Develop the GTD credential
GTD! Getting Things Done. It’s one of the most important skills you should develop. It takes you from being busy to cutting through the clutter, and executing in the quickest and smartest way possible. Here are some steps to GTD.
Do the day job: Meaning, do the important things that are expected of you in your job. It is very easy to get side-tracked, especially if you find some of your other responsibilities in your organisation more interesting than the core part of your day job. One way to stay focussed is to pretend your job is on the line every day and do your best.
Things can get a bit jaded from time to time. Getting through the day might test your commitment. But if the task is yours, ignoring it won’t make it go away. Be specific about what you want to deliver each day or each week.
Make intelligent trade-offs: If you have a full time job in a serious organisation, chances are you’ll have more to do than the hours you have every day. Learn to assess and decide what’s urgent or what’s important but can wait. Prioritising is not choosing what you ‘feel’ like doing.
Find a positive anchor: Be driven by something because some days can drag, or you may wake up not particularly ready to ‘blaze trails’. Find a way to charge yourself; you could draw on a strong sense of commitment, of accountability, of diligence, of excellence, whatever gets you to sit up and do a quality job. It’s not enough to just do something. You have to know why it’s important to do it well.
Now take action: What three things can you do to improve your ability to GTD?
