Time is money. That much is obvious to anyone who is paid by the hour. But the real point is more clear if we tweak that old cliché: Less time is more money.

How does that work? When does less equal more? When you get more done in less time. It's called efficiency.

You know how it is when you try something new, and at first it feels hopelessly slow and awkward? Then you do it again. And again. And again - each time becoming a little better at it. If you stay with it, things that once seemed impossibly complicated become clear and straightforward. When you wrestle with a new task and learn how to do it quickly and easily, you become efficient.

Wouldn't it be great if you could do that all the time? Do it during your job hunt, do it on the job, and in your personal life?

You can - if you have a good set of habits and a system to organize those habits. If you don't have those habits or a system now, no problem. There's a guide for both, and it's called Getting Things Done, or GTD for short.

The old Nike motto - Just Do It - is all very nice, but then there's a new question - Just Do WHAT? The GTD system tells you.

To start off, you'll need some time, some tools and a plan. How much time? Anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days, depending on how well organized you are now. The tools? They're cheap. You can get fancy stuff later, but they're not absolutely necessary. You can start with nothing more than a pen, a $2 notebook, a good set of folders and a plan.

First, the problem. Daily life is a parade of things requiring decisions from you. This parade is not neat and orderly, like a parade down Main Street. Your parade comes at you from all directions, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. You must juggle events, people, things, and time. You must meet your needs and help others meet theirs. And if you're not organized about it, you will be overrun and exhausted at the end of the day. Let's put an end to that.

Next, the solution. The GTD system first says that everything needs a home. Any given day, you might have a dozen different things on your mind, all competing for attention - a dental appointment, a lawn that needs mowing, a bill payment, a friend to meet, groceries to bring home, a deadline, mail to be answered, etc. etc. etc. All these small things will eat at your time and attention like termites, leaving you no time or energy to plan ahead. What you need to do is give all these things a home.

So how you do that? Six steps:

1. List all the stuff in your life that that isn't in the right place.
2. Get rid of things or problems that aren't yours or that you don't need right now.
3. Create a right place for the things you keep, in a way that works for you.
4. Put your stuff in the right place, every time.
5. Deal with your stuff in a way that respects your time, your energy and your goals.
6. Rinse and repeat.

The general idea is to sort everything out so that it all has a clear reason for being in your life. Everything you do, you know why you're doing it and how it fits in with your overall plan.

Ok, that's the overview, but it's not very specific. So let's look at the details.

First of all, get everything out of your head. All the stuff that rattling around in there, throw it out. It happens naturally when you take a vacation and get away from it all for a while. It's a little harder to do it at home when everything is right in front of you. So how do you do it?

Go sit out on the front porch if you have one, or up on the roof, or your local bar - whatever space you go to when you need to clear your head.

Now start writing down all the things on your mind that need action from you. Get it down on paper, so it's not in your head. Don't try to order the list yet, just bang it out as it comes to you.

When you have that done, sort the list.

Next Action
Some things need to be done in certain order of time. Order them.

Projects:
These are things that require multiple actions. List them to help you keep the big picture in mind, but break them down into smaller actions and list those in the Next Action section.

Waiting:
Some things can't be done until someone else does something or something else happens. You set these things aside and review them later.

Someday/Maybe:
There are probably things you want to do, but don't have the time or resources to do yet. List these here so you don't forget about them, but don't let them weigh on your mind right now - deal with the other stuff and come back to this later.

Context-sensitive list - some things can be done more effectively if you do them in big batches. If you have several videophone calls to make, make them all at once, even when they're wildly unrelated, because that frees you up to focus on other things when you're away from the VP. Same deal for errands - if you're going to be out driving around, make a list that lets you hit the places you need to visit as efficiently as possible. so you minimize driving time and distance.

Calendar: Use this to note things happening in the future, so you don't forget later.

Filing:
Now we're going to build a big inbox. Your in-box will become the home for all your stuff. Instead of having all your stuff banging around in your head, it goes into the inbox. You let your mind relax and just deal with what's in your inbox.

So how do we build it?

If you have Net access - and if you're reading this, you probably do - you can get almost everything you need free from Google. All you need is the ability to make lists (Google Docs), the ability to organize the lists (Google Docs, again), and a calendar (Google calendar) to manage time. Google's calendar can also e-mail you with alerts for events you add to the calendar.

The final item? 43 folders. There will be physical things you must deal with - forms to be filled out, mail to be answered, bills to be paid - and all that stuff will clutter your head and your space. Give it all a home. Label 12 folders with the months of the year. Label 31 folders with the days of the month. Put the daily folders in the folder for the current month. Any stuff that needs attention later goes in the folders, according to when it needs attention. If something doesn't need attention until, say, 3 months later, fine - stick it in that month's folder. At the end of each month, you move your 31 daily folders to the next month and move anything in that month's folder into the daily folders.

With stuff in the folders, and your sorted lists and calendar to guide you, you're all set. Your first job is to go through all the things cluttering your mind and your life and get it sorted. That's not a simple job, but you're going to feel fantastic when it's done.

And that's basically it - the Getting It Done system. People do this in different specific ways, according to what they're comfortable with, but the overall aim is to organize all the things you want to do and need to do. Setting it up is the hardest part, but it's not even very hard - it just takes some time and focused attention. After you have the system in place, everything rolls along much more smoothly.

Once you set it up, you must check your lists and calendar every day, or things will get ahead of you again. Just think of your lists and calendar as two wise advisors you consult with each day. That one simple habit, together with the GTD system, will mean you can Get Things Done - and leave you more time to relax and enjoy your life.

Links:

Getting Started with Getting Things Done
http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-started-with-getting-things-done

The Getting Things Done FAQ
http://zenhabits.net/2007/06/the-getting-things-done-gtd-faq/

43 Folders
http://www.43folders.com/

Wikipedia on GTD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

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