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The 5 Phases of Mastering Workflow: Phase 1.
By Mildred Munjanganja | December 28, 2009
In his book: ‘Getting Things Done’ – David Allen describes the five stages of mastering workflow as:
1. Collect – putting together the things that need our attention
2. Process –understanding them and determining what needs to be done with them
3. Organize – managing them in a way that makes sense
4. Review – examining the options of what we want to do with them
5. Do – putting a plan into action and actually doing something about them
Today, we will focus on collecting! If you have ever collected a pile of papers with the intention of filing them away and the pile still stares at you for weeks, then you are essentially paralyzed in the collection phase. Every phase must be followed consistently and separately in order to allow you to get organized.
Where do you begin? David Allen recommends starting by looking at anything in your personal or professional life that you believe needs to be different. It doesn’t matter how big or trivial it may seem, as long as you want to commit yourself to seeing a change in that facet of your life, then it needs to be on your list. If there is anything pending or that you have intended on doing, this should go on the list as well – anything that you consider incomplete, should be included. You may already have items that are being collected as you read this, such as voicemail messages, letters, e-mails etc – all these things need to be managed. Then you have those items that somehow remain incomplete in your head, the things that you have told yourself you ‘need to’ do at some point – these things are taking up mental real estate and until you complete them, they will be an added stress in your life – put these thoughts or ideas on your list as well. Anything that is physical that you ‘should’ do needs to be placed in a bin that is clearly labeled e.g. magazines that you ‘should’ have read. If you find anything that needs to be thrown out at this point, go ahead and do it!
We will examine phase 2: Process – in our next chat - today’s homework involves piling anything that you see around you which is incomplete and writing down all the pending or ’should do’ items in your life.
**Recommended read: David Allen – Getting Things Done.
**Quote of the Day: ‘You do well to have visions of a better life than of every day, but it is the life of every day from which the elements of a better life must come’ – Maurice Maeterlinck
Visit me at: http://organizedleader.com
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