Tim Ferris often writes and talks about Parkinson’s law. Basically it says that a task or project will contract or expand to the amount of time you allocate for it. I believed it was true based on some simple examples in my own life and through reading about others who had more complex examples.

Well the principle is true and let me tell you why. Not that I had any real doubt before, but doing something and saying something are worlds apart.

The example: tax preparation.

My CPA sends a letter that basically says hey your stuff is due March 23rd. Problem-I am leaving for a short mini vacation with the family. A long overdue one. I don’t really have a choice because even if we file an extension the books need updated and the docs organized so an attempt to estimate payments can be made. Bummer- I thought I could sign a form and procrastinate this mammoth project until I came home. In the past few months I had estimated that this project, which I’ll explain below, would take two weeks solid. My wife never totally believed me and turns out she was both right and wrong.

Now let me paint the picture. I started my business in the fall of 2007. I didn’t have much in the way of banking statements or financials in 2007. It was mainly start-up stuff. In 2008, I had a credit card and a business checking account and all the transactions which go with them. I used Quickbooks but not properly. I knew I was balanced through my online banking and register, but I failed to enter all credit card receipts and reconcile them. The same went for bank statements. My CPA told me that it had to be done. Wow-18 months of credit card receipts and bank transactions to reconcile! Then gathering personal tax records (that part was easier as we have a system for organizing them throughout the year), and putting it all together for delivery.

I started at 7PM while watching my favorite basketball team lose in the NIT. Not exactly motivating stuff. I knew that at 9AM we were leaving for Gatlinburg, TN. I had others thing to do as well like packing. This was much easier because we live a simple and organized life, but still it amazed me that it was possible. I starting sorting all the receipts based on credit card or business checking account. I then clipped them together based on the month. All 18 of them. I went back and entered any missing transactions from bank statements, alternating the credit card statements as well. I did this all night and into the morning. I reconciled each statement as I went. I kept 2007 separate from 2008 and from 2009 for filing and tax purposes. To my amazement everything balanced. I backed everything up to a flash drive and looked at the clock-6AM.

I spent the next two hours organizing personal schedule C, D and normal deductions like charitable, medical, etc. I packed and attended to other tasks. I pulled all this together in a package and we delivered it to the CPA firm on the way. A sorry goes out to my in-laws as we did add about an hour to the commute.

So does Parkinson’s Law work? Remember when I said my wife was both right and wrong, well she was. If I had tackled this over a few weeks it would have taken a few weeks or longer. Giving myself no other options but to finish it between 7PM and 9AM, I finished it and I feel like it was a better output as well.

No, I did not drive on the trip and got some good sleep the next few nights. I’ll take that trade-off. No I’m not recommending you batch your accounting annually either- maybe monthly.

Don’t really believe whether a principle works- stop talking about it and try it!

After reading a post from Russell Quinn at Spoiled Milk I was inspired to rethink the way I use GTD in combination with Backpack. I have borrowed some from Russell’s system, kept some of my own system and incorporated some other ideas as well. This has all become possible with the great news that you can reorder your sidebar in Backpack.

If you read Russell Quinn’s explanation you will quickly see that I have borrowed the Dropbox/Inbox home page tip. Which I think was the most powerful for me. Before my homepage was a hodgepodge of next action lists, ideas, my @task lists, and even some projects made there way onto the homepage. Next I borrowed the ^ Tasks, ^ Projects, ^ Waiting For, ^ Tickler, ^ To Buy, ^ Someday/Maybe although I was already using a few of these in a similar manner.

The next series of pages are prefixed with *. These pages are strictly reference pages which I might need certain days of the week, times of the month and during meetings.

The next series of pages are prefixed with @. All these pages are projects with more than five actions. Those I keep at the top of the page in the ^ Projects Page. Some of these projects are recurring like my Squidoo lenses, my weekly ezine and some annual events I organize.

Another prefix I use is $ and this marks all the pages for my blogs. These are blogs I run and ones I contribute to with others. It’s easy for me to take ideas in my inbox/dropbox daily and move them into the appropriate @ blog page.

Last is a list with no prefix. These are pages I share with small business and non profit customers. We collaborate on work for their wordpress blogs or social media campaigns. I also use these pages to share video tutorials and screencasts for training and digital coaching purposes.

Backpack is so great and there are so many uses. I recommend it to everyone. Whether you are a small business, a solo professional or a freelancer, sign up for a free account or trial.

My wife and I probably don’t talk enough- I’m sure that’s the case as far as she is concerned. She is the one who told me that woman speak more than twice the number of words in a day as men do. So I thought I was off the hook. Not so much. Well when we need to talk about something important like issues of faith, parenting or date night; we sit down and discuss them face to face. I’m not suggesting you become a robot in dealing with your spouse or family, but for the little interruption conversations throughout the day- we’ve opted for the Backpack message board. I can make a quick post in the newsroom and my wife is immediately notified via email or text. Now instead of the old way (replying to a chain of six emails- which isn’t so bad in Gmail) you can each take time to reply to the post when you find the time. No more interruptions via phone calls or emails that need a reply. The whole conversation is right in front of you and it’s organized by all the different post topics.

Just this last week, My wife I had handled the following tasks within Backpack’s message board.

1. Dog’s vet trip, and which account to use for payment.
2. RSVP ing for a kids fall bonfire/hayride.
3. How to handle servicing the heater before we crank it on this year. It was 32 last night in Louisville, KY.
4. Fixing an incorrect medical bill.
5. Coordinating a dinner for friends of ours who just had a baby.
6. Registering for a class at church.
7. Preparing a list of things we needed for our monthly Costco trip.

These were just a few. When the task or issue is resolved we delete the message. Pretty simple. When we check email or blogs, we just check Backpack’s newsroom as well.

I’m sure there are a ton of other digital tools and programs that will also get the job done. Backpack is so intuitive that we opt for it.

After reading almost all of Zen Habits popular blog posts this weekend, I have reaffirmed a decision I had been leaning toward. My family and I are going to put the blinders on and see how much focus we can exhibit in the next 6 months. This was inspired by lots of thought and prayer and a little nudge from Seth Godin’s blog last week. Here are the bullet points:

• We are continuing our process of simplifying life by selling our larger home and moving into a smaller one with about half the payment.
• We are purging even more of our furniture, kids toys, clothes and other “stuff”- my favorite term for everything I don’t really need that takes up space in my home and my mind. I’m all for stockpiling some things which I’ll talk more about in future posts.
• We are cutting expenses and increasing our means per Ben Franklin’s famous quote.

The road to wealth lies in augmenting our means or diminishing our wants, either will do, but the quickest way to wealth is to do both at the same time- Ben Franklin

• We are going to lose the excess weight we’ve gained while having three children the last 3 years.
• We are going to stop doing things that we don’t value or that don’t serve others. No will be a frequent answer.
• We are going to wake up early and go to bed early.
• We are going to focus on growing our primary income through our services to local small business owners.
• We are going to create multiple residual income streams through Eniva and their wonderful health product Vibe and through some other means I won’t mention here.
• We are going to start investing our US dollars in gold- actual gold coins minted in Australia. One is shaky and decreasing the other has stood the test of time.
• We are going to start investing money with Euro Pac capital and Peter Schiff’s team.
• We are going to continue giving money to the ministries, missionaries, our church and local charities/nonprofits. We’ll make every effort to increase our support.
• We are going to pay off our business debt and avoid it like the plague for the rest of our lives.
• We are going to start enjoying life like the famous story of the Mexican Fisherman. I’ve never read this blog but they were the first result in Google so they get the link. I first read this story in Dan Miller’s book.

We may fall directly on our face and miss the mark, but I have a sneaky feeling our situation will look a lot better if we put forth this effort. The blinders are going on. We’ve planned a few rewards along the way for hitting certain benchmarks and we’ve committed to keeping our plans simple. Small daily improvements are the focus. Massive action through a series of small steps with one foot in front of the other. I’ve always had a problem with focus, so I’ll let you know how the battle is going. It will be a battle, but the stakes are too high today to sit on the sidelines. If you’re up for it, let’s draw a line in the sand today and hold one another accountable.

Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler- Einstein

Simplify, Simplify- Thoreau

To close, a large men’s bible study I attended this weekend had a guest pastor who taught us about simplicity. He said following Christ is not always easy, but it’s never complicated. He quoted Micah 6:8 which says “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” No matter what your faith background is, these principles are timeless. Justice- Mercy- Humility.

For me elimination is always the toughest efficiency technique to master. Timothy Ferris of 4 Hour Work Week fame, is a nice balance to David Allen’s GTD. Sometimes no matter how well we collect it, process it, organize it and review it, you still can’t do everything. Sometimes it’s effective to do a Commando Raid, as Peter J Daniels suggests. Sometimes we have to simply eliminate as Timothy Ferris suggests.

I often joke with my wife, that I could get along quite nicely with my golf clubs/bag- a laptop/printer- and my favorite books. The rest of the time I could sit and connect with people drinking coffee in front of a fire. Sure I love my wife and kiddos so I would never take certain joys and niceties away from them, but it is funny to see how kids can have fun with the simplest things. My 3 year old daughter and 2 year old son ( our baby girl is only 6 months and she watches with visions of participating) can play for an hour with the following objects:

• a cardboard box
• some bowls and spatulas
• dirt

Even though I say I can get along with very little, I look around at my office and it gets piled up with clutter from time to time. Things I’ll never use. Things I will never read again. Distractions and reasons to procrastinate.

I think I’ll eliminate some things tonight. I think I’ll do the same with my schedule. No is a great word that’s full of conviction when you say it, mean it, and stick to it. I often say it, kinda mean it, and then hedge when I’m asked a second time.

Breaking your word to yourself is just as damaging as breaking it to others.

Here are some pics of our system:

It doesn’t have to work for everyone but it works for us.

Notice how our safe opens from the top. This particular safe was purchased from Costco, but unfortunatley they only carry the front opening type now- in Louisville that is. Our particular model is a sentry and I’m sure it can be purchased many places.

Within the categories of groupings we have individual folders and documents. Here is a list of some to the folders with others left out to protect the innocence. I don’t worry much about things like indentity theft but because I’ve been outspoken about it- I went ahead and purchased LifeLock. Neat service.

The following categories: Business Checking- Household Checking or Cash Accounts-Savings-Retirement Accounts-Credit Accounts-Ownership Documents-Legal Documents-Important Documents-Mortgages-Insurance-Social Security-Tax Returns-Medical Records are filled using the following folders:

• Business checking account A
• Business checking account B
• Business checking account C
• Household Checking A (joint checking account if you’re married- or main account if single)
• Savings A
• Child 1 Savings (this could be savings bonds, college funding accounts, or just bank savings
• Child 2 Savings
• Child 3 Savings
• Retirement account husband 1 ( if you have employer plans and IRA’s I would separate them)
• Retirement account wife 2
• Credit Account 1
• Business Credit Account
• Titles (car titles, boat or other things that have title)
• Deeds (to your home, rental property, condo, timeshare, etc)
• Contracts (business, legal ownership
• Power of Attorney
• Healthcare Directives (living will)
• Trust
• Wills
• Identification (social security cards, passports, birth certificates)
• Personal licenses (marriage, etc)
• Professional licenses (teaching certificate, insurance, etc)
• Mortgage 1
• Mortgage 2
• Health and Dental insurance
• Umbrella policy
• Personal property (rings, antiques)
• Dwelling (rental property)
• Auto
• Homeowners
• Life
• LTC
• Disability
• Group benefits
• Social Security Husband
• Social Security Wife
• Tax Returns last 7-10 years
• Medical records and large bills

Hopefully you found this helpful. Don’t have time to do it we can always help.

Because if you don’t follow it you end up typing blogs like this a week after they were supposed to be done.

You also will end up having a next actions list the size of Websters dictionary.

You may also end up with a stack of papers to file that covers your office floor.

You could also end up missing a few deadlines.

You could also get behind on your reading.

You may also skip some of your best practices when it comes to marketing and sales.

You may also procrastinate important projects or great someday maybe items.

If you haven’t guessed I’m speaking from experience. I have missed my last few weekly reviews and I’m now paying the price. I am reaping what I sowed and the golf game is suffering needlessly.

Collection baskets would been any designated means to which you collect information that requires an action by you. That action could be a variety of actions but the key is that it requires your mental energy to decide what to do with this information.

What are your collection baskets? I’d love to know.

Here are some of mine:

My digital recorder on my black jack cell phone. If I meet someone new I will shortly after talk into the recorder. If I have a great idea at night- then I’ll wake in a stupor and record my thought.

Next I have a physical Inbox on my desk.

I have my email inbox.

I have a white board on the wall in my office where I’ll record ideas, schematics, plans etc.

I use 37 signals backpack and highrise products. Both of these web-based productivity software’s have collection buckets.

I also have a small notepad that fits into my pocket. It doubles as a second wallet. I keep business cards, notes and receipts in here until I empty it.