I started ‘doing’ GTD in early 2006 but I didn’t ‘get going’ with David Allen’s productivity method until last Fall. On a co-worker’s recommendation I picked up a cheapie Palm z22. I also found a PDF article by David Allen on his own Palm set-up. Those two things have kept me on the GTD wagon for four straight months now (which is amazing compared to the months of application searching and switching I went through prior to this).
For the uninitiated
GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.
Why Palm Desktop?
- Free (as in Love)
- Syncs well with Palm
- Available for PC and Mac
- Able to schedule ToDos (I’ve only ever found this in MS Office)
- Light, agile software (as opposed to clunky, bloated MS Office)
My inboxes
I pretty much use email as my inboxes. If something needs to go in and I’m not around a computer I’ll use my cell phone as a voice recorder that automatically emails me a .wav file. If I’m not around my cell phone, I write down a thought on a scrap of paper and carry it around with me until I can get to a computer or my cell. Either that or I forget it.
My set-up
Calendar: Standard ‘hard landscape’ of my life. I also use this as tickler file by creating No-Time events on the days I want to be reminded of something. A nice feature of Palm Desktop is its ability to also display scheduled and completed ToDos on their respective days.
* Note: I also use recurring No-Time events for bill reminders. When I pay a bill, I switch its color-coded category to Unfiled, which is grey. Glancing at the Monthly view, I can immediately see which bills are paid and which are still due.
Memos: This is where I keep my lists sorted into three categories: Reference, Projects, and Someday/Maybe. Projects are lists of Actions and I find it more intuitive to keep my lists away from my Actions (ToDos). Reference includes things like books I want to buy, my grocery list, etc. Someday/Maybe has projects that I’d like to do but that aren’t active right now.
ToDos: This is where I keep my Actions sorted into seven color-coded (nerdity nerd nerd nerd) categories (contexts): Anywhere, Call, Computer, Out, Home, Office, Waiting For. Waiting For todos start with the date they were moved to Waiting For for easy sorting. (I chose not to use due dates as start date markers to keep these out of my Calendar display.)
* Note: When I first started, the lack of link between Actions and Projects worried me. The Review fixed this for me but if you are uncomfortable with unlinked thingies, you can link any entry (address, todo, memo) in Palm Desktop to any other.
My review
I have learned that the Weekly Review is the best thing in the world. Reviewing everything on my plate eases my mind and I know that at any given moment I’m doing what I should be doing. It’s becoming addictive, in fact. The hardest thing for me to learn in GTD was this review. What got me over the hump was practice. Every time I started to feel slightly uneasy, I’d do a review. Over time, I got faster and faster and am now quite good at it. (The first time, it took a couple hours. Even now, if I’ve let it go too long, it can take that long.)
I start with my Calendar and scan the weeks ahead to see if any ticklers need to be moved to Projects/Actions. Once done, I go down my Projects list. I open every project and review its Actions. Completed Actions have a = (equal sign) in front of them. Actions in the future have a - (dash) in front. The current Action has a > (greater than) in front of it. I also make sure that there’s a ToDo for that action.
Now I go to my list of ToDos to sync it up with my Projects. With each ToDo, I determine if it’s a single Action or if it’s part of a Project. Sometimes, I find that what I thought was a single Action should be a Project so I go ahead and make the Project memo and list all of its actions. I go through the entire list. Once I’m done going through each Action, I know that every Project I’m working on is represented in my Action list. And I know that every Action in my list is something I actually am supposed to do.
Sometimes I decide that I have too much stuff going on, that it’s making me feel overwhelmed, and that’s when I move some Projects into Someday/Maybe. Or sometimes there’s not enough variety to choose from and I move things from Someday/Maybe to active status.
I didn’t realize until now that the purpose of this system is simply to make me feel better. And probably the point of this post, too. It ain’t broke and I ain’t fixin’ it 