{"id":1913,"date":"2013-02-04T16:07:55","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T20:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/how-to-organize-yourself-find-time-to-work-and-be-happy-in-the-process\/"},"modified":"2013-02-04T16:08:10","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T20:38:10","slug":"how-to-organize-yourself-find-time-to-work-and-be-happy-in-the-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielpradilla.info\/blog\/how-to-organize-yourself-find-time-to-work-and-be-happy-in-the-process\/","title":{"rendered":"How to organize yourself, find time to work and be happy in the process"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis article belongs to the\u00a0<\/em>telecommuting and geographical independence<\/a>\u00a0series.<\/em><\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter what your job is about, the routine is the same every day and it starts early in the morning: emails, news, events, requests and if you use a computer to work, the situation is even worse: Twitter, Facebook and other hundreds of sites that demand your attention.<\/p>\n

In the midst of all this noise, is your head, lost under an avalanche of thoughts about the past, to-do tasks, worries about the future and other distractions<\/b> that pull you and prevent you from moving forward.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

When walking, walk. When eating, eat.
\n-Zen Proberb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s nothing better than being completely absorbed in the task you’re doing, in total control of your faculties, in the zone<\/i>. Focused<\/b>.<\/p>\n

But the reality is that life’s demands have turned us into multitasking beings. If we want to take the time to focus and be productive, we need help. We need tools<\/strong>.
\n—<\/p>\n

An inbox<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>A to-do list is fundamental to provide some structure to our day-to-day and free us from what the productivity expert David Allen calls mental clutter<\/strong>. What Allen proposes with his\u00a0Getting Things Done<\/a>\u00a0methodology is that we clear everything that’s in our heads<\/b>, break down the work into two-minute tasks and then place them in an \u201cinbox\u201d.<\/p>\n

This inbox can be a piece of paper, an email, a text file from notepad in the computer, a cellphone reminder, or a web tool. The most important thing is that, whichever tool we choose to represent our inbox, it needs to be available at all times. Remember: the goal is for you to write everything you can think of that you need to do<\/b>.<\/p>\n

At first, it takes some effort. The hardest part of this process is to separate the projects in actionable blocks. In other words, not to write generic tasks such as \u201cWork a little on project X\u201d or \u201cGo grocery shopping\u201d. The idea \u2013and this is the key for making this work\u2013 is to break down the tasks into doable pieces<\/b>. You can do this while writing them down, or later, when you have time to organize the to-do list (no, I’m not missing the irony here).<\/p>\n

For instance, instead of writing \u201cCreate client YXZ’s website\u201d, I would write:<\/p>\n