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Originally Posted by Sky  I enjoyed Allen's book, but I also enjoyed Covey's top-down approach to organization. I tend to be a big picture kind of guy, so just focusing on individual to-do's drives me crazy -- the purpose gets lost in the shuffle.
Has anyone developed a good system of writing down certain things while still focusing on the big picture? I'd like to optimize using both a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach. |
I find Covey & Allen's practices to be a good mix. Allen is right when he says it's pretty useless to focus on the big picture if you can't get the nitty gritty done, and that good practices on the ground level can help you get clearer on the higher altitudes.
Covey is right when he says you don't want to be climbing the ladder pretty efficiently, only to find it was leaning on the wrong wall when you get to the top. The purpose & principle-centred live gives you drive, but he's not that great into operational specifics.
I find it more effective for me to come from the top-down, to have my values and mission clarified which then drives my actions. The day-to-day stuff still needs to get done, but that clarity helps me to answer the question 'is this what I really want to devote my time to?'.
Also, I love using Covey's idea of 7 roles to plan out my goals for the week. At the end, or start of the week, you map out what roles you have in play for the coming week (father, son, manager, musician, etc.) and answer '
what one thing can I do in this role that would make the biggest impact in my life?' and go do that. It's been a very powerful, and fast technique for me.
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Originally Posted by norbert "So what?" you might ask, "now you have the same tasks at some other place but you haven't moved forward". But that's not true. Now I have them in my trusted system so my head and inboxes are empty and I can focus on whatever I do with no distractions. |
Exactly! For example, one of my favorite GTD lists is my @Read category. At first, it was @Bookstore, a list of books I wanted to check out while at the bookstore.
But even with this list, I got stressed. I wondered why when I realized while they were books I wanted to read, I couldn't possibly buy all of them (big list!). When I changed it to @Read, so it could be at the store or at the library, my stress factor dropped because
that area of my life suddenly became more clarified.
That's the power of processing. A cool concept!
