution rather than reminding deadlines by recording and breaking them into smaller bits.
It uses several rules:
- Empty inbox daily
- Always define the next step
- 5 horizons, from current projects to lifetime
- And review weekly
To handle your tasks, you need several tools:
- Inbox
- Trash
- Some system for reference materials
- Several lists to distinguish the horizon
- And the calendar
When I finished reading the book, my senior colleague showed me how he uses the MS Outlook to organize his things and I've realized it's quite similar to what I saw in the book. I've simply realized that for my regular duties, I don't need lists that are too far in the future. I'm trying to keep the number of my undone tasks on low levels, so I've adopted my colleague's principle.
One image worths a thousand words:
As you can see there's an Inbox (1), trash (2, on the left side), a file system for reference material (3, next to 2), several lists (4), and calendar (5).
Whatever is in my inbox is not finished yet. Whatever is finished is moved to the 'Done' folder. Whatever may be handy is moved to the 'Handy' folder just to ease search and navigation. Anything scheduled is visible in the Calendar and priorities are distinguished by three lists (Urgent, important, and long-term), as well as by colors.
Let me describe how my daily routine looks like: first (even before my first cup of coffee), I'll just quickly run through the e-mails and do the first round of categorization. If the e-mail is just informative, with no action needed from my side, I'll move to the 'Done' folder. If it's too long, I'll leave it for the coffee to help me understand and solve it. If it's a 5-minute task, I'll do it right away (and move to trash).
So, it's 8:15, I'm having my first coffee and I also did something useful (as all my 5-minute tasks are finished). Feels amazing. Now I can check the calendar, get ready for the upcoming day, and go through the longer e-mails and/or tasks.
The panel in the ribbon, marked as (6) simply helps me to operate my Outlook. It can do all the operations - move to trash and categorize.
This part is often ignored, though I recommend to give it a chance. Simply open your Outlook and click 'Create New'. You can create basically a macro there with an easy description of all steps.
Being honest with you - those 'D-*' categories were expected for delegated items, but I'm not in need of such level of detail yet, so I'm not using them. Also, items in my Inbox tend to stack although they're getting done, so I still have to do bi-weekly check to keep my inbox clean. And finally, Red category marks really urgent items, that need my immediate attention. They can be also in my Inbox, thus not solved or really finished for like two weeks. Not being proud of that, but it can happen.
If you are interested in the overall Get Things Done concept, I can only recommend reading the book. It's quite easy to go through and can be very inspiring. In case you'll be using this and you'll meet Mr. Lukas Vrbecky, buy him a drink or two. He's the senior colleague who showed me the first version of this approach.