For those who already don't know about this, GTD is the best place to start on anything related this. Also start watching various talks by David Allen to get a total perspective of how this works.
And for those who want a quick heads up. Continue reading...
The crux of the issue is that the human brain is not good at storing thing like lists, or lists of lists or lists of lists of lists .. ad infinitum. The problem gets more complicated when you to manage these list structures in your brain. Its very difficult to do this to-do, done, priority and triaging etc activities in your brain itself. Chances are that, if you put all that stuff in your head you will- Either forget most of them and focus what you brain thinks is the highest priority(which most of the times disastrously ends up in a task called 'procrastination') or that your mind will spend great deals of time, energy and psychic resources to maintain those list structures. The net result is much resources are spent maintaining that list structures than executing them. This is when you get that overwhelming feeling of 'I am stressed' or 'There are too many things to do, I cant take it anymore' emotions.
What is the result?- you either mess up real badly forgetting things or get overwhelmed and give up.
There are a few exceptions to these cases. During the times of crisis/interesting-situations your brain does a superb job of prioritizing things and putting all the focus on one most important task at hand. This is the reason why when your life is in danger or when you start work on a very interesting project you brain automagically tells you to do tasks X, Y and Z without even you consciously knowing about it. A few more exceptions to this are moments of 'Flow', when you are in a moment of 'Flow'[1], when you experience flow you will not need a list set up to help you out. But you will need GTD to get into 'Flow'[2].
To summarize it all:
1. Your brain needs a purge from time to time.
2. You need some way of maintaining task state outside
your brain. My advice is use a diary and pen/pencils.
3. You need to visualize things. Not just your schedule.
I mean everything. Even if its a simple program you are
writing, put it down on a paper first. Visualize it.
4. I repeat. Purge your brain. Put things down on paper
first.
5. Make plans, break them down and execute.
6. Pick interesting projects. Helps in getting into
'Flow'.
7. REVIEW THE PROGRESS OF YOUR PLANS(without this its
all useless)
8. Ponder on the 'Next task' for every task you do.
And for those who want a quick heads up. Continue reading...
The crux of the issue is that the human brain is not good at storing thing like lists, or lists of lists or lists of lists of lists .. ad infinitum. The problem gets more complicated when you to manage these list structures in your brain. Its very difficult to do this to-do, done, priority and triaging etc activities in your brain itself. Chances are that, if you put all that stuff in your head you will- Either forget most of them and focus what you brain thinks is the highest priority(which most of the times disastrously ends up in a task called 'procrastination') or that your mind will spend great deals of time, energy and psychic resources to maintain those list structures. The net result is much resources are spent maintaining that list structures than executing them. This is when you get that overwhelming feeling of 'I am stressed' or 'There are too many things to do, I cant take it anymore' emotions.
What is the result?- you either mess up real badly forgetting things or get overwhelmed and give up.
There are a few exceptions to these cases. During the times of crisis/interesting-situations your brain does a superb job of prioritizing things and putting all the focus on one most important task at hand. This is the reason why when your life is in danger or when you start work on a very interesting project you brain automagically tells you to do tasks X, Y and Z without even you consciously knowing about it. A few more exceptions to this are moments of 'Flow', when you are in a moment of 'Flow'[1], when you experience flow you will not need a list set up to help you out. But you will need GTD to get into 'Flow'[2].
To summarize it all:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29 [2] The book by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi is a nice place to start on this.