Top goal framework (Essentialism by Greg McKeown)
- Reserve two hours each day (put an event on your calendar) to work on your top goals.
- Schedule time early in the morning when the brain is freshly rested.
- Do not respond to emails, texts, chats, calls, and messages during those two hours.
- Start with 30 minutes blocks, until you find the right balance.
- List your top 3 priorities for the day and plan to achieve them. (Dale Carnegie)
Getting Things Done framework (David Allen)
If it takes less than 2 minutes to do it, do it now. Otherwise, place in one of the following lists –
- Next Actions: These are the next tasks on your priority list separated into areas of context.
- Computer (actions that need computer)
- Calls
- Home
- Outside
- Waiting for: This is the list of things that you have asked to do and are waiting for them to complete. List the person to whom you have delegated the task, the requested action, and date on which you made the request.
- Someday/Maybe: The list of things you want to do someday.
- Agenda: Batch your issues and discuss them all at once.
- Projects: The list of projects that have more than one next action that can only be done sequentially.
- Goals: OKRs
- Review:
- Daily: Next actions, waiting for, and goals
- Weekly: Someday/Maybe, Agenda, and Projects
Use your calendar to schedule next actions that need to happen on a certain day or a certain time. Daily review 5 minutes, weekly review 15 minutes, put it as events on your calendar.
Inbox zero
- Treat your inboxes as single triage room at a hospital.
- Check your inbox only twice a day. Batch your time and clean out the inboxes once in the morning and then in the afternoon.
- If the email take less than two minutes to address, then do it immediately.
- If it takes more than two minutes then write down next actions for it, and place the email in correct location (Next Actions, Waiting for, Someday/Maybe).
- Repeat until you get inbox zero.
I found out these two tutorials to be very useful.
OUTLOOK: Achieve Inbox Zero Using The 4D Principle — YouTube