As I mentioned earlier, I recently decided to read Getting Things Done (GTD). As most of you know already, the book describes a relatively simple methodology for dealing with the “stuff” (calls, appointments, projects, etc) of daily life.
So far, I’m very impressed. The clearest measurement metric I have is my email inbox: I went from having 200+ messages (and sometimes far more) to zero. Plus, I’m now able to keep my inbox clean, despite getting 200+ new messages each day.
Aside from that, GTD appeals to me for a few other reasons. First, it describes a complete system–I can use GTD to capture almost all of the things going on in my life in a single, logical repository. In theory, I should then be able to worry less about what I have to do next or what I may have inadvertently forgotten (in fact, this is one of the book’s key premises: productivity is directly related to our ability to relax and, with a usable organizational system, we should be able to keep a clear mind and be more effective). Second, the system describes a reasonable method to manage daily “workflow.” In particular, this involves separating the acts of collecting, processing and acting on information. Before, I didn’t consciously realize that doing so would be helpful. In practice, it’s now much much easier for me to find what I need, stay organized, and generally stay on top of my agenda.
In this post I’ll highlight a few of the tweaks I’ve applied to the basic system. I won’t go into details behind GTD’s fundamental process; for that, you should read the book or check some of resources available elsewhere. In particular, if you’re interested, I suggest you visit the archives of 43Folders (especially the wiki), Lifehack, David Allen’s own site (especially the “free articles” section), and also the comments from my original post–several readers had very good suggestions (thanks to those who left their thoughts).
One more background note: I use Windows. Tempted to switch to a Mac (especially since neither kGTD nor Quicksilver run on Windows) , but haven’t done so yet.
All that in mind, below are a few ideas (note that some of this might not make sense until after you’ve read the book):
- Since I live on email, I decided to use Outlook to run my GTD system. I decided to not use David Allen’s Outlook plugin, for reasons I’ll describe shortly.
- The single best complement to GTD is a desktop search product. I like X1 as it’s fast, has a good interface, and doesn’t hog computer resources. If you aren’t yet using X1 or an equivalent, you should. Doing so will let you easily and quickly find any email or file you have, no matter where it’s stored on your computer.
- Using regular Outlook folders, I’ve set up folders (and subfolders, as shown by the indented entries) as follows:
@Action
Agenda/introductions
Brainstorm
Calls
Emails
Errands
Home
Office
Weekend
@Projects
@Someday
@Waiting For
@Reviews - Any and all items get filed as you would expect. If necessary, I write myself an email and file it, as appropriate. I don’t use Outlook Tasks as they aren’t searchable by X1 (this is why I didn’t use Allen’s Outlook plugin).
- If I’m away from my PC, I can access all of the above folders on my Blackberry.
- On a related note, I track a few dozen RSS feeds. I use an Outlook-based RSS reader (my preference is NewsGator, though there is a good freeware equivalent [thanks, Mike]) as I can then find any old RSS entry via X1.
- To track delegated items, I created an Outlook rule that automatically files a copy of emails in the “@Waiting For” folder if they are sent to a certain address (which corresponds to a Gmail account I set up but don’t actually use). For example, let’s say that the name of my Gmail account is WaitingForTrackerAccount@gmail.com. The Outlook rule would look for any emails sent to that address (I have an alias to make it easier to type) and then file a copy of that message in the “@Waiting For” folder. In practice, when I delegate an action, I send an email to the appropriate person and BCC my WaitingForTrackerAccount address. I then automatically get a record of all delegated items.
- I turned off the instant notification feature for new messages and instead set Outlook to check for new messages once every 30 minutes. I don’t need a distraction every time new email arrives.
Some of these practices may work for you; my guess is that most people take bits and pieces of various GTD implementations (rather than using 100% of the methods described in the original book or elsewhere) and form their own system. Also, it’s worth noting that it takes a fairly substantial amount of time to properly go through the initial setup. In the end, I think it’s worth it.
If you’re still reading and are already using the system, I’d appreciate if you leave a comment with thoughts or suggestions. If you’re still reading and haven’t yet read the book, I encourage you to take a look.
Hi Dan. Welcome to the world of GTD. Firstly, I agree with your conclusion that desktop search is one of the most important tools to support your GTD implementation. Personally I use Google, but have used others in the past.
Secondly, I encourage people to really get to know GTD in its pure form before modifying. I think its important to be able recognise the difference between modify a technique of GTD, vs. modifying a supporting principle. A principle should only be modified when you really understand its essence, but a technique can be modified as long as it supports the principle.
I wrote about this in a blog post called “Shu-Ha-Ri and GTD” back in June.
Another point, make sure that you review consistently. The 2 biggest weaknesses I see in many people’s personal productivity implementations include:
1) They prepare good next actions lists, but fail to review them when in the moment (context).
2) They don’t keep their projects, next actions and other lists current and clean through a regularly thorough system level review. David Allen recommends weekly. I agree.
Good luck, and do blog about your ongoing progress.
Left by Des Paroz on December 21st, 2005