118: How I Get Organized When I’m Overwhelmed

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The John Poelstra Show

John Poelstra

133 episodes

3 months ago

I believe we are each the sole owner of our lives. Are you a true “owner” or an “employee” of your life?

All too often it’s easy to play small and think there’s nothing better. This mindset encourages us to find creative ways to cope and tolerate our circumstances instead of actively looking for ways to find all that is possible, often beyond our wildest dreams.

I believe there’s a better way to live, one where you lead and act as the driver of your life instead of being its passenger. In that spirit, this show covers a variety of topics around the themes of personal ownership, effective personal leadership, productivity, co-active coaching, and being a better human.

Along the way I'll share the things I'm learning myself and through other people as guests.

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118: How I Get Organized When I’m Overwhelmed

The John Poelstra Show

22 minutes 25 seconds

2 years ago

118: How I Get Organized When I’m Overwhelmed

The other day I was overwhelmed with all the things I needed to. This is how I got organized and less overwhelmed.
Highlights

* Getting email and Trello under control
* Where are the places you store things that need to get done?

* Trello
* Post-it Notes
* Email
* Slack
* 3×5 Cards
* Notebook

* Offline email client–Thunderbird

* Used in conjunction with GMail and other email providers
* All of my email is stored locally where it can’t be hacked or lost

* Recomendo (my favorite newsletter of all)
* Getting to Inbox Zero at least once during a given day
* Sharpies & 3×5 cards are an easy way to capture and organize all the things overwhelming you

* Easy to move around
* Don’t stick to surface
* Collapsable into a single pile so you don’t have to see all the cards (and get overwhelmed)

* Trello

* Columns

* Today
* This Week
* Next Week
* Backlog

* Set due dates and alerts for specific cards (generates email)

* Overall triage process

* Go through all the email in Thunderbird and get the main Inbox to zero

* Move to folder
* Delete
* Forward tasks to Trello via email
* Book mark related webpage/information via Pinboard

* Organize and move cards in Trello

* Move all the cards (not in Backlog) to “Next Week” column (as often as you need to)
* Triage from there

* Look for patterns in the cards/tasks if there’s another

* Projects vs. tasks
* How to do this process with 3×5 cards

Credits

* Original photo source