Getting Things Done

"Hello, my name is Shabbir Safdar, and I’m a David-Allen-aholic."

It was very recently that I discovered David Allen and his "Getting
Things Done" methodology for handling the enormous load of things that
you expect to do on a daily basis.  Allen was interviewed way back in May of 2000 in Fast Company, and the article has just recently made its way into my inbox.  The best highlight is this paragraph:

We suffer the stress of infinite opportunity: There are so many things
that we could do, and all we see are people who seem to be performing
at star quality. It’s very hard not to try to be like them. The problem
is, if you get wrapped up in that game, you’ll get eaten alive. You can
do anything — but not everything. The universe is full of creative
projects that are waiting to be done. So, if you really care about
quality of life, if you want to relax, then don’t focus on values. Just
control your aspirations. That will simplify things. Learning to set
boundaries is incredibly difficult for most people.

If you’re a Windows Outlook user, I strongly recommend you pick up the Outlook plugin
and corresponding eBook about managing your daily workload through the
Outlook Tasks system.  It’s made a huge difference in my mental
organization of my workload.