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March 29, 2007

Building your GTD house

Last count, there were something like 60+ software programs based on GTD. Add another several hundred, if not thousand, web sites chewing over GTD and all the options for implementation. With so many choices, it can become overwhelming to build the "perfect" GTD system. And, you'll never hear David Allen say one product/tool/list manager is the only way to do GTD. Wouldn't that be nice actually? It would simplify things for all of us! Choosing your system comes down to your personal preference and some people find themselves faced with the paradox of choice.

At a bare minimum, a GTD system would have 4 primary action lists/views: Projects, Actions, Waiting For and your Calendar. If you set out to find a good list manager to bucket these primary lists, that's a good place to start. Here are 4 tips for building your GTD house:

1. Start with what you know. Yes, there are a ton of options out there for making your life faster and easier, but if you've got to spend time learning the tool before you can easily work the system, start with a tool you already know. Lots of people start with paper lists for this reason. That alleviates the immediate pressure of mastering a new software program. If you go digital, make sure the program you choose doesn't overcomplicate things. I go for speed, not complexity. It's one of the reasons I've been a fan of Palm Desktop all these years. It stays simple enough while giving me room to manage a sophisticated set of lists.

2. Populate your system as thoroughly as you can and review it regularly. The best way I know of for my brain to trust my lists (more than holding it in my brain) is for my lists to become like my second brain. Nothing is not worthy of the lists (repot orchids or update the workbook--it's all on the lists.) If it is an agreement I've made, it's in my system and my brain trusts it's OK to let go of it knowing I'll see it in any daily or weekly reviews. Remember, the brain doesn't necessarily know the difference between buy shampoo and finish performance review. To your brain, they are just incompletions that the brain will lob over the fence to get your attention whenever it thinks your free (not necessarily when you can do anything about it.)

3. Make your system portable. If you don't have a way to sync your lists to a handheld (Palm, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile device) then print them on a regular basis. Downloading stuff from your brain only works if you can access the lists you need, when you need them. If you're at the hardware store on a Saturday and your lists are back at your office then you've trained your brain that off-loading your actions is not a good idea. Same thing with sitting in your boss's office and your Agenda items are buried in a list or folder back at your desk. Having your lists with you will also give you more chances to take advantage of weird windows of time for adding to your lists as well. Nice to capture buy shampoo the first time it comes around, rather than the 10th.

4. Give yourself time to make it a habit. Good or bad, a habit takes about 28 to 32 days to get created. I suggest picking a list manager and trying that consistently for about 30 days. If you find it's not a good fit, then switch. At least you would have given yourself a chance to get the basic moves down with it and see if it matches your style.

I was watching this bee outside my office window this morning, as he considered his choices with my Stargazer Lily.

Ah...if only life were that simple!

Posted by Kelly at 11:05 AM | Comments (9)

March 20, 2007

Handling Waiting For items in Gmail

Here is a fun trick for those of you on Gmail who are looking for a way to easily handle emails that you need track a response.

1. Create a label called @Waiting For if you don't have one already
2. Go to Settings (top right corner), click on Filters tab
3. Click Create a New Filter
4. Add your email address to the From field
5. Add a unique keyword, such as *wf, in the Has the Words field
6. Click Next step
7. Check off Skip the Inbox" and "Apply the Label: @Waiting For"
8. Click Create Filter

Test it out by sending yourself a test message and put your unique code somewhere in the body of the message. What this will do is save you from having to cc: yourself (and then process it again out of In) or dig through Sent mail to get the stuff that you're waiting on from someone else. A copy of your email will automatically get filed under your @Waiting For label.

Posted by Kelly at 04:42 PM | Comments (8)

March 16, 2007

Actions that get uglier by the day

Procrastination fascinates me. I love looking at it like a scientist to figure out why I procrastinate on some things and not others. I've got one right now that's been on my lists for 5 weeks, and it's not getting any prettier. I was in a two-day meeting and took 16 pages of hand-written notes. I need to review the notes to see if I captured any good ideas that need to get into our knowledge databases, my reference files or my someday maybe lists. I already gave a quick scan for current actions, so I know nothing timely is lurking on them. So I figure I am at a crossroads here:

Do I still need to do this?
Do I still want to do this?

This is one of those value-add actions that no one is tracking me on. No one would know if I NEVER did anything with these notes, yet I am still committed to doing something about them. After all, if I took the time to take the notes, shouldn't I at least do something with them? What if I captured THE greatest pearl of GTD wisdom ? I know what I want to do, I just don't want to do it, but think I should do it. So funny. Really.

Got any meeting notes buried in legal pads that need to get culled through? I bet I'm not alone...

Posted by Kelly at 02:45 PM | Comments (8)

March 01, 2007

Hey, why are you late?

I'm going to save you some future snafus with your calendar entries by pointing you to my buddy Eric Mack's blog entry about the Daylight Savings issue. I was trying to ignore this as some thing that I'm sure wasn't affecting any of MY systems, until I realized that all of my calendar entries in March were wrong.

It's worth a quick glance at Eric's summary to see if you need to do anything about this. It looks like I need to download a patch for my Treo.

Hey, the good news is that for at least 3 weeks in March we can blame the daylight savings issue as the reason we're late.

Posted by Kelly at 09:46 AM | Comments (1)