As I meet more people in the academic, professional and in particular campaigning world, I encounter more and more models of self-organisation. In particular I’ve come across  Tim Ferriss who talks about breaking tasks down and aiming for the impossible but making tasks achievable.

I’ve also done my best to implement the ‘do, defer or delegate’ system suggested by David Allen in Getting Things Done.

A friend has also described how he sits down each month and examines how his plans for the next four weeks fit into the life aims he has, and then sits down once annually with friends to examine how their life aims fit together and how they can collaborate and support each other.

I’m applying these lessons and definitely managing things better than I have in the past. There’s still plenty of room left for improvement though.

1. I’m planning long-term – I’ve got a big sheet of paper on my bedroom wall where I track the progress of each project I’m doing and where I want it to be a year from now.

2. I’m better at breaking down huge tasks into manageable chunks. I take a big project and force myself to identify the next concrete actions I need to take.

3. I’m taking time out to exercise, even if my schedule is packed, since it helps me to think more clearly and even more creatively when I do work.

4. I’m making sure I get on top of each email as soon as it comes in. That way my inbox doesn’t get clogged and I don’t feel pressured by lots of emails to deal with.

5. I set aside 30 minutes or an hour each day to deal with emails and tasks which aren’t related to my degree, even if this means putting down everything I think I should be doing.

6. I’m including reading as part of this system of task management, and including reading in my to-do lists. As painful as it is to do, it helps me track my progress against my aims, and means that my degree doesn’t feel like it’s outside my system. It’s not one of the ‘open loops’ that David Allen talks about.

7. I’m getting up an hour earlier, which gives me time to focus on maintaining my social media, reading the news and listening to the radio.

Self-organisation has definitely changed the way I work over the past year or so. It’s made a huge difference. Good places to start are the links above.