Since I began to work, I'm trying to follow simple rules to organize myself to do what I have to do. Simple rules, nothing original. I discovered something much more evolved: the Getting Things Done method. I didn't read the GTD bible but I read many blog posts about it and tried GTD online tools. In my personal point of view, it's really too complicated and it creates an important work overload. Then I discovered something really close to my "simple rules" Zen To Done (ZTD). My "simple rules" ( SR ;) ) are:

  • The use of a centralized todo list accessible from anywhere, in practice: a wiki page on my website. This centralized todo list is associated with a decentralized (temporary) todos, in practice: a pen and something to write on.
  • Focus on what you're doing and do one task at time. I'm, personally, mono-threaded, I can't work on 2 tasks at a time. Before starting on something important, I'm focusing on my need of focus ;) . That's strange, but I just need to think about focusing to focus on my task.
  • Write on my decentralized todo what i'm doing when somebody or something interrupts me.
  • Take a break when you need it. Focusing is something hard, unfortunately I can't focus on my tasks all day long.

Really, focusing is the most important thing, other rules work to support my memory.