One of the complaints I often hear about most of the productivity tools that I use is that people don’t have time for them. I hear things such as:
- “I barely have enough time as it is; I can’t add in these tools on top of it.”
- “New tools are always coming out, and I don’t have time to keep up.”
It’s a valid point, because I felt the same way a few years ago. I was working as hard as I possibly could, so how on earth would I have time for all of this “processing” and “weekly reviews” and all of the other things that make systems like GTD tick?
It takes money to make money
You’ve likely heard the phrase “it takes money to make money” before. Those that have money can make solid investments and make even more. If you don’t have money, you can’t invest, and it’s a lot more difficult.
The same is true with your time. If you can carve out a little bit of time each day to process your inboxes, get everything into lists, etc, you’ll find that it creates more available time for everything else!
The weekly review
Another core part of GTD is the weekly review; once a week, sit down and review every task in every project that you have. Make sure all of your inboxes are processed and you’ve got everything in front of you.It takes 30-90 minutes for most people, which is certainly a good chunk of time, but it really helps you get a high-level view of what’s going on and help you focus on what’s most important.
Similar to keeping an empty inbox, this is one that you have to try before you’ll believe it, as it doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense. However, once you start taking the time throughout the day to keep on top of everything, you’ll find yourself working much more efficiently and getting a lot more done.
Try it for yourself
The best way to see this in action is to simply try it for yourself. For the next week, focus on keeping your task list updated and your inbox empty and see what happens.
Have you found “it takes time to make time” to be true in your day-to-day work?
