Task Management and Prioritization - A Soliloquy on Getting Things Done

I recently re-read Getting Things Done as part of my obligations for a book club that includes my business partners at South Loop Strength & Conditioning, and I realized I had gotten sloppy with a few key areas and I had simply failed to implement others.

Also, my life as a business owner has put me in a situation where I will always have a never-ending to-do list - which is a totally different psychological space than a person working a part-time job and spending a lot of time working on music (which was my life situation when I first read the book).

I put together a nice little cast laying out some of my biggest takeaways from my re-read of the book - which was probably one of the best and most well-timed re-reads of my life.

Check out the full post and show notes here.

Resources and Individuals Mentioned

• David Allen


• "Getting Things Done" by David Allen


• "The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker


• Toodledo


• South Loop Strength & Conditioning


• Asana


• Evernote


• OmniFocus


• Zapier


• Pareto Principle


• Legion Strength & Conditioning


• Like Rats


• Decision Fatigue


• "Paradox of Choice" TED Talk by Barry Schwartz

Show Notes

• [0:50] The purpose of to-do lists: Don't forget stuff and prioritize the stuff that you have written down. Most people think they'll remember (they won't) or they have endless, unprioritized lists that are numbing to look at.


• [4:11] Effectiveness, prioritization, and efficiency - These are all different but are all key to long-term success and completion of projects


• [5:52] At some point in my life, I had more to do at any given time than I could ever realistically accomplish. This leaves me with a constant sense of unease, but I'm getting better.


• [9:36] One of David Allen's most crucial insights is thinking of tasks as "next actions" rather than nebulous projects like "dentist" or "redesign website"


• [15:35] Capturing tasks vs Processing tasks vs Prioritizing tasks vs Executing tasks (All are slightly different and all require different mental states and amounts of cognitive energy)


• [21:25] The necessity of creating a frictionless inbox for capturing tasks - without having to categorize them at the same time


• [23:01] The necessity of creating completable projects (ie "redesign layout of workout of the day blog posts") vs amorphous categories ("Legion website redesign")


• [25:38] Protect your calendar and your daily to-do list. Don't allow everything you might "like to do" to end up cluttering your list of "must dos" for a given day.


• [28:53] Don't just "buckle down" or "try harder" - learn how your psychology works and set yourself up for success