On... Getting Things Done

Getting Things Gone (GTD) is a great concept - who wouldn't want to be more efficient? - but as the GTD movement expands into an industry, far, far too much time can be wasted messing about with different GTD systems or trying out GTD spreadsheets or applications, rather defeating the original purpose! Having just reviewed a number of GTD blogs and watching GTD videos on YouTube, I find myself left with additional decisions to make (which, if any, of the ideas do I adopt?) and a good deal of time has passed without actually doing anything constructive.

So, for what it's worth (and remembering that what works for one person won't for another depending on personality, needs and technology available) here are some GTD methods I use:

1) e-mail. I try to clear my work e-mail every day so my in-box is empty . I check it mid-morning and again mid- afternoon. Anything that can't be dealt with there and then gets printed off and put in my physical in-tray (usually only one or two items a day). At the end of the day all the read/actioned e-mail is moved to a separate folder for archiving (I periodically delete anything over 6 months old from this folder). Clearing out all the day's actioned e-mails in one go is very satisfying.

2) text messages – it is almost always faster to reply to a text message with a phone call / voice mail than to try to send a text back – phone keyboards were not designed to type on!

3) telephone calls and messages and voice mail – I write the initials of the caller and notes in an A5 spiral-bound notebook as I am listening. If the task can be dealt with there and then it is and the entry is crossed out. If not it is left until dealt with and then crossed out. At the end of the day any a line is (literally) drawn in the book and any items not actioned are carried forward to the next day – a good incentive to get them all done during the day. The book is also a useful archive of work done.

4) diary – I do not use an electronic diary any more, a paper diary has the advantage that you can stuff outstanding work into it.

5) be fanatical about organising the files on your hard drive, don't let the computer do it for you. What I aim for is to be easily able to find a specific file by using a logical hierarchical system, and also to be able to identify the contents of the file from its name (and I don't rely on indexing programmes, they encourage messiness).

6) be as computer / operating system / program neutral as possible. It was painful experience when Quicken withdrew from the UK market – I had several years of financial data in a program I assumed would be supported indefinitely. To maximise future proofing, I try to keep important documents in open formats if possible (even if it is just a pdf).

7) don't skip lunch – output increases when you have had food and a break from your desk.

8) make your GTD system as simple as possible!


And in the spirit of simplicity I will give just one link:
http://zenhabits.net/


(Thoreau said 'Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes' – perhaps now we should 'Distrust any enterprise that requires a new GTD system').