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You can do anything - but not everything.

David Allen's article in Fast Company in May 2000 before GTD became a cult!

You can do anything - but not everything.

At the heart of David Allen's productivity coaching is the discipline of a weekly review. "That is critical to making personal organization a vital, dynamic reality," he says. Here, adapted from Allen's Web site, is a list of steps that you should work your way through every Friday afternoon.

1. Sort your loose papers. Gather all scraps of paper -- business cards, receipts, miscellaneous notes -- and put them into your in-basket to process.

2. Process your notes. Review journal entries, meeting notes, and miscellaneous scribblings. Turn them into appropriate action items, projects, and so on.

3. Review previous calendar data. Look through expired daily calendar pages for remaining action items, and move those items forward.

4. Download your data. Write down any new projects, action items, "waiting-for" items, and so on.

5. Review outcome lists. One by one, evaluate the status of each project, goal, and outcome.

6. Review "next action" lists. Check off all completed actions. Look for reminders of further action steps.

7. Review "pending" and "support" files. Browse through work-in-progress materials and update lists of new actions, completions, and "waiting-for" items.

8. Review "reminders" lists. Make sure that there isn't anything that you haven't done that you need to do. Also, make sure that there aren't any checklists that you need to review.

9. Review "someday" and "maybe" lists. Look for any projects that may have become active, and transfer them to your "projects" list. Delete any dead items.

10. Review "waiting-for" lists. Record appropriate follow-up actions. Check them off as you complete them.

11. Be creative and courageous. Add to your system any new, wonderful, harebrained, thought-provoking, risk-taking ideas that have occurred to you.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 at 8:56 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.