Last time we talked about the importance of Time Management to the successful EA. This time we’re going to take a deep dive into one of the leading time management systems, Getting Things Done – also dubbed “GTD“.
What is “Getting Things Done”?
Getting Things Done is a time management system invented and popularized by David Allen. Here is the basic premise of the system, according to Wikipedia:
GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.
The trick with Getting Things done is that the system is designed to be lightweight enough to capture items quickly and easily as they come up. You don’t need to be sitting at a computer, have a PDA, or have any expensive accessories to make the system work.
So How Does “GTD” Work?
The basic idea with GTD is that any time a new task shows up on your plate, be it from an email, something that popped into your mind, or a phone call – you write it down. Most people use a small notepad to capture these short “todos”. Once you’ve written the task down, it’s transfered out of your short-term memory and into reliable temporary storage. Notepads don’t forget.
Later, when you’re back at your desk, you empty all of the todos from your notepad into your “inbox”. That way you’re not carrying them around with you any more. They are safe at your desk, waiting for you to organize them when you have some time.
When you have a few minutes to think, you sit down at your desk and work on your inbox. You’re going to priorize and sort your todos so that they are actionable. At this point, GTD’s concept of “43 folders” comes into play. At your desk, you’ll have a set of 43 paper folders – 12 for the months of the year, and 31 for the days of the month. As you go through the todos in your inbox, you simply choose one of those 43 folders to drop the item into. If you can get to your “Schedule Business Architecture meeting” task on the 15th of this month, you drop it into the “15″ folder. If you need to “Upgrade the SOA Repository Server” in January when a new patch is release, you drop that note into the “January” folder. What you’re doing is creating reminders to your future self.
You see how the whole system revolves around moving “todos” out of unreliable storage (your memory) into reliable storage (your inbox), and finally into organized storage (your 43 folders). The idea is that your mind’s full mental capacity is freed up to execute tasks because this simple system is managing the timing and organization of those tasks.
There are more subtleties to the system, such as managing tasks around projects and delegating to others, but this essentially describes how GTD works.
Why Does This Matter to Me as an EA?
My previous article discusses why a good time management system is so important to an Enterprise Architect. Because of the broad scope of EA’s responsibility, I’m sure you’re familiar with the constant barrage of requests for your time. You need a good system to manage all of these requests to ensure that you’re delivering value to your stakeholders. In my experience, GTD is an extremely effective tool for this purpose.
Where Do I Get More Information?
Read David Allen’s book, which is also available as an audio book.
Do I Really Have to Carry a Notepad Around?
No. I’ve implemented GTD fully electronically, using Outlook and Blackberry. I’ll discuss how I did it in a future article.
Tags: ea, Enterprise Architecture, getting things done, gtd, time management
