life management tips

From a David Allen "Getting Things Done" Seminar I attended for 8 hours today at work.

1. Write whatever think of that you need to do on a piece of paper, on a PDA, or on whatever. That way you'll never have to think about (or forget) having to do something. When you're relaxed and your mind is clear, you're much more happy and productive, not to mention much less stressed!
   
   
2. When you reach critical mass, sit down and process everything you've written down. Figure out what the "actionable" item is for each item you've written down (e.g. "Call dentist to set up cleaning appointment" or "Send quarterly update to Sergey") and put it in one of your "location" folders. A "location" folder is a place where you usually would complete that item--e.g. "At the Office" or "By the Phone" or "At the Computer." (My folders: "@Office", "@Home", "@Phone", "@Sports", "Read & Review", and "Sometime/Maybe")
   
   
3. When you're at that location and have time, go through the list of items and complete them in the order of whatever prioritization system you have set up. If a new task comes to mind, write it down and file the "actionable item" component of it in the appropriate folder.
   
   
4. Review what you've done once a week. Clean your desk. Clean out your e-mail inbox (by deleting the messages, responding to the messages, or filing it in the appropriate "location" folder).
   
   
5. Repeat, rinse, and lather.

Oh, and as a result of going to the seminar (or just having 8 hours of free time), I completely cleaned out my e-mail inbox today--all 3280 messages! Huzzah!