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Getting Things Done:Productivity at Work and at Home
Dr Tom HarwoodMBChB (Otago) FACEM
Royal North Shore Hospital, SydneySpring Seminar on Emergency Medicine 2015
Disclosures
None
I don’t own or promote any of the methods that follow
I’m not that organised much of the time
Introduction
Who I am
Why I’m the right man for the job
Why I’m the wrong man for the job
What I’m going to cover
Introduction
5 professional “productivity methods” to discuss
- Getting Things Done - Dave Allen
- Personal Kanban - Jim Benson
- Autofocus - Mark Forster
- Zen to Done - Lee Babauto
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
Introduction
Advice of 3 professional groups
- A professional sportsman
- A commercial airline pilot
- A soldier
• Evidence for any of this working
Getting Things Done® - Dave Allen
Owns the phrase, it has made him rich and famous
Theory - move planned tasks out of the mind so you can focus on action not recall
“Your mind is for having ideas not holding them”
Idea of distributed cognition
Getting Things Done® - Dave Allen The 6 horizons
1) Current actions
2) Current projects
3) Areas of responsibility
4) 1-2yr goals
5) 3-5 yr goals
6) Life Goals
Getting Things Done® - Dave Allen
GTD workflow
1) Collect info
2) Clarify
3) Organise
4) Reflect or review
5) Engage/do
Problems with Getting Things Done®
Spend a lot of time planning, little time doing
Fills up with repetitive tasks
Relies on breaking tasks up into sensible chunks
Personal Kanban – Jim Benson
Kanban is Japanese for signboard
Adapted from the work of Taiichi Ono from Toyota
Tracks processes through items on signboards
Sticking post-it notes on a whiteboard
Personal Kanban – Jim Benson
Backlog
• Cat 2 audit
• CT reports
Doing
• XR results
• Student lecture
Done
• D/C summaries
• Regteaching
Personal Kanban – Jim Benson
Issues
Silly name
Have to break tasks into many chunks
Need to constantly update board
Fills with repetitive tasks
Autofocus – Mark Forster
Write a long list in a notebook
1) Read all once do nothing
2) Read again, pick one
3) Work until done or tired of it
4) Cross off if done, put back on bottom of list if still not complete
Autofocus – Mark Forster
5) Don’t start a new page until no tasks stand out
6) Repeat on next page
7) If no items on page stand out, delete all
Autofocus – Mark Forster
Theories utilised
- Balance intuitive response to complex tasks with rational need to proceed
- Little and often for major tasks
- Relative procrastination
Autofocus – Mark Forster
Issues
- Some complex tasks need lengthy periods of effort and concentration
- Doesn’t work if task has absolute time requirement eg a meeting
- It’s just a list
Zen to Done – Leo Babauta
1) Collect info in a limited number of inboxes eg email/paper
2) Process GTD® style eg discard/delegate/do/defer
3) Planning weekly/daily of 3 most important tasks (MIT)
4) Do- allocate blocks of time to complete MIT
5) Use a simple organising system eg a diary
Zen to Done – Leo Babauta
6) Organise into sensible groupings
7) Goals – 1 big goal at a time
8) Simplify- reduce commitments/subscriptions
9) Routine to “get things done with a clear mind and easy heart”
10) Find your passion
Zen to Done – Leo Babauta
Issues
Habits are hard to adopt
Finding your passion for admin may be challenging
Zen and medial administration tasks seen mutually exclusive
7 Habits of Highly Effective People –Stephen Covey
15 million books sold since 1989
Advisor to Bill Clinton while President
Time Magazine 25 most influential people in business
7 Habits of Highly Effective People –Stephen Covey1) Be proactive in life and relationships
2) Begin with the end in mind
3) Put first things first - manage yourself
4) Think win-win
5) Seek first to understand then seek to be understood
6) Synergise- combine strengths
7) “Sharpen the saw” through physical and spiritual renewal
7 Habits of Highly Effective People –Stephen Covey
Issues
Lots of nice concepts but mainly long term
Little structure to organise and manage daily activities
Getting Things Done – The Professional Athlete
Concentrate on process before outcome
Have habits to disengage from stress
Control the controllable
Always have a mentor, especially when you are senior
In teams match tasks to talent
Getting Things Done – The Airline Pilot
CRM born out of airline industry
Not universally applicable to ED
- Large teams, multiple variable inputs
- We usually don’t get physically harmed by poor decisions
Has good measures of workload and response
- “Task Load Index”
Getting Things Done – The Airline Pilot
In a crisis
Aviate ( fly the plane, focus on ABC for the pt)
Navigate ( avoid the mountain, plan next intervention)
Communicate ( communicate with team)
Getting Things Done – The Airline Pilot
Other principles with application to EM
Always have a landing spot in mind
Nothing flies without fuel (including people)
Take off is optional, landing is mandatory
Stay out of the clouds
Stay ahead of the airplane
Getting Things Done – The Soldier
Train hard fight easy
RBT Reality Based Training
- High fidelity in situ simulation
Always have a plan B….and a plan C
Getting Things Done – Distractions and Interruptions
Cited as major effect limiting productivity for EP’s
Little research in nature and frequency in ED
Tech company workers switch tasks every 3 minutes, 50% are self imposed
Inevitable part of ED, but may have some benefits
- IT workers not being interrupted work more slowly
- Self imposed interruptions may be incubating problems for future solution
Getting Things done- The Evidence
Getting Things Done - Summary
You probably do a productivity technique already
The techniques mentioned are easy to research
They all stress looking after your own physical and spiritual health
In the end lists and apps can only help so much
A sports shoe company has got the best advice “just do it”
Getting Things Done - References
Getting Things Done by Dave Allen – gettingthingsdone.com
Personal Kanban by Jim Benson – personalkanban.com
Autofocus by Mark Forster – markforster.squarespace.com
Zen to Done by Lee Babauto – zenhabits.net
7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey – stephencovey.com
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