Effing The Dog | Getting Things Done...Eventually

Moving Daze

Written by Mike Vardy

Monday, 21 July 2008

One of the major components in the Effing The Dog system is working on organizing your tasks. To clarify, I must insist you only work on organizing the tasks you wish to complete - not actually complete them. At least not right away. I have no doubt that you have piles and piles of things you need to work on. If this, however, does not happen to be the case, I suggest you figure out a way to "let things pile up" for some time before tackling this project. By doing so, you'll already be Effing The Dog in a small way. A good way to ensure you can't help but let things pile up is to rent a combination of Star Wars movies and pro wrestling DVDs, and take them in with a copious amount of beer from one of those new "home kegs" you can get. That should get you well on your way to not getting on your way to do anything right away.

There are several things you should definitely allow to pile up to make your orgainzing last longer, thus resulting in an easier time in implementing this phase of the Effing The Dog program. These sure-fire items include:

1. Unopened mail. It is strongly suggested that you let your mail remain unopened for at least 3-4 days in order to get a good pile going. This may seem daunting at first, but I have found that if you start with letting the mail you simply don't recognize as the foundation for this pile you'll have an easier time getting it going. Soon you'll be letting recognizable bills and junk mail compound as well. Junk mail and flyers are especially effective as they can provide remorse later on when you realize you missed an limited time offer you shouldn't have passed u, regardless of whether or not you've budgeted for it.

2. Opened mail. With the junk mail and flyers still an integral part of the pile (or better yet, piles), you'll now take the mail formerly known as "unopened mail" and redistribute it accordingly within the pile(s). Order isn't important here - you'll go through them eventually, so don' worry about sorting through the dates. Just add them to the process.

3. Collected business cards. Keep these in piles that have largr papers and smaller papers. That way you may run the risk of misplacing one or more, forcing you to spend more time looking for them later on. This adds another level of EffTD to the organizaitonal step.

4. Receipts. I highly advise you to keep all receipts, no matter how minor they may seem. Like business cards, many are small enough to misplaced - and when you go to do the math on your finances, you'll have to go hunting again. Again, be sure to be rather unconventional about how you compile these. The important thing to do is to make sure you have them somewhere at hand that you'll have trouble getting at.

Inevitably, you will eventually get all of these items sorted into piles that are categorized (which should be as vague and broad as possible to add to the process), and then you'll be ready to start anew. The idea is to keep the piles in a constant state of "high tide", so that you take bits and pieces from them. Then when more stuff comes your way, you simply make one pile and then redistribute at will.

Now this is just the first step to getting your head wrapped around the procedure of Effing The Dog - and it will allow you to work towards a state of true "eventualism" if you stay the course. In future blog entries, you'll learn how to take the next steps in getting things done...eventually. Stay tuned.