How To Get Stuff Done And Avoid Lying Awake At 3am...

by Hollie Slade, Forbes Staff

Ever find yourself lying awake at night thinking simultaneously thinking about next week’s big pitch and remembering you forgot to buy cat food?

“Your head is for having ideas not holding ideas,” says David Allen author of bestselling, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Thinking ‘it’s all up here’ or ‘I’ll remember’ as you go from task to task inevitably means things will fall through the cracks and cortisol levels will rise.

Externalize your thoughts

“Most entrepreneurs have somewhere between 35 to 80 projects they’re working on,” says Allen. Unfortunately, “your head is a terrible office,” and so grabbing a pen and paper and writing everything down is the first step in externalizing all the competing buzzing thoughts.

“Capture everything that’s got your attention,” says Allen. “Get specific about exactly what you’ve got to do and define your outcomes and actions.”

“Identify the steps involved in the processes you go through on a regular basis so you can begin optimizing, automating, and outsourcing them. This goes for everything from paying bills to social media to meal preparation at home,” says Ari Meisel, a serial entrepreneur and productivity expert.

Realizing exactly what you’ve committed to do is a great first step in organizing your thoughts in a coherent form. “It’s creating an inventory,” says Allen. That way you’ll have a map of all the things you’re focused on.

Lying awake at 3 am happens because you’re not being strategic about what you are and aren’t doing, says Allen. “The only way to be comfortable about what you’re not doing is to know exactly what you’re not doing,” he says.

A simple task like this goes a long way in defining exactly what your work is and you’ll know what you might need to outsource straight away.

“People hold on to things in their psyche,” says Allen. “But your psyche doesn’t think strategically and tactically. You can’t do anything about it lying in bed.”

“Create an external brain where you write down every idea you have regardless of whether or not you think it’s good,” says Meisel. “Clear your mind. My favorite tool? Evernote,” he adds.

The Two Minute Rule
If you can do anything within two minutes you should do it then and there, says Allen. Otherwise you’ll just spend more time organizing it into another work flow.

If you can’t do it in two minutes consider outsourcing it to someone else but keep track of what you’ve handed over to other people.

Don’t wait to “follow up when it blows up,” says Allen.

“Get a virtual assistant,” says Miesel. “Use fancyhands or Zirtual to hire a virtual assistant. It’s an educational process for you in terms of how to effectively delegate and communicate a task.”

Maintenance
From there the next step is to keep the backlog low, making sure you’re ready for surprise and change. Making time each week to reflect is critical, says Allen. Close the door and step back, this is forest management not tree hugging, he says.

“This not a have a walk around the rose garden navel gazing kind of thing,” says Allen. It’s making sure you’re focusing your energy where it needs to be. “If you’re unwilling or unable to do this, the symptoms are that either the loudest thing emotionally or the nearest thing is going to capture your attention,” says Allen.

Read the full article and others from Forbes online.