My "Standing Ovation" for David Allen's TED Talk

If you haven't yet watched this TED talk by David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, it is absolutely worth your time. This blog post is my symbolic standing ovation.


I first heard about Getting Things Done from my friend Saren, who recommended it casually as a book I might enjoy.  I then saw it at the library the following week and picked it up--thinking I might glean an organization tip or two as I flipped through the pages. 

Well, that book flipped my organization/life management strategy upside down and gave me the tools and perspective I needed to accomplish way more in much less time (while enjoying my family in an un-distracted way that I'd only dreamed about).

I now teach GTD for Moms in a program called Mind Organization for Moms.  If you haven't checked it out yet, please do.  I LOVE this program and use it every single day.

Here are some of the key ideas from the TED talk above that really resonated with me:

• Appropriate engagement: Our goal isn't just to get a whole lot of stuff "done."  Our goal is to be appropriately engaged with our lives.  We want to spend the right amount of time on the right things--and not waste our precious hours procrastinating or being stressed out.

• NOTHING should be in our heads.  Writing each idea, project, and commitment on paper gives us space in our minds to be more creative, more productive, and happier overall.  Putting all those papers into trusted systems allows our minds to rest, and that opens the world to us.

• Sophisticated Spontaneity: Isn't that a beautiful term?  When our commitments and projects are clearly defined and put into a seamless system, we can then be that "spontaneous" person who runs off on a romantic getaway for a weekend or sits at the kitchen table for an hour playing Legos.  Our minds know what they are not doing, so there's no stress.  We'll just pick up where we left off.

• More time won't solve our problems.  We might think "just two more hours" will give us that peace and order we desire.  But more time (with our current disorganized systems) will just give us more "overwhelm and stickiness" (as David calls it).  Revamping our systems is the key.

GTD methods help us to eliminate "hurry" from our vocabulary.  We become the "Captain Commanders" of our lives.  We're able to give focused attention to what deserves our attention and we no longer have to try to think about everything at once. 

Each one of us has important things to do--within our own families, within our professions, within our communities, and within the world.  Getting a handle on our lives--including our emails, errands, tasks, projects, goals, and paperwork--is essential, and the GTD system is honestly the best one I know.

Thanks David Allen!

-April


Any additional thoughts or questions?

Minimalizing (My FAVORITE Way to Unleash Creativity)

Are you feeling excited about 2013?

Thought I'd record some ideas that have been really helpful to me this week--in case you're looking to clean up your life a bit and make this next year even more wonderful.

I had the chance to interview my dear friend Marilyn a few weeks ago about how she and her family de-cluttered their home over the past year.  (Our conversation will be posted as a podcast on www.powerofmoms.com in the next couple of weeks, so you can hear her tell all about it!)

One of the "secrets" she shared for getting started was to read Minimalist Blogs.  (I was kind of embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of the term "Minimalist Movement," but wow, now I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of it.)

There are tons and tons of blogs out there that teach how to get by with less.  They show you how to get rid of your stuff and focus your life on what's really important. 

I've always loved books like "It's Here . . . Somewhere" and Julie Morgenstern's "S.H.E.D. Your Stuff, Change Your Life." I follow blogs like SimpleMom.net, and I've spent lots of time de-cluttering in the past.  I just didn't know that there was a movement going on that could help me become more deliberate in how I focus my life. 

For example, my daughters are getting ready to paint their rooms, and this photo, featuring beautiful simplicity, inspires us:

From www.houzz.com

I also LOVE this quote that was posted on the GTD Times Facebook page the other day (Are you following them yet?):

"The end of a year and start of the new is a great metaphorical event to use to enhance a critical aspect of your constructive creativity—get rid of everything that you can.

(This is the photo GTD Times posted with the quote.  One of the comments said, "Some nerve -- posting pictures of my apartment without my permission."  That made me smile.)

"Your psyche has a certain quota of open loops and incompletions that it can tolerate, and it will unconsciously block the engagement with new material if it has reached its limit. Release some memory.

"Want more business? Get rid of all the old energy in the business you’ve done. Are there any open loops left with any of your clients? Any agreements or disagreements that have not been completed or resolved? Any agendas and communications that need to be expressed? Clean the slate.

"Want more clothes? Go through your closets and storage areas and cart to your local donation center everything that you haven’t worn in the last 24 months. And anything that doesn’t feel or look just right when you wear it.

"Want to be freer to go where you want to, when you want to, with new transportation? Clean out your glove compartments and trunks of your cars. And for heaven’s sake, get those little things fixed that have been bugging you.

"Do you want more wealth? Unhook from the investments and resources that have been nagging at you to change. (And give more than usual do to someone or something that inspires you to do so.)

"Do you want to feel more useful? Hand off anything that you are under-utilizing to someone who can employ it better.

"Want some new visions for your life and work? Clean up and organize your boxes of old photographs. Want to know what to do with your life when you grow up? Start by cleaning the center drawer of your desk.

"You will have to do all this anyway, sometime. Right now don’t worry about the new. It’s coming toward you at lightning speed, no matter what. Just get the decks clear so you’re really ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

—David Allen

Isn't that fabulous?

So my family and I are doing some major de-cluttering this week.  We're cleaning out our closets, garage, cupboards, drawers, reading baskets, bookshelves, filing cabinets . . . everything.  We're making space in our lives so we can make room for the things that really matter in 2013.  It doesn't have to happen all at once, and I'm sure we'll get better at this over time, but it feels AMAZING.

(If you have any advice--favorite blogs, books, podcasts, videos, etc. that teach how to simplify/minimalize, will you please share them in the comments?  I am eager to learn.)

Much love,
April

Getting Organized for the First Day of School

I just submitted this as a possible guest post to GTD Times, so I thought I'd post a copy of it here, as well.  Why I do things like this at 1:00 in the morning, I'm not quite sure....

The first day of school started out great.  My three oldest children dressed in their new clothes, laced up their new shoes, ate a healthy breakfast, and then headed off to school with homemade sack lunches and brightly-colored, fully-stocked pencil cases.  I felt like a wonderful mom.

They returned home seven hours later, happy but tired, toting folders overflowing with paperwork, and that's when MY work started (I mean...continued).  As I shuffled through more than 50 sheets of fliers, forms, and date-specific notices, I started to feel a little dizzy.  The pile on my counter harbored a LOT of information, most of which needed my attention right that minute.  I was tempted to break into tears or bury my head in a carton of Rocky Road, but then I thought, "Wait a minute.  I've been trained in Getting Things Done.  I was MADE for situations like this."  

Within 30 minutes, the papers were completely processed, and I was ready to move on with our evening.  And since I had such a glorious experience with my paper party, I thought I'd share some ideas that might help other moms manage the near-constant influx of papers that comes flying from their children's backpacks.

Shall we begin?

Step #1: I did a quick initial sort, pulling everything out of the pile that belonged in the trash.  That was actually half the pile, since all three of my children received identical copies of each handout (maybe they'll go digital someday?).  By removing the trash at the beginning, the remaining stack looked much less daunting.

Step #2: I went through the stack again and processed everything that would take two minutes or less.  I typed the teachers' email addresses into my Contacts list, noted the date of the school's 5K, and recorded all of the holiday breaks onto my calendar.  That eliminated seven or eight more sheets of paper.  

Step #3: I gathered all the sheets I wanted to keep for reference (bell schedules, classroom rules, details about the school exercise program, etc.) and put them immediately into my filing cabinet in a clearly-labeled folder...just in case I need to find them quickly in the future.

Step #4: I made a decision on the school picture order form and then wrote a reminder on the next day's calendar page to order the photos online (doing so enabled me to receive a few extra photos free of charge.  Wasn't that a nice of them?).

Step #5: I got out my Next Actions list and recorded the three extra school supplies my daughter needed in the "Errands" context.  

Step #6: I spread out all nine of the emergency cards and a few extra forms on the table, and my children and I filled them out together.  They wrote their names, address, phone number, etc., and then I added a few additional pieces of information and my signature.  

That was it!  Piece of cake, right?  There's no need to stress when you're a "black-belt" at paper processing.

There was one little boy in my daughter's Kindergarten class a few years ago whose mother NEVER emptied his backpack.  I'm serious.  Every morning, he came to school with a bulging backpack--full of paperwork that had been piling up for months.  I knew his mom a little bit, and I don't think she was trying to be neglectful.  I think she just felt overwhelmed with her own paperwork and problems, and unzipping a backpack of "stuff" would have thrown her over the edge.

I feel like part of my mission in life is to help the moms of the world to get organized.  It takes some work, but it's not that complicated, and the basic ideas presented in Getting Things Done (and therefore, Mind Organization for Moms) have the power to make life much, much easier--whether it's the first day of school or simply the first day of the rest of your life.