Argh

Busy, busy, busy I am currently juggling balls with my feet, head, anything I can. I am trying to keep as many GTD habits as I can.

I have a new project at work for which I am the point of contact, therefore keeping on top of all the ’stuff’ that will be thrown at me will be crucial. Using an agenda for each person (a list of things you want to ask them nex ttime you can) is invaluable. GTD seems to be easier at work where everything is task oriented anyway. At home it is easier to avoid any unwanted reminders of actions required!

Me on GTD Update: – Capturing

I am determined that my GTD journey will not start with a fanfare and then fade away never to be seen again, like all too many of my projects (aside: see Matt Cornwell’s excellent post about having too many projects!). To that end I am gearing myself up slowly – trying to develop habits rather that just another layer of “extra stuff” to worry about.

The collection habit is already starting to go well. I am disciplining myself to write *EVERYTHING* which pops into my head which I could possibly want to remember and act on whether that is to pick up a pint of milk or redesign my career. I won’t lie to you. I’m not there yet. But with my exciting new filofax I now have a combination hard landscape (calendar for all non work items – work stuff is tracked in Outlook at work) and capture device. It will – when I have reached that stage – store my mobile contexts, eg anywhere and errands in town lists.

The great advantage this mini filofax has is that it is a pleasure to handle. It is much easier to use a tool if it is fun to use. And it is so small I can take with me wherever I am going.

Now that I have piles of captured piling up I better develop the next habit – Processing.

Busyness

At some point juggling exams, work, writing, relationships and relaxation will come crashing down. I’m a bit busy dealing keeping as many balls in the air as a I can but I would recommend popping into Zen Habits. Not only is there some great productivity and GTD resources there, Leo might remind you why you want to be productive and organized in the first place. And any productivity blog that has a Happiness Day can’t be bad!

What this is all about

I’ve just updated the blog’s About page. As you might expect it tells you what this blog is about.

There may be one or two of you out there who haven’t discovered Getting Things Done yet. Just for you: take a look at Merlin Mann’s excellent introduction to the subject.

Getting Things Done vs Getting Things Organized

Lifemuncher has posted part 4 of her notes on David Allen’s recent book Ready For Anything. She has summarized and commented on each section of the book.

This particular paragraph stuck out for me:

41. Too controlled is out of control.
Don’t get caught up in the minutiae your organizational system and become an “organizing groupie.” You still need to work and think. “[I]t’s really about capturing, catalyzing, and executing creative thinking, not about ‘getting organized.’”

David faces one of the most common complaints about his system of Getting Things Done head on; he doesn’t want it to be yet another form of procrastination, a way of feeling productive while getting nothing done. The system should be used to exactly the extent that it works for the individual.

In my opinion this is where the power of Getting Things Done lies. It is scalable. I can track different aspects of my life with different levels of granularity as required (eg at work I may have a list of every calculation needed for a piece of work, at home the next action “write blog post” might be enough). GTD helps you work and think. It doesn’t replace the need to work and think.

I am still getting fully set up with GTD. This idea is especially important for novices like me – the system is not the point. If you’re not getting things done you’re not Getting Things Done.

Multiple Inboxes: GTD Heresy?

I am still not fullblown GTD. Still working out exactly what I’ll need to make it work and more importantly keep it working. I think I’m a heretic; I think I need three inboxes. This may be heresy to the GTD purist but I don’t process the different kinds of tasks and inputs in the three different areas of my life in the same time or in the same way.

My work stuff stays at work – I am sure that when I have greater responsibility at work this may change but for now I don’t need to carry all my work lists around with me.  Since we aren’t allowed to install anything at work without a long and painful negotiation with IT I use Vitalist to manage my work tasks. I also use this as a capture tool – any non work open loops which are distracting me get dumped in its inbox to be processed later.

At home I have started using FusionDesk to track all the bits and pieces you need to keep yourself organised.

I also track all my writing and submissions separately in a creaking combination of paper, spreadsheet and grey matter. All writing ideas and snippets from my notebooks (online or paper)  go into their own inbox and get processed um… occasionally.  This will be the next bit of the system to be overhauled! And I should get some submissions out there again so I can track them.

I think this could work. In think this is the only way this will work for me. The three areas are so distinct that it would a waste  to try and shoehorn them into one.  What will hold it together is having a Ubiquitous Capture Device and one hard landscape (calendar). I think I’m going to buy that mini Filofax.

Capture Devices

One of the fundamental concepts in Getting Things Done is capturing whatever is in your head – all the to-dos and brilliant creative ideas that are clogging up your mental machine. Get them out. Get them down. Put them in a trusted system.

This is fine when I am sitting at the computer with Vitalist up in a browser or FusionDesk. Sending an email to myself works just as well. But when I’m not at my desk?

I have index cards clipped together to make a notebook. A poor man’s Hipster PDA. This goes everywhere my bag goes. Unfortunately my bag doesn’t go everywhere.

It may be time to buy a filofax. It’s a terrible admission I know. I could make a capture device at home for next to nothing. But I can’t make one that I would be happy to carry everywhere in a pocket and pull out and use any time, any place. The mini format is so compact it can go in any pocket and…

Basically they just look good.

Getting on the Runway

Starting Getting Things Done may not be as important a decision as getting married or joining the priesthood but I think it still requires a good deal of preperation and thought. All too often in the past I have made grandiose plans to make my life and the whole world much, much better. These rarely happen.

The things that make a real difference are the habits you learn. Changing a small thing that you do everyday can change your whole life. I want to make GTD a habit. Not a big bang that ends in a few weeks time in a whimper.

So I will prepare myself even before I get on the GTD wagon. I want to develop the habits I need before I go fully GTD so that there will be less slips and less chance of letting the whole things slide because it appears to be too much.

Firstly, I am trying to develop the collection habit. I intend to write things down when I think of them, not later. Otherwise they don’t get written down at all. I intend to do simple tasks as they appear – not put them off for no reason. Complex tasks will be captured.

Coming up: Setting up a capture system.