I have the idea that if I start off doing lots of different things as I get older I will still do lots as I will be ‘in the groove’ as it were!

http://www.Gtdagenda.com

You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version and iCal are available too.

Hope you like it.

On the computer that I use all day, I have a “project list” – a word document that contains a short, bulleted list of upcoming priorities. These aren’t errands, but three to twelve month projects that I have to constantly remind myself of unless I get derailed. If this list is more than a few items long (define your own “few”), I reevealuate, because I’m probably going about something wrong, or I’ve taken over the work of the truly responsible party, LOL.

Right below my project list is my to do list. These are the items that I need to get done fairly soon. It is fueled by my appointment book, emails, kids’ schedules, etc.. Once I have a list of things to do, I put the immediate needs to the top of the list. These are what will be done for the week, and I organize those by day and time, grouping them for effiency (and fun!). After a short time, I was able to correctly identify how much time I truly need to get things done. I have found incredible time savings (and procrastination busting!) in doing this. I end up wasting less time in transit, because I group my errands better, forecast when i need a sitter, know when I need to enlist help, pool resources, whatever. It’s great – TRY it! The other great thing about this is that there is no rule that says you MUST get everything done today (there is always tomorrow). but if you BOLD the items that really do HAVE to get done today, you’ll know to skip to them when time gets crucial. I’m a procrastinator, but when I go by this system, I really clean up on it. I think that being able to wipe the slate clean by the end of the hour or day energizes me so much that I don’t even want to procrastinate. Odd but awesome.

Now, after the week’s scheduled list, a list of items will still remain. Keep those at the bottom of your page(s), so you don’t have to remember them later, when you’re ready to refresh your list. A bonus to doing this is that you will be surprised to find you have a LOT of extra time with this method (I can’t believe I thought of it, LOL), and you have a great chance to attack some of these and get even further ahead. I have completed entire projects with the time I’ve saved from using this silly piece of paper for just a month. LOL, my kids like me better, too!

The bottom of the sheet is is also a handy place to keep record of upcoming events. I can usually cut my workload down here also, because it has flagged me to ask people I run into about things I need to plan furter in advance. I wouldn’t necessarily have that on my radar otherwise.

I’ve tried versions of to do lists – you have to read and try a lot – keep what works and sort away what doesn’t. After awhile, you’ll know what works for you. My list work for me because I can easily skim my list, identify what can be done on my breaks, delete what I’ve completed and print off a fresh copy just as I leave work (and thus start working, actively, on my list). Don’t hold onto anyone’s method like it’s the grail, and pass on what you find to others. The world can always use a bit of a hand, and yours might be the one it needs.

The only other thing that sticks in my mind is that I try to touch each paper I deal with only once, if it requires less than ten minutes (or so) of my time. If I have to go back to it, I pencil it in on my list, or that paper will be forgotten forever, LOL.

I have recently incorporated many of the tips from GTD at the office as I recently received a promotion that involves a lot more planning, responsibility for projects, and team work with other project leads.

Without these tips, I floundered for a while under the crush of new responsibilities – a simple “to do list” was not getting it done. Finding a system that details how to take care of the different types of things that pop up has made a world of difference.

I’m trying to apply these practices to my personal life as well, but that has been a little more difficult. I guess I need the threat of letting down a co-worker to get me completely in gear!

To Sumey – I know what you mean about making the step from a list to actually doing something about them. But, for me, having the list made is half the battle, and gives me the chance to rest my mind since I know I won’t forget anything!

Rich

The intricacies of the system however slowly began to fade away… It became a burden to keep it up more than anything. The weekly reviews, the “capturing” on the go. It sort of turns you into a robot, and if you miss capturing one thing, it hangs over your head until you do get it down on paper (or your palm pilot, or whatever). Like, if you loan $5 to someone, you have to write it down so you can put it in the “Waiting” list.

It’s a great system, and the book is written so well that you just want to go to office depot and buy a label-maker immediately! It does however take a lot of patience, dedication to the system, and a lot of attempts until you get it just right. It’s also overwhelming when you have such a long list of tasks to complete, once your own head has been emptied of these worries. Yes, they are down on paper, but now you actually have to DO them…

Anyway, I have mixed feelings. I only wish I had the dedication to get back on the horse. After reading this review though, I kind of want to start back up with GTD. Fiddlesticks! This is what I get for wanting a free copy of Brazen Careerist?

By the way, a “tickler” folder isn’t an ideas folder—it’s a folder for upcoming things that you want to look at on a certain date.

I didn’t mean to say “don’t read Getting Things Done.” I merely meant that it isn’t as easy to read as others say, if you are the easily distracted and overwhelmed sort. Don’t wait until “some year” to read it. I’m plugging away very slowly, but the flow charts that helped me reorganize my email files are extremely useful, and I have a lot more to read. I got it at my local library.

Incidentally, another book I ordered from the library (which hasn’t come in yet) is “30 Days to a Simpler Life,” by Connie Cox. I have no idea whether this book will be useful. But the other three books I mentioned have made a huge difference.

So many of the opening comments reasonated with me – the gazillions of tasks that I juggle daily – so I’ll be interested to see how the rest of the book works out.

I just wish I’d ordered the hardback from Amazon – the paperback I got has small type and the binding is stiff.

I think I should emphasize that it really helps to have the “big picture” (including visualizing my short- to medium-term future) in front of me to suck me away from my library book and keep me from pacing around for hours. Things like, “Get this assignment knocked out–> future profession, leave computer at 6 pm to go ‘home’–> relationship time,” etc.

I wonder if keeping a “journal” of things done rather than a “to-do” list might not also be helpful to some people.

I don’t think I’ve had only 200 emails for about ten years. Gargh. Paper is more urgent at the moment.

Trent’s blog has been of tremendous help to me in finding several organizing resources. I am gleaning information for reorganizing my whole life from the three following books:

–”Organizing for the Creative Person,” by Dorothy Lehmkuhl and Dolores Cotter Lamping, Crown Publishers 1993. I am always paralyzed by the number of choices in my life, and the clutter is tremendous. I never know where to start to attack it all. This book helped me realize that EVERYTHING in my life = “stuff” that needs to be organized somehow, and then offered ways to get started. This book dovetails into:

–Trent’s favorite, “Your Money or Your Life,” Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, Penguin, 1992, 1999. Besides helping me rethink where my life is going (something INFPs do anyway, so that’s nothing new), this book approaches financial records in a holistic manner that Quicken and other tools don’t quite “get.” I have just taken the Quicken categories and sorted them into broader categories offered (not demanded or even “suggested”) in this book, which keeps stressing the need for you to find your own categories.

These two books work with the subject of this thread:

–”Getting Things Done.” I’m having a harder time reading this book if for no other reason than the margins are cluttered, the language is cluttered, and my brain goes into overload in a hurry. I won’t explain what else this book has, because Trent does a good job of summarizing.

Incidentally, I have been making more lists for myself as a way of getting ideas out of my brain, but until I could control the other clutter through use of the first book I mentioned, my modus operandi tended to be as follows:

1. Make list night before.

2. Do one or two items on list.

3. Get sidetracked by new project.

4. Lose list.

I’ve been throwing out loads of paper and things I don’t need, my email files are now reordered into mail that needs action and mail that needs to be kept for reference, and my email inbox is under 100 for the first time since 2004 (when I got home email). At its peak it had more than 2,000, because I neither had time nor had an idea where to put actionable mail without losing it forever.(This organizing tool came from “Getting Things Done” and was worth reading past all the quotations in the margin to find it.)

One thing that helps me is to keep a list of *categories* (rather than tasks or projects) on my main computer.

I also have a timer program on my computer that I can set for 25 minutes or whatever. Then when I settle down, I can decide what’s most important in a vaguely Seven Habits way but not fussing around with it too much.

Categories include each class, my grant project, lab management, food (e.g. plans to make pizza–need to set the dough an hour or two ahead), finances/giving/shopping, writing, and significant other (bowling? and just to remember to set aside quality time).

I tend to keep a few notes on each category, but not everything I need to do. Lists get overwhelming quickly (this is why they’re called exhaustive, I’m convinced), so I use them more when I’m already overwhelmed, e.g. big new project (can’t get any worse).

If you fall in to the no-list group, you are doomed to failure when you attempt to use GTD system.

I’ve read GTD twice. I’ve managed to use a few minor things from it, but for me, it just doesn’t work.

It is a free, open source bit of software for tracking all of your projects and actions. It runs in your webbrowser.

Simon keeps a blog for it at: http://monkeygtd.blogspot.com/