Lesson: How to hack your to-do list/ExerciseD1

Listening Exercise

- So I was

with David Allen

of the book "Getting Things Done" about how to be more

and he asked me:

D: Why do you keep a calendar? - Because if I don't I'll

where I'm supposed to be and when. D: That's right. Your head can't handle that complexity. And, if you

the complexity of your calendar, try the complexity of the

of your life, if your calendar manages

3 to 4 percent of your commitments and what you actually

to keep track of. - The other 96 percent David says are

like our goals, our projects, our to do list. What we need at the

, that phone call we need to make, all these

things we just let our

, our psyche try to keep track of.

D: The psyche actually sucks as a

. It'll remind you of stuff that you can't do at 3 o'clock in the

, which is not very bright. If that were just one thing that'd be bad

but multiply that by about a thousand and realize

buzz that is going on in everybody's head. - So David

we need a new system that captures that buzz and quiets your brain. The first

in this system is to get

written down. D: So capturing it that's a

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

is gonna start to

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

Mom or bank. But you have to

it to the next step, so now you've got to clarify what's the outcome I'm committed to. And then you say,

what does doing look like and where does it

, so what’s the very next

about Mom’s birthday, what’s the very next action about the bank, is that a

call to make, is that to

the web to find out something. The third thing you need to do is you need to park the result, otherwise it goes

in my psyche. - The final two steps David says are to review those lists that you

, those parking lots for your tasks and your projects and

, of course, to do them.

D: The big

here about getting things done is it's not

about getting things done. I am now free and

in my head to let my attention go where it wants to go or where I want to

it. It’s about being appropriately engaged with your

. - And once you stop trying to keep all of those tasks and projects in your

and you quiet the jabbering monkeys, you’ll find that you have increased capacity to think and be

.