- In this video we're gonna talk about getting things done.
(upbeat music)
Now I kicked off 2021, rather un-originally
by talking about the importance of goal setting
and really about how you can reverse engineer them
in order to be able to get the actionable activities
that you can do every day or week in order to achieve them.
But the whole process still requires a lot of organization.
When you're actually coming up with your goals,
brainstorming them, then it's a really creative act.
You can daydream, you can speculate,
you can write things down and you can tear them up
and actually making something whether or not
that's a mood board or whatever
actually helps give you a tactile relationship
as well as intellectual one with what your ambitions are.
But in my actual day-to-day activities,
I don't wanna brainstorm,
I wanna know what I'm doing and when I'm doing it
and making it as frictionless as possible.
Now, a great book on this subject
that I'd recommend is "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.
In it, he says, "Our minds aren't really designed
for storing ideas but it mainly for creativity
and inspiration."
David Allen is very much an advocate of being in the moment
as much as possible
which is actually a very actively concept
of having your concentration fully focused on one thing.
And it's from that, you actually get a sense of flow,
of ease because you are so fully focused on the one thing
rather than dispersing your energy across multiple things
and not being able to really resolve
or progress any of them.
And so he has a system.
In short, he first suggests that you collect
all of your ideas up somewhere.
And quite often that would most typically be
in a to-do list,
but you could also use an app on your phone.
Then after you've collected everything,
you need to process these things
which is basically work out what you need to do with them.
What would be the next logical step
in order to get them done.
Then you need to organize them.
And that means you need to kind of set different priorities
for them, different timeframes,
but also kind of locate which are my personal tasks,
which are my professional tasks.
And maybe even are they computer-based tasks?
Are they filming tasks?
Are they house or life admin tasks?
That kind of thing.
So that they're clearly in different areas.
And then finally you need to review system.
So you can check where you stand
with all of these different things
on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Now, as I've said before,
we actually do part of this process
just by making a to-do list.
We collect all of the random things
that we need to get done,
then you can categorize it
possibly with a lovely colored pen
and then you can mark it before review on your calendar.
But where things can get messy
and the whole system can start falling apart
is when you're not right next to your calendar
or you are right next to your notebook
where you have your to-do list all of the time,
or you're because you're sequentially
going through your notebook,
you're having to go backwards and forwards
through all the other random things that you've pulled,
so you never know exactly where you're standing.
You can't step back and have that whole overview.
I was certainly conscious
that when I just had my to-do list
I had to have my notebook by me all of the time.
And quite often when I was scrolling in it,
things were getting murkier and uglier,
and I didn't really know where I was going as a result.
Now, a solution that I found is Notion
which is a free piece of software, and specifically a way
of using this free piece of software
shown by a YouTube channel called Better Creating
run by Simon Pittman.
Now perhaps most importantly, Notion is free software
that runs on all of my different systems.
So it runs on my Mac book but also on my iPad
and also on my phone
which is the one thing that I do take everywhere with me.
With Simon's template in Notion,
I had a place where I could collect all my thoughts,
process them, but also it was a system
that would actively remind me to review things
rather than me having to check back in
when I could remember to see what I had left to do,
which I thought was very important.
It reminds me as opposed to me having to actively check.
I have an inbox where I put all of my tasks
and I can relate them to bigger projects
for future reference
or I can make them one off events as well.
And I can set up reminders that prompt me on a regular basis
whether that's daily, weekly, yearly, whatever
and also via priority.
Now, one of the really nice aspects of Notion's software
is that it's fully customizable.
So you can really make it yours, personalize it.
So you can add little icons or backgrounds
and you can even upload images to it if you want.
I went to attempt to repeat all of the great content
that Simon has in his videos
and how to use and how to set up these templates.
But I've got a link below
and I really urge you to check it out.
And even if you're adamant
that you don't want to use a online app on your phone
or your iPad or anything else like that,
then I'd still really recommend
checking out David Allen's book
because the core principles are really clear.
Stop beating yourself up about not being able
to do 10 things simultaneously.
Instead, focus on creating a system for yourself
where you can collect all your tasks, process them,
organize them, and then review them on a consistent basis.
And if you can make it fun and creative,
then all the better.
Just whatever gives you room to breathe.
Thank you for taking the time to watch this video.
If you enjoyed it and found it useful in any way
then please do like, comment, and subscribe
and do also subscribe to Simon's channel for sure.
And I look forward to seeing you next time.