Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity pdfdrive com

The Value of a Bottom-Up Approach
I have discovered over the years the practical value of working on personal
productivity improvement from the bottom up, starting with the most mundane,
ground-floor level of current activity and commitments. Intellectually, the most
appropriate way 
ought
to be to work from the top down, first uncovering
personal and corporate missions, then defining critical objectives, and finally
focusing on the details of implementation. The trouble is, however, that most
people are so embroiled in commitments on a day-today level that their ability to
focus successfully on the larger horizon is seriously impaired. Consequently, a
bottom-up approach is usually more effective.
Getting current on and in control of what’s in your in-basket and on your mind
right now, and incorporating practices that can help you 
stay
that way, will
provide the best means of broadening your horizons. A creative, buoyant energy
will be unleashed that will better support your focus on new heights, and your
confidence will increase to handle what that creativity produces. An immediate
sense of freedom, release, and inspiration naturally comes to people who roll up
their sleeves and implement this process.
You’ll be better equipped to undertake higher-focused thinking when your
tools for handling the resulting actions for implementation are part of your
ongoing operational style. There are more meaningful things to think about than
your in basket, but if your management of that level is not as efficient as it could
be, it’s like trying to swim in baggy clothing.
Vision is not enough; it must be combined with
venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps;
we must step up the stairs.
—Vaclav Havel
Many executives I have worked with during the day to clear the decks of their
mundane “stuff” have spent the following evening having a stream of ideas and
visions about their company and their future. This happens as an automatic
consequence of unsticking their workflow.

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