EPISODE 035 - Organisation: How do I keep track of my Doings?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Shit Done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidel and our question of the day is how do I keep track of my doings? And this is the unofficial part three of our, I don't know, new years or the end year series. So it wasn't planned to be a series, but the topic fits. So in the last two episodes, we talked about how to use the quiet time end of the year. to maybe gain more focus, gain more control of your to-dos. And last episode, we talked about how to prioritize things because that's important for the planning. And now we talk about how to keep all those things on track, what you made or gained in the last two weeks. So in the last two weeks, it was a quiet time. We cleaned up all our to-dos. We prioritized everything. We planned everything. But now it is to prove in the real world because today or tomorrow, maybe next week, if you're lucky enough to have one more week of holiday. But to be honest, the real life comes back. So you will go back to work. Every one of your colleagues will go back to work. Your customers will be back at work. So now new emails are coming in, new to-dos coming in. So now we have to prove that the system works and we need to keep it up and running. And the first thing is after the two weeks of holiday or the silent and quiet time that your inbox might be a little bit more crowded than usual. And I would recommend you to, as I said in previous episodes, to reserve some time only to work with your emails, to go through your emails. And this might take a little bit longer because the inbox might be more crowded over the holidays. so take your time. Maybe you can work the day before you go to the office, maybe an hour before. It depends on your work environment and how does it work for you. But I would recommend not to have the normal schedule, but to have maybe an hour before, the day before, the hour before, to just work with your emails.

Michael Seidl: and everything else that comes in through the last two weeks. So sit down, go through your emails and do the same what I told in two episodes before. So read every email or read every conversation, understand your doings and decide if you maybe can do it immediately. If it's just a response, yes or no, a decision, whatever. Or if it takes longer than you have to plan it for any further date, then you can see the previous episode of how to define priorities. Or you can delegate it or maybe it's useless. Okay. So at the end of the email, you will remove it from the inbox or the whole conversation, of course. So go through each email or conversation, decide what to do, plan or do it or delegate it or remove it. and remove the email from your inbox. And that's the very first thing you will do after all the holiday season. And before you start with your daily business, clean up your emails. So that's something I would prefer. Second thing is to keep track of your system. So what we did the last two weeks is to take every open loop, every open task, bring it to your system, plan it and so on. And this thing is you do on a regular basis in a smaller time span, because the chaos is not so big and you should try to don't let the chaos get so big again. So you should at least every day, end of the day or at least every end of the week, make sure that every open to do, open loops are stored into your system. So blend. Delegated, whatever. is on the table. No mail is in the inbox. No read emails is in the inbox. No post-its, no notes, no messages, Everything needs to be in your system. Latest by the end of the week. Because if the chaos gets too big again, then you need to take so much more time.

Michael Seidl: And it takes so much more effort. And the barrier is so much bigger than you might fail to keep track of the system. So try to do it in small steps, in smaller intervals, and keep track of the system. So no read emails in the inbox, no open post-its, notes on your table, no letters, whatever, by the end of the week, latest. The third thing is, if you've done that during the holidays, you might get that feeling of you have everything under control. That feeling is so much worth the effort. And if you keep that feeling, it's so easy to go through emails, to go through your notes and to keep all the system clean and tidy. So make sure you... You keep that feeling by doing the things. It might get challenging during your daily business. It might get challenging because there are so many other stuff coming in, but you might give it a try and keep that feeling of having everything under control. And that's what it is about. And if you want to go deeper in that topic, I would recommend you the book of Getting Things Done from David Allen. If you see any similarities between the title and my podcast title, I'm not sure if that was on purpose, but I read that book, I think 15 years ago, and I still try to work on that rules David Allen brought up with GTD. If you know that book already, might see some similarities between my suggestions and that book. That's because I really tried to live the GTT lifestyle or GTT rules. But there are so many more. If you want to get more insights of that system, really want to...

Michael Seidl: you to read that book. And if you already did, read it twice or three times or four times. do it often because you need to read the rules, the guidance. Maybe you understand something only on the second or third time. So do it maybe once a year or every two years to read that book to refresh the mindset and everything. Okay. So I might add it to the show notes so you can click on the link to see the book. So if you want to see more on GTD, I would really recommend to read that book. Otherwise, I wish you a happy start in the new year. Stay productive in the new year. If you have any questions, let me know. And wish you a nice week. Stay productive. Bye bye.