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November 27, 2007
A picture of my trusted system
I'm so excited to be officially blogging now. My very first comment came from Mitch who asked if I could share a little bit about my "trusted" GTD system setup.
Mitch - it would be my pleasure...
I'll use the framework of David Allen's five phases of workflow to discuss my system: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do
Collect
The tools I use to collect what's got my attention are:
Medium Black Moleskine lined notebook - I usually keep it with me whenever I'm working. I date the pages and use if for notes, brainstorms, sketching, etc.
My email arrives in two different places. One in my Lotus Notes, which is the application that we share at the David Allen Company. The other is a personal email account which I collect in Outlook. Yes, I often need to copy info from a Lotus email into an Outlook task or project, but this is a trade-off I'm willing to make at this point.
DavidAllen NoteTaker Men's wallet - for collecting on the go when out and about.
Jott.com - when a thought occurs to me while driving or really anywhere, I use Jott to get in to my email in-box for processing.
Since my current "office" setup is essentially in my kitchen, my physical in-box is a built-in box in the exposed
cabinet of the office area of our kitchen. Other than that, I have a portable in-folder in my mobile office bag, which usually sits next to me whereever I'm working.
Process
For the GTD un-initiated, "processing" essentially means to define what exactly you are going to do or not do about whatever you've collected.
I try to process everything I collect at least every other day. Sometimes when I'm slammed this slips a day or two, but I almost always catch up in my weekly review if that happens.
I use Outlook and the Netcentrics Outlook Add-In for processing my stuff.
Organize
Outlook contains my next actions, my project list, my digital notes, calendar and my contacts. These all sync to my Palm Treo 680.
I usually have a five drawer upright old Steelcase file cabinet not far from where I work in the kitchen. But right now it's actually in storage! We're in the process of showing and selling our home - and we needed to clear a lot of things out temporarily until it's sold. So for now, I have a small portable file container that contains the essentials I thought I'd need for the time-being.
As mentioned above, I keep a lot of things in my Brookstone traveling office roller-bag, including key working project folders, an Action Support Folder, Read FYI folder, Travel Support Folder, and all of my coaching gear (Brother PT-15 labeler, books, supplies)
I also use Plaxo as a tool to link my Outlook calendar to my wife's laptop. That helps us a lot in terms of coordinating childcare, travel, and the "work" of our family.
Review
I typically look at my calendar at least a couple of times a day, and review my action lists at about the same frequency, depending on how booked my calendar is for that day.
I get in a good weekly review, on average, every 8 or 9 days. And yes, I am human: Sometimes I'm so slammed that the weekly review gets either abbreviated or pushed off. But I think the longest I've ever gone without a weekly review was about three weeks (and man did it take a while to get through that one!!)
Do
When I've got actually "doing" time for things that aren't on my calendar, I'll scan my action lists, consider how much time and energy I have, try to consider my higher-level goals, and essentially just use my gut and the due-dates on my actions as my guide.
Sometimes during my weekly review I'll schedule some blocks of time in the upcoming week for specific projects or just general doing time. This is especially true when my schedule is crammed.
So there you have it - or at least an overview of it! Of course from my perspective being in control and having perspective on your work is not just about the system and tools that you use. What's more critical is the thought process with which you actually use your system and tools. In other words, you can have all the fanciest gear and most up-to-date systems, but if you're not actually consciously defining the agreements you've got with yourself the tools will be pretty useless
Also - a brief disclaimer: This is just the way my system has evolved. A lot of this is a matter of personal preference and just plain what works for me. Your system and approach is probably different. We are different people, with different styles, work, and lives. The golden rule when it comes to system and tool choices is to do what is attractive and workable for YOU, no matter how your neighbor is doing it.
Posted by mdolan at November 27, 2007 01:32 PM
Comments
Michael, I've subscribed to the GTD blog in my reader, but the links to your postings are always broken (401 errors). There seems to be some problem with how your postings are being published that prevents RSS readers from working properly.
Posted by: CJ at November 30, 2007 04:16 PM
Hi CJ, the RSS links shoud be fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out.
Posted by: Robert at December 8, 2007 11:39 AM
Thanks CJ. I think my crack IT crew has fixed that problem - but please let me know if you continue to see that same thing happenning.
Michael
Posted by: Michael Dolan at December 8, 2007 02:28 PM
Hi Michael,
I have purchased the book about a year ago; tried to read in order to implement but did not arrive even until the end. Now I am on my second attempt to get through the book. I feel the concept could help me to manage my life/work better but not sure how and where to start. Your post gave me some practical advice.
Inese
Posted by: Inese at August 18, 2008 07:59 AM
You write very well.
Posted by: Urilla at October 21, 2008 09:03 PM
