GTD

During a casual discussion, we are surprised to learn that TM, one of our physician trainees, does not use a personal diary to mark his calendar. Apparently he is simply using his own brain to put down when to do what.

“How could that happen?” We all asked, “Our schedule is so busy and there are so many appointments. It would be a chaos – if not disaster – for us to have one day passed without a calendar.”

And we are serious. My friend CB uses the Outlook calendar to manage his life, KM puts everything in his digital diary, and I have my Moleskine. In fact, as a reminder system, human brain is distinctly inefficient and seldom reminds us of what we need to do at the time and place when we can do it. To improve our productivity, we need to do away with remember what tasks to do from our mind by recording them externally, followed by thinking in advance to generate a series of actions which can be carried out later without further planning. In this way the brain can concentrate on performing the tasks.

Go read Getting Things Done of David Allen.