How to clean your head to work better and less in 5 steps ?

With a new methodology to organize and live your life. Enjoy clarity, coolness and efficiency. The goal is to put all your thoughts in a list system you trust in order not to have to think about it again, to close all the loops in your mind and then to be able to act easily on any items. This article is divided in five parts :

1. The context
2. The Tools you will need
3. The environnement
4. The list system, it is a list list system
5. The process

Step one : understand the context

You need to have two different list systems: one for your work, one for your life. Life is more than work but many people, myself included, let the work take a big place, that’s why I prefer to have two different list systems, to avoid it.

Start little by little, one list system at a time. Only once you are comfortable with one, start to build the second one. I'll explain how to build one list system at the step 4.

Think long-term and don't put pressure on yourself : it could be a 2-year travel and that’s fine. I started to use this list system in February and I am already (in August) started to be more active on my personal projects and I am far better efficient at work. The benefits are growing over time because your use of the list system become easier.

Keep in mind that any change in your life requires discipline. And sometimes it can be a bit more difficult for a certain period of time.

Are you ready ?

Step two :  gather what you need

As it is easier to cook with great kitchenware, you will need the right tools to build your first list system. You’ll find below the tools I use but feel to use any tool as long as they do the job, it does not matter. That’s why I put two columns in the table below : the left one with the function of the tool and the right the tool that I use.

The last line is the most important, it is your list system.

The goal of the lists is to make it very easy and fast to act and to reflect on what’s going on your life. The first benefit is to save time and the other is to make easier and better decisions on what’s need to be done and when.

Step three : clean your environment

Same parallel than before, it is also much nicer and convenient to cook in a spotless kitchen. Here are a few principles that could help.

1. Deactivate all notifications that you feel are not essential on your phone and on your computer. Be fearless.
2. Prefer your computer to your mobile as everything is faster to do on  a computer.
3. No professional phone in your bedroom and no personal phone in your office.
4. About social media : have a look to this video and make your own choice. In my case I choose to go on Facebook every 30 notifications.
5. Connect your facebook events & birthdays to your calendar, it helps a lot to apply the previous principle. Here is how.
6. On your browser keep only the favourites you used at least once a week, delete all the others.
7. In your professional life : avoid meetings if you can :).
8. Though, if you really have to schedule a meeting always send an agenda two days before with the goals of the meeting and send a quick memo after to let know everyone if the goals has been reached.
9. Figure out how to say no to good things, to say yes to the great. There is only 24 hours day. It’s hard to say “no” but “no” is freedom.
10. Write your weekly goals in a notebook, every day ! Focus on the current week.
11. Try meditation - Headspace in English or Petit Bambou in French.

Step four : understand that time management is a fable, yep.

You cannot manage time as it will pass anyway, it is our relationship to time that is key. Below you will find a quick history of time. I recommend to use the last paradigm, the option number 3.

1 - A long time ago, we approach time as one dimension : do something as fast as possible, like an hamster in a wheel. That's exhausting.

2 - Then a second paradigm occurred, it is to consider any task in two dimensions : how urgent the task is and how important is it. It is a good way to prioritize as you should have notice by now most people put on your plate what’s important to them and not you.

3 - To thrive it’s better to think in three dimensions, as a multiplier. You have to consider if:

1. The task matters much or not
2. The task matters soon or later
3. The task matters for a long period or time or not

The conclusion of the three “if” is to only do the things that will save you time tomorrow, you are a multiplier, it’s a non linear approach of your life. What you do today will multiply the time you have tomorrow. This way of thinking explains why some people do more than others. If ever you wish to go further, have a look at this TED talk. It’s fun, inspiring, crystal clear. The guy is a Genius.

Step 5 : let’s cook

Once you gathered all the ingredients (step 2), you cleaned the kitchen (step 3)  and you almost know how to use a knife (step 4, I still do not know how to cut vegetables in a nice way by the way, I am 29), it is quite straightforward.

Basically, you have an inbox with all your stuff in it, except for the physical stuff.

What’s inside ?

Everything you ever think about, everything.

Every 2-3 days, take the time to process your inbox, the goal is to have it empty at the end.

How to do it ?  Follow this schema (print it both for your home and office). I share with you the Google slide, if it is not clear you can comment it, I’ll answer and update it.

Set-up in your agenda the following blockers :

1. 30mn a day to do your action list (you will not do it every day but you’ll try)
2. 45mn a week to review your agenda (so important and efficient)
3. 45mn a week to review your project list, add actions to your action list based on your project (to think about the future and do not drift in your life)
4. 45mn a month to review your sometime/maybe list and waiting list (because we never know maybe it was a good idea).
5. Set-up a recurring meeting for every recurring task that you cannot automate

For the physical stuff, do not worry too much about it :  it’s for the letter you need to answer or post, the t-shirt too big to change at the store...you will do it by yourself only because all this stuff is at one place, easily accessible.

Good luck, feel free to contact me. This list system is a work in progress that has shown good results so far.

To give you a bit of context, most of this article come from my use of the book Getting Things Done : The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. I added incremental thoughts on these learnings based on my experience and tried to make it super easy.  There are also great inputs from The 25th hour (in French, la 25eme heure - Guillaume Declair - Bao Dinh - Jér?me Dumont) and The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller.