Step 9 - Seek Guidance and Keep Improving Your System - Simply Get Things Done Course

Step 9 – Seek Guidance and Keep Improving Your System

(This lesson a part of "10-step Simply Get Things Done" Course)

"My intent is not to add more to the plethora of modern theories and models about how to be successful. I have tried, on the contrary, to define the core methods that don’t change with the times, and which, when applied, always work. Like gravity, when you understand the principle, you can operate a lot more effectively, no matter what you’re doing. Perhaps this is the Leading Edge of Back to Basics!."

David Allen, "Getting Things Done (GTD) and the Art of Stress-free Productivity"

It’s all about the basics… and the obvious

It’s our eight step of the course and up until now you can see that what we’ve gone through so far is pretty much the obvious stuff – decide on next actions, organize stuff into projects, work in different contexts, etc… but the problem is – we don’t usually do the obvious.

Rediscover the obvious – that the obvious works for you

Very often we have to be reminded of the obvious… or we have to rediscover the obvious methods, guidelines or rules that worked for us in the past and if they really did… they will work again. It’s like with the Weekly Review – if you’ve been doing it for several weeks in the row and you remember how "in control" you felt during the entire week thanks to that – you know it works.. and if for some reason you recently skipped the weekly review – you’ll most certainly would want to get back to the "good-old-habit" of reviewing your stuff once every week.

We constantly need inspiration and a call to action

When I first read the book by David Allen "Getting Things Done" I was inspired – it was my call to action – to start getting things done… and later to develop Nozbe for myself to help me achieve a productive state… and later to show it off to the world – so you can benefit from my lessons. I’ve read the book several times now, I’ve read the English version, the Polish translation, I have it as an eBook on my computer and even as an audiobook on my music player. And I still need to get back to it from time to time.

Seek guidance and improve your system

This course is just the beginning and it’s a good start but in the future I encourage you to find some spare time to read some additional materials that will most probably inspire you even more and remind you about constantly improving yourself and your productivity systems… and your use of Nozbe as your productivity tool.

Read the book by David Allen: "Getting Things Done and the Art of Stress-free productivity"

I don’t think I have to say more on this – this book will change your life as it has changed mine. As I mentioned earlier, I’m still getting back to it now and then and I keep re-discovering things that help me improve my productivity system. Go get it at Amazon or in your local bookstore. If you live outside of the USA, chances are the title is a little different (it’s really hard to translate the phrase "getting things done" to any other language than English) but I’m sure it’s been translated. I know there’s German, Spanish, French, Dutch and Polish version for sure. Google "David Allen" in your own language to find out.

Go get the 2nd book by David Allen: "Ready for Anything: 52 productivity principles for Getting Things Done"

No, I’m not David Allen’s salesman nor am I affiliated with him. It’s just that his books are great. I’m right now finishing this one and it’s a great compilation of practical tips and tricks for Getting Things Done. We’ll talk about some of these in the last part of this course. You can get this book from Amazon or your local bookstore. No, I don’t think this one has been localized just yet – check for yourself.

 Subscribe to GTD blogs

You won’t believe me how many great Getting Things Done-oriented blogs are out there with so much great information and content on personal productivity. I’ve been inspired by them to create this blog as not just a blog about Nozbe and Nozbe’s new features and updates, but also a place to give you some productivity tips – just like this course. However, there are other blogs I’d recommend like "What’s the Next Action", "Did I get things Done" or the well known "43Folders"  – just to name the few.

Check out some other great online productivity courses

My "Simply Get Things Done Course" is just the beginning. There are other great and very practical courses out there that can help you improve your workflow. I personally love the "Inbox Zero" course by Merlin Mann of 43Folders.

Go ahead and ask me – Ask Michael

If you’re a Nozbe customer – you know I’m here to help you as well. I’ve been going through all the stages of personal productivity. From a very unproductive state, through step-by-step creation of my productivity workflow, development of Nozbe web application to help me get things done and now I’m in the process of improving myself and trying to achieve a "black belt" in productivity. So feel free to go ahead and ask me if you have doubts, questions or concerns… or don’t know if something works for you or doesn’t. Click here for details.

The bottom line:

We all need constant inspiration and a call to action. This course is just the beginning and will set you on the right track but in order to improve your system and workflow, remember to read some books, subscribe to GTD-blogs or other online courses.. and most of all – don’t be afraid to referring back to these information sources as you may always find  something new every time you re-read "the obvious". 

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Michael Sliwinski is the founder of Nozbe – a simple productivity web application inspired by the concepts from the book by David Allen: "Getting Things Done and the art of stress-free productivity". You can reprint this article on your blog or web site but ask for permission first.

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