You wouldn’t expect that a mom with a six-month-old baby would gobble up tips from an efficiency consultant. But that is exactly what has happened.
I’d heard David Allen’s book recommended by several friends — my supervisor, a businessman friend, and (most recently) a young InterVarsity colleague. Feeling the need for a bit more order in my working days, I decided to take a look. And it has had quite an impact in the Boyd household.
I started reading the book with a desire to get my _work_ projects more organized, instead of responding to urgent, but sometimes unimportant, tasks. But I found that Allen’s system is really useful for getting our _household_ organized too. His basic rule of thumb is, “Write everything down.” He coaches his clients through piles of papers, magazines, messy drawers, and email in-boxes with these rules:
# If anything takes two minutes or less to do, just do it, and
# Everything else goes into a trustworthy review system, with a review taking place every week.
One of the most useful parts of the system is a “tickler file”:http://wiki.43folders.com/index.php/Tickler_file — sort of a cross between a file drawer and a calendar: 31 folders for each day in a month, 12 folders for each month in a year, and you rotate them every day. So it’s good for baby shower invitations and birthday reminders and concert tickets alike!
So, now my desk is a lot cleaner, we are getting rid of piles and boxes that have accumulated around the house, and Jon is even feeling better about long-term projects that have been hanging over our heads.
But however great this system is, the risk for me is that I can get so obsessed with efficiency that I have a hard time just sitting and being. I’m trying to be disciplined about using this new way of being organized to actually find more time to be peaceful with Lucy, be loving with Jon, and be kind with myself. Getting the externals in order helps life to run more smoothly, but I definitely need lots of grace to grow the fruits of the Spirit in my soul.
Considered in this review: “_Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0142000280/octothorppres-20, by David Allen.
Hey Ann. I’ve used Allen’s system for a couple years, and it works. A key for me to get started was to buy a label maker and a huge box of manilla folders. A second key was to make sure that I took time weekly to work the system. I’ve recommended the book to a number of folks…from gfm staff to professionals in my congregation.
Yeah, I got the labelmaker and lots of manila folders. It’s been good to get organized! The current challenge is finding time weekly — last week I did pretty well, this week I’m a bit of a mess. I figure it’s a learning process. And it is WAY better than the chaos that existed before!
Dude, I remember relying on a tickler file back when I still worked in the corporate world. Made my life much smoother! Thinking about introducing it again at home now. In fact, maybe I’ll check out the book. Thanks for letting us know about it!
Oh, yes I WOULD expect that mother of a six-month-old would look to an efficiency expert for advice! You are VERY wise to do this. I wish that I had been able to do the same thing when I had my first child.
I didn’t know that my dh (I assume that is who wrote the first reply to your post, especially because he has a label maker in his office–LOL) had used this book. I am going to ask for his copy. I need help with organizing my paperwork.
For household and family stuff, I find that FlyLady.net is the most helpful way for me to keep things going. Whenever I follow her program, I do well, and it is lovely the way she says, “You are never behind, just jump in (to the program) wherever you are.”
One more thing: FlyLady is good for what you mentioned–a system that won’t become an obsession.
OK, it’s taken me nearly three weeks to figure out why the “if anything takes less than two minutes just do it” rule bothered me so much, but I’ve finally understood.
When I had newborn twins, I rarely had more than two minutes “free” to do anything. I broke all my jobs down into two-minute jobs so I could feel like I accomplished something…. and so I didn’t get depressed with all the laundry and dishes and cooking and cleaning which suddenly seemed monumental.
As a result, now 2-1/2 years later, I still think in terms of two-minute tasks. My entire day, minus a few segments intentionally blocked out, is a series of two-minute tasks. I don’t “do laundry” (2 hours) – instead I get clothes from the big kids room and put them in the little kids’ big hamper.
Then (separate job in my mind) I get clothes from my room and put them in the big hamper.
Then (each of these a separate job) lug the hamper to the bathroom where the washer and dryer are. Make piles. Load one pile in. Add detergent/bleach/set washer. Pull clean clothes out of dryer and put on top of machines. Make piles for each room. Carry piles to each room. Fold, per room. Put away, per room. Put wet clean clothes in dryer. Put another load in washer.
And this doesn’t count the two-minute jobs that occur to me while I’m doing laundry related two-minute jobs. Like cutting Daniel’s ripped shirt into cleaning rags. Or getting out a grocery bag and labeling it for my sister, and putting Mac’s too-small clothes into it. Or cutting all the dryer sheets in half to save time ripping them later. Or calling my friend Susie to ask if she wants the latest batch of Chickie’s hand-me-down clothes.
It works…. but when my life is an enormous pile of endless two minute jobs, the advice “if a job takes two minutes just do it” seems suddenly ludicrous… a tyranny of the urgent…. or “obsessed by efficiency” as you put it.
Not sure whether to disregard the “just do it” rule or to learn to think of the whole task and not just the little parts… but it’s taken me this long just to understand why I bristled! I guess that in itself is progress…
I also realized I should never ever “do right away” any two-minute job that involves using the computer. Because I get sucked in and check my RSS feeds “as long as I’m there” and I have to take advantage of the deals at Dealmac right away, and I have to comment on people’s blogs or their flickr pictures… two minutes in front of the computer is rarely less than half an hour. Sigh.
Kelly, I totally agree with you. My life is also made up of two-minute jobs. He does clarify in the book that the “two-minute” rule should vary depending on your life and the time you have available. So, for some people it might be a thirty-second rule. And sometimes, if you have an hour in front of your computer, it might be a five-minute rule. My threshold is probably one-minute, but I’m not timing myself or anything.
What I’ve found helpful about this is that I can more easily divide tasks into “do it now” or “write it down and do it later.” So, when the mail arrives and Lucy is happy on the playmat, I can tear up the junk mail and recycle it, but put things that need to be read carefully onto my desk to do later.
Yes… so my husband pointed this book out to me as one I would love, Love, LOVE! And after reading this review I am sure it is one my husband needs, Needs, NEEDS! So Amazon here I come!