industriousone

"…the terror of knowing that I can't keep up with all of it. It's like finding a river of flowing gold when you haven't even got a cup to save a cupfull…you've but a thimble, and that thimble is your pathetic brain and labour and humanness." —Jack Kerouac

When I began capturing notes and seeing them actually get completed, the floodgates opened and out came more good stuff than I knew what to do with. Attempting to improve my workflow by getting more granular has only added fuel to that fire. After much pain, suffering, and suboptimal productivity I think I've got things whipped back into shape. For the sake of my future self, here's a moment to capture these hard-earned lessons, just in case I find myself wandering off into the wilderness again (not like that would ever happen, of course).

The Someday List

If you've got more projects than you can handle, take the ones you aren't actively working and put them somewhere else. Duh. I call it a backlog so the agile folks at work will know what I'm talking about, but in GTD parlance it's a Someday/Maybe list. Whatever you call it, it's the place you put the things that you're not ready or able to do right now.

A sampling of the Someday list

So the first step to getting my lists under control was to shove everything I could on to the backlog. And I didn't kid around: if I wasn't actively working on it today I pushed it off. Which brings up my rule number one:

Use it aggressively. I mean like every day. If you aren't going to work on a project today, and you aren't going to work on it tomorrow, seriously consider pushing it off to the someday list. If you aren't going to work on it this week definitely push it off. Get everything out of your sight you possibly can; focus on your most important work. If you find yourself with nothing to do—lucky you!—then you can go grab the next thing off the backlog.

Okay, so I pushed everything off, cutting several dozen active projects down to six, and now I've got a big long list of someday. Here's the rub: the Someday/Maybe list only works if someday eventually arrives. Otherwise it's the "Never/No way/No how" list and the kiss of death. And it killed me: I had a backlog, and I used it. More and more new ideas came in and it grew and grew, with no end in sight, until I started losing stuff, losing the big picture. I became afraid to push off ideas, fearing they would never be seen or heard from again. So I kept them active, so I was looking at all of them every day, feeling overwhelmed and unorganized. I couldn't push them off without killing them, and I couldn't keep them around without killing me.

Like I said, I did manage to get it sorted, and here are my rules for making sure someday does arrive. Note that if you use the list aggressively, like I mentioned above, most of these will fall out all on their own. I mention them here for my own edification.

Separate "soon" from "someday". I actually keep two levels of lists. Each area of responsibility (home, work, Industrious, etc.) has its own small backlog for near-term (next couple of weeks) stuff. At this level projects are pretty well thought out and have clear next actions.

I also keep a proper, and much bigger Someday list for longer term stuff. These are usually big ideas with few details, often just a title and a few notes or URLs, with no next actions.

Having the delineation between soon and someday makes it easier to drop something off the active list for a couple of days. You don't have to worry about it getting lost or forgotten, since the soon list is short and easy to scan. The soon list is also a handy place to do near term (next week or two) planning, while the full list is useful for long term, big picture thinking. And speaking of that...

Plan and prioritize. There are many projects on my list that I really want to do but won't get to any time soon. Maybe never, and that stresses me out. I know I need to focus my efforts if I want to accomplish anything, but I don't like giving up on good ideas. It is that uncertainty that caused me to avoid putting stuff into the someday list to begin with. The solution is obvious and easy, as most things are in hindsight: make a plan.

Once I had everything in the backlog, in one list, I was able to start shuffling things around and prioritizing. I came up with a big picture (and I mean BIG, like decades) plan, and instantly all that stress went away. I don't have specific dates, and I may not be any likelier to get to those big projects, but I can rest easy knowing that once I've done this and this, then I'll be able to do that. As in "once I've cured cancer and fed the hungry, then I'll achieve world peace."

As I refine my goals I can go back, tweak the backlog, and get right back on top of things. It is motivating to know you've got a good plan, an excitement to get on to the next thing. That motivation helps get things done.

Put it all together. Put all of your projects, from all of your areas of responsibility, on one list. Because let's be honest, there are no hard boundaries between this stuff. If you decide to insulate the basement, there is going to be less time to write your book. Once you've got everything on one list it becomes easier to see the priorities and trade-offs.

The one possible exception is day job, in-the-office work; that can be easier to track separately, especially if you have a lot of after-hours projects like me.

Keep it manageable. Where possible, roll up similar items into larger projects; you can always split them again later. Remember the goal here is to get your project to the top of the list where you can act on it. Of course, be careful not to overdo it as you still want to be able to prioritize against the rest of your backlog.

A good rule of thumb: the farther down your list an item falls, the bigger it should be. As it moves up the list, it should break up into more refined thoughts. If it starts dropping back down the list, roll those details back up.

And finally...

Do it! You only get stuff out of the backlog by finishing what is on your plate today. One of the nice, but not necessarily productive, things about keeping lots of active projects around is that you've got choices. If there is something on your list you really don't want to do, you can choose something else. When you aggressively cull your list, you will inevitably find yourself face-to-face with one of these unpleasant tasks and no easy way out. This is a good thing. Suck it up. Get it done. Feel good about it, and move on.

I've used this quote from Steven Pressfield before, but it is worth repeating (maybe it will get into my thick skull):

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write.

For what it's worth, I use Things from Cultured Code to manage my lists, after trying index cards and OmniFocus, and I really like it. If you're in the market, here are some other options.

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