The Night Before | GTD®

Two-minute Tips for Turbulent Times with David Allen
The Night Before
People have often interviewed or asked me, How do I spend my day? What kind of rituals do I have to sort of stay on top of my game on a consistent basis? The one thing that I really do consistently, and I share with people is what I call "My day starts the night before”.
Before I go to bed, or sometime in the evening what I do is pull up my calendar and look at the next 1, 2, 3 days, maybe the week. Just to get a sense of, what does the landscape look like? In terms of the hard landscape, the things I'm committed to have to do, I need to be in that meeting, that virtual meeting at 3 o'clock, I need to be able to tomorrow, to make sure to that I pick up X Y Z, whatever.
So, I do that the night before. First of all, because I love to sleep, It allows me to sleep as long as I can before I actually have to do something. Also, I'm not surprised when I get into my day. There are enough surprises we have to deal with. I want to be able to tee myself up, or get myself prepared, before I go to sleep.
I think, my hypothesis is that overnight, in the sleep state, that gives us an opportunity to integrate the stuff and make us feel more comfortable in the landscape, in terms of how we're engaging with ourselves. I highly recommend it, if you're not doing it already, maybe you are but that every evening you sit down, take a look at the next day, 2, 3, maybe the week.
Take a look at the forest you're managing, instead of just hugging the trees. and allow yourself to then relax and sleep, as best and as long as can, or as much as you need to. And then make sure your day is not a surprise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
✔ gettingthingsdone.com
✔ @gtdtimes
✔ #GTD #gettingthingsdone #DavidAllen
✔ #GTDpartner #GTDofficial
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#TurbulentTimes #TTTT #tips #Covid19 #MyPandemicSurvivalPlan #Coronavirus #StayAtHomeChallenge #TogetherAtHome #QuarantineAndChill #yourheadisacrappyoffice

[@ahill4642]

Agreed. When I don't do this I inevitably regret it and face the dreaded surprises.

[@Vedulce]

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!! 💜🙏🏻☺️

[@martinschad8891]

Great tip, very perceptive vantage point. Thanks much David!

[@mattmatt2417]

The methods, ALLOT of people are using, seem expensive/counterproductive/you need to keep ALLOT of clutter/crap, to do it this way.
So you need, paper,folders,dividers,notebooks,printers,ink,stamps envelopes, TIME.
Also not using/having E-mail, PDFs, servers, to do lists apps,notifications, digital calendars,digital planners, is a real handicap, when it comes to being productive.
Automation, is nice too/set emails to go out/upload to the server/local files and so on, on schedules.
Also instead of carrying a huge ridiculous folder/book places, bring it all with you, on your phone.
Also having your to do list/notifications pushed to you/directly to your phone/in your notification menu or maybe through Alexa/a routine.
Also its nice to have a digital note pad/note taker, so you can have your notes, with you, ALL THE TIME, in one place/on your phone, thats always with you.
Also, IF you use/read, magazines/news papers, a digital subscription, is always available/an option.
ALSO MOST places have apps, for coupons/Walmart has one,Kroger has one, IF you like fastfood, Burgerking and Mcdonalds, have apps, granted I just use Walmart's monthly membership/door dash's delivery system, for food/groceries, and for what Walmart doesn't have, I buy on Amazon. Also on occasion I use Lowes/Home depots/I get things delivered, to my house from them.
Anyway all of this, is available as well, anyway things CAN be ALLOT EASIER,NOW DAYS.
If you have a kid/kids, give them a tablet or a laptop, also tiny scanner pro.
Also get them PDF books and don't buy them paper, pens or pencils, Also tell them to throw all paper away/tell them to tell EVERYONE, to email it to them, if you see it around the house, throw it away, it will make EVERYTHING ALLOT EASIER.
More info:
Tablets/Laptops/desktops/a phone, is the solution lol, if you need a stylus get one, as well lol, not NECESSARILY needed, but, it MAY make you feel better.
Storing this much paper/any paper, seems counterproductive, thats what storage drives are for, burn it all/well the responsible thing to do, is shred them and then recycle them, but /IF you need to scan it all, into a computer, back things up though/on flash drives/external hardrives and so on, also ALL OF THIS, CAN BE STORED ON YOUR PHONE/in one TINY device.
Also NOW DAYS, you can just start typing what your looking for, in a search box, and it will just pop, right up/no more annoying days of Windows 95/XP/Vista, those type search systems, are a thing of the past, luckily.
Also ALL of your manuals, for your appliances/devices, have PDFs, I have those on my phone/I've backed those up as well, you can just search for them online, they are easy to find too.
Also notes can be taken on your phone/and all of your notes/info you need, will ALWAYS be with you as well.
Also you can carrie tons and tons of books, IF they are digital/PDFs, same with music, granted now days, we MOSTLY stream music, with Pandora/Spotify.
LOL your acting like an old person, IF your using paper lol
Sentimental things are different, but the rest is a waste of time and space.
Some more examples, of how we live in a digital world.
Also ALLOT of things can't even be purchased, with out digital/EVERYTHING can't be purchased with cash. MEANING COD/POD, isn't even a thing anymore/DEFINITELY not available for everything/its not used, like it used to be.
Cash is helpful, to avoid paying tax though, under the table jobs and also for survival/when systems are down, but sales tax is MOST LIKELY going to be an ISSUE REGARDLESS, UNLESS, MAYBE, IF you have access to a military base/some other way to avoid SOME tax.
I know I keep ALLOT of cash in my safe,along with physical books,blurays and so on, for back ups/end of the world type stuff lol, but I normally keep/use digital items, MOST of the time, such as PDFs,Digital files, movies,games, music and so on.
Keeping birth certificates/social security cards and pictures, of everyone in your family, SHOULD suffice, for the JUST IN CASE, but even your license, now days, can be renewed, through an app, also taxes are paid/done online now.
Anyway physical paper, is becoming less and less needed.
It doesn't surprise me though, that EVERYTHING'S going digital/Sears,Kmart,Hifi buy,Sports authority, Toys R Us and SOON GameStop, ALREADY figured this out, the hard way, but they did FINALLY figure this out.
Walmarts figuring this out as well/using doordash/having memberships/monthly services, that allow you to get unlimited deliveries, meaning, Walmart stores are KIND OF turning into warehouses.
Anyway we now have hardrives,SSDs,Flashdrives, servers, no need for MASSIVE filing cabinets, ANYMORE, nor massive calculators,paper calendars,paper, envelopes, or paper/things that can be sent by/via E-mail. No need to buy, stamps,printers,ink,paper/folders, binders, checks and so on, ALL of these things, are obsolete/they are going away.
Now we can just log into the server, vs having to take/go get that one piece of paper, that is miles away/we also use e-mail vs USPS. Also we can carrie EVERYTHING, in one device/your phone, or have cloud back ups, to get access to it, ANYWHERE.
Also we use debit/credit cards now vs checks, we don't get our bills mailed to us anymore/we have auto pay/we pay through apps, AND we get discounts on our bills, for doing this/setting up auto pay. We bank through apps now vs through physical banks, we do on OCCASION, use ATMS, but even checks can be deposited, by taking a pic of them, through an app, ALSO, IF you pay with a check, NOW DAYS, in a store, the check will be handed back to you, and your money is taken, DIRECTLY OUT OF YOUR ACCOUNT/ITS BAISICLY LIKE USING A DEBIT CARD, NOW DAYS, direct deposit is available, ANYWAY we now do things MUCH more simply/efficiently/effectively.
This is probably WRONG, but I burn all the paper I receive, wrong as in, recycling, is what you/we should do, but honestly, I think physical mail, FROM COMPANIES, SHOULD BE BANNED, individuals sending each other a Birthday/Christmas card, is okay, but other JUNK MAIL, should not be sent to people.
Atleast with email, MOST things, get sent directly, to the spam folder/box, also what gets through, CAN BE BLOCKED, MANUALLY, AND ITS NOT REALLY REAL/it has no consequence, other than bandwith.
Honestly ALL trash services SHOULD be required, to recycle/all trash facilities, SHOULD HAVE a SORTER/SOMETHING/a machine that automatically sorts the trash/it gets dumped in and then its sorted automatically.
Anyway paper is a waste of money, time and space, especially when everything can be stored on servers,storage devices and easily emailed/found, when need be.
Something you can invest in/things that are helpful, NOW that you've gotten rit of all the paper, is more monitors.
When I work, I use 3 monitors/I have two 42inch monitors and one 27inch monitor, in every setup I have, but being able to see more on screen, is really helpful, when working/getting things done.

[@ahill4642]

Wow, i appreciated reading this message of yours and I am taking a screenshot to reference later as I work to simplify and minimalize my messy life. Try to be patient with us boomers and Gen X-ers as we sprint to keep up. The world has changed so much, so fast, and it's incredibly cool but sometimes it can overwhelm and be hard to keep up. ☺️