I followed the Getting things done topless workshop given by Yves three weeks ago, this ‘testimony’ explains the before and after the training:
When looking at my lotus notes calendar, my personal dairy, my scrum story board and the endless pieces of paper with whom to call, what to do, what to buy and what not to forget… I felt I was slowly loosing my grip on the world, if I ever had one. I started to fear that soon everyone would discover that standing with my son’s swimbag at my desk, was slowly becoming more than the occasional incident.
Although in daily writing, I preach to people not write procedures that are longer than 7 steps, as the reader has a limited short-term memory, I had stacked my own memory with 84 (!) small and bigger things to remember. And I did remember them: when shopping I remembered to send out that e-mail, when at work I remembered that I needed to order flowers for mum’s birthday and at 3 am I knew exactly on which internet site I had seen that lovely reading light for the living room. But I did not get it done.
After one hour in the Getting things done course, I had successfully identified the 84 “projects”, and a few hours later I knew how to start with each project and could find ways of combining them. And my mind felt really relaxed, though slighty overwhelmed with the number of tasks.
We are now about 3 weeks down the line, and I feel completely in charge: I have 34 current “projects” left and 5 long term ones. The other cards are on done, and I have one central list left. I do not leave the house without my “getting things done notebook”, which gives me freedom of thought: I do not have to remember anything, it is in the notebook. I know how to start each project as soon as I have the time and energy.
I safely know what I can delegate and ‘remember’ whom to call to follow it up, I get smaller tasks done straight away, create new projects for the larger ones, respect the priority system and what satisfies me the most, I get done what needs get done, leaving enough time and energy to actually enjoy what I got done.
I wish everybody this joy and therefore recommend this training highly!