Floods of Information

In my life information doesn’t come in a nice orderly stream. It floods, overall/on average the amount of information is not overly massive, but it’s the drought periods which are left unproductive and make me lazy. When the flood of information comes in, systems come back. But, wouldn’t it be more productive/better to always have these systems in place so that there is no lost time. We can always be more productive, especially when its not so busy, or when we procrastinate on jobs we don’t want to do, then all of a sudden everything is due all at once. Not a nice situation to be in.

I have tried getting back to GTD, but since I never read the book the whole way through, I’m probably missing some vital information. But I understand the major concepts and I am currently trying to implement a system, mainly for work, but would also like to have something in place for home and personal projects as they are also important and need to be cared for in a professional way. My spreadsheet is basically a list, which doesn’t help to prioritise unless I use extra numerical fields and sort that way, but that’s extra work is too complex. Not that I don’t want to or couldn’t, just that I also need to be mindful I am also required to update and maintain about another 6 systems, the common denominator here are the clients they stay the same. But it’s the information that I want or need to track at a particular time that is a pain in the ass.

One area which has been seriously neglected is my weekly review. The weekly review gives my a good overview of what needs doing and keeps my workspace clear of shit that not necessary the current project/task I am currently working on. For whatever reason I need a tidy workspace and as I am learning I also need a tidy filing space, as all I have been doing is literally dumping anything I don’t want to do in great big piles on the floor. This has many problems,

• Cant Find anything
• Silverfish
• Duplication of materials
• Inability to find information when you need it, leading you to not do the task
• Lack of floor space
• General ill feeling of untidiness (OCD?)

The storm is here, but the bulk of it hasn’t quite hit so I still have time to board up the house, put the sprinklers on and start building a boat.