A clean desk is the first step toward a clear mind
Getting Things Done (or GTD) by David Allen is one of the best productivity books out there.
To summarize it to someone who hasn’t read it yet, it has 5 pillars:
Capture all tasks and ideas in a single trusted place.
Clarify what each item means and what actions it requires.
Organize tasks into projects, priorities, and contexts.
Reflect daily, weekly, and monthly to keep everything current.
Engage by choosing the right task to work on with confidence.
(This is not a real synopsis, go read the book! Also, I beg Mr. David’s forgiveness for taking his great book and summarizing it in one paragraph; if you ever come across this article, I’ll be happy to ask for your forgiveness over a cup of coffee :-)).
So, I have read the great Getting Things Done book, and I tried to implement it in my professional life.
I captured tasks into one inbox, set a daily routine for cleaning my inbox, and weekly and monthly reflections – everything literally by the book.
But then reality (and my nature) kicked in.
This book is great if you are an organized person who needs a good system. But for chronically unorganized people, like me, this book was really hard to follow.
The chronically unorganized
Whenever I sit down in front of my computer to do the (let’s be honest) tedious task of organizing my inbox and cleaning my emails, one of two things happens:
– In less productive days – while trying to do my work, I stumble upon a tab I opened yesterday with a video about a cat doing funny shenanigans, and two hours later, the task of cleaning my inbox advances with about ZERO tasks being organized.
– On other types of less productive days, I totally block youtube and social media, and start to read through the tasks ahead. But when I see an email about a bug I need to fix, instead of creating an organized task about it and continuing sorting through – I open my editor.
Two hours later, I am still trying to fix the bug, while the task of daily inbox organization is still waiting for my attention.
It happens to me on too many days. I start to do one task, just to discover myself doing something else.
And the hardest part is the GTD 2 Minute rule.
If you skipped the book, the rule is very simple: if something takes less than two minutes, do it now, instead of creating a task for it.
But for a person as unorganized as me, this Two Minute rule becomes “How to do EVERYTHING else instead of cleaning your inboxes”.
I thought I was the only one with this problem, but my organized friends complained about it as well. Although none of them needed the social media blockers, as they deleted their accounts years ago, all of them had this issue with trying to do one thing, just to find out they were doing something else.
So did DigitalZen solve this problem and help me follow the GTD method?
First of all, of course I blocked all the procrastination websites and apps. But it left me with the nasty problem of doing work in an unorganized and unfocused manner .
Enters DigitalZen to help.
I created several saved focus configurations for work.
In the morning, I start the “Capture Inbox Cleanup” session for 25 minutes – this only allows me to open my To Do list tool. It will not let me do ANYTHING else: not answer that urgent email, nor draft a proposal – It will only let me clean up and organize my day.
Then I start my “Zero Email Work Inbox session” for another 25 minutes – this only allows me to use my email provider and my To Do tool. It forces me to focus on cleaning my work inbox.
A user complained about a bug? I can’t do anything but create a task to deal with it or organize later on.
When I am actually going to work, I decide what I want to work on, close all the other tools and websites, and start with writing an “Intention” before getting into a focus session.
This makes me more focused on the task ahead and I try to complete only that task. According to the research, it increases productivity by 25%.
To conclude, DigitalZen is a complementary tool to the GTD method.
GTD = mental clarity system.
DigitalZen.app = environmental clarity system.
For me, they are working together in tandem!
One takes care of how I work, the other keeps me on track.