30 Day Trial - Getting Things Done

[Lucas]

I read GTD a few years ago, and I do believe at the time, it went right over my head. Not that I didn't get what was going on in it, I just didn't seem to really feel like it had any value. However, in light of my 30 (24) Day Water Fast this past month, I have come to realize that many benefits don't materialize until something becomes a part of your reality. So I am going to use the GTD system for February and see where it gets me.

The main reason is because of the idea of "freeing up your mental ram", because once you purge your mind of everything floating around, it can increase your clarity. I would like not only that clarity, but the ability to get things done.

While I have not reread GTD, I did pour over the GTD Primer over at Black Belt Productivity as well as read up some things at 43Folders and other areas.

I have decided on my tools.

A Hipster PDA For Collection. I always have a pen in my pocket anyway, so I figure, hey lets keep it simple and inexpensive.

Google Calender for my "Hard Landscape"

Gmail as my Unified Electronic Inbox (All my Mail Routes to here)

And as the backbone of my system I am using Nozbe, which I upgraded to a Basic account...its only 5 dollars a month for a basic account and I really like the interface and that it is designed specifically for GTD. Not only that but this can all be held inside my iGoogle homepage as Nozbe has a nice widget implementation of its service.

So on friday, I start dumping the contents of my brain. I already sort of have started.


If anyone has any suggestions on how I can make the recording of this implementation any more....entertaining...let me know.


I am really interested to see the results it produces in my life.

[bwb]

Lucas,

Good luck! In my experience, sticking with the GTD method takes a lot of upfront habit-building effort. I've managed to incorporate parts of it into my life, but haven't yet succeeded at maintaining all of it for more than a couple weeks at a time. It's just so easy to get caught in firefighting mode and let all your organization fall apart.

DO YOUR WEEKLY REVIEWS! This is the easiest part to overlook, but also the most critical to long-term success with GTD, and one of the more best habits you can build for long-term personal development and success with whatever goals and ambitions you have. In my experience, this part was one of those things that's just "impossible" for busy people to find time for, like daily meditation and exercise, but like meditation and exercise, if you do it, you'll find it can actually create time for you!

Even David Allen admits that it takes people up to 2 years to fully integrate GTD into their lives, so don't become discouraged if you get a week or two into the trial and still find stuff slipping through the cracks. You're building habits, and building habits requires lots and lots of diligence and even more patience. I know some folks who have succeeded in building and maintaining the GTD habits, and they are seriously effective and successful people.

Capture. Process. Execute. And relax!

- Brian

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by bwb

Lucas,

Good luck! In my experience, sticking with the GTD method takes a lot of upfront habit-building effort. I've managed to incorporate parts of it into my life, but haven't yet succeeded at maintaining all of it for more than a couple weeks at a time. It's just so easy to get caught in firefighting mode and let all your organization fall apart.

DO YOUR WEEKLY REVIEWS! This is the easiest part to overlook, but also the most critical to long-term success with GTD, and one of the more best habits you can build for long-term personal development and success with whatever goals and ambitions you have. In my experience, this part was one of those things that's just "impossible" for busy people to find time for, like daily meditation and exercise, but like meditation and exercise, if you do it, you'll find it can actually create time for you!

Even David Allen admits that it takes people up to 2 years to fully integrate GTD into their lives, so don't become discouraged if you get a week or two into the trial and still find stuff slipping through the cracks. You're building habits, and building habits requires lots and lots of diligence and even more patience. I know some folks who have succeeded in building and maintaining the GTD habits, and they are seriously effective and successful people.

Capture. Process. Execute. And relax!

- Brian

I have read that weekly reviews is where people have the most trouble, so I am going to try and expend more energy to stop that from developmng into a bad habit. I really want this to work and its one of those things that I know will be tough to implement, but I will have so much more on the other side when I come out of it.


I am not ridiculously busy, but there are lots of projects I would like to take on...my head is swimming with stuff too, and just being able to empty it would be phenomenal.

I am interested to see where this goes. I have been reading about GTD this whole week.

[Lucas]

Ironically on Friday, I didn't do anything...mainly I looked vigorously at the first step, Collecting. I have two physical In-boxes in my house now...what that equates to is a pile a crap in my room and a pile of crap in my living room.

It makes it daunting to not be able to process any of this right away...they are some huge piles of stuff. I also am in the middle of trying to empty my head of everything that I want/should/need to be doing and it feels endless. I had to take a break for lunch, in the middle of mental, as I worked on it about 2 hours so far. I have a stack of 20 or so index cards full front to back and I still keep having streams of thought pour out.

It's actually quite scary how much stuff is bouncing around my brain.

Any GTD practitioners have any advice in terms how hoe large or minute I should be pulling things out? I mean, I have things as large as "Become a Millionaire" to things as "pick up garlic salt" on there. Should I just work to empty everything regardless? Most of the resources I have found say things like "physical/digital/mental" but no real economy of scale.

This feels like a serious thing, lol.

[tstesen]

Originally Posted by Lucas

And as the backbone of my system I am using Nozbe, which I upgraded to a Basic account...its only 5 dollars a month for a basic account and I really like the interface and that it is designed specifically for GTD. Not only that but this can all be held inside my iGoogle homepage as Nozbe has a nice widget implementation of its service.

Thank you for sharing this information. I've read and have been working on implementing GTD and Ready for Anything. Previously I was using a simple Word document to capture my project and next actions list. I like the Nozbe tool much better.

Thanks again and good luck

Tanya

[Lucas]

Ok, for an update.

I processed my two pysical inboxes, which suprisingly only took maybe an hour or so each. What is really surprising is that as projects form, these piles really consist of things related to 2 or 3 projects each.

Now, I do have a mound of 3x5 cards in my non-physical inbox, which is daunting, but once they are inputted into Nozbe, well I may just be good to go. I am going to start processing that inbox in a minute.

So I may only be 4 days into my trial, but I am really liking the methodology of it all. It's not so anal retentive that I cant be creative, and not too loose that I cant do things my way.

As I collect things my mind feels more and more relaxed. I also added Jott to my ubiquitous collection arsenal. Chances are I will have either my Hipster PDA or my phone with me at all times.

[Lucas]

If there are any GTD gurus reading this thread, I am having some trouble with the processing of my non-physical Inbox. It seems a lot of my actions are things that would be projects in and of themselves. How minute or wide do I take everything?

For instance "become a better cook" is in my inbox, and that IS actionable, but it is not doable in two minutes, so I defer it into my organizational system...since becoming a cook will probably take more that 2 steps, would I turn that into a project all its own? I feel as though I am going to have hundreds of projects then...and that is probably ok now that I have a system to manage it...right?

I have a copy of GTD coming in on Wednesday for reference and such, but I am hoping to be taking action on implementing this, and to at least have a rough framework this week, so I don't want to stop processing my inbox.

Any ideas or feedback is appreciated!

[bwb]

Originally Posted by Lucas

For instance "become a better cook" is in my inbox, and that IS actionable, but it is not doable in two minutes, so I defer it into my organizational system...since becoming a cook will probably take more that 2 steps, would I turn that into a project all its own? I feel as though I am going to have hundreds of projects then...and that is probably ok now that I have a system to manage it...right?

"Become a better cook" may be something you want to do, and have the time and resources to do now, but as a statement, it's not actionable. You can't just will yourself to be a better cook. Your actions should include a concrete, physical, action verb. What you've got so far is a project.

What's your plan for becoming a better cook? Do you need some cookbooks? Enter "browse Amazon.com (or local bookstore) for good cookbooks". Do you want to take a class? Write down "research cooking classes on the Internet". Do you need more practice, because you're not in the habit of cooking for yourself. Write down: "1. Choose a meal to create from a cookbook (or imagine something that you want to create). 2. Make a shopping list for this meal. 3. Go to the grocery store. 4. Cook it!"

An action is something you should just be able to DO, without really having to think about it. One technique that I like to use to make sure I'm getting my actions down from the "ouch, hurts to think" level to the "that's so easy I can't believe I didn't already do it" level is to write them out as if I had a personal assistant who was going to do them for me. This forces me to think out all the little details and make all the decisions upfront and prevents me from hitting a mental roadblock later when I'm in "doing mode" instead of "thinking mode".

And yes, it's okay to have dozens or even a hundred projects. It'll probably seem a little overwhelming, but now that you have all of this stuff out of your head, you can start to look at all of it as a whole and decide what's really important to you. A lot of your projects you'll probably want to defer until you've made progress on the ones most important to you. Many more you'll probably realize that you've ALREADY deferred mentally, because you haven't made any headway on them in weeks. So now you can ask yourself why it got deferred or stuck, and either deliberately stick it on your Someday/Maybe list or get it going again by putting it on your active projects list and coming up with the next concrete action.

-Brian

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by bwb

"Become a better cook" may be something you want to do, and have the time and resources to do now, but as a statement, it's not actionable. You can't just will yourself to be a better cook. Your actions should include a concrete, physical, action verb. What you've got so far is a project.

What's your plan for becoming a better cook? Do you need some cookbooks? Enter "browse Amazon.com (or local bookstore) for good cookbooks". Do you want to take a class? Write down "research cooking classes on the Internet". Do you need more practice, because you're not in the habit of cooking for yourself. Write down: "1. Choose a meal to create from a cookbook (or imagine something that you want to create). 2. Make a shopping list for this meal. 3. Go to the grocery store. 4. Cook it!"

An action is something you should just be able to DO, without really having to think about it. One technique that I like to use to make sure I'm getting my actions down from the "ouch, hurts to think" level to the "that's so easy I can't believe I didn't already do it" level is to write them out as if I had a personal assistant who was going to do them for me. This forces me to think out all the little details and make all the decisions upfront and prevents me from hitting a mental roadblock later when I'm in "doing mode" instead of "thinking mode".

And yes, it's okay to have dozens or even a hundred projects. It'll probably seem a little overwhelming, but now that you have all of this stuff out of your head, you can start to look at all of it as a whole and decide what's really important to you. A lot of your projects you'll probably want to defer until you've made progress on the ones most important to you. Many more you'll probably realize that you've ALREADY deferred mentally, because you haven't made any headway on them in weeks. So now you can ask yourself why it got deferred or stuck, and either deliberately stick it on your Someday/Maybe list or get it going again by putting it on your active projects list and coming up with the next concrete action.

-Brian

Thank you for your input, on this level I really think that I have a lot more projects than actions. This step of the processing is really overwhelming and a little depressing, but explains why lots of projects are not getting finished. I should process these types into a project, regardless of if any actions are associated, or weigh if it should be put on Someday/Maybe, especially if there are none, correct?

Interesting views so far...though I feel restless as I organize, as I have projects around my house I want to start, but I dont want to jump the gun.

[elastigirl]

yu are soaring like an eagle,keep going

[Lucas]

The first week of this was kind of kind of on the overwhelming side, what with trying to start without reading the book. While I recieved my copy on tuesday and have gotten through it most of the way, the book really breaks it down into things that can get confusing as I am sort of not implementing things in a straight up manner.

For instance, Allen talks about looking at your contexts to do things when you are within a certain set of tools and resources, but is he refering to just Next Actions? If you do next actions out of order, then you are kind of screwing up something, right? So I drill down to contexts of just Next Actions...right? I shouldnt be calling someone just cause I am on the phone if I am supposed to have waited for someone else..right?

On that note, I have a project called errands...should I further define these actions as parts to projects, or only if they need another step. For instance, I need those little plastic rings that go around you keys to color coordinate them...theres really only two steps....go to Office Max and get the key labels...so should I just leave it in there, or should I make a "trip to Office Max" project and see if any other errands need to be done there? Thats what my intuition says.

Is it wrong for me to have quickly processed my inbox (I had over 300 items in my digital inbox and another 100 in my physical) and now be looking at the next actions of individial projects and clearing everything up, defining next actions, rearranging actions to correct projects and correcting contexts?

I feel lighter, so I must be doing something right. Right?


As for a trial, I can really see the appeal of this methodology, I feel like this is defined well. I want to give a nod to Nozbe as well....while my 300+ Inbox slowed it down a little, its a pretty flexible little system. Google calendar rocks and the Hipster PDA coupled with Jott is great. I chose good tools, thats for sure.

I am going to be setting up my general refernce file and my physical filing system this weekend...which seems tough.

[dmauder]

Originally Posted by Lucas

And as the backbone of my system I am using Nozbe, which I upgraded to a Basic account...its only 5 dollars a month for a basic account and I really like the interface and that it is designed specifically for GTD. Not only that but this can all be held inside my iGoogle homepage as Nozbe has a nice widget implementation of its service.

Hi Lucas:

Thanks for posting this 30 day trial. I'm following it with interest because I've never been able to stick with GTD (or any other organizational system) for more than 2-3 weeks at a time.

What's encouraging to note is, when I do follow the system, I feel SO much more organized and productive. But then "life" would take over again and I'd get buried in emails and tasks coming from 50 different directions.

Anyway, I'm curious to know why you decided on Nozbe instead of one of the many free apps out there? There are SO many web 2.0 apps for GTD, it can be a bit overwhelming. I've found Toodledo to be pretty cool - here's a link to info on using it for GTD - Toodledo :: Getting Things Done (GTD)

I also love Remember the Milk, Simple GTD and Tasktoy.

Just to show how absolutely OVERWHELMING the GTD tool selection process can be, check out this list - GTDTools

WOW!

Anyway, keep up the great posts, and best of luck with your GTD trial. As someone else here has mentioned, the secret to the whole thing is your weekly review. That's for sure!

Dave

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by dmauder

Hi Lucas:

Thanks for posting this 30 day trial. I'm following it with interest because I've never been able to stick with GTD (or any other organizational system) for more than 2-3 weeks at a time.

What's encouraging to note is, when I do follow the system, I feel SO much more organized and productive. But then "life" would take over again and I'd get buried in emails and tasks coming from 50 different directions.

Anyway, I'm curious to know why you decided on Nozbe instead of one of the many free apps out there? There are SO many web 2.0 apps for GTD, it can be a bit overwhelming. I've found Toodledo to be pretty cool - here's a link to info on using it for GTD - Toodledo :: Getting Things Done (GTD)

I also love Remember the Milk, Simple GTD and Tasktoy.

Just to show how absolutely OVERWHELMING the GTD tool selection process can be, check out this list - GTDTools

WOW!

Anyway, keep up the great posts, and best of luck with your GTD trial. As someone else here has mentioned, the secret to the whole thing is your weekly review. That's for sure!

Dave

I chose Nozbe because of the simplicity+power of the layout. I looked at the layout and immediately knew what was going on for the most part. I looked at Toodledo and thought it was too complex. I thought Remember The Milk was too simplistic and I didnt want to to have to "hack" my system together with bits and pieces. I thought Tracks looked pretty cool, but I am not going through the bitch of setting up a web server on my machine or on a remote machine to do this, and the pay service was full up. I dont mind paying for productivity and if in 30 days I am not satisfied, then I will get my money back. So far I am pleased (though it slowed down with 300 inbox items). Clean interface, and I know where I am at at a glance and I am not fully implemented yet.

Since starting this trial, I have actually gotten rid of iGoogle as a tool, and only have Google Calendar and Nozbe open and am pretty much set. I only check my email 2x a day, and carry with me my hPDA and my cell phone, from which I can Jott. Simplicity+Power I tell you. I like the idea of being able to do the MOST with the LEAST.

Maybe as I get into it, I will have to dismantle this, but so far I feel as though I have made the right choice.

[dmauder]

Originally Posted by Lucas

Since starting this trial, I have actually gotten rid of iGoogle as a tool, and only have Google Calendar and Nozbe open and am pretty much set. I only check my email 2x a day, and carry with me my hPDA and my cell phone, from which I can Jott. Simplicity+Power I tell you. I like the idea of being able to do the MOST with the LEAST.

Thanks for the explanation - that helps a lot. You're right about Toodlledo being a little too complex.

Hey, you probably already know this, but Nozbe has a Jott link you can setup with a couple clicks. Then you can Jott right to your Nozbe todo list. If you haven't already set that up, just log into Jott, click the Jott Links tab and scroll down to find Nozbe.

I use Jott all the time! Especially on the road since I drive a lot for my job. Everything from todo reminders, to toll info (so I don't have to get a receipt). Jott is wonderful!

Other than that - I'm all about simplicity and speed. I was reading some comments on a todo list review post (somewhere), and one guy said, "OK, stop reading right now and go add "Call mom" to your to-do list and then come back to this post." His point was that most web 2.0 apps just aren't practical because they take too long to access and aren't "at your fingertips" when you need them.

Even my PDA can take too long because I have to unlock it, find the task list icon, click on it, type in my text and then fiddle around with the thumbwheel (blackberry) to save it.

However, until something better comes along, I have to use my blackberry because it's ALWAYS with me, and it syncs with Outlook which I'm always in. Together with Jott, it's a pretty good combo for capturing stuff on the fly and somewhat quickly.

Dave

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by dmauder

Thanks for the explanation - that helps a lot. You're right about Toodlledo being a little too complex.

Hey, you probably already know this, but Nozbe has a Jott link you can setup with a couple clicks. Then you can Jott right to your Nozbe todo list. If you haven't already set that up, just log into Jott, click the Jott Links tab and scroll down to find Nozbe.

I use Jott all the time! Especially on the road since I drive a lot for my job. Everything from todo reminders, to toll info (so I don't have to get a receipt). Jott is wonderful!

Other than that - I'm all about simplicity and speed. I was reading some comments on a todo list review post (somewhere), and one guy said, "OK, stop reading right now and go add "Call mom" to your to-do list and then come back to this post." His point was that most web 2.0 apps just aren't practical because they take too long to access and aren't "at your fingertips" when you need them.

Even my PDA can take too long because I have to unlock it, find the task list icon, click on it, type in my text and then fiddle around with the thumbwheel (blackberry) to save it.

However, until something better comes along, I have to use my blackberry because it's ALWAYS with me, and it syncs with Outlook which I'm always in. Together with Jott, it's a pretty good combo for capturing stuff on the fly and somewhat quickly.

Dave

Yes! I linked up Jott the other day for things to go straight into my inbox on Nozbe...its been pretty awesome with Jott on speed dial.

As for Web 2.0 apps being slow, that is understandable, but I am not using Nozbe as a ubiquitous capture tool, but start utilizing it once I start to process...so as I sit down with my inbox, I can enter things in and dont have to worry about being quick. So my hipster PDA is first as it takes 10 seconds or less, then if I cant write I use Jott which takes no more than 30 seconds...I almost prefer Jott though as it goes right into my Nozbe inbox.

[MasterD]

GTD is absolutely great.

I am still implementing this whole system and making it a habit, but the thing I already completely implemented is the archiving system. No more papers flinging about. Everything in its place. That's a great, great thing.

Next thing for me is working consistently with all kinds of lists and doing a weekly review consistently.

[dmauder]

Originally Posted by MasterD

GTD is absolutely great.

I am still implementing this whole system and making it a habit, but the thing I already completely implemented is the archiving system. No more papers flinging about. Everything in its place. That's a great, great thing.

Paperwork. Argh!!!! The bane of my existence!

I do pretty well with everything else (paperwork wise) except for the stuff that comes daily in the mail. Bills, insurance forms, account statements, etc... Right now, they basically pile up in a tray on the corner of my desk and that's where they sit --- pretty much forever.

Someday, I need to spend about a full day and organize them all into files and/or binders. I guess before that, I should sit down with the pile in front of me, and a shredder next to me. I'm sure I could skinny that pile down in a hurry!

Dave

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by dmauder

Paperwork. Argh!!!! The bane of my existence!

I do pretty well with everything else (paperwork wise) except for the stuff that comes daily in the mail. Bills, insurance forms, account statements, etc... Right now, they basically pile up in a tray on the corner of my desk and that's where they sit --- pretty much forever.

Someday, I need to spend about a full day and organize them all into files and/or binders. I guess before that, I should sit down with the pile in front of me, and a shredder next to me. I'm sure I could skinny that pile down in a hurry!

Dave

Well, that just means you aren't processing your inbox down to zero!! Since you don't have a paper filing system, you become numb to the stack of paperwork in front of you and instead of getting it done, you leave it there. Process that bastard!

Not that I am an expert in any way shape or form.

I won't pretend that this is methodology is easy to do. Well, I guess I should say this isn't easy to implement all at once, or even in stages...but as I pound out defining next actions on the front end of all the projects on my list (I am up to 70 at the moment, and haven't reviewed my Someday/Maybe list yet and I know I still have stuff banging around in my head), I feel much better about defining them and their outcomes as well as get excited to start completing these simplistic tasks in front of me. In fact, it is so liberating that I want to start doing everything now, but I am not finished organizing!!

There is a lot of front end work on this system, but that is ok, because its like everything, from building your health to a business, you do lots of work up front, then reap the benefits while doing much less to maintain it!

I have been immersing myself in all things GTD for 9 days now and I really like the paradigms shifts it has awarded me. I will write about them in another post, but now its back to organizing!

I really feel like I have been making great choices lately...simple ones that expend the least amount of energy but give me the biggest rewards.

[StephenN]

Lucas: Regarding contexts

I've been using GTD for over a year and really, really like it. It's working far better than other approaches I'd tried in the past. I should probably go back and reread the book because I'm sure I've meandered a bit from a complete implementation.

My set of contexts is pretty small. For awhile, I tried @phone, @home, @laptop, @online, etc. It seemed overkill and cumbersome. I ended up with @work and @home. It was more of a logical context that made sense to me. There were things I would do during my work time and things I would do on my own time. The next action would start with a verb that would tell me what tool I needed: "Call Bill", "Look at www.s