Relaxed Control

What’s the recipe for relaxed control?

The idea is taken from Getting Things Done that advice using your mind to get things off your mind into a trusted system, which will increase your productivity and set you in a relaxed control state.

Key Ingredients:

1. 1. Clearly defined outcomes and next-action steps
   2. Reminders in a trusted system and reviewed regularly

The core process:

1. 1. Capture: Anything personal/professional/big/small that you think ought to be different and you have any level of internal commitment to change. What has your attention?
      “should/need to” + item = incomplete
      1. Capture tools: Notebooks/paper or digital devices or In-tray
   2. Clarify: Understand the meaning and what to do about it
   3. Organize: Where something is, matches what it means to you
   4. Reflect and select
   5. Engage 

What I like most about this methodology is its emphasis on the horizontal view, which places Purpose and meaning above all the rest criteria. For I think it’s not enough to do things effectively and efficiently but most importantly is to act purposefully with meaning – and from that sphere, the rest of the actions spur.

Horizontal Focus:

• Purpose and principles: Existintional questions – Why? Provide core definitions and is the ultimate job descriptions
• Vision:  Organizational strategies, between 3 to 5 years
• Goals:  What you want to experience in 2 years
• Areas of focus and accountability: Strategic plannings, Life quality standards, health results…
• Projects: Any desired result which can be accomplished within a limited time frame, typically a year, that requires more than one action step. You don’t really do a “project”, you only do action steps related to it. Strive to have between 30 to 100.
• Ground: List of actions steps

The success factors:

1. 1. All in capture system – it gives you trust in the system
   2. Minimum capture buckets
   3. Regularly empty – What is it? Is it actionable?