Getting things done

[grl]

I have just finished reading Gettings Things Done by David Allen. I thought that it had some very good ideas but I found it a bit complex and it has left me a little confused as to how to practically implement such a system. Is it just a case of organising what you want to get done in a system so that when you look at a particular day in the system that you know what you need to do at that given time so that you don't need to worry about something once you have put it into the system. You tell the system what you want to do, you can then forget about it and the system will tell you what to do when you need to do it?

[kthdsn]

That's pretty much it, yes.

You trust your calendar or diary to tell you accurately what appointments you have on what day because you have input them all. Gtd works in the same way. You input everything you need to do into the system, and then you just have to check to see what's next in the system.

Personally I found I had to adjust the gtd system quite a lot to suit the way I work, but as long you have a system and you input absolutely everything, it can work really well.

[grl]

I think that I need to try and figure out a system that works best for me and the things that I need to get done. Thank you for you post.

[justfiverules]

I found his other book, "Ready For Anything", to be even more fascinating than GTD because he addresses a lot of the reasons WHY he even began thinking about GTD approaches in the first place.

There are some great self-coaching questions in that book. Well worth reading imo.

[grl]

thank you for suggesting that. I will have to have a look at it.

[Alex2007]

Originally Posted by kthdsn

You trust your calendar or diary to tell you accurately what appointments you have on what day because you have input them all. Gtd works in the same way. ............

I have only read a summary of the book somewhere. It sets the mind free to enjoy conciously other aspects of life while it Gets the Things Done! This is all about it I think! I started reading it but I also found it difficult somewhat.

A

[grl]

I think that i will use GTD to make a system that works for me and isn't too complex. I suppose that at the end of the day if a system works for you and you do "get things done" that is all that matter. I just need to look at some system for organising information that I need to deal with in the future - something like 43 folders, but I think that is a little complex for me, if I don't feel that I understand it I don't think I could trust it to the extent needed for the whole system to work. lol

[Mused]

Originally Posted by justfiverules

I found his other book, "Ready For Anything", to be even more fascinating than GTD because he addresses a lot of the reasons WHY he even began thinking about GTD approaches in the first place.

I agree. The questions in Ready for Anything were much more thought provoking and really helped me to personalize the GTD concept a bit more and see how it could benefit specific areas of my life.

[jwz]

GTD + R :: Getting Things Done + RHODIA

It's a bit childish, but try to use the most nescessary parts of it.
I wouldn't use the "playing field" even if I got paid for it. lol.
I personally use the "pockets" only.
This helped me getting started with GTD.

After trying out this, you should know what you think are positive and negative about it.
Then you can make your own system.

[grl]

Does anyone have any practical advise or personal experiences of what systems works for them? I am going to set up some sort of system. I suppose that they are personal to yourself as everyone has different things that they want to get done, but any practical tips would be appreciated.

[Ezza]

I do recommend the GTD system. I found the most rewarding part was the "mind dump" (that might be my term not the GTD one btw), where you put into your system EVERYTHING in your head that you've ever thought about or wanted to do.
The experience I had after doing that was almost surreal, it was like being high or something, your brain is overwhelmed with how "empty" it is, because you've cleaned out the attic of all the things occupying your mind. You are suddenly 1000x as creative as you've ever been, with new ideas popping into your head all the time.

I do have a criticism though - I found GTD not that helpful with deciding what to do right now - prioritizing in other words. I think you need to be prepared to take from it what works for you.

However, using GTD has made me far more organised and less stressed than I was before.

[kthdsn]

Originally Posted by Ezza

I do have a criticism though - I found GTD not that helpful with deciding what to do right now - prioritizing in other words. I think you need to be prepared to take from it what works for you.

I found this exact same problem with gtd, I love that it allows me to collect everything but I needed a bit more direction than just "this is everything you want to do", I needed "this is what you should be doing right now".

I have tried various crazy methods in the past to put my to do's into some sort of order but none were quite right. If I did things in a particular order I ended up focusing on unimportant things or putting all my efforts into one project or area of my life, I was always out of balance.

I got to thinking about why my systems hadn't been working, then I read GTD. I realised that I hadn't been collecting EVERYTHING, I had only been collecting those things that I didn't want to actually do but needed to be done. I also realised that I needed to find more balance otherwise I would constantly just pick the most fun thing from my list.

I ended up building a web app that prioritised my items for me, I collect everything I want to do and it tells me what to do first. It misses out parts of GTD that I don't think are relevant to me, I don't have contexts or a tickler file for example. I do have a system that creates balance for me, allows me to input things I want to do immediately as well as things I want to do in the future, and allows me to delay things I'm not able to do yet.

My advice then, collect everything into your system, but think carefully about what you need from your system, try different things, notice what works and doesn't work about each thing you try, and come up with your own personal version of the system that works for you.

[elastigirl]

I love getting things done,new year is almost here-yey!

[TigerStar337]

Some people might find this useful: Long URL: Review: Leo Babauta’s Ebook "Zen to Done" - Lifehack.org.

I have not tried this, but it might be an improved system to GTD.

[grl]

I have been slightly scared about collecting all the things that I need to do and putting them in one place. I have finally got the courage to do it and am going to sit down tomorrow morning and sort it all out. It may take some time.

[kthdsn]

Originally Posted by grl

I have been slightly scared about collecting all the things that I need to do and putting them in one place. I have finally got the courage to do it and am going to sit down tomorrow morning and sort it all out. It may take some time.

Don't worry too much about getting everything in the system to begin with, that would cause a lot of stress I'm sure. When I started mine I put in what I could think of at the time and whenever something else occurred to me, I added it to the list. The system is supposed to make things easier for you, not to stress you out from the start.

Good Luck!

[LeahWhitehorse]

Hi
I loved this book. I bought it after reading "The Success Principles". In day to day life like paying bills etc I'm naturally quite organised but with my own personal and creative goals I was very disorganised. When I'm anxious I gravitate towards making list or 'making a plan' to try and get myself out of that state of anxiety. However I realised that these weren't working because I'd have a huge list with every step of every project I'd thought of so far on all different files on the computer and got completely overwhelmed.
I haven't done everything that David Allen suggests but then I think it's about what works for you.
Here's what I did when I'd finished the book...

I had a complete brain storm session on my main goals and sections of my life and set up organised folders on each of those on my computer. Example are Learn Portuguese, Improve Health, Blog 1 and Blog 2, Songwriting and Music, Friends, Christmas and Birthdays, Holidays etc. Anything I'd collected regarding these goals (resources, ebooks, notes I'd made) I ruthlessly went through and sorted/discarded. I also did this with all my email and bookmarks.

I have one folder marked "To do Someday". Inside here there is one single file. On that file is each of the parts of life I want to achieve/improve as a heading then any steps/thoughts I can think of under that heading.

I created a "To Do" list - again with the headings of each goal. Now from that "To do Someday" list I move one single step (the very next step I need to take however small) onto my "To Do" list from each goal. A tiny example is I have been meaning to get my hair trimmed for about two years (yes I do have extremely long hair and phobia of scissor happy hairdressers!). This weeks "Improve my appearance" goal was simply "Ask friend for the number of her hairdresser". Now that's been done I've deleted that and added "Work out which dates I could possibly go to the hairdresser". Literally tiny steps.

I then have a "mind dump" file so if every I find my mind wondering to something that's then distracting me from writing I 'dump it' on there. Once I've done that I can get back to work. I don't use it very often but it's there if I need it.

On my calender I ONLY put things that are time/date limited like my day job hours, appointments, meetings with friends and when my library books are due back. Appointments are alarmed for the evening before so I will see it when I'm on the computer. Appointments I often copy into my mobile phone calender as well so that I always have them to hand.

At any one time I only have one step from each goal on my 'to do' and because it's often such a small thing it feels achievable. This has been working well for me for around three months now. At any one time I will have a maximum of 14 things to do but they will be things that are very manageable. Once I week I check in with my "to do someday list" Sometimes things on there can become obsolete or have somehow been done anyway.

I think everyone can gain something from reading the book but everyone will develop methods that suits them. This is what worked for me.

[Stephen]

The secret to GTD in my opinion is as follows.

#1 De-clutter and do a clean out.
#2 Use one implement for gathering information: that could be a PDA, a Notebook, A Diary, a 6x4 card system. The important thing is to use only one.
#3 Carry it around with you everywhere.

[TigerStar337]

For me, getting organized has helped me by more productive. I keep my email inbox empty, and only focus on the important tasks.

The best tools I found that work for me are the Google Notebook and Remember the Milk website. I can access Google Notebook from work, home, or when I travel. I keep notes to myself which is very important to remembering important items and people's names. I also am able to keep images and website links with notes. I found this tool to be invaluable.

The other tool I like is Remember The Milk (www.rememberthemilk.com). The name of the site is not the best, but on this site I am able to setup task reminders and organize them. Further, they have my plug-ins to other websites like iGoogle.com (use as homepage).

[nick pagan]

Hello Grl,

I have not read GTD so I cannot comment on how to use that system.

I tend to map out the week ahead with important events that I might otherwise forget but then I revert to a daily system. Organizing what you have to do is never enough (although it can feel good). Preparation is the most important part of getting anything done and is generally overlooked by most systems for getting things done that I have ever come across. Consequently I have developed a "How to Do List" which focuses on the process required to get things done and the difficulties that will be encountered.

You can read about it here: How To Do List
and if you still struggle to get things done even though you get highly organized then this article will help: Procrastination

I hope this all helps,
Nick

[pacukas]

Hi Grl,

Yes Allen was too complex to me too. I agree his rules are very effective and the system, but its too much time to adopt it, so I use more simple version consisting only from 3 subfolders in my email inbox for email management, look here

[beautyscientist]

For me the key thing is the tickle file. I run two of these - one at work and one at home.

All my tasks are in the tickle file. Every day I have a new set to look at. I either do them or refile them.

At work I need to be able to reference them so I also keep a task list in Outlook with the dates so I can find a particular file when I need to.

At home I let the tickle file do all the work.

One of the things that I don't do is the regular review. This is something I don't have the discipline to schedule, so I have a project called review. This comes up every couple of days and I do a bit and leave it. I think that having the discipline to do a review is more efficient. I don't, so I think I am better off living with that and using my work around.

[fwade]

grl, I believe that you are on the right track with your intention to build your own time management system.

In fact, my observation is that we ALL must do so in order to be able to cope with a fast-changing world, and that we must be the ones to evolve it in order to keep up. What we lack are the techniques for building time management systems effectively.

I have been working on how best to do this for a couple years, and I believe that there are certain fundamentals that all time management systems must address to be effective -- maybe my blog might be helpful to you as you do your own design and implementation.