▍上个星期，我在工作的时候很消沉。。。。
作为一个职场女性，有时候让我觉得很丢人。我工作上的朋友同时又是我的导师问起我怎么样的时候，我实在是忍不住了。
“我完全处在恐惧中，”我告诉她。“我写作不好，我连最简单的事都不能完成。一切似乎变得超出想象的难！这样的情况已经持续超过一个月了。我不知道该怎么办，要怎么逃离出来。”
她问我是不是很忧愁，这点我说了不。我曾经遭受过忧愁，但这次的情况不一样。“倒不是感觉没有希望或者是孤立。。。而是有太多事情同时发生，我不知道该怎么转心。就好像我很努力的从泥潭里爬出来。”
我告诉她我是有多么的落后于工作项目。我热爱我的工作。我从来不会落后。我哭了，因为我完全忘记了去做该完成的任务，并且需要被提醒很多次。这完全不像我的风格。她很认真的听我的倾诉，让我尽情的哭。等我哭完了，她问道：
“你有看过GTD®搞定™这本书吗？”
“GTD®搞定™，”是David Allen写的一本关于自我管理的书籍。在书里他解释了他的‘无压生产力’的方法论，并且很多人都受用。我曾经听到过本神奇的GTD®搞定™ 。。。但是几乎令我作呕（我曾经短暂的和一个GTD®搞定™的专家谈过恋爱，他和我谈过一些。）
“是的，”我告诉她，“但是它太复杂了。”这是真的，虽然只有一部分是比较复杂的。真相其实是书中的说教方式对我几乎毫无影响力。
“我们等下聚一下，我会教你的，”她告诉我。我内心叹了口气，我非常确定David Allen和他的那些条条框框会给我增加更多压力。
第二天我和我的朋友见面并且开始第一课。她准备了一些纸和笔。给了我，并且解释了用途。
“第一步叫做‘头脑大扫除’。你用15分钟的时间写下在你脑中的所有东西。”
“像一个工作列表形式的？”我问道。
“所有在你脑中的事。可能是你需要完成的任务，让你担心的压力或者是你要买的东西等等，”她解释道。“任何你能想到的事。”她拿出手机开始给我计时。“因为我们不会有太多的时间，所以我们就用10分钟。”
在她的逼促下我开始写了：
我不停的写，十分钟到时，我甚至都还没写完。我的朋友给我额外的5分钟，但是她强调最多不会超过15分钟。我继续投入。
时间到了，我看了看我的列表。在15分钟里，我写满了7张5*8 英尺的纸。
“现在看下你的列表。我们一个一个的过，同时问你自己‘这个是不是可执行的？’如果是，我们把它做成项目或者是一个行动。如果不是，我们就把它作废。”
这个已经听起来很复杂了。
“那么，第一个是什么？”她问我。
我笑了“男朋友，”我告诉她。
“什么意思呢？”我开始咆哮道，一些不确定的和烦心的沟通，并不知道我想要什么。
“这是一个很好的开始，”她给了我一个微笑。我很惊讶。我本以为她会觉得我的一个想法很猥琐；我真的这么想！“让我们仔细分析一下你的担忧。”
我列出了让我烦心的一些事。我们一起来回顾：他有时候放我抓狂。
“这个可执行吗？”我的导师问我。“有什么你可做的来消除这条？”
“恩。。。没有。没什么我能做的。”我回答道。
“那么你想晚点回过头来再处理还是扔掉这一条？”
我想了一下。“不，我不用去花精力。这只是一些烦心事。”
她很高兴的笑了。“那就划掉！”
我耸了下肩，然后划掉了。好了，这下少了一个烦心事。
下个：他这周末来吗？
“这个可执行吗？”她提示着。
“是的，我可以问他。”
“你能在2分钟里完成吗？”她问我。
我告诉她这非常简单；我只需要给他发个短信。
“那么在旁边标一个星星，等我们过完这个列表，就发短信。”她很坚定的说。“如果你能在2分钟里做完，那就把它做掉然后就省心了。”
随着我们继续一条条的过，她帮助我识别了每一项是否是可识别的，是否是一个项目，一些将来再处理的事（或者是我需要再思考的）或者可以划掉。对于项目（需要有多行步动的），我只需要辨别要去完成它的第一步。
将我乱起八糟的事集中起来：现在做。完成。划掉
发关于产品的邮件：行动。是否可在2分钟内完成。
归还毛衣：项目。第一步？标上归还标记。
我不敢相信我听到的新闻：。。。
这是个占据我大脑很大空间的东西。但是我很认真的思考：这个可执行吗？
不。我把它划掉。
发生了太多疯狂的事情：。。。
这个可执行吗？
不。只不过让我很操心。划掉。
给狗洗澡：行动。
等到我们过到最后一条的时候，已经过了一个小时了。“如果你每天都这样做，你的列表会越来越小，”她向我保证。
剩下的时间里，我的朋友向我简单的过了GTD®搞定™剩下的一些步骤。我们已经完成了前面2步：捕捉和清理。最后3步是整理，检视和执行。她解释了自从事情被辨别之后，我们可以去整理它们。然后每天我们都检视那些已经整理好的事物，接下来决定后面的行动。最后，我们去执行。
她走之前，又提醒了我，“现在你可以做那些在2分钟之内可完成的事了。”
我又再次看了我的列表，寻找那些我标记过小星星的事。
他这周末来吗？
我给我的男朋友发了短信。“你这周末过来吗？”
完成。划掉。
发关于产品的邮件。
我很快的起草了邮件并发送。
完成。
随着每一项事项的完成，我开始觉得越来越有能量。我完成了那么多的事！每一件小事的完成都在帮助我清扫我脑中的杂草。一旦我全部完成了2分钟任务，我到了下一步：写文章？我当然可以啊！简单！
3天之后，我仍然为我整洁的大脑而惊喜。我不仅仅是完成了我列出的行动；我还有了去做其他事情的动力。我打扫了我的房子。我去了健身房。我和我的侄女还侄子视频聊天了。当然，我当时一直有困难去完成事情；我的大脑花了太多时间试图去解决那些不能被执行的问题！然而这些不能被执行的事情都是障碍物，需要清理掉。
我还没完全开始练习剩下的3个步骤，但是我已经感觉到了巨大的变化：更轻松了。思想更集中了。有良好的生产力。我的朋友对我的成功感到激动，我们有迅速的计划了另外“一节课”。我非常的兴奋和很想掌握GTD®搞定™方法论。我感觉以前那个有效率的我又回来了。
David Allen的方法论是有用的。我在知道刚了解的时候觉得有些乏味；为什么我要先去辨别行动和项目而不是直接去执行呢？难道这不是拖延症吗？但是先去理清的话会有巨大的变化。尝试一下并且去掉那些在你脑中的杂事。你可以在亚马逊上买到这本书，同时你也可以观看一下2个简短的视频。如果想找到更多的视频，可以在YouTube上找到。
▍Last week, I broke down at work ...
Being a woman in business, this in and of itself is humiliating. But my work friend and mentor had asked how I was doing, and I just couldn't keep it in any longer.
“I’m in a complete funk,” I told her. “I can’t write. I can’t seem to do the simplest tasks. Everything is so much harder than usual! It’s been over a month of this. I don’t know what to do orhow to snap out of it.”
She asked if I was depressed, to which I could thankfully say no. I’ve suffered from depression, and this was definitely not the same. “It’s not hopelessness or isolation … it’s as if there’s so much happening that I can’t focus on any one thing. Like I’m trying to wade through thick mud.”
I told her how I was behind on my work projects. I love my job. I am never behind. I cried about how I was completely forgetting to finish tasks and was having to be reminded to do things multiple times. This was not like me at all. She listened intently and let me shed some tears. After she was sure I was finished, she asked,
“Have you read ‘Getting Things Done'?”
“Getting Things Done,” or GTD, is a popular self-management book by David Allen. In it, he explains his “stress-free productivity” methods that millions of people swear by. I had heard of the magical GTD … almost to ad nauseam (I had briefly dated a certified GTD instructor who talked of little else).
“Yes,” I told her, “but it was just too complicated.” This was true, though only partially. The full truth was that the sermons I’d endured had made me almost impervious to it.
“Let’s get together later, and I will teach you,” she told me. I sighed inwardly, quite confident that David Allen and his lists upon lists would create more stress than it would alleviate.
The next day I met her for our lesson. She had come prepared with a fresh pad of paper and some pens. She gave them to me and explained what I’d be using them for.
“The first step is called a ‘Mind sweep.’You take 15 minutes and jot down everything that’s taking space in your brain.”
“Like a to-do list?” I asked.
“Everything that’s on your mind. That maybe tasks you have to do, stresses that you’re worried about or even things you need to buy,” she clarified. “Anything that comes to you.” She pulled out her phone to time me. “Because we don’t have a lot of time, we’ll just do 10minutes.”
At her prompt I started writing:
I went on and on, and when the 10 minutes were up, I wasn’t even close to running out of steam. My friend gave me another five minutes but emphasized that the maximum writing time allowed was 15 minutes. I plowed on.
When the timer went off, I sat back and looked at my list. I had filled seven sheets of the 5-by-8-inch notebook with15 minutes of my messy mind.
“Now, let’s look at the list. We’re going to look at each thing and ask, ‘Is it actionable?’ If it is, we either make it a project or an action. If it’s not, we either incubate it or trash it.”
This already sounded complicated.
“So, what’s the first one?” She asked me.
I laughed. “Boyfriend,” I told her.
“What does that mean?” I went into a rant about this; the uncertainty and frustration of miscommunication, and not knowing what I wanted.
“This is a great place to start,” she smiled at me. I was surprised. I thought for sure she would find my first item daunting; I did! “Let’s break it down into each of those concerns.”
I listed several of the things I had mentioned. We looked at the first one together: HE DRIVES ME CRAZY SOMETIMES.
“Is it actionable?” My mentor asked. “Is there an action you can do to cross this off?”
“Um … no. Nothing really to act on,” I replied.
“Then do you want to incubate it to come back to or trash it?”
I thought about it. “No, I don’t need to think about it. It’s just a frustration.”
She smiled brightly. “Then trash it!”
I shrugged and crossed it out. Well, that was one less thing to worry about.
Next item: IS HE COMING THIS WEEKEND?
“Is it actionable?” she prompted.
“Yes. I can just ask him.”
“Can you do it in under two minutes?” she asked.
I told her it was easy enough; all I had to do was text him.
“Then put a star by it and as soon as we’re done with the list, DO IT.” She said this firmly. “If you can do it in two minutes, just get it done and out of the way.”
As we continued down the list, she helped me identify if each thing was an action, a project, something to incubate (oras I like to think of it, let simmer) or trash. For projects (something with multiple actions), I just needed to identify the first step to getting it done.
GETMY SHIT TOGETHER: Doing that now. Done. Trash it.
SEND EMAIL ABOUT PRODUCT: Action. Can do it in less than two minutes.
RETURN SWEATER: Project. First step? Print return label.
I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT I HEARD ON THE NEWS: …
This was a big one and taking up a lot of space in my mind. But I thought hard; is it actionable?
No. I crossed it out.
SO MUCH CRAZY STUFF IS HAPPENING: …
Is it actionable?
Nope. It’s not. It’s just me worrying.Trash it.
WASH THE DOG: Action.
By the time we reached the end of the list,an hour had passed. “If you do this every day, your list will get shorter andshorter,” she assured me.
With the last bit of our time, my friend briefly walked me through the remaining steps of GTD. We had already finished the first two stages: capture and clarify. The final three stages were to Organize, Reflect and Engage. She explained that since things were identified, we could organize them. Then, each day we reflect on the organized items and decide next actions. Finally, we DO THEM.
Before she left the room, she reminded me,“Do the ones that you can do in under two minutes RIGHT NOW.”
I looked again at my list searching for the actions I had put little stars by.
IS HE COMING THIS WEEKEND?
I texted my boyfriend. “Are you coming down this weekend?”
Done. I crossed it off.
SEND EMAIL ABOUT PRODUCT.
I quickly drafted and sent the email.
Done.
With each item I completed, I began to feel more and more energized. I was getting so much done! Each little thing I accomplished was helping me unravel the tangled ball of yarn in my head. Once I finished all of the two-minute tasks, I moved on to the actions: Write that article? I totally can! EASY!
Three days later, I’m still marveling at how clear my mind is. I didn’t just get my list actions done; I was motivated to do other actions. I cleaned my house. I went to the gym. I video chatted my niece and nephew. Of course, I had been having trouble getting anything finished; my brain was spending too much time trying to solve problems that weren’t actionable! They just sat there stuck, clogging everything else that needed to get through.
I haven’t put the last three stages into full practice yet, but already I feel dramatically different: Lighter. Focused. Productive. My friend was thrilled at my success, and we scheduled another “lesson” as soon as possible. I’m excited and eager to master the GTD method; I feel like myself again.
David Allen’s GTD method works. I know it looks tedious at first; why would I be identifying actions and projects instead of just DOING them? Isn’t that just procrastination? But the clarity gained makes all the difference. Give it a try and remove the mess from your mind. You can purchase Getting Things Done on Amazon, as well as get help starting theprocess through YouTube tutorials, like the ones below.
