In the previous post I provided a detailed look at some Organization strategies for SEs. Today I am going to provide my GTD review process and schedule.

I’m starting this post with the assumption you’ve read up and understand just how important this part of the process is. Without a constant check in with yourself and your system it simply becomes out of date within a couple weeks at which point it completely breaks down.

My review process has gradually shifted to a more and more precise routine. I’ve had to get specific to ensure that I don’t have any leaks in the process. Additionally, while I still love the weekly review, I have moved some of those tasks to a daily review so that I catch urgent items more quickly.

As with most of my routine it takes a lot longer to explain than to do. I hesitate to even call my morning and evening session reviews as really they are really just checkpoints and take me less than 15 minutes each.

Morning Review

I have a morning check in where I do a Process of all the items that came in since yesterday. Next I review each Context on my Action view as well as a simple list of tactical activities that I’d “like” to do on a daily basis, time permitting. On this tactical list are things like calling a friend, writing a journal entry, writing a blog post, etc. Looking at both lists I simply jot down on a scratch piece of paper the most important tasks that I’d like to make sure get done that day. Sometimes there’s 10, sometimes just 1 or two.

Evening Review

This review is a very lightweight weekly review sans a project review.

1. My evening check in also begins with a Process.
2. I then update my Actions and Agendas list.
3. I then review all the tasks I completed that day (via the Outlook view) and use that as a trigger to add any tasks that I feel can’t wait until next week.
4. I check my calendar for the day and tomorrow to see what’s coming up just as a mental spot check to make sure my day is in order and nothing fell
   through the cracks.
5. I then check my sent mail for the day (again using the Outlook view) and note any action items or waiting for items that I didn’t capture.
6. Finally, I review my Waiting For list to see if anything there triggers an immediate action. So many times there will be a project I need to complete by a due date and I haven’t received an input from a colleauge that I
   need to remind them of. This is when I send those out; many times those items are in my inbox by the time I get in the next day. For instance, if I sent a note to a product manager and I needed a response for my customer, assuming I didn’t receive anything by end of day I might decide to do something additional based on priority. My goal in structuring this was to end the day with a clean break and to address concerns about any issues before leaving the office.

I’ll be the first to admit how pedantic this seems, but trust me and give it a try it and simply appreciate the absense of stress on the drive home.

Weekly Review

When I’ve been dilligent during the week with my morning and evening check-ins, my weekly review usually takes no more than an hour, and that time is mainly spent on reviewing higher level goals and prioritizing projects. My weekly review is done on Monday afternoon. It is blocked (red) on my calendar. I also disconnect from email and turn off my phone. With 3 young kids this is far easier than aiming for a Sunday afternoon.

1. I always start off with a review of completed tasks for the previous week just so my prior progress is fresh in my mind. All of these steps are done via a simple Outlook view I explained under the Organize section.
2. I then scan my quarterly goals to make sure I have at least 1 project addressing each one.
3. I then go through my active project list, assign next actions, and prioritize (I use a simple 1-4 reference).
4. I then review my Someday/Maybe list to see if anything should be moved up to active.
5. Finally, I review a couple of trigger lists (I recommend you create one for your specific job). A couple examples are !here! and !here!

I finish by printing off a copy for myself and emailing 1 to my wife.

Now, when you’re on the road it gets tough to be regimented. Airline travel across time zones especially interupts this schedule for me. I may go a couple days without hitting my morning or evening reviews. I plan on this happening which is why I build in some redundancy in my weekly review to always catch me up. I hit about 60% on my evening review but always 100% on my weekly, even if I have to reschedule it. This gives me a pretty good balance between speed and integrity.

Believe it or not, on Monday morning I now look forward to my weekly review. After completing that process, it is the clearest and most stress free state of mind I’m in all week.

In the previous post I provided a detailed look at some Process strategies for SEs. Today I am going to provide my GTD Organization strategy.

I found that this was probably the most beneficial part of the program for me. So many times I would take a note to do something, or I would send an email and have no way of reminding myself to follow back up. I basically relied on the idea that if something became an issue, I would be reminded of it by someone/something else. This is a very reactive approach and resulted in my spending a lot of time each day putting out fires.

The act of mentally stepping through my workflow for accomplishing a task allowed me to see it on paper and analyze it for “leaks”. While I am still honing my ability to better capture ideas on the front end, once an idea or action makes it into my system, I can now confidently say it is certain to be acted upon and reviewed regularly until completion.

The organization piece also happens to be very involved from a tool
perspective. I spent a lot of time pushing my tools to the limit–minimizing the number of tools I needed–so hopefully you can benefit from this experience. Remember that this evolved into the system that works best for me. I recommend keeping it as simple as you can get away with–see Zen To Done as an example of a minimalist version.

Email

Email was perhaps the easiest part of the exercise. I now only have 4 top-level Outlook folders. I have one folder for Customers/Projects and a subfolder for each customer. I have another folder for Reading. Anything that comes in that that doesn’t have an “ask” but will take me longer than 2 minutes to review goes here. If it’s something I need to read by a certain deadline I will still put it there but I also create a task for it. I have a separate Reference folder for anything that is not tied to a project or customer but may need to see again. I rely on search to find it from there. Finally I have a Waiting folder where 1-off emails go that have a Task associated with them and need to be replied to (e.g. your boss wants a list of your top ten opps).

One thing I do in my end of day review (more under Review) is search through Sent mail for tasks or Waiting For items I may have missed. I set up a simple view that shows me all sent mail sent today, and 1 for Last 7 Days. In the Sent folder, go to View->Current View->Define Views and select New. Enter the name (e.g. Sent Last 7) and click OK. Click on Filter and under the Messages tab under Time select Sent and then “in the last 7 days”. You can futher tune the View but this gives you the basics.

I do have 3 rules in Outlook that help with this process. I have one rule that sends a message that I BCC myself on directly to my Waiting folder. I have one that moves reocurring or low priority newsletters to my Reading folder. Finally, I have a rule that looks for known email offenders (I’m looking at you IT), that moves those messages straight to the trash.

While not technically part of GTD, one thing that has helped lower my stress emensely was turning off the visual and audible incoming email notification. When I really want to not be distributed I go ahead and put Outlook in Disconnected mode to remove temptation.

Tasks

We use Outlook at the office and I spend a large part of my day now in front of my computer. Wanting to keep tools to a minimum I experimented with both GMail and Outlook tasks and Outlook is far better at managing them within this construct because of the ability to customize and integrate into the desktop, with no browser or internet connection necessary. I still find offline GMail buggy.

Tweaking Outlook to this degree is a surpringly under-documented undertaking. I still had the goal of not requiring any “coding” updates to try and keep it simple. The following customizations are a result of many long hours of research and testing.

Contexts and Categories

By now you know what a context is. I manage contexts in Outlook via Categories. You can categorize any object in Outlook (mail, task, calendar, etc). I only leverage categories for tasks.

The categories I recommend for SEs are as follows:

• @Anywhere
• @Phone
• @Computer
• @Errands
• @Home
• @Office (if you have an office lab or other tasks that must be done there)
• .Waiting
• .Deferred
• .Projects

I also break the standard @Agenda into several categories. I have one for my boss, each of my team members, and one for specific colleagues I interface with frequently. You should also add one for each customer, or down to the individual if you’re in frequent contact with several members of a client organization.

The goal here is to get by with as few as you can and not get distracted. If you spend a ton of time on the plane maybe you add an @offline category that you can tackle from a laptop anywhere for example. But only do this after you find that you spend too much time sifting through tasks that you can’t do when you want. I actually did create a category for @offline, but I only use it when I specifically have some major plane time coming up. Before I depart I’ll move several tasks to it as my “schedule” for the trip.

Defining Views

You’re going to follow the same step for creating the custom
email views, but for tasks. The views I have created are:

• [Action]
• [Agendas]
• [Deferred]
• [Process]
• [Projects]
• [Waiting]
• Completed Last 7
• Completed Today

[Action] Shows me everything I need to do, seperated by context. From your Outlook Tasks folder, create a new view (just like with email, above). Name it [Action]. The Fields I use are Subject, Modified, Due Date, and Notes. The subject is simply the name of the task. The Modified field allows me to sort by oldest to newest. Due Date shows me upcoming due dates, and Notes shows me if there is more data in the Task entry that I need to open up and review. Creating Filters to limit the view to only the needed tasks is the trickey part. You’ll want to go to the SQL tab and enter the following text:

("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"
= 0 AND ("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '@%' ) AND NOT
("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '.%' ) AND NOT
("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '@@%' ) AND NOT
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/81040040"
!= 'tomorrow') )

Since you may want to create your own, let me step you through what this
says (it is not well documented elsewhere).

http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"
= 0 You want Tasks that have a 0 in the “Completed” field

("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '@%' ) You want Tasks that have a @ in the Category (which is why consistent naming of categories is important). This is the same principle for % and @@ but you are excluding them, meaning you don’t want agendas or projects.

("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/81040040"
!= 'tomorrow') This hides tasks for which the start date has not yet begun. I assign future start dates for items that I just don’t want to see for a couple days. I could create a calendar entry to add something to my Task list but this is a much faster approach.

Save the view and repeat the process for the others.

[Agendas] Shows me all my agenda items separated by person. The SQL is:
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"
= 0 AND "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '%@@%')

[Deferred] Shows me my someday/maybe items. I just use the subject and Notes fields. SQL is:

(“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords” =

'.Deferred' AND
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"
= 0)

[Process] Shows me everything that doesn’t have a category and tells me I need to do something furthur with it. The SQL is:

("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"
= 0) AND (NOT( ("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '@%' )
OR ("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '.%' ) OR
("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" LIKE '@@%' ) ))

[Projects] Shows me anything that requires more than the current action to complete. I use the subject and notes fields only here. I make use of Due Dates at the Next Action level and not at the project level. The SQL is:

("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" = '.Projects' AND
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"
= 0)

[Waiting] Shows me everything that I am waiting for from someone else. SQL is:

("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Keywords" = '.Waiting' AND
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/811c000b"
= 0)

Completed Last 7 Shows me all Tasks completed in the last 7 days which is a checklist item in my weekly review. The SQL is:

%last7days("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/810f0040")%

Completed Today Used in my end of day review. SQL is:
%today("http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062003-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/810f0040")%

As you tweak your own system you’ll want to potentially add other filters. A shortcut is to play around with the Advanced tab to set your own parameters. You may not always get the option you want, but you can use a combination of advanced setting to view the SQL elements you’ll want to edit. Populating an option on the Advanced tab will show you the needed SQL if you click over. Pretty cool and a life saver for me.

Calendar

My calendar has no special organization, just some best practices
in use. The only items that hit my calendar are items that need to be started or accomplished on that day and/or time. If you hang up with a client and you want to follow up with them in one week, that should go on your calendar. Use of the All Day section in Outlook as an easy way to list tasks to be done that day without it taking up specific time on your calendar. You can also use 0 minute appointments but that gets confusing when glancing at your calendar.

I also use my calendar as my digital tickler file. In the rare event I have a hard copy tickler (e.g. event tickets) I’ll just drop them into my reference system and make a note of where they are in my daily calendar entry.

One other piece of data on my calendar are personal agenda reminders. If I’m meeting with someone I usually don’t meet with and have some discussion points I want to cover but don’t want them in the official agenda, I make a new calendar entry at the same time as the meeting and name it zAgenda. The “z” ensures it appears to the right of the main invite and provides my visual queue.

Notes

I make use of Outlook notes to store lists that aren’t project based
such as people I want to contact regularly and notes about restaraunts I’ve eaten at (great for client meeting reference).

Reference System

I’m big on electronic and rarely store paper. But there are times when this is unavoidable. I have a computer-based reference system that is synchronized on my 3 computers using Dropbox. It is a single directory that has a flat list of my projects/storage containers. When the project is completed it is moved to an archive which is backed up so the list doesn’t get too long. If I get paper that needs to be stored, I’ll mirror that directory in my file cabinet and just keep them sorted A-Z. Sometimes I will reference the existence of a paper item (think computer shortcut) inside the digital folder just for a reminder. The A-Z system descibed here is basically all that you need. Finding the A-Z file headers though was not easy and here is what I finally settled on.

In the previous post I provided a detailed look at some Collection strategies for SEs. Today I am going to provide my GTD Process strategy.

GTD breaks Process into a discrete task for a reason. Part of the trap we fall into as SEs is the interupt-driven culture of our rep, customer calls, and various emails driving our immediate action. To an extent this is just reality (not necessarily good or bad), but compartmentalizing will allow you to orderly process (and later prioritize) all these inputs. As SEs most of your input is going to come via email, phone, and from customers during appointments. Accomplishing tasks based on your objective assement of importance instead of which screams the loudest is the foundational objective of this section.

One of the gems of this section is the productivity boost you get when you compartmentalize your tasks. A tangible example of this would be to stop checking email (i.e. Processing) in the middle of an unrelated task such as preparing a customer presentation. The essence of this step involves crafting a daily schedule and workflow that’s adpated to your situation. As soon as I switched from the mentality of checking emails immediatly to a preset schedule I found stress lowered and productivity on my most important tasks dramatically improved.

A Process routine is very generic. It simply consists of gathering up all of your inputs from your Collection strategy, and making sense of them.

For me it follows this pattern:

Email

I open the inbox and go through each email individually. I read it and do one of three things:

• I drag it to my Task folder where it auto-generates a task where I decide on my next action(s) to take. The original email then goes in a “Waiting” folder where I store emails I need to reply/forward.
• I delete it (the one I use by far the most)
• I file it in a generic “Reference” or project-specific email folder (more on this later under Organize)

There’s nothing else to it. After I look at the email once, I never look at it again. After I am done I have 0 emails in my inbox.

Notes

With my various notetaking sources (see the Collect section), I gather all of my notes and go through each line and decide what to do. If it’s actionable it generates Next Actions, which most of them do. The remainder are simply reference. For the majority of those I will retype them in a simple notepad file that resides in each of my project folders on my computer. My preference is electronic which enables searching and access from anywhere. Not only does this help internalize the notes via the act of rewriting, but it gives you a chance to add them in a more intelligent way rather than just your shorthand attempt at capturing the thought. I keep my physical notepads for several months but disgard the one off notes I’ve captured.

Voicemail

I process voice messages in the same way as email except it doesn’t get filed. It gets listened to once, recorded in the system, them immediately deleted.

Schedule

Make a committment to yourself to schedule time to Process. Too often we Collect, Process, and Do at the same time. My best advice is to resolve yourself to set aside a separate time to Process. I do a full Process routine 3 times a day: morning, noon, and before I “disconnect for the day” typically in the early evening. I do scan a few extra times during the day, usually between big tasks. That simply means scanning incoming email/voicemails to see if there was something high priority to address. I’ve added Google Voice as my main phone number which gives you voicemail transcription services for free. That way you can quickly scan vmail as easily as email.