Who effectively managed to implement GTD?

[Dolazy]

If you did, please tell me more about it. What tools do you use, how difficult was it to implement the habit of daily cleaning your in-box, what extra things did you invent yourself

[turbosaab]

I'm glad you brought this up - I've been surprised that there's not more discussion here about GTD, as I have found it to be a very helpful method of organization. I'm more interested to hear what people say, but I'll share my personal experience for whatever it's worth.

My answer to the poll was "yes". It's been at least two years since I first read GTD, and I just re-read the book a few weeks ago. I don't strictly adhere to everything, but I find some of the methods very helpful.

My main tool is MS Outlook.I purchased David Allen's GTD plugin for Outlook, but I'm not sure it's necessary - the most important part, keeping track of tasks by context, can be accomplished just using Outlook's built-in categories functionality. In fact, I don't use the plug-in's email processing functionality, either - if I need to create a task related to an email, I do it manually (which is very easy).

It may seem like a no-brainer, but David's advice on setting up a simple general reference filing system using a Brother labeller has been extremely beneficial to me. His advice that anything worth keeping is worthy of its own folder has helped me work through a lot of piles of stuff.

The concept of a "trusted system" has also been quite helpful for me, reading the book really inspired me to put *everything* in my task list/calendar rather than just the "important" things.

The area I'd most like to improve in is using GTD for project management. I have a rather large, ongoing project with lots of loose ends and I'm struggling as to whether to try subprojects, have lots of "next actions" or reduce it to one "next action" and keep all the others in queue.

To answer your question... cleaning out my inbox isn't hard, but that's probably because a lot of things don't go through my inbox that should (receipts pile up, etc..)

I never did an initial "purge" as David strongly recommends, so I still have a fair amount of unorganized crap. But I have managed to work through quite a bit of it since adopting GTD - it works great as a framework, I feel like now that I know *how* to be organized it's much easier to do it.

[Dolazy]

Thanks! I'm hoping to set it up in the near future (lol, procrastinating right now). It's good to read some pointers on how to get started.

[turbosaab]

Excellent... I know he advises going "all in", but if you're having trouble making the commitment, I don't see the harm in choosing one piece of the system that seems most interesting/helpful and implementing that. For me, the first thing was revamping my filing system using a labeller and lots of manila folders... I found that very satisfying and it gave me the momentum to continue adopting other parts of the system.

[Jes]

I would take the weekend to do a full purge. I did when I first put in the system, and the day after was one of the most relaxing of my life. It seems like a big task on paper, but once you get into it, it's easy stuff.

[RT Wolf]

My system works like so:

Collect: Email inboxes and sometimes I'll write my own ideas in there and send emails to myself. Physical inboxes and a little notebook that carry with me everywhere with pen. Another habit that I'm working on now is looking at journalling as essentially a "collection"(in the GTD sense) for my thoughts, as well as merging it with the natural planning model.

Process/Organize: I use a Palm m125 I picked up from the flea market for like 30 bucks for organizing. I guess technically I have three filing systems, one offline for paper stuff and that's just a box containing my files under my desk (not a whole lotta space I have), the other one is a folder on my computer called filing with individual folders everywhere and the last one is a email reference folder. I've really realized that about 70-80% of stuff simply goes intot the reference filing system.

Review: This one has been a real problem for me. I'm fairly inconsistant with teh weekly review, but, generally, I have difficulty looking at the relevant lists when I get into the contexts required to do them. This is partially because I don't have clean edges to my work, where I can say, "It's work time now" because of my relatively inconsistant schedule. Another thing that might help is to figure out what I'm doing and look at the relevant lists in advance and see which of the stuff I want to do.

Do: One thing I've realized is that the stuff on your next actions list is stuff you actually want to get done. If you just think you "should" do it and are just procrastinating, throw it onto your someday/maybe list, DON'T clutter up your next action list. Everything on that list should PULL you to do it.

The natural planning model is simply brilliant and I've gotten a ton of stuff right off my mind using it. Simply brilliant.

I love GTD.

[norbert]

Finally a topic where I can rant about GTD

I love it! GTD has changed my life. No doubt. GTD works. I've been GTDing for almost 3 years now. The results are amazing. Currently my whole life is based around GTD and I only plan to increase this!

"to get to the place where truly the only thing on their mind, aside from whatever they're doing in the moment, may be the last couple of unprocessed hours of their life--that's a significantly different level of expertise in application." -- David Allen in his 2nd book, "Ready for Anything"

My single advice to everybody out there trying to implement the GTD system fully is to learn and use the GTD language. Remember: there are no subprojects, no to-do lists, neither tasks in GTD. If you follow this, you'll be so much more ahead of the rest.

The single lesson I've learned during the years is that GTD is a complete system in itself and there is no need to extend it. Whenever I tried to add "awesome ideas" to the system I always fall off the waggon. You better wrap your mind around the stuff you want to compress into the system before adding new "features" because everything perfectly fits into GTD without any modifications to it (which is very hard to grasp in the first months).

I am actively working on a Web 2.0 GTD application which I've been using for more than 10 months now on a daily basis. I plan to release it this year. It's different from all the rest in that it fully (100%) follows the GTD principles and does not introduce any new cool ideas (like subprojects and other crap--that's exactly what David Allen wanted to avoid).

Some relevant entries from my blog:
Some GTD Advice
Procrastination Revisited
My Take on Procrastination

Hope this makes sense to somebody!

Happy GTDing!

[turbosaab]

norbert, thanks for your perspective on the "strict" approach, you make some good points. It's interesting that even the official GTD software has caved to subprojects.

Looking forward to seeing how you set up your Web 2.0 app... please share here!

[norbert]

Originally Posted by turbosaab

norbert, thanks for your perspective on the "strict" approach, you make some good points. It's interesting that even the official GTD software has caved to subprojects.

Does it? I didn't know that. Do they make clear what it means? Is it "sub-real-life-project" or "sub-open-loop"? The problem with projects and subprojects are that it's easy to mix up real projects with GTD projects (any action that needs multiple steps to complete). Using the word [sub]project was very confusing for me for a very long time and I didn't even notice it. There was always a little chaos around every "project" that I entered into my system.

Originally Posted by turbosaab

Looking forward to seeing how you set up your Web 2.0 app... please share here!

I will! The prototype works very well. I need to make it much more simple (needs lots of explanation now) and change how things are dynamically rendered on the screen to make it faster. It's quite slow when you have 250+ open loops and the whole 6 level model in it. It's gonna take some weeks for sure.

Thanks for the feedback!

Best Regards,
Norbert

[turbosaab]

Originally Posted by norbert

Do they make clear what it means? Is it "sub-real-life-project" or "sub-open-loop"?

Not as far as I can tell... I haven't seen it explained in any of the documentation I have read.

Originally Posted by norbert

The problem with projects and subprojects are that it's easy to mix up real projects with GTD projects (any action that needs multiple steps to complete). Using the word [sub]project was very confusing for me for a very long time and I didn't even notice it. There was always a little chaos around every "project" that I entered into my system.

I still have that feeling sometimes...

Originally Posted by norbert

I will! The prototype works very well. I need to make it much more simple (needs lots of explanation now) and change how things are dynamically rendered on the screen to make it faster. It's quite slow when you have 250+ open loops and the whole 6 level model in it. It's gonna take some weeks for sure.

Great! Having the 6 level model in software would be neat... And as an amateur programmer I am curious what you are using to put it together & deal with the speed issues. (I'm assuming it's some type of javascript/AJAX?)

[turbosaab]

I forgot to mention, part of my system is synchronizing Outlook with my BlackBerry, which is my 24/7 "capture device" (I have a note named #inbox where I write quick notes, one per line, as a substitute for David's blank piece of paper method)

[Shamou]

An excerpt from Wikipedia on GTD...

"A capsule description of GTD from Allen's book Ready for Anything:

“Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up — not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you're doing (and not doing) at any time.”
.

[turbosaab]

A relevant quote from David Allen, found in a recent thread on the GTD forums:

All those software applications that were created out there purporting to facilitate GTD, really, sort of added more complexity than was required.

Also, another user posts (same thread):

From personal experience and this forum have convinced me that most of the complexity with which people struggle, on paper or on software, comes from trying to do Project Management within the GTD system. That doesn't work. PM is very complex and requires a lot more resources than lists of next actions. It requires precedence relationships and critical path analysis. GTD helps do projects, but the emphasis is on atomic actions, not the big picture. GTD provides lists of NA's organized by context and readily available and current, but there is no inherent relationship between lists, or actions, in a GTD system.

This seems to ring true for me. I think I am expecting too much from GTD at times and need to strengthen my handling of project management as part of my support materials.

[norbert]

Originally Posted by turbosaab

All those software applications that were created out there purporting to facilitate GTD, really, sort of added more complexity than was required.

Exactly. That's where I'm trying to be different. Although I offer a review mode in my app where you can see the complete 6-level model, including everything from your life purpose to all open loops and next actions, I don't add any new stuff that the GTD methodology doesn't have.

Originally Posted by turbosaab

GTD helps do projects, but the emphasis is on atomic actions, not the big picture. GTD provides lists of NA's organized by context and readily available and current, but there is no inherent relationship between lists, or actions, in a GTD system.

GTD is about your personal actions (work and life). It makes you stress-free by always providing a complete work inventory where you can make decisions about what to do next in the moment based on intuition. Project management stuff can be integrated into the system just like any other input that pops up in your world, including input from your environment and your own thoughts.

I think the key is getting down to empty (processing all inputs). Merlin Mann's talk at Google shows how to empty your e-mail inboxes completely on a regular basis. I suggest you do that with any project management material as well: collect all input, process what that means to you (basically: does this need any action on your part, are you waiting for it or is it a someday/maybe item?), organize next action reminders in the appropriate contexts, review your actions when in a specific context and do them one by one. This is the GTD 5 phases of workflow.

[Ilya]

Yes, I do GTD. I'm not sure I have the best implementation around, but it works for me.
My set-up is a heavyweight.
I use a digital PDA as my portable in-box. I usually have a task-list as a foreground application. So all I have to do is to tap the screen and i'm ready to type in the task. When I'm in front of my computer I synchronize with outlook. In outlook I use the "contacts as projects" trick to tie several tasks to one project and categories to sort for contexts.

I use a simple cardboard crate for real-world inbox, it stands near my desk and I just drop stuff into it. I've used similar crate for my paper archive, but now, I've digitized all papers and I deal with digital instances for all practical purposes.

I also have a few little notebooks with pens, scattered around my apartment.
It breaks the one-inbox rule, but I need them in areas, where PDA is not practical - in the shower, at the bedside at night, and so on - just where I get my ideas. It is better for me to collect and process the notebooks during reviews, then to go for PDA or computer anytime I remember something.

I'm thinking about dropping outlook sometime in the future, but I haven't found a replacement that would justify switching costs.

[RT Wolf]

How do people here manage digital reference material. Is it just a folder iwth many subfolders on your hard drive?

[norbert]

Yes. With a flat directory structure. Just like in the real life.

[RT Wolf]

Sounds good. Thanks.

[Alex2007]

I currently got the GTD on CD as I like listening on staf.

Before that I listened to "Eat That Frog" a similar program by Brian Tracy that is Brilliant as well.

Alex