Dear Crucial life-changing skills,

In corporate life, we have multiple things on our plates and often struggle to perform our tasks on time. Due to our hectic work schedule, we start procrastinating, and our workload starts piling up. What do you suggest at this crucial need of the hour? No idea. The practical solution to your mammoth problem is Getting Things Done (GTD).

I have joined the GTD course recently and have started performing a weekly review. I was told to perform the weekly review during the training for increased focus, higher productivity, and enhanced creativity. I cannot add creative inputs to my to-do list and don’t know how to do the same. Please guide me. Thanks.

Regards,
Manish

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Dear Manish,

While engaging in weekly reviews, I realized that the idea of “Get Creative” was automatically achieved when I began clearing up work logs to focus on the current. Further, reviewing your calendar will trigger thoughts or ideas on what should be done and how to do it. You can also strike off various items in your to-do list and projects to get a better idea of what is happening worldwide. Once you can buy a little time, it will be easier to identify new tasks and commitments, execute them for the next phase and boost your creative instinct.

You can interpret “Get Creative” as traditional old good thinking that can help you in effective decision-making. And, it is bound to happen if you perform a thorough review and carefully introspect the operational aspects of your life. To initiate the current plan in your system, you need to utilize a healthy blend of intelligence and intuition creatively.

Considering this, you can make the most of your weekly review by exploring new and different territories. To achieve this, you need to reflect on your Maybe list and get ready to activate your new ideas. Start working on transforming that pending list into the current one, and the whole exercise can be a fun, interactive, and rejuvenating experience. I have sacked many things from my existing Someday/Maybe list to give a renewed boost to creativity. The things that were earlier kept on the back burner have now become a part of my current to-do list. Not to forget, I am pursuing them with heightened spirit and vigor.

However, I would like to add a thing or two here. You don’t need to wait for the weekly review to galvanize your creative process. Break yourself from the mundane routine and explore your creativity in things you love the most. It could be shopping with your bunch of friends, preparing a special culinary dish, drawing, attending a dance class with your partner, and so on. All you need to do is prepare a list of creative things to do and make it a part of your weekly review plan. Once you take baby steps toward achieving a few of these things, you can certainly improve your creativity. So, maintain your pace and ditch the monotony at your work.

The above is an adaptation of a blog written by David Allen.

https://cruciallearning.com/blog/live-more-creatively-with-a-gtd-weekly-review/