Tag: Organization

Sorry to pick up from nowhere but please search this blog for GTD for more…

And just for the record, I do not work for or am affiliated with DoIt.IM – indeed I am a bit worried that leaning on the software too much (and then having the company vanish) could be a liability…but I am still doing well with this combination.

Getting very into the book this week.

• Understanding Context much better now…you do the things you can do in that place…Not so afraid to spawn off projects into what they literally should be…anything I want to do that requires multiple steps to complete…which is everything, pretty much
• Lots on reference…so much I needed to add a “Create a great reference system” Project with steps referencing the book
• Today I ran into “day specific reminders” – something I am already doing but leaving myself a Calendar task to look over what I have and a few nice lists in the book.  Things like “I want to think about this one this day” – careers, events, possibilities
• Finally got to the “Tickler File” – something I was worried wasn’t in the DoIt software this looks like it is already handled by my use of DoIt.IM – and it looks like I am already tickling….things like “this has to be done on a certain day” – again, Calendar tasks – things that allow you to empty your mind of the stress of keeping track of it all.  The key to this – and all of GTD – is to use something you trust and review it regularly.  To get it out of your head and into something external.  These two bullets represent some intuition I already had about the system that now lets me see the difference between Next (which is next time I am free) and putting something on a calendar and pushing it back until it and the entire calendar becomes meaningless – I had been doing this.
• Left off reading the Checklists:Creative and Constructive Reminders section

Going well!

Today I’ll put in a rundown of my Next actions in my “GTD” project…

An article about Hipster PDA – moved to Someday
Make My Documents (Home Computer) into a GTD reference system – converted to Project
Review Waiting For and add due and reference dates – stays in Next
Review Slack page – moved to Someday
Remove Projects that aren’t really Projects – stays in Next
An article about working on weekends – moved to Someday
Productivity 101, GTD Primer – moved to Someday, to concentrate on finishing the book
Guide to note-taking – moved to Someday
GTD in Outlook – moved to Someday, so far my system of forwarding tasks and meetings to DoIT.IM works great for emails that break the two-minute rule
Schedules of Successful People article – moved to Someday
Contexts list reassessment – stays in Next
50 Rut-Busting Tips For Improved Workflow – moved to Someday

In addition, I added an item
Use notecards to enumerate/inbox everything around the apartment

This one will be short…  I’m getting close to 50% complete on the GTD book.

GTD usingthe Doit.IM workflow was fantastic coming back to work today after having Monday off.  Stress level was much lower than what surrounds these situations typically.  “Waiting For” list proved invaluable.

Still –

Someday, Next and “Reference” (which does not exist in the program/app/site at all) were still a bit of a blur for me.  I used Next a bit but I can’t help but feeling that I am not using it consistently.  I had so much stuff in Next that I ended up taking a little time to get some of it into Someday.  I created a “Reference” context not long ago but since it is not really a context, that adds complexity that does not work with this system.   I started thinking that it should be a Focus and put in a feature request for that.

I’ve previously put in a feature request to allow drag/drop to tags, which I have stopped using almost entirely.  My Inbox workflow is to drag a new item to context first and then to Project, which makes the item disappear from Inbox.  My workflow problem will be and is to not have the Focus set when I drag into a project…what’s wrong with that is Focus will make the item disappear from the Inbox, so you have to “chase” it, which is distracting if I am “Inboxing.”

General Projects aren’t really making it for me either – so I might leave tasks “Projectless” but I am not sure if that will increase stress…That’s all I have for today.

I’m about 1/3 through the book and have been resisting not reading any other books, with varying results.  I started reading another book on weekends but I need to rethink that and my time online.

Apparently maintaining a reference system is key to the GTD methodology.

So far, I have been a bit fuzzy on how to handle reference.  Doit.IM does not – on the surface – have a reference system so I’ve been using a “reference” context to note either something I may want to read someday (and adding it to the “someday” view) or to note something that could be useful for a project and dropping it under a project folder.

I’m starting to formulate something concerning these fuzzy areas where Doit and GTD meet –

– use tags for reference instead of having one giant reference context because I know I am not going to be consistent with it

– use context strictly for the place I do the task…my fuzzy area here is that I use a “computer” context to indicate work pc, home pc, smart phone or ipads…because so many apps are cross-platform.  I’m going to leave that fuzzy alone for now.

– use projects for work projects, for home projects but also maintain projects that are named things like “general photography” “music work” and “discovery – music art photo film”…these might break down later entirely or just become permanant containers from which to spawn more specific projects like “make a macro album on flickr” “mix down 1996 music material and release” “learn how to paint faces” and “get a car”…these projects are essentially review lists that have not been activated and will need a few hours to digest
– “goals” will be containers for projects and I am waiting until I see this called out in the book before I start to use them.

– also physical stuff – I have to spend a nice afternoon or month of weekends even filing physical things into these contexts and projects and into a reference system.  I’m waiting to get the electronic side sorted out a bit more but physical is coming soon.

I have been at David Allen’s system for about a month…using Doit.IM as the main electronic tool.  My Kindle app tells me that I am only 21% completed on the book, so I added that as a nightly task for myself.

I am just becoming aware that reviewing and reflecting are very important – not only for the daily popups that the app gives me but also looking back at the Next list .  This blog I believe is “reflecting”…I just hadn’t consciously thought of it…and consciously thinking of everything is apparently how the system works…

Still rather fuzzy on whether things should be goals or projects or tags.  Contexts I’ve got.  Projects make sense at work.  It’s really the stuff that are either “endless proejcts” like household general things or bills, things like that.  Harder to define.   Tags I almost hate – because the app can’t drag to them…they are almost an afterthought and I think a distraction.  Goals I like but I can see Goals as a collection of Projects.  This may be the way I do it.

The Next list has changed for me from being something that *has* to be done (because that is what the calendar is for) to things that you do when you have extra time.  A close cousin to the Next list are tasks that are not scheduled by time of day but rather by day.  Still mixing those up a bit and wishing I can see them all in one spot.   Something I should schedule would be reviewing the Next list, perhaps twice a day.

Someday list is huge and I need to schedule something like monthly to review this one….

Waiting list is crucial and needs to be checked several times a day, much like each Project list and the calendar.

So that’s where I am – scheduling reviews.  I’m not sure if this is in line with the system or if I am going too deep in that direction…I will keep reading the book and adjust as it makes more sense to me.

Things have been rolling along just fine using DoIt.IM and learning more and more about the GTD system…very full day today, from work goals, paying bills to going to the gym tonight (new membership).  Tired…but I got lots done!

So I’ve been using the GTD (Getting Things Done) system for organizing myself for just over a week now.  I am still reading the book and still only in the first “collecting” section but I have jumped ahead enough to be able to use the system with DoIt.IM software, which seems to be pretty aligned with the philosophy.

This will be a short post but things to note –

1. I’m doing well planning the day in the morning and reviewing it at night.
2. It seems to work very well at work and for helping me not forget bills and other unpleasant things.
3. I’m still a little rough on how it will help me organize my creativity and reading, which seems to be a bunch of “Someday” tasks that are piling up.  I think the idea is that I will clear the decks of the unpleasant stuff enough to where I can start to schedule time to do more creative things.
4. With social media, it’s great to schedule 2 days a week for most social media but I purposely didn’t try to tackle Facebook yet.
5. It’s been a good few days – no real emergencies.  Let’s see how it holds up when things get tough.

That’ll be it for today but I’ll be back next Tuesday for more…

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