Getting things done

When I drive long distances, I like to listen to audiobooks. Over the years we have listened to a variety of works. While it is more challenging to listen to many nonfiction titles, I enjoy putting them on anyway. Over my last trip I listened to David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, an abridged version of the book. Allen is a personal productivity guru. He supports organizations and executives to help them become more productive.

One of his underlying assumptions is that most stress is caused by open loops in your life. Open loops being incomplete things that are in your mind. This could be the result of over-commitment or poor organization. One of his primary activities with people is to gather all things in an in box and then begin sorting. First they should be sorted into action or no action.
No action- trash (throw it away), maybe someday, reference (file)
action- can be done in two minutes or less (do it now) or put next action on the calendar.

His key focus is to determine what the next action is. Any project (something with more than one action step) needs to be broken down into the next action. His insistence that you determine next actions helps facilitate activity and avoid procrastination. Critical is breaking projects down by next action. Going out to dinner with your spouse requires many  actions: select a day and time, select a restaurant, get phone number, make reservations, select an outfit, clean the car, go out... You just need to do the next step. When you break things down into the next action, not worrying about all the subsequent steps it helps you to move on a project.

Interestingly, this fits neatly into my executive function research. Many of my students struggle with projects. They need help breaking down projects into manageable steps, much like the executives Allen works with. Being able to draw this comparison may help to normalize this activity for my students.