From autumn 2009 to about February 2010 I went through the psychically most strenuous period of my life. Stress from work had pushed me close to burn out complete with both hypomaniac and depressive episodes. I consider getting out of this mental trap as the biggest hack of my life.

It was always easy for me to handle multiple things. I didn't need to write anything down and could handle upcoming situations easily and without a problem. Around September 2009 finally a point was reached where I couldn't keep up anymore. My workload just got to high and there were too many projects and things to keep in mind. I started stumbling from urgency to urgency, always in complete stress to keep things from exploding. Doing so gave me very little freedom. Flexible work hours sound good as a concept, but if you need to work 16 hours a day it doesn't leave you much room.

Working crazy hours without any control over the work I had to do and how I wanted to spend my time started to strain my mental health. Mistakes became more common and episodes of depression or hypomania became more frequent and severe. At this time two people I knew committed suicide, independent of each other. I could not only understand their actions but it further seemed a valid option in my own situation. This was an incredibly frightening discovery. There were evenings I stayed at lab and worked simply because I didn't trust myself if I left the room. It was pretty obvious that this situation had to change.

So I began looking for help. Talking to the ones closest to me as well as professionals. One night in this phase, after working around 12 hours (I considered this to be a short day), I arrived home and M told me he finally had all his private projects organized in his GTD system. I looked at him puzzled and he briefly explained the system known as Getting Things Done (short GTD) and the tool he uses. Something clicked. I sat down immediately and started to input my work into the system. I ordered David Allens Book, the foundation of the principle the same night. At 2 am I was finished and fell into bed completely exhausted.

I had previously had to-do lists and tried to keep track of things. I never succeeded. Simply because, since I could manage most things easily without it I didn't see the point. This time was different. The effect was immediate and incredible. The next week I worked like crazy, finishing the book on the weekend it arrived. I spend days and nights at lab, sleeping little and constantly doing things. I had never had a boost in productivity like that before. Until then my desk used to be a heap of papers. One day I cleaned my desk and it has been clean since then. About a week later I suddenly arrived at the point where I had done everything that was urgent or overdue. For the first time since 4-5 months I could decide what to do next.

But not only did I get more productive immediately, the psychological effects were profound. My mood stabilized very soon and I was more relaxed. The visit of a friend some weeks in the future wasn't an additional problem anymore but something I could look forward to. I knew I could spend time with her and still not come back and have everything falling apart. If anyone before had ever told me that organizing myself had such a profound effect I would have laughed at them. I simply couldn't imagine that a simple strategy to organize yourself had such an effect on the psyche. Getting Things Done seems to be about business and productivity on the surface, but as Merlin Mann points out in a talk he gave recently: It is about attention.

Turning from a biphasic chaotic maniac into a relaxed much more organized person is indeed the biggest hack I've pulled off so far.