Ok, that may seem really obvious.  However, since I’ve been CEO of a company for a while now, I’ve realized that not everyone has a process for “getting things done” that they are comfortable with.

I personally was on a mission for years to find a system that worked for me.  I tried Franklin Covey products, I tried just making lists in notebooks…I tried just about everything.  What I found was that nothing fit me quite right; everything I tried was missing something or another or seemed to create too much extra paperwork.

After much experimentation, I was able to create the following criteria for any system to be able to work for me:

  • It had to allow me to make lists - I like lists
  • It had to work with Microsoft Outlook - I’m working out of Outlook all day, every day
  • It had to work when I wasn’t working in Outlook - on the road or in a meeting, etc.
  • Most importantly…it had to free my brain of all of the thousands of thoughts and ideas I have at any one time without me being concerned I was going to lose them!

As luck would have it, one day I was walking through a bookstore and happened to see Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen.  The title was so perfect, I couldn’t help but stop to look.  What I found inside was decades of experience and techniques from a man who has dedicated his professional life to the pursuit of helping people be more productive.

It has worked like a charm, and I’ve rolled it out to anybody who shows willingness to learn within Everon, the small business IT support company I now run.

I can’t fully explain the room this book has created in my head!  I no longer have to worry about forgetting things, as I have now have a system that works for me and is easy to work with.  It took me one full day to implement the system; my admin and I locked ourselves in my office and had it fully implemented by dinner.

If you work out of Outlook like I do, I highly recommend that you buy another book called Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook: The Eight Best Practices of Task and E-Mail Management by Michael Linenberger that was written to allow Outlook users to take full advantage of David Allen’s system.  It is full of useful tips and simple Outlook customizations that will skyrocket your productivity.

Whether it’s this system or another, you must find something that works for you if you are to be able to handle the demands of a fast growth company!