Okay, I admit it. I am not the most organized person in the world. As I sit right now, I am surrounded by papers, stacks of books, post-it notes, a tangle of various connector cables, a pad of paper with a jumble of notes scrawled every which way, and a few cat toys in the mix. I call it the “piles-o-crap” system: everything goes into a pile, and when I need something, I dig.

I also suffer from feeling like there is so much to do that I don’t know where to begin, or what to do next. So I wing it—I do whatever is most appealing in the moment. Or do whatever has an imminent deadline: pay bills, write the agenda for my next meeting in one hour, etc.

While I like to think that this no-system system works for me, I’m starting to suspect that I’m actually wasting huge amounts of time and energy because while I have lots of ideas, to-do lists, calendars, and other tools around, I don’t have a very effective system for using any of it. It’s completely haphazard. Deadlines get missed, good ideas disappear because I haven’t found a way to capture them, phone numbers go missing, and my goals and plans get literally buried in the mix, which means I’m not using those goals and plans in the way they are supposed to be used.

Enter my new favorite book: Getting Things Done by David Allen. Now, this is not a new book. It’s probably at least ten years old. But if you need help figuring out a way to start getting a handle on your stuff, from time management to inbox control, he’s the guy to read. Allen says that there is a “natural” planning technique that we all use unconsciously and less effectively than we could. With a few tricks, tools, and systems, you can leverage that natural technique to create a system that keeps you doing the right actions, in the right order, managing information and tasks in a way that produces better, faster results than your current modus operendi.

So much to do, so little time…does that sound familiar? According to Allen, he has found that “lack of time is not the major issue…the real problem is a lack of clarity and definition about what a project really is, and what the associated next-action steps required are.” In other words, when you start to define your desired outcomes as well as what steps are need in order to get there, you are able to use your available resources more effectively, whether it’s brainpower or time. Productivity goes up, stress goes down.

Is it simple? Well, it depends on how you define simple. Allen walks you through creating a system for everything from how to capture all of the incoming “stuff”, to how to organize it, to how to plan and manage action steps. It takes awhile to build the system and get all of your “stuff” into the right spots, but once you do, you have a very powerful tool in your hands that can help you hold your focus, plan and implement projects and ideas, reduce feelings of overwhelm, and help you feel okay about what you’re not doing.

Even if you don’t use the whole system, Allen offers some great little tricks and ideas that are worthwhile—how to create a usable file system, for example. Or using one piece of paper per idea, rather than a whole bunch of notes on one piece (like my former system).

In any case, I’m in. With so much to do and so little time, I want to make sure I’m making the best use of the time I have, and this system promises to help. Stay tuned!