Getting Your Messy Life In Order

10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

Getting Your Messy Life In Order

We’ve touched on this before by recommending the book, but today we’re going to give an overview of the absolute most core essentials of the “Getting Things Done” method. If you’re unfamiliar, this will be enough to get you going. If you’re already familiar, this may be a handy reminder!

First, you’ll need:

  • A big table
  • A block of small memo paper squares—post-it note sized, but no need to be sticky.
  • A block of A4 printer paper
  • A big trash bag

Gathering everything

Gather up not just all your to-dos, but: all sources of to-dos, too, and anything else that otherwise needs “sorting”.

Put them all in one physical place—a dining room table may have enough room. You’ll need a lot of room because you’re going to empty our drawers of papers, unopened (or opened and set aside) mail. Little notes you made for yourself, things stuck on the fridge or memo boards. Think across all areas of your life, and anything you’re “supposed” to do, write it down on a piece of paper. No matter what area of your life, no matter how big or small.

Whether it’s “learn Chinese” or “take the trash out”, write it down, one item per piece of paper (hence the block of little memo squares).

Sorting everything

Everything you’ve gathered needs one of three things to happen:

  • You need to take some action (put it in a “to do” pile)
  • You may need it later sometime (put it in a “to file” pile)
  • You don’t need it (put it in the big trash bag for disposal)

What happens next will soothe you

  • Dispose of the things you put for disposal
  • File the things for filing in a single alphabetical filing system. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to get one, so write that down and add it to the “to do” pile.
  • You will now process your “to dos”

Processing the “to dos”

The pile you have left is now your “inbox”. It’s probably huge; later it’ll be smaller, maybe just a letter-tray on your desk.

Many of your “to dos” are actually not single action items, they’re projects. If something requires more than one step, it’s a project.

Take each item one-by-one. Do this in any order; you’re going to do this as quickly as possible! Now, ask yourself: is this a single-action item that I could do next, without having to do something else first?

  • If yes: put it in a pile marked “next action”
  • If no: put it in a pile marked “projects”.

Take a sheet of A4 paper and fold it in half. Write “Next Action” on it, and put your pile of next actions inside it.

Take a sheet of A4 paper per project and write the name of the project on it, for example “Learn Chinese”, or “Do taxes”. Put any actions relating to that project inside it.

Likely you don’t know yet what the first action will be, or else it’d be in your “Next Action” pile, so add an item to each project that says “Brainstorm project”.

Processing the “Next Action” pile

Again you want to do this as quickly as possible, in any order.

For each item, ask yourself “Do I care about this?” If the answer is no, ditch that item, and throw it out. That’s ok. Things change and maybe we no longer want or need to do something. No point in hanging onto it.

For each remaining item, ask yourself “can this be done in under 2 minutes?”.

  • If yes, do it, now. Throw away the piece of paper for it when you’re done.
  • If no, ask yourself:”could I usefully delegate this to someone else?” If the answer is yes, do so.

If you can’t delegate it, ask yourself: “When will be a good time to do this?” and schedule time for it. A specific, written-down, clock time on a specific calendar date. Input that into whatever you use for scheduling things. If you don’t already use something, just use the calendar app on whatever device you use most.

The mnemonic for the above process is “Do/Defer/Delegate/Ditch”

Processing projects:

If you don’t know where to start with a project, then figuring out where to start is your “Next Action” for that project. Brainstorm it, write down everything you’ll need to do, and anything that needs doing first.

The end result of this is:

  • You will always, at any given time, have a complete (and accessible) view of everything you are “supposed” to do.
  • You will always, at any given time, know what action you need to take next for a given project.
  • You will always, when you designate “work time”, be able to get straight into a very efficient process of getting through your to-dos.

Keeping on top of things

  • Whenever stuff “to do something with/about” comes to you, put it in your physical “inbox” place—as mentioned, a letter-tray on a desk should suffice.
  • At the start of each working day, quickly process things as described above. This should be a small daily task.
  • Once a week, do a weekly review to make sure you didn’t lose sight of something.
  • Monthly, quarterly, and annual reviews can be a good practice too.

How to do those reviews? Topic for another day, perhaps.

Or:

Check out the website / Check out GTD apps / Check out the book

Don’t Forget…

Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

Recommended

  • They Were Injured at the Super Bowl Parade. A Month Later, They Feel Forgotten.
  • No, your aches and pains don’t get worse in the cold. So why do we think they do?
    Feel winter’s chill deep in your bones? Studies reveal that weather may not be the culprit for your aches and pains after all.

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Resveratrol & Healthy Aging

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Resveratrol & Healthy Aging

    Resveratrol is the compound found in red grapes, and thus in red wine, that have resulted in red wine being sometimes touted as a heart-healthy drink.

    However, at the levels contained in red wine, you’d need to drink 100–1000 glasses of wine per day (depending on the wine) to get the dose of resveratrol that were associated with heart health benefits in mouse studies.

    (if you are not a mouse, you might need to drink even more than that)

    Further reading: can we drink to good health?

    Resveratrol supplementation

    Happily, resveratrol supplements exist. But what does resveratrol do?

    It lowers blood pressure:

    Effect of resveratrol on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

    It improves blood lipid levels:

    Consumption of resveratrol decreases oxidized LDL and ApoB in patients undergoing primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: a triple-blind, 6-month follow-up, placebo-controlled, randomized trial

    It improves insulin sensitivity:

    Resveratrol retards progression of diabetic nephropathy through modulations of oxidative stress, proinflammatory cytokines, and AMP-activated protein kinase

    It has neuroprotective effects too:

    Resveratrol promotes clearance of Alzheimer’s disease amyloid-beta peptides

    Is it safe?

    For most people, it is generally recognized as safe. However, if you are on blood-thinners or otherwise have a bleeding disorder, you might want to skip it:

    Antiplatelet activity of synthetic and natural resveratrol in red wine

    You also might want to check with your pharmacist/doctor, if you’re on blood pressure meds, anxiety meds, or immunosuppressants, as it can increase the amount of these drugs that will then stay in your system:

    Resveratrol modulates drug- and carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes in a healthy volunteer study

    And as ever, of course, if unsure just check with your pharmacist/doctor, to be on the safe side.

    Where to get it?

    We don’t sell it, but here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience

    Enjoy!

    Share This Post

  • Can You Step Backwards Without Your Foot Or Torso Turning Out?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Walking backwards is often overlooked, but research shows it can enhance forward walking, especially in stroke patients; it has other benefits for everyone else, too. The physiotherapists at Fitness4Life Physical Therapy explain:

    …and one step back

    How it works: walking backwards heightens proprioception and stimulates muscles, improving balance and posture. Additionally, our daily lives tend to involve forward-leaning postures, causing upper back bending, and walking backwards helps counterbalance this.

    Extra benefits: training to walk backwards can reduce the risk of falls, as stepping back is a common movement that is often untrained.

    Exercise: try doing backwards lunges, to assess your skill and balance while moving backward. If foot rotation or torso rotation occurs during the exercise, then there’s room for improvement. Correcting these movements is then simply a matter of practicing backward lunges without turning.

    10almonds tip: any exercise is only as good as your will to actually do it. For this reason, dancing is a great exercise in this case, as almost all forms of dance involve stepping backwards (in order to have steps without travelling somewhere, forwards steps are usually balanced with backwards ones)

    For more on all this, plus a visual demonstration of the exercise, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Fall Special ← About how to avoid falling, and how to avoid (and failing that, at least minimize) injury if you do fall. If you think this only happens to other/older people, remember, there’s a first time for everything, so it is better to be prepared in advance!

    Take care!

    Share This Post

  • The Vagus Nerve’s Power for Weight Loss

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Dr. Arun Dhir is a university lecturer, a gastrointestinal surgeon, an author, and a yoga and meditation instructor, and he has this to say:

    Gut feelings

    The vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve, also known as “vagus” (“the wanderer”), because it travels from the brain to many other body parts, including the ears, throat, heart, respiratory system, gut, pancreas, liver, and reproductive system. It’s no surprise then, that it plays a key role in brain-gut communication and metabolism regulation.

    The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for rest, digestion, and counteracting the stress response. Most signals through the vagus nerve travel from the gut to the brain, though there is communication in both directions.

    You may be beginning to see how this works and its implications for weight management: the vagus nerve senses metabolites from the liver, pancreas, and small intestine, and regulates insulin production by stimulating beta cells in the pancreas, which is important for avoiding/managing insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome in general.

    Dr. Dhir cites a study in which vagus nerve stimulation (originally used for treating epilepsy and depression) was shown to cause unintentional weight loss (6-11%) in patients, revealing a link to weight management. Of course, that is quite a specific sample, so more research is needed to say for sure, but because the principle is very sound and the mechanism of action is clear, it’s not being viewed as a controversial conclusion.

    As for how get these benefits, here are seven ways:

    1. Cold water on the face: submerge your face in cold water in the morning while holding water in your mouth, or cover your face with a cold wet washcloth (while holding your breath please; no need to waterboard yourself!), which activates the “mammalian dive response” in which your body activates the parasympathetic nervous system in order to remain calm and thus survive for longer underwater
    2. Alternate hot and cold showers: switch between hot and cold water during showers for 10-second intervals; this creates eustress and activates the process of hormesis, improving your overall stress management and reducing any chronic stress response you may otherwise have going on
    3. Humming and gargling: the vibrations in the throat stimulate the nearby vagus nerve
    4. Deep breathing (pranayama): yoga breathing exercises, especially combined with somatic exercises such as the sun salutation, can stimulate the vagus nerve
    5. Intermittent fasting: helps recalibrate the metabolism and indirectly improves vagus nerve function
    6. Massage and acupressure: stimulates lymphatic channels and the vagus nerve
    7. Long walks in nature (“forest bathing”): helps trigger relaxation in general

    For more on all of this, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    The Vagus Nerve (And How You Can Make Use Of It)

    Take care!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • They Were Injured at the Super Bowl Parade. A Month Later, They Feel Forgotten.
  • Managing Major Chronic Diseases – by Alexis Dupree

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Our author, Alexis Dupree, is herself in her 70s, and writing with more than three decades of experience of surviving multiple chronic diseases (in her case, Multiple Sclerosis, and then a dozen comorbidities that came with such).

    She is not a doctor or a scientist, but for more than 30 years she’s been actively working to accumulate knowledge not just on her own conditions, but on the whole medical system, and what it means to be a “forever patient” without giving up hope.

    She talks lived-experience “life management” strategies for living with chronic disease, and she talks—again from lived experience—about navigating the complexities of medical care; not on a legalistic “State regulations say…” level, because that kind of thing changes by the minute, but on a human level.

    Perhaps most practically: how to advocate strongly for yourself while still treating medical professionals with the respect and frankly compassion that they deserve while doing their best in turn.

    But also: how to change your attitude to that of a survivor, and yet also redefine your dreams. How to make a new game plan of life—while working to make life easier for yourself. How to deal, psychologically, with the likelihood that not only will you probably not get better, but also, you will probably get worse, while still never, ever, giving up.

    After all, many things are easily treatable today that mere decades ago were death sentences, and science is progressing all the time. We just have to stay alive, and in as good a condition as we reasonably can, to benefit from those advances!

    Bottom line: if you have a chronic disease, or if a loved one does, then this is an immensely valuable book to read.

    Click here to check out Managing Major Chronic Diseases, and make life easier!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Walnut, Apricot, & Sage Nut Roast

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s important to have at least one good nut roast recipe in your repertoire. It’s something that’s very good for making a good dish out of odds and ends that are in your house, and done well, it’s not only filling and nutritious, but a tasty treat too. Done badly, everyone knows the results can be unfortunate… Making this the perfect way to show off your skills!

    You will need

    • 1 cup walnuts
    • ½ cup almonds
    • ¼ cup whole mixed seeds (chia, pumpkin, & poppy are great)
    • ¼ cup ground flax (also called flax meal)
    • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
    • 1 large carrot, grated
    • 4 oz dried apricots, chopped
    • 3 oz mushrooms, chopped
    • 1 oz dried goji berries
    • ½ bulb garlic, crushed
    • 2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
    • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
    • 2 tsp dried rosemary
    • 2 tsp dried thyme
    • 2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
    • 1 tsp yeast extract (even if you don’t like it; trust us; it will work) dissolved in ¼ cup hot water
    • ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
    • Extra virgin olive oil

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Preheat the oven to 350℉ / 180℃, and line a 2 lb loaf tin with baking paper.

    2) Heat some oil in a skillet over a moderate heat, and fry the onion for a few minutes until translucent. Add the garlic, carrot, and mushrooms, cooking for another 5 minutes, stirring well. Set aside to cool a little once done.

    3) Process the nuts in a food processor, pulsing until they are well-chopped but not so much that they turn into flour.

    4) Combine the nuts, vegetables, and all the other ingredients in a big bowl, and mix thoroughly. If it doesn’t have enough structural integrity to be thick and sticky and somewhat standing up by itself if you shape it, add more ground flax. If it is too dry, add a little water but be sparing.

    5) Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin, press down well (or else it will break upon removal), cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, and bake for a further 15 minutes, until firm and golden. When done, allow it to rest in the tin for a further 15 minutes, before turning it out.

    6) Serve, as part of a roast dinner (roast potatoes, vegetables, gravy, etc).

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • In Praise of Slowness – by Carl Honoré

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    This isn’t just about “taking the time to smell the roses” although yes, that too. Rather, it’s mostly about looking at what drives us to speed everything up in the first place, and correcting where appropriate.

    If your ancestors had time to eat fruit and lie in the sun, then why, with all of modern technology now available, are you harangued 16+ hours a day by the pressures of universally synchronized timepieces?

    Honoré places a lot of the blame squarely on the industrial revolution; whereas previously our work would be limited by craftsmen who take a year to complete something, or the pace of animals in a field, now humans had to keep up with the very machines that were supposed to serve us—and it’s only got worse from there.

    This book takes a tour of many areas affected by this artificial “need for speed”, and how it harms not just our work-life balance, but also our eating habits, the medical attention we get, and even our love lives.

    The prescription is deceptively simple, “slow down”. But Honoré dedicates the final three chapters of the book to the “how” of this, when of course there’s a lot the outside world will not accommodate—but where we can slow down, there’s good to be gained.

    Bottom line: if you’ve ever felt that you could get all of your life into order if you could just pause the outside world for a week or two, this is the book for you.

    Click here to check out In Praise of Slowness, and make time for what matters most!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: