THE NEED FOR A “TOTAL LIFE TO-DO LIST”

—DAVID ALLEN

The concept of daily or weekly to-do lists is as outdated as rotary phones. We need to have a total,
holographic view of everything we want to accomplish, and all the actions required to start any of
them. And we need to have access to views of those actions whenever we actually might be able
to do them.

Most everyone I come across in my clients’ organizations are up to their eyeballs in work, and feel
overwhelmed. Strategy and triage are indeed required to address that, but at least as important
is the requirement for people to set up their lives to get a lot more efficient about getting a lot more
done in a day.

To steal from a Motorola strategy, we need to “mine the bandwidth.” They developed technology
utilizing the more discreet areas “between the lines” in the radio frequencies already in place.
Similarly, we need to be ready for, and take advantage of, the weird uneven time and energy spaces
we find ourselves in.

Ever have the attention span of a gnat... either externally imposed (like on the tarmac at O’Hare)
or internally generated (like 4:30 PM on a day of six meetings, five of which were brutal)? Ever have
a short (but still unknown) time-period, with informal distraction, like waiting for a late meeting to start?
Ever get a five-hour plane trip with minimal interruptions?

There are very few times and places we really have the appropriate energy level, tools, and uninterrupted
time frames to work on some of our “most important” work. The rest of the day, we shouldn’t be
feeling guilty that we’re not working on “job one.” Rather, we should be maximizing our productivity
by picking things to do (that we’re going to do anyway, sometime) that match the situation.

Catch up on the FYI-type Read-and-Review material while waiting for meetings. Water your plants
and fill your stapler when your brain is toast. Call Marriott and make a reservation when you have
ten minutes before you board. Problem is, most people don’t have all those options already figured
out and put in appropriately accessible buckets to rummage through when those situations appear.
And mostly when those weird time slots happen, they don’t have the energy to remember them or
figure them out.

It’s a subtle and fine line between doing less important items as a way to procrastinate, and doing
them because it is the most productive thing you can do effectively. At worst it’s an energizing way
to waste time semi-productively. At best, it’s keeping the decks clear and optimally utilizing yourself
as a resource.

WE ALL HAVE TIMES WHEN WE THINK MORE EFFECTIVELY, AND TIMES WHEN WE SHOULD NOT BE THINKING AT ALL.
—Daniel Cohen

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© 2008 David Allen Company. All rights reserved. 19SEPT2018 gettingthingsdone.com