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Get Things Done at Home By Getting Stuff Out of Your Brain

Tsh — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:02:21 +0000

Photo by Andrea

Reader Alyssa asks, “I’m wondering – are you still going to do, or have you done the GTD for Home Managers? I’m sooo interested in that!”

Thanks for asking, Alyssa. My short answer – No, I haven’t “done” the GTD for Home Managers yet. Between getting my e-book out, keeping up with this blog, editing Digital Bliss, and getting our family ready to head to the States, I’ve been swamped. It’s still very much on my radar, and I’m still mulling over ideas and thoughts. I love the idea, and I feel like it needs to be done, if not by me, then by someone.

Some of you might be wondering – what is GTD? If you Google it, you’ll see that there’s quite a pseudo-cult following on the idea, even though GTD simply stands for “Getting Things Done.” Coined by David Allen, his system of productivity spawned a whole generation of people embracing the idea of sticking with a simple system to – well, Get Things Done.

While I like a lot of his original ideas, as well as the many mutations of GTD that have since been created online, none of them are perfect and THE go-to for making your life productive – especially for home managers. Hence, the evident need for something to be created, in my humble opinion. Especially one that emphasizes the idea that productivity is not the most important thing in life!

The main idea I want to share today is the foundation for GTD, and it’s something I do happen to agree with. And the idea is just as important for home managers as it is for Fortune 500 CEOs.

Write it down.

Write everything down. Get it out of your brain and on to someplace else. Whatever “it” is that’s on your mind – your to-do list, the chocolate chip recipe you just concocted, your need to call your husband and ask him to pick up milk on the way home – everything. Leave nothing in your brain. Don’t make your brain the holding place for all those bits and pieces hovering around your day.

How often have you said to yourself, “I don’t need to jot down a reminder; I’ll remember this.” And then how often have you forgotten that very thing?

Yeah, me too.

Forgetfulness is one of the main reasons you need to write stuff down. Other reasons are:

You’re more stressed when your brain is thinking about a thousand little things.
You’re not able to fully concentrate on the task at hand.
You overcommit, because you can’t clearly see what’s on your plate.
You don’t have true, relaxing downtime because you hold on to that nagging feeling that you should always be doing something else – but you’re not sure what.

So for me, the cornerstone to even hoping for a productive day is to write everything down, and to leave nothing in my brain. (Ha.)

What Does This Look Like?

To simply start a basic GTD pattern at home, you need to grab yourself a blank something – a piece of paper, a white board, a new text document on your computer, something. I prefer paper because I like to doodle my thoughts in a more haphazard manner a la Todoodlist.
.

Photo by Brendan

Then, jot down every. little. thing. on your mind. Everything. Don’t worry about making sense of it or putting things in order just yet – simply transfer it from your brain to paper. Don’t hold on to any of it - your body will physically react to it (stress, fatigue, not concentrating), and your soul will react emotionally (stress, frustration at innocent people, bitterness from having too much on your plate).

When you start seeing everything that’s been on your mind, it won’t take long for you to start seeing patterns, to begin making order of your agenda, or to simply file away ideas that you’ve held on to needlessly.

How It Works for Me

When I first started this idea in my life, there was a lot to write down. I was floored with how much I let stay in my brain. But since I’ve made it more of a regular routine in my life, doing this is not nearly as overwhelming.

Each morning, I expel everything from my brain to paper. I do this on the bottom half of my Daily Docket using the Todoodlist method.

From there, I start visually connecting the dots, and make my day’s to-do list on the Docket.

If there’s anything I need to remember while I’m on the computer (blog management, checking bank accounts, or browsing for a book I need, for example), I add it to my Remember the Milk list in my Gmail account.

If something involves a date, I add it to our family calendar, which I keep in my momAgenda.

Throughout the day, as I think of more things, I add it to my blank space on my Daily Docket as quickly as possible.

Designate One Place

The most important part of writing everything down is to do it all in one place. If you have a separate sheet for your work to-do list, a different one relating to each family member, and another one for family finances, that’s too much. You’re still adding stuff to your brain – keeping track of all of these papers and remembering where they go. When you take the first step of emptying your brain, it needs to be all in one place. You can then organize from there, if you want.

Some people have a basic notepad or journal dedicated solely to their brain-emptying, and not using it for anything else. That’s a pretty good idea, especially if you feel overwhelmed at first with how much you’ve been holding on to.

So, Alyssa, to get back to your question – even though I haven’t yet developed a GTD for Home Managers just yet, if I were to, this is where I’d start. Having you write down every last thing that’s on your mind, so that you don’t have to cart it with you wherever you take your brain. Allow your brain cells to know something else.

Do you make a habit of writing everything down? Has it helped? If you’ve never done this before, I recommend taking five minutes right now and starting, just to see how it feels. Then comment below on how it felt to you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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Get Things Done at Home By Getting Stuff Out of Your Brain is a post from Simple Mom

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The 2 Key Questions to Ask While Decluttering

Tsh — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:57:35 +0000

In the poll I had in my sidebar last week (I’ve got a new one there, by the way), I was somewhat surprised to learn that most of you find organizing to be the hardest part of your home management. I wasn’t surprised because I think it’s easy, but because you said it was harder than money management, menu planning, cleaning, or juggling parenting in the mix of housekeeping. None of those tasks are easy.

Photo by Molly

“Stuffitis” can clog our clarity, productivity, and peace to the point of exhaustion. It makes organizing our homes so much harder. When we have so much stuff that those items are no longer useful or provide enjoyment because the mere having it causes added stress – it’s time to rethink its purpose in your home.

One of our unexpected benefits of moving to the other side of the world last year was forced downsizing. Because we were limited in how much stuff to bring, we literally questioned every single item we owned. It either went with us, it moved into a very small storage unit (for those items we wanted to keep but not risk a major overseas move – like family keepsakes), or it left our home and went to another (via garage sale or donation).

And when we inventoried our belongings, the two main questions we asked – sometimes unconsciously – were:

1. Is this item useful to us?, and
2. Is this item beautiful to us?

The answers could be quite subjective, but it pointed us to an overall theme in our life and in our home that I hope we now keep lifelong. It’s this simple quote that is now my homekeeping mantra:

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” -William Morris

Sounds extreme, and in a way, it is. But I like it because it validates the things you do have in your home, and it gives you the freedom to truly enjoy having them pass your threshold. Rather than making that collection of candles on top of your TV cabinet feel pointless, you can enjoy having them there because you’ve made a conscious decision that they were worth being there. They passed the test, in other words.

It helps us that our home isn’t too big. We live in a very urban high-rise condo, which provides about 1,300 square feet of living space. We have one closet, which is actually pretty unusual here, since closets are a rather American concept. Our bedrooms have wardrobes which serve as ample space for all our clothes.

Most families won’t have a major international move to force them to downsize. But I highly encourage you to quickly ask yourself an object’s purpose or beauty in your home the next time you declutter. If it merits neither, then maybe it shouldn’t even belong. Perhaps another family would find a better use for it.

And you might be surprised to learn how little you’ll miss the thing once it’s gone.

2nd photo by karly b

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Plan to Eat - meal planning made simple.
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Treed - A simple, flexible, effective project planning tool.

The 2 Key Questions to Ask While Decluttering is a post from Simple Mom

Weekly Home Management, all at a glance

Tsh — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:00:44 +0000

To use my Daily Docket, I refer to my Weekly Checklist. It provides me with a master plan of what I usually need to get done in a typical week.

Photo by Buddy Stone

Here’s a thumbnail of my list (click to enlarge it):

I know it seems a bit intense, but it really works for me. It helps to not have to remember “on the fly” what needs cleaning – I can just check my master list. And it keeps me accountable for those weekly tasks that I too easily slide under the rug.

Unlike my Daily Docket, I just have one master checklist printed, and I keep it in a clear sleeve in my Home Management Notebook. Under the “other” category, I pencil in items as I remember them, and if I seem to refer to it often enough, it warrants my adding it permanently to the list.

I’d be happy to offer this as a free PDF, but it’s pretty customized to my lifestyle, which has a few quirks (cross-cultural, urban living). I could make a generic checklist of tasks familiar to most households, and include a lot of blank lines for personalization.

Or – you can just make one yourself. This isn’t a revolutionary idea, but it’s super helpful for me. It’s one more thing I include in my notebook!

• Next up in Home Management Notebooks: budgets and menus and calendars, oh my!

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Plan to Eat - meal planning made simple.
The Justice Conference - Justice hangs by a thread.
Lil' Soak - Sewing hope with handmade goods.
Treed - A simple, flexible, effective project planning tool.

Weekly Home Management, all at a glance is a post from Simple Mom