Lesson: How to hack your to-do list

Conversation

Answer the following questions. You might be asked to write them down or answer them out-loud.

1. Are you a busy person? Please talk about it.
2. Do you keep a calendar? How useful is it?
3. How often do you remember things you have to do in the middle of the night?
4. Do you find yourself an organized person? Why or why not?
5. Do you have a list of priorities?
6. Do you sometimes have difficulty doing some tasks because you are worried about something else you have to do?
7. How often do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of things you have to do?
8. How useful is it to make a "to do list"?
9. What do you do to relieve stress?
10. Are you good at multitasking?

Vocabulary

Look at the vocabulary below. Take time to explore the links for their definitions in English and their translations to Portuguese. When you are done, make a sentence with each word. Ask your teacher if you should write them down or say them out loud.

DT   suppose

DT   handle

DT   commitment

DT   actually

DT   psyche

DT   stuff

DT   bright

DT   buzz

DT   capture

DT   critical

DT   meaningful

DT   otherwise

DT   outcome

DT   park

DT   review

DT   appropriately

DT   engage

DT   jabbering

Video

Watch the following video but DON'T read the transcript yet.

After watching the video do this listening exercise.

Reading practice

Read the following transcript then do the associated reading comprehension exercise.

ExpandTranscript:

- So I was talking with David Allen author of the book "Getting Things Done" about how to be more organized and he asked me:
D: Why do you keep a calendar? - Because if I don't I'll forget where I'm supposed to be and when.
D: That's right. Your head can't handle that complexity. And, if you like the complexity of your calendar, try the complexity of the rest of your life, if your calendar manages maybe 3 to 4 percent of your commitments and what you actually need to keep track of. - The other 96 percent David says are things like our goals, our projects, our to do list. What we need at the store, that phone call we need to make, all these other things we just let our brain, our psyche try to keep track of.
D: The psyche actually sucks as a system. It'll remind you of stuff that you can't do at 3 o'clock in the morning, which is not very bright. If that were just one thing that'd be bad enough but multiply that by about a thousand and realize this buzz that is going on in everybody's head. - So David thinks we need a new system that captures that buzz and quiets your brain. The first step in this system is to get everything written down.
D: So capturing it that's a first critical step. That is I've got to identify those things that are potentially meaningful otherwise my psyche is gonna go, don’t forget, don’t forget, don’t forget… and this little monkey is gonna start to talk inside my head. - But just writing things down isn’t enough because
D: If you look at most people's to do list you see things like Mom or bank. But you have to take it to the next step, so now you've got to clarify what's the outcome I'm committed to. And then you say, well what does doing look like and where does it happen, so what’s the very next action about Mom’s birthday, what’s the very next action about the bank, is that a phone call to make, is that a surf the web to find out something. The third thing you need to do is you need to park the result, otherwise it goes back in my psyche. - The final two steps David says are to review those lists that you make, those parking lots for your tasks and your projects and then of course to do them.
D: The big secret here about getting things done is it's not really about getting things done. I am now free and clear in my head to let my attention go where it wants to go or where I want to put it. It’s about being appropriately engaged with your life. - And once you stop trying to keep all of those tasks and projects in your head and you quiet the jabbering monkeys, you’ll find that you have increased capacity to think and be creative.

Writing practice

Write a couple of paragraphs talking about the strategies you use to organize your tasks and projects. Make sure to use words you learned from the text and try to make it as long as you can.

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