Mastering Your and To-do List to Reduce Stress at Home and Work HACK YOUR LIFE

HACK MY LIFE? “Contrary to the popular misuse of the term to denote a computer criminal, a hacker is someone who solves a problem in a clever or nonobvious way. A life hack is a workaround or shortcut that overcomes the everyday difficulties of the modern worker. A lifehacker uses clever tech tricks to get her work done.” – Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better by Gina Trapani Think MacGyver…for the boring stuff There is a whole world of “lifehacking” material to share, today we’ll focus on two: To Do Lists

HACKING MY INBOX Inbox Zero It IS Possible How? Batch Process Act on every Delete File (If more than @Follow-up Reply (If less than two minutes) Admire the empty inbox!

HACKING MY TO DOS Empty your head Create your list Organize your tasks Remember to review “Sprint through your list” Note: This is a slight modification to the workflow methodology found in David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.”

EMPTY YOUR HEAD (AND YOUR TABLE) No, I’m not talking about transcendental meditation Your brain is a horrible secretary Get everything out of your head and onto: Paper Computer Phone Whatever (works) Basically anything you want to act (read, file, reply, etc) needs to be put somewhere you can look at it

CREATE YOUR LIST Take everything from your brain dump/desktop sweep and ask, “Is this actionable?” If not, trash (or recycle!) it/delete it OR If you might need it as reference/keepsake store it in an appropriate place If yes, it goes on your list And put it into your appropriate “To Do” list (work/home/etc) If something has a deadline, it goes in the calendar

REMEMBER TO REMEMBER Set time each day/week to go through lists as appropriate Set a time to empty your head/collect items to be worked on (D.A.’s “Collecting” phase.); though ideally you will be doing this constantly Then set a time to put items into appropriate lists, calendars, or extra-large trash cans

“SPRINT THROUGH YOUR LIST” Take the list and do it! This is why contextualizing lists can be very helpful Consider the “Sprinting Technique” for staying focused on getting things done Also check out the Pomodoro technique

REFERENCES “Getting Things Done” by David Allen “4 Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferris (chapters 5-7) lifehacker.com pomodorotechnique.com getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com inboxzero.com thesecretweapon.org