Your "Getting Things Done" System
Brandon solarce' Bowman
a Firefox on OS X thread. Today I blocked off the majority of the day
to really try and wrestle my life and organizational skills into line
with the "Getting Things Done" philosophy. More concerning the details
of that venture will be posted on http://www.inatree.org and
http://www.solarce.org shortly, as the details are largely superfluous.
My reason for posting to the news group is to inquire as to how you,
my fellow 43f/gtd'ers have implemented a system along the lines David
Allen recommends and Merlin Mann advocates. I also am going to outline
my "system" as I am working towards, with the hopes that you will
critique, advise, and so forth, for my and everyone's benefit. So
before I launch into my "system," I'd also like you all to post
regarding your system, how you realized it worked best for you, why it
does, which technoligical and which "low tech" tools you use and why,
and how successful you've been/how difficult it was getting started and
using your "system."
My "system" as I envision it consists of the following:
-- One pocket-sized Moleskine which accompanies me at all times for the
purposes of data capture to later be "dumped" into the system, along
with legal pads left all over my office/apartment, cubicle at work, and
car.
-- A Day Planner which I picked up at Office Max, using some knockoff
2PPD (Page-Per-Day) inserts, which I find to be the most useful. The
purpose of the day planner is to serve as a mirror for iCal, as I am
not able to access my laptop or a computer at either of my current
jobs, and the day planner provides a way for me to add updates and such
during the periods of the day that I am at work. For the most part the
day planner is fairly low traffic.
-- iCal, this is meant to be my "hard edges' calendar which contains
Date Specific/Sensitive items and for re-occuring tasks which need to
be defined and captured.
-- Textmate, this is really the heart of my system, as I see, I feel
the need to mold Textmate into my system as I paid good money for it
and Merlin, Daniel, Rousette, and others have had large success with.
My intent is to keep a series of contextual todo lists using text
files, an inbox text file for a dumping ground, a seperate Projects
file, and of course a text file for my Next Actions List. In order to
ease maintenance of the lists, my plan is to use a Ruby script which
will crawl my Next Action List and noted items which are marked as done
and remove them from the contextual list or Project list, depending.
Also, to ease the process of adding items, I plan to make use of some
of Textmate's numerous features, and also, as Merlin outlined in a post
on http://www.43folders.com, using Quicksilver to quickly add things
into my "inbox," when I am on my iBook.
-- Tracks, I had originally planned to do "double entry" regarding my
Contextual Todo Lists and Projects, as I like the idea of being able to
create an RSS feed of your Lists and it being browser based has its
plusses. But, at this point I find the Tracks interface to be
"uncomfortable" and it isn't apparent to me how to modify Tracks so
that it will listen on the external IP address on not just localhost,
which would be useful to me for my cross-platform needs. So at this
point I am factoring Tracks out of the equation, but will re-evaluate
it as Rousette works on her fabulous application.
Beyond that, I am of course trying to create a habit of both a "Daily
Dump" of all the data I collect in my Moleskine and on other random
bits of paper/notecard/index card into my "system" and also a Weekly
Review period, most likely on Friday night/Saturday afternoon,
depending on my time constraings.
As I said before, please feel free to provide insights, critiques,
flames, or whatever regarding my "system" and also share with use your
"system(s)."
Thanks,
Brandon "solarce' Bowman
Mac OS X/Linux Geek
http://www.inatree.org
http://www.solarce.org
John SJ Anderson
<sol...@fallingsnow.net> wrote:
>
> As I said before, please feel free to provide insights, critiques,
> flames, or whatever regarding my "system" and also share with use your
> "system(s)."
"authoritative" source of information in a couple of different spots,
and that's going to make the whole thing brittle. It's not the
duplication per se that's a problem -- I don't think there's really a
way to do a system that involves paper components without some
duplication and copying of info (and I don't think it's possible to do
a decent system without some paper components...) -- it's that it's
not clear to me which place is going to be "the" place that all the
information flows into. IMO, there has to be *one* definitive place
for your next action information, your overall plans, etc. I'm not
sure you've got that one place in your setup.
It also seems rather "designed" -- by which I guess I mean it seems
complex -- not necessarily a bad thing, but I think after you use it
for a week or three, some of the rough corners are going to get worn
away, and you'll be surprised at what you have versus what you started
out with. Let us know. 8^)=
cheers,
john.
--
genehack.org * weblog == ( bioinfo / linux / opinion / stuff )
Norm
very disciplined about weekly review, but that isn't the 'system's"
fault.
On my Palm, the only app that didn't come with the original Palm OS is
Natara Bonsai, which I am trying out since I seem to need an out
liner. In it, I have one outline for 'work' and another for
'everything else.' The outlines are my project lists.
I never use Bonsai on my PC, and I never sync my Palm with a PC. Well,
almost never. I could replace Bonsai with the Palm memo app - that's
what I used before trying Bonsai.
For the NA lists, I use the Palm To Do, with context categories that
are right out of GTD. One category I never use is @waiting_for, but I
leave it there for when I have more waiting for items. :)
Idea capturing is done in many ways, i just try to make sure i am
never without either my pocket briefcase or similar. I don't like
using the Palm for 'notes'.'
I am not much of a calendar user - just don't have many meetings or
appointments.
I have an ugly looking hanging file holder on my office desk, and I do
use it - just not very much. On my project list is finding a 43 folder
setup i can keep in plain sight in my home that doesn't offend my
aesthetics.
I have toyed with other ideas, and will probably go all paper in the
near future.
Norm
Norm
==============
Brandon solarce' Bowman
http://www.inatree.org/index.php?p=47
Thanks
Steve Mallory
eventually find a system that works for them. Different strokes for
different folks. I have tweaked my system several times, both paper
and electronic. For me the main thing was to focus on the concept,
understand it and practice it. As you go along you will find out what
works for you and change things as you go along. My personal opinion
is that a lot of people spend more time worrying about their "system"
than using the basic concepts of GTD; get the info out of your mind
into a reliable, fast and simple system that you use daily. Use what
you think will work for you and realize that you are going to change
it several times.
Don't get too caught up in the "system"
YMMV
Robert Lynch
place, so you don't have to spend a lot of time looking for things or
maintaining the system.
I'm sure a perfectly workable GTD system could be even simpler than
mine, but I've only been trying for a couple of months now. Here's
what I use:
1. A pocket Moleskine as a traveling inbox -- this is where I write
things that come to me over lunch, in the car, in hallway
conversations, etc.
2. A wire basket on my desk, as a conventional inbox. When I take a
legal pad to meetings, the notes from the meetings go into this inbox
when I get back to my desk.
3. A single Microsoft Word document, for my lists. I don't have a lot
of appointments and scheduled things, so my calendar is just a list.
I have 14 items on the list for February and March, including 7
doctor's appointments for my wife, who is very pregnant. The Word doc
is one page, front and back, two columns.
4. A 3x5 card box as a tickler file.
5. Good old manila folders in a desk drawer for reference.
Each morning, I process my inboxes and add new items to the lists in
Word. I also remove finished items from the Word doc, then print it
out and fold it into my Moleskine. Much of the time, the Moleskine
sits open on my desk with the partially-unfolded Word doc on top of it
so my lists are handy.
I collect fountain pens, so having a paper system was part of making
the system fun to use -- I get to play with my toys. This setup is
also lightweight, which is a big advantage over the letter-size day
planner I was trying to use before. And since my lists are printed
each day, I have a freshly updated version with me all the time,
regardless of a computer.
--
Robert Lynch
robert...@gmail.com
Mekkaniak
few things. First, you need a one canonical place for your lists. As
soon as you have more than one, confusion is around the corner. Been
there, done that.
Secondly, it must be as simple as possible for you to use. Anything
else and you will soon find yourself postponing adding things to your
lists. I have moved from Palm, to note software on laptop, to webserver
with Wiki and the next step seems to be paper and pencil. The more I
tweak my GtD system, the simpler and more analog it becomes. It is the
KISS principle all over.
Scott Lawrence
must be fun to use. If it's not fun, you'll dread doing it.
:)
Josh Rothman
it's more or less OFF the computer, and it doesn't rely on any
particular apps or very specific computer-related processes. (Brandon:
if you're looking for feedback on your system, I would say _simplify_.
It seems like you're keeping doubles unnecessarily and reliant a little
too much on technology for what should be a very simple task: keeping
lists and moving items around inside them. This is speaking just from
my personal experience, but GTD is actually really easy to manage
without all this stuff, which just invites tinkering, etc.)
Anyway, my system is:
- Levenger Circa day planner. I like this because it's weekly, and
because I can put new blank sheets into it at any point; so, for
example, right in the middle of two facing pages (one week) I can put a
blank sheet, and use both sides to make ad hoc lists and 'write out
loud.' It also has a nice 'monthly to-do' template that serves as a
kind of tickler for me.
- Levenger International Pocket Briefcase, which is basically just a
note-taker wallet; it uses 3 x 5 cards.
- Big old regular inbox.
- 4 x 6 card file, 3 x 5 cards, and 3 x 5 coin envelopes for organizing
tasks and projects. I took this system from JoshD, who posted it to
Flickr a while ago. Basically you put a next action on each card and
put the cards in coin envelopes.
Basically I write stuff down on index cards in my wallet, then toss
them into my inbox. If I need to re-word what I wrote, I just do it on
the other side of the card, then I put it in a coin envelope. My hard
landscape, tickler, etc., is in my agenda; I have a folder in my desk
called 'Action Support' into which I put things that might get
'tickled' later. (This is not quite what David Allen had in mind for
'Action Support' but it works great fo rme.) I also take notes on books
and stuff on 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 note cards and file them away for later in
the card file.
The general principle I've found most helpful is one I saw on 43F that
basically said: "When stuck, make lists." My system works for me
because it has so many opportunities for list-making; in my wallet, in
my agenda, and on index cards, which I always have floating around in
quantity. Back when I used the computer I wasn't able to just stick
lists everywhere, since they just don't belong in iCal and weren't
working in my TextMate files and didn't make sense in my Palm. Paper is
just way more flexible for me.
A while ago I started a 'commonplace book' thread, since the only
missing piece of my system is, essentially, note-taking and archiving
of those notes digitally. I'm hoping to get that ironed out soon; but
so far this is a system that works very well for me.