How to Turn «Google Spreadsheets" in perfect GTD-system
Productivity Web Services / / December 23, 2019
In 2001 a book appeared on the shelves "How affairs in order: the art of stress-free productivity"Authored by David Allen (David Allen). In her expert on productivity and time management has shown how important it is to have a proven system for personal, business and other purposes.
Allen introduced a system called GTD, Which has helped a large number of people bring order to their affairs. As a kind of shell it can be used for different services like Wunderlist, Todoist, Trello and Evernote, but often they are too complicated or not sufficiently functional. These services have no means obvious, but a worthy alternative - «Google Spreadsheets."
Advantages over other apps
1. Good visualization = better understanding
Disorder, physical or digital - is the real problem with the physiological consequences. One of the major - loss of efficiency. When you look at the list of projects, which occupy a lot of space for text and all sorts of investments, your brain starts to panic. Because of this, you become less productive.
«Google Spreadsheets", in turn, - a set of rows and columns. Even when in front of your eyes 35 projects, all of them are simple elements of the table: the familiar, compact and at the same time full of information.
2. Easy to enter and edit
Good productivity system - is the one that is easy to enter information. Nothing should interfere with the addition of projects and tasks, as well as their change.
To add something to the table, enough to click on the cell and enter text. There are no ticks, options and buttons - you simply enter the text all that is needed.
If necessary, somewhere to add a column, merge cells, and so on - a variety of options.
3. Flexibility
Any productivity of the system must be flexible enough. You should be comfortable sort and filter content based on changing priorities. «Google Spreadsheets" let you create filters based on different criteria.
Some people who adhere to GTD and other systems used in each task context. To each of them attached label such as "@ phone" or "@ computer", you can view Only those cases which are feasible where you are, and with the tools that have from you under hand.
In «Google Spreadsheets" is very easy to maintain custom filters with multiple criteria. You are free to call these filters as you want, which speeds up the search for them.
4. The simplicity and breadth of capability
One of the main advantages of the tables - their simplicity. And because they are easy to use, they provide ample opportunity. These are arranged with ease and communicate with other information.
You can create a cell with plain text, and you can write a formula that combines several pieces of data to the function. You decide how it should be linked your data.
5. Cross-platform
All of the above applies to any program for creating spreadsheets: Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice, OpenOffice Calc, Apple Numbers, and so on. In all - the same basic principles of the rows, columns and formulas. But «Google Spreadsheets" operate completely in the cloud, with fast and reliable.
You are free to work with any operating system, from any device. It is enough to have an internet connection and a browser installed.
Examples of using
Your GTD-document may contain any number of sheets. Imagine that they have seven.
- projects. Allen defines a project as a task, which consists of more than two steps and the implementation of which requires up to 12 months. In the list, you can make anything - even the project can be replaced motor oil.
- Upcoming business. A list of things you can do right now. You can specify the approximate dates and priority implementation.
- Expectation. Things which performance you expect from other people. add related projects and record, if desired, about the last time you talked to these people.
- Agenda. The works that need to be discussed at the regular meetings. For example, if you are talking to a colleague weekly face to face, then fill in here that want to negotiate with him. It is also possible to add a column with related projects.
- Incubator. List the things you want to do someday, but as yet do not know exactly when.
- Weekly review. A checklist of tasks that you perform when Summarize week. This may be to check the existing projects and the addition of new, closing the "tails", and so on.
- completed projects. Carve completed project and insert it in the list and mark when it finished. If the project just had to get rid of, it is also to be recorded.
projects
The number of columns in this sheet may be different, but there are two main, on which the whole system rests: "Project ID" and "Upcoming affairs."
Project ID - is its unique number. Assigning identifiers extends beyond «Google Sheets." They can keep all of your organizational system. For example, if you store files and notes related to projects in the other services, you can use the same numbers in them. This significantly speeds up the search for files and information, and allows you to not keep many things in mind.
In the column "The upcoming cases" tracked the three aspects of each project:
- how many cases added to the tab "Upcoming affairs";
- how many items associated with this project is to "Waiting" tab;
- as elements related to the project, located on the tab "Agenda".
Formula - a simple function of count, which verifies these three tabs, and provides information about how many activities linked to this project identifier. This column allows you to quickly find projects without the tasks performed. The sequence of "0 | 0 | 0 "indicates that it is necessary either to add actions to the project or postpone it.
"Waiting" and "Agenda"
In these pages indicate the person's name that you need from him, and when you asked for it, it applies to any project. If you regularly meet with that person, then it is sent to the "agenda". When do you see him only occasionally, then add it to the "Waiting".
Incubator
In an interview, Allen said that if any project for a week has not moved one iota, it sends it to the "Incubator". The idea is simple: if you do not do a project on a regular basis, then remove it from the list, which is constantly on the mind. Because of this project there is a mess and, as a consequence, there is a psychological barrier to the implementation of important cases.
Each week, look into the "Incubator" and either change the status of the project on the "active" or do not touch it, or completely removed.
Weekly review
This tab helps make sure that your to-do lists help to improve your personal and business life. So you need to constantly review these lists and keep them current.
"Weekly Review" may consist of questions and ideas for reflection. In fact, this list of unique triggers that remind of the need of the project. Also, it helps to check whether you still meet your objectives for your purposes.
completed projects
If you need to recall the outcome of a project, to help the sheet. And even if you know what the project has ended - for example, you threw it - that sometimes it is useful to find out when you made this decision.
«Google Spreadsheets" Useful Functions
notes
They can be used in several ways. One of them - to write down all the possible upcoming cases for a particular project. Then you can copy them directly in the list of "Upcoming affairs", adding the desired completion date.
Notes are also useful for their intended purpose. Add notes to the status of the project, to celebrate important milestones and add useful information.
To add a note, right-click the cell and choose "Insert note".
Comments
The comments, in contrast to the notes are automatically formatted hyperlinks that can sometimes be useful. Number of comments displayed on the sheet tab at the bottom. In addition to comments, you can collaborate with other users. They add similar notes.