Importance of collection habit

[Petr]

I was very busy last days. A lot of calls on the phone on the run and without any paper&pen around. Needed to write promises into my iPhone when the call is over. Not so productive as when I have pen & paper by hand. Anyway some of the thoughts are captured and translated into actions. Nice feeling of control

[S-Tolland]

I always feel a bit nervous if I don't have a pen and pad with me when I am out and about. I was out with colleagues for lunch yesterday and had two people apologise for asking me about work, but went ahead and did it anyway I had my capture tool handy, wrote it down and could enjoy the rest of the lunch without any concern that I might forget to handle the task when I got back to the office.

GTD allows you to be present and enjoy the present.

[Oogiem]

I was very busy last days. A lot of calls on the phone on the run and without any paper&pen around.

That's why I have a belt pouch with my capture notebook and pens as well as carrying my phone and camera in it. May look odd but I'm never without a capture device.

[ellobogrande]

Not having a capture tool with you should feel as awkward as leaving for work without putting your shoes on first. Without fail things will come to mind when you don't have a capture tool handy.

One tool I for the car is a voice recorder that you can activate without taking your eyes off the road. If you can record a voice memo without looking at your iPhone screen, great. If not, get a separate unit with a record button.

[Roger]

I've taken it as far as not answering the phone if I don't have a collection tool available.



Cheers,
Roger

[TesTeq]

That's why I have a belt pouch with my capture notebook and pens as well as carrying my phone and camera in it. May look odd but I'm never without a capture device.

You've got three capture devices:

• notebook;
• phone;
• camera.

[Oogiem]

You've got three capture devices:

Yes, I find that certain types of inputs are much easier and faster to capture in one form or another. My way won't work for everyone though.

I know my phone has a camera, but I am a scrapbooker and the phone pictures are not nearly good enough resolution to use in my scrapbooks. My books are often documentation of what is going on in the farm and we also use them for future reference a lot. So I find that using my camera to capture both next actions and statuses (pix of the part needed to fix the irrigation system, or pix of the state of the grazing in the far fields so I can plan the next sheep moves) makes the picture do double duty. It's an input to my inbox for next action plus the eventual print gets put in the farm scrapbooks for later use. I write TOCs for all my important scrapbooks to facilitate finding stuff in them easily next time. Visual references are very good for us.

If I am talking on the phone the notepad is faster to make a note than try to remember it and then enter it into my phone or speak it into a voice memo. Paper is also better for graphical inputs like drawings and measurements of things. Combined with a photo of the item it can reduce trips to the hardware or farm supply store so I often use both notes & camera to capture inputs on farm related issues.

Phone capture is often ok for short easily typed things but an outdoor farm environment is a bit risky for my phone, even in its gorilla case. I'd rather not have to clean the mud and manure off the phone or make a 150 mile trip to replace it if I accidentally drop it into the irrigation ditch. I'll often choose a less delicate system, my notepad, if I am in a severe environment. I've also found that in winter using my phone requires I take off my gloves, not fun when it's cold out, but I can use my camera and my notepad with gloves on.

In short I could not easily and painlessly capture all the varied inputs I get without all 3 of my capture systems with me at all times.

[Mike L]

I always have my cellphone with me and use this to send text messages to myself with reminders, this way I don't have to carry a pen and pad of paper.

If you have an android phone you can press the magnifying button icon which opens up their browser for voice interaction, then say "note to self". You can then dictate a note to yourself which will be mailed via gmail to you. Google will attempt to also transcribe it into text, sometimes more successfully than others, but you get the voicemail.

There are other ways to dictate text into an email on an android phone, and I imagine this is also easy to do on an iPhone.

[cwoodgold]

Oogie, I'm impressed by the many and varied things you get done. From here in the middle of a city it's refreshing to read about your outdoor activities.

[SeanJada]

You've got three capture devices:

• notebook;
• phone;
• camera.

Ya absolutely correct all of them