Boosting your productivity is matter of doing the right things, at the right time, in the right order. Elementary school math taught us the value of doing things in order. If the rule was violated or ignored… The end product was incorrect.

You wouldn’t think of putting your shoes on before your socks or your pants before your boxers. Likewise, the same common sense should apply to the idea of processing and tackling the stuff you think is important.

How do you define “what’s important”? Where should you put your “to-do’s”? When is the best time to get these things done?

Similar to the basic math you learned early in life, the questions become easy to solve once you learn the right order of operations.

Here we go…

Gather and collect. Buy a stack of 3″ x 5″ index cards to records details. Next, take as much time as you need to jot down everything you are thinking about… one item per card. The stuff that nags at you, the details that dance at the edge of your mind, and all the things that you need to get done. This pile should catch every thing thats occupying floor space in your mind. Don’t let the stuff stay in there because it ends up as obstacles to work around.

Process the cards. All your stuff is there in a big pile. Now the next thing to do is sift through and use the 4-D method. Each item on the pile will need your full attention. Sort through each item and decide immediately: should I do it, delegate it, defer it until later, or just dump it in the trash.

So now you have 4 piles to get rid of …

Dump. Well, the trash pile is the easiest to deal with. Toss it. You’ll be surprised how good this feels!

Defer. Stuff that doesn’t have a deadline, or can’t be acted upon, or is in the “maybe-I’d-like-to-do-someday” category, goes into a tickler folder for follow-up. Put a date on it to review and forget about it.

Delegate. Another easy one to handle. Find some able-bodies to handle these tasks.

Do it. If can be done quick, say under 5 minutes, do it now. If more time is required, schedule bigger blocks of time to meet that.

There you have it. A simple method to get a grip on the loose threads that most of us have in our lives. Arguably, the most important step is just getting a bead on all the errant thoughts scurrying around our noggins. Once in the crosshairs, pulling the trigger on the critters then becomes easy.

Of course, the information here is purely common sense, but at times I’m guilty of complicating things because I forget to follow this simple guideline.