I love this video of David Allen (of Getting Things Done fame) talking about and actually showing how he does his everyday work. I’m totally fascinated by how people do their work and he’s a great example of how having disciplined habits makes a person more effective.
I read his book about a year ago and realized that many of his strategies matched mine. I especially find that having multiple points of “capture” helps me keep from losing the tiny thought threads that make up my complicated life. David Allen really fine-tunes this idea by having notebooks and tape recorders available to him almost anywhere he goes.
I do the same, mostly using a notebook* at both my home office and work office and then by leaving phone messages to myself as reminders for things I need to do later at home. It’s grabbing those thoughts the moment you have them, capturing them and then allowing your mind to move past them that makes all the difference.
For a look at more Workstations of the Rich and Famous, see this great Lifehacker post.
*I especially like grid paper notebooks, like those from Bob’s Your Uncle.
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His voice is so soothing… I wonder if he did an audio version of his book (he should:)
Oh, I know, BNeato. His voice is authoritative without being James Earl Jones-y. I just looked and they do have an audio version and he narrates it. I may get that from Booksfree.com to listen to in the car. Always good to brush up.