Getting control of my life :)

Hello,hello,hello my dear friends.It’s again me Aibeshka :) After the 1 part’s chapter i started to read the second which called “Getting control of my life”.Allen explains the five stages of mastering workflow: to collect, process, organize, review and do.

1.In the Collection stage, the idea is to gather all the items that remain to be completed. Collection tools include the physical in-basket, paper-based and electronic note-taking devices, voice-recording devices and email. There are three “collection success factors”: 1. Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head. 2. You must have as few collection buckets as you can get by with. 3. You must empty them regularly.

2.In the Process stage, the bucket is emptied. Allen describes this as perhaps the most critical improvement for almost all the people he’s worked with. He outlines this process in great detail, complete with a flowchart. It asks:

• What is it? Is it actionable?
• If not, trash it, put it in a tickler file or put it in a reference file.
• If so, what’s the next action? The next action is defined as the next physical, visible activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move the current reality toward completion.
• Will next action take less than 2 minutes?
• If yes, do it.
• If no, delegate it or defer it.
• If it will take longer than 2 minutes, consider it a project (defined as requiring more than one action step) and put it in your project plans which will be reviewed for actions.

3.In the Organize stage describes eight categories of reminders and materials: trash, incubation tools, reference storage, list of projects, storage or files for project plans and materials, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions, and a list of reminders of things you’re waiting for.Reminders of actions you need to take fall into two categories: those about things that have to happen on a specific day or time, and those about things that just need to get done as soon as possible. Your calendar handles the first type of reminder. Three things go on your calendar:
• time-specific actions; • day-specific actions; and • day-specific information.
The calendar is also the place to keep track of things you want to know about on specific days — not necessarily actions you’ll have to take but rather information that may be useful on a certain date…”

A review of all one’s lists, preferably weekly, is critical for success.

I advice to my groupmates to watch this video from the Brian Tracy’s Success Chanel. Pleasant viewing ;)