Diarise everything, at least in the early days.
1. Newsify yourself first thing. Everyone need knowledge. Not only does it give you a great kick-start and motivate you for the day ahead, but you're (whether you feel it or not) at your most receptive. Here are a few tips to get on top of the day's affairs without even trying (once you've set this strategy up):- Get a Google account and make sure all your RSS feeds go to Google Reader. The list of features on this RSS reader is extreme – meaning you can tailor it to your exact needs.
- Figure out what you want to know, and the sources you trust and will act upon. Then feed. RSS has become my saviour on so many levels. Personal, professional – even spiritual (I love the whole Buddhist gig and the only way I can get my daily dose of dharma is through it slamming on to my desktop or HTC Magic phone every morning). So find the sites that influence you and make their RSS feeds yours.
- Create a Google News Custom Section. Google Alerts are so 2008. Create your own Custom Section to aggregate every single Google Alert you want into one simple RSS feed. It's tough as hell to find your way through the occasional mess that is Google News to make this happen – so I'm making it happen for you. Simple guide here.
- Get the Google Reader Watcher addon for the Mozilla Firefox web browser. This'll make sure that – even if you don't have time – you can be alerted when new news stuff pops into the 'Reader without having to monitor it at all. You use Firefox right? No?
2. Use every moment. I spend half an hour fixing breakfast and lunch in the mornings and make sure to listen to a podcast (This Week In Tech or The Tech Guy by Leo Laporte, mostly, since he's a prolific 'caster and relevant to my domain) or sometimes, if I've run out of juice, I might even listen to the other half! But essentially this is my real-life inbox giving those waking brain cells a workout.
3. Exercise. I totally get things when I'm running, and so will you. If things start to slip, then
4. Keep a diary. Not only does this make you jot things down for now, carry things to the next day and plan ahead (that's essentially the simplicity of the Getting Things Done philsophy – more later) but you can also see what you've achieved at the end of the year – a totally worthwhile exercise.
5. Defer to philosophy. A good friend, Michael Tester, said thus: "The key to self-discipline is remembering what you want…. The key to success is getting what you want by helping someone else get what they what first…. The key to life, that there are no real emergences – unless someone is bleeding, and thats probably not as bad as it looks…"
6. Make sure you're Getting Things Done. David Allen's literary how-to contribution to organising fools like me is a seminal one. It's totally life-changing and life-giving. One of the most essential buys for anyone who wants to revolutionise their organisational abilities is one of those little machines that prints on laminated strips of paper. And then you stick them on your files. And all your files then magically organise themselves. You need to use your hands to achieve this but it really works and, even if it is nothing more than a psychological crook, it works perfectly for me and I'm sticking with it, thanks very much. I'm underselling this tome: go check it out and all the sites that have sprung up like little Jesuit disciples. We love you, David! (that's David Allen, not me.)
7. Capture all the worms without getting eaten by them. Don't get bogged down by the detail. If you're an apprentice of The Art of Doing Stuff When It Needs To Be Done then you need to worship at the font of togetherness. Once you start being distracted it'll all fall apart. So self-discipline is all so important here. Focus. Listen to your mind, not your heart. The heart can get in the way later, once you've figured it all out and got it all done.
8. Spread out your quick-wins. This is where I disagree with the Allen maxim that you need to get all the stuff done that can be achieved in the flick of a rat's tail, first. Eventually we all stumble or struggle, and it can get us down. I always keep a few quick 'uns back so I can switch to those, tick a box, feel good, and swiftly revert to the lengthier job in hand with a spring in my stride and a big tick in a box. You gotta have a big tick in a box, just as you gotta have a bit of bubbly for the shareholders.
9. Rid the crap. For 34 years I hoarded. Everything. First it was dribble, then pieces of chocolate (mum just adored Hoovering round the back of the sofa; Hoover loved her for the number of appliances she got through on account of the now-acknowledged law of Cocoa Solids Forever Blocking Sucking Tools). In my teens it was Kylie posters; 20s guitars, and 30s career challenges and atrocious bosses. Now I'm through with the lot of them (though I think my paean to the Aussie songstress is under this pile somewhere…) and thanks to a 10-day break at Tushita, I have very little baggage (though my psychologist may disagree). Losing stuff just takes ages as a process – so make sure everything is to hand or at the very worst, upstairs in a box marked Here It Is!
10. Set goals. You're far more likely to be organised if you set goals. Mine was to do a morning of CSS training; read Half Luck and Half Brains (story of the Holiday Inn company and Kemmons Wilson) and then finish with a PHP-indulging afternoon. I got sidetracked (don't get sidetracked – but I can't do 11) but at the same time, I have a very good excuse because this is a project I simply cannot fail at. If you do get distracted, make sure that you can get back on track. Adjust your schedule, if absolutely necessary move the less important stuff to tomorrow (thin line here between deferring for a purpose and procrastinating which to me is just being intellectually lethargic). That's my 10 for today – Friday January 8, 2010. What are your top tips to get organised?
