Organization for [true] Success

There are often a thousand tiny ‘I need to do x’, ‘I want to y’ thoughts in our heads on any given day, each adding a tiny bit of stress for being undone, and a tiny draw on our energy and wellbeing whilst we struggle to remember and file and recall these thousand tiny thoughts on demand, often without any reference as to what is truly important for us to accomplish right now. We as humans are not very good about storing and recalling information when needed, so extraneous things keep interrupting our thoughts ‘Oh! Don’t forget to get toilet paper!’ and when we’re shopping we, of course, forget the toilet paper. Computers are terribly efficient at this sort of storage and recall, and could save us a lot of stress, brain-drain, and time if used properly. Beyond the store-file-recall comparison, having a written record of what you intend and what you have done adds immeasurable value.

Instead of being swept through the days pushed by all the little thoughts and tasks, we can take control and push those thoughts and tasks – beyond and even more important than that, we can push those thoughts and tasks which are most important for us to achieve our goals and have a written record showing each little task is moving us forward toward those goals. This sounds very high-minded, but there is much down-to-earth about having a plan and intentionally working through it step by step. There is also much to be said for a system that can show the progress you’re making toward your goals with each little step. A system must not only be useful, it must be used.

So I’ll just jump into how I do this – examples are worth much and my system can be altered to fit someone else’s needs. As with anything, there is no one right way. It’s the core concepts that are important. I picked Remember the Milk and Springpad or Evernote for tools because they do what needs done with a minimum of fuss and training. I include little by way of usage because there is fairly little to do. Put stuff in properly and the systems do the rest, as it should be. The features on these services are great and part of why I chose them, but features are not why I’m writing this, so we will instead focus on the basics of efficient and worthwhile input and output.

Step One
Create a list of projects or goals – e.g., ‘buy a house’, ‘plan trip to Seattle’ and make sure each goal is SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. ‘Buy a house’ becomes ‘Buy a 3br 2ba condo in upper Manhattan before Jan 1st’ – assuming that’s a realistic goal that actually is relevant to what you want in life. I personally find the time/due date is useless or even harmful – I have an issue with organization, not laziness.

Each of these goals will have a list in Remember the Milk and a notebook in Evernote or Springpad – tasks go into RTM and research/bookmarks/information/etc goes into Evernote or Springpad (Springpad does a great job of organizing and supplying additional features for what you put into it, Evernote is faster and more flexible). I use short project names and put the goals themselves onto the Evernote or Springpad project’s/notepad’s [white]board. You will need the Springpad addon or bookmarklet or the Evernote addon for bookmarking or clipping web content, and any RTM addons or Evernote addons you’ll use (gmail, twitter, smartphone, etc). Combine twitterbar (tweet from your browser’s location bar) with RTM’s twitter service and all one has to do to add an item is type “d rtm remember the milk #Personal” and viola – a new task on a “Personal” list or tagged with “Personal”. With the gmail addon you can get you todo list right next to your inbox, not to mention the ability to reference google contacts or calendar events with RTM. But enough about features.

Step Two
Dump stuff out of your brain. Sort through bookmarks and documents and whatnot that you’ve accumulated for your projects and put it all into the appropriate notebook. Take an hour or three and get it all out…and into Springpad or Evernote and RTM – everything that’s been rattling around in your head taking up space and CPU cycles. This should be the mental equivalent of the emotional release one can get from “a good cry”.

The key part to this is making each task in RTM an action, GTD style. Much as making goals concrete is vital, making tasks concrete is also vital. Break vague todo items up into discrete actions – “buy a house” becomes “research neighbourhoods on neighborhoodscout.com”, “call bank about a home loan”, “call Jane Realtor about 3br 2ba homes in Y neighbourhood”, etc. Only add due dates for things which require them – once everything is available at a glance I find having fixed due dates a depressing bother. Life does not structure itself around my calendar, I choose instead to structure my life around my life and my goals.

Rinse and Repeat Steps
As it Happens
Whenever something necessary pops into your head or onto your screen put it into RTM or Springpad/Evernote. No excuses, no procrastination, just do it now and sort it later. It becomes easier as time goes on and there is less rattling loose. I often text myself todo items when I am away from my computer – look under account settings in RTM to get the address. I had to set up a tarpipe to alter the messages my cell sends out to work with RTM as my cell provider used to hijack the subject line.

Daily
We now need a way to reference tasks quickly whilst we’re in productive mode – at least once a day I go through each project list in RTM and tag “next actions” with “na”. Each “na” or “next action” task must be something you could do now if you had the time. I have created a smart list on RTM to display these things, and I work from that (search for tag:na and save the resulting list for future use). Update: I’ve also started a “focus” list for things that I’d like to accomplish in the next few days and should have mentioned my “lowfruit” list for things tagged “focus” (or or “na” if you prefer) which would take less than 21 minutes to accomplish. Pick the low hanging fruit first.

I also add time estimates and contexts/locations to RTM items which don’t have them each day, but find this isn’t vital for me. Important and worth doing most times, but not vital – most of my activity is at my computer and it’s debatable that the effort of adding locations is less than ignoring tasks which are out of context. For me. I doubt this is the case for most, and I always tag errands to ensure I don’t forget something as I’m running out the door. I have smart lists to show tags without locations and time estimates so I can do this quickly (isLocated:false aaaaaaaaand not(timeEstimate:"> 0 min") AND NOT list:Someday AND NOT tag:someday, respectively). You may note that I have a Someday list and tag – this is again inspired by GTD. Not everything needs done now, but it all needs to get out of my head so I can focus on what is important.

In everything, as always: make use of hotkeys – vital if you don’t want to waste a lot of time clicking on things. Smartlists, web services, and hotkeys are the main reasons I don’t use Springpad for my tasks. Springpad is, quite simply, too slow and cumbersome. Update: Springpad added hotkeys! Not to the degree RTM has them, but useful indeed.

Weekly
Once each week I review my completed tasks and the goals I’m trying to reach, then brainstorm new tasks to achieve those goals. This includes a look at my Someday list, in case anything on there can be moved forward. Pretty simple, but vital – it gives a sense of accomplishment and progress that is priceless and keeps me going, in large part because I can see that I am going, and going where I want to go.

Update Dec 13, 2010: I switched back to Evernote from Springpad due to Springpad’s editor, lack of API, and general slowness. Springpad is awesome, but Evernote works better for me and with the API I can utilize it in my own creations, export data if I want to leave, etc. As I’ve previously written, I hate using things that don’t have an API or at least implement Google Gears sqlite storage.

Update Dec 26, 2010: …and I’m back to Springpad. I’ve been vaguely researching Springpad for weeks and like what I’m seeing (thanks for the hotkeys and del.icio.us import!). In a show of good faith for a good product I’m going to assume the promised API will materialize, the hotkeys will improve, and there will be a decent advanced search and saved searches implemented. For some reasons I’ve yet to cement I’ve never been able to get myself to use Evernote reliably.

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Filed under: Articles, how-to, goals, organization, productivity, RTM, springpad