Simplify by reducing task clutter
Tis the season to review and reflect. January is a great time to audit your strengths and weaknesses. My real work has been falling prey to all the other distractions in my life. I have created elaborate limits to my procrastination sirens. However, they simply aren’t working, and that is because I am not happy to do the real work that I have chosen. Procrastination is easier when you don’t want to do what you have in front of you.
Focussed clutter
I fully implemented ubiquitous capture in 2008. I have been religious about collecting every thought and action. However, now I ignore my PhD tasks because they are overwhelming. I have collected every single thought into my task manager, and used that as my archive, and informal project planning solution.
The problem:
When I got reviewed my next action lists, I had over 100 available tasks. Unlike corporate projects, all of these tasks require me to complete them. None could be delegated. No wonder I didn’t want to peek into that folder. I had been using my next action list as informal project planning. Some of the items were not phrased as actions, and some were even “Perhaps, I’ll decide when I get there.”
The solution:
I created a dedicated informal planning structure. I created a mindmap for each of my main areas of responsibility. I spent the morning purging all the “maybes,” “somedays” and “I just need to remembers” into my mindmaps.
With fewer tasks in my project list, I then converted all my lists to sequential, so I will see one task at a time only. Finally, I returned to my 3 tasks habit - flagging three tasks, and completing those before moving on to choose three more.
When I am processing my inbox, I send some things directly to the mindmaps if necessary. I review these archives at each weekly review. A hidden advantage to this is I can keep my project support material, with much of my long-term thinking in my DropBox, so it is secure.
The result:
I have been getting stuff done. Most momentously, I managed to finish an excel data manipulation task that was big and I hated doing. However, it was a vital next step, so procrastination was a form of self-sabotage.
How do you manage ubiquitous capture and task clutter? How do you prevent accumulation of archive “stuff”?
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