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

GTD approach to clarifying/organising

Chart here

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

Got the best catch phrase

Aims to form 10 productive habits

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

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- 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