Getting Things Done as a Translation Business

Translation is a business and good NAATI translators know how to satisfy the needs of their clients. However, there is more to translation than performing the translations themselves. They have to run their businesses effectively too. There is one methodology that is being used at present and that is called the getting things done (GTD) methodology. It takes a bit of time to get to grips with it, but it is basically divided into a set of actions as outlined below:

1) Capture ideas

This means record all ideas that come into your head and write them down immediately. if you have your smartphone available you could even quickly send an email to yourself with your ideas. It's amazing how easy it is if you are busy and an idea comes to your mind and you forget it if it's not written down somewhere.

2) Clarification

Clarify when you intend to action your ideas. When you have a list of ideas that need to be actioned anything that can be done in just two minutes set your mind to doing it right now. Other ideas you will have to list in order of priority and break the tasks in easy to do steps. It's quite surprising how using GTD frees up a lot more time whether for work or leisure tasks.

3) Organisation

This is organising ideas that are actionable into categories which are then prioritised. You can at this point set a date for each actionable idea.

4) Reflection

Look through your translation services list of actionable ideas and decide when each should be done which makes good use of available time. This means not scheduling on, for example, late Friday something like your blog page which may require more engagement when your mind is really on what you intend to do over the weekend. You are better spending your time tidying up your desktop for the next week's work load.

5) Engagement

Ensure that the task you choose to work on will fully engage you. This is of utmost importance if you want to make full use of the time available to organise your business and get your translation work done too.

Another GTD tactic is making use of the concept "Kanban". This has been used in manufacturing industries in the project management environment and it suggests that cards or notes are used as reminders and they are stuck onto a board for you to see easily. The Kanban board can be divided up into things "To do", "What you are Doing" and "What you have Done". The basic idea of the Kanban is to record the various steps of each post and then each one gets moved from the To do, to the Doing and then to the Done. Kanban offers a visual way of seeing the progress of your projects.