Things didn’t go as I expected over the past week. My new role involves an increased amount of time out of the office, but I thought with my new organisation system that I could easily cope being away for a few days. And I did up to a point, but having had time to think about it over the long weekend I know that I could perform much better and be much more effective.
Last week I was only in the office for one and a half days; I had two trips to London (including one overnight) and one to Birmingham. So all this travel means I need to be make effective use of my time in the office to meet people and use specific software I can’t use on other computers, but I also need to be more aware of those tasks that I can complete while I’m out of the office. Of course, Getting things done has the solution with the use of contexts. I tried using these in my first attempt at implementing GTD, but I didn’t find it very useful because I was in the office most of the time. However I think I will benefit considerably from considering this concept again.
Even thought it was forecast to be a wet bank holiday weekend we went to the coast, which meant three days with little opportunity to complete tasks . My plan was to spend the time reading and starting some new posts, but instead I spent a lot of time just thinking, and I kept coming back to the same thought. My organisation system has satisfied my aim because it has resulted in me achieving much more with my time, but the problem is I don’t think I’m focussing on getting the right stuff done yet. The only way I can think of to resolve this is to develop a set of goals (yes, I know I should have these already).
So these are two topics I will be considering in the future, and if you have any tips to get me started they would be very useful.
My name is Kate Davis and I'm working towards a happier and successful life and this blog follows my journey. I work almost full time as an environmental consultant and project manager and I'm the mother to a beautiful two year daughter.
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Hello again, check out this Goal Setting Tutorial from Goal Setting College. I reviewed it here, it’s great.
BTW, tell Ellesse that I sent you!
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ve downloaded the information and it certainly looks helpful. I’ve got a book on order as well which should arrive over the weekend, perhaps with the two of them I should be able to develop some goals.
Hey Steph, thanks for recommending my tutorial. Really appreciate it!
And Kate, like what I’ve mentioned in Steph’s review, the goals are meant to help you draft the plan (i.e. get you started), action is what drive and persistence is what sustains it! I’m sure you’ll do both.. and good at it too! Btw, nice blog you have here…
Cheers, Ellesse
Maintaining a balanced life could be pretty difficult. Stop and think for a while.. Organize your priorities and get those done right away…
Keeping an organisation system helps you keep track of your the things that you have to do. It will also keep you on the right path to achieving your goals.
Think of your priorities first and get those things done right away. Don’t plan on doing it later, think of getting it done right now.
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[...] two sections are the ones I used the least because I haven’t introduced contexts into my system and because I didn’t undertake a weekly review that week (it is somewhere on my to do list). I [...]