Few days back (Friday to be exact), after successfully simplifying the desk at work, I turned my attention to the 50 hours planned marathon for simplifying the environment at home. Here is a little update on the same.

On Saturday, I received two books that made me take a step back and rethink the vision and goals. The first book "The 25 best time management tools and techniques" and "Getting things Done". Both incredible books! I had a choice to make, either continue down the path of marathon cleansing or take the time and figure out what these books are saying. Learning something new took precedence.

So, this Monday, I find myself abstracted away from the home into the wonderful starbucks cafe in my town. Fortified with a Grande Gautemalan slow roast coffee with skim milk, I studied the 25 best time management tools and techniques.  As I read and did all the exercises, what struck me immensely is that, this in not the book for "do this- and -you will better manage x time". It would be indeed comical, if the book said that! As I read, I found myself really asking myself what is my vision for life and work? what do I want to achieve? what are the essential focus items for me? This is not a to-do list, but a living breathing statement, that will evolve and mature (as I hope to too!).

Great! So, I have a vision and mission statement! The 25 tools and tips talks about distilling a focus (inline with my values and vision) and then setting goals, planning, organizing, taking action, reviewing the goals and then redo the cycle. All this is really good read! Now what! here is when I think Getting Things Done is an awesome book. I just started to read the book and it talks about the five stages to go about getting it really done! Not just talking about do this and don't do that! More about this when I get down to it.