For you fiddling/failing GTDers--a link
Submitted by jonglass on Fri, 2008-01-11 23:55.
Here's an interesting blog article for those struggling with GTD. I thought it was pretty good. ;-)
-Jon
D*I*Y Planner
the best thing in printing since Gutenberg
By George he's got it'
Thanks Jon.
That post is so true. It's easy to fiddle with the tools and not actually do anything. I was a victim of that myself. It's one of the reasons I have decided I will never buy anything from Levenger or Rollabind - it's window dressing for what I really need to do.
In the end I gave up on GTD because I realised the habits that GTD was pushing me to develop didn't suit my personality or my very annoying ability to over complicate things.
Simplicity
This is actually a tip I picked up from a guest writer here. They suggested that your system has to be scaled to you. That's when I switched from weekly calendars to monthly, and itseems to work better for me.
I had always assumed that a weekly review implied a weekly calendar. My low number of meetings, however, meant my calendar hardly got used, so I stopped using it.
I'm a fiddler, but I've been finding my way toward simple paper based systems as the most effective. My current system is a monthly calendar/notebook and a simple version of a hipster.
I'm sure some folks need more complex system to manage many meetings, etc, but I'm finding I'm not one of them.
Scaling
Very good point on the scaling. Years ago, as a college student, and later, as a department manager, I used the 2-page-per-day Daytimer (and as a manager, switched from the smallest pocket size to the Classic-sized Daytimer. Later, as I moved on, I discovered that even a week at a glance was too much calendar, and I didn't use it enough. I switched to month calendars, and various forms of note papers (although my Newton served all these for about 10 years).
Now, for the past year or so, I use my Palm for calendar events, and a combo PCEO Electronic Task Planner sheets (in a classic-sized Rollabind) and A7-sized hipster cards, with some random 3x5s in there for good measure. Since my work is both random and project-based, this works best for me. It's not very GTD at first glance, but it does have some elements that could be called GTD-ish--inbox, contexts, and the reviews. But honestly, I don't need any more. That's scaling. ;-)
-Jon
More and Less
I've built my first template (yea me!) based on another person's ADD daily schedule (it REALLY helps), and some stuff from Leo Baubuta's Zen Habits blog (GTD-lite).
To some it may look complicated, but it's working for me.
The first part of my system is a full letter page per day (not in a binder or planner) that tracks the things I need to remember to do on a daily basis (like, remember to shower, dummy!). Since I work at home, I don't have a lot of external cues about what needs to be done, when. So having those things on a master checklist, then having a check-off on my daily schedule that says "Morning Routine", makes it much easier for me to remember stuff. Essentially I plan out my entire day in 15-minute segments, then track what I actually did (like, um, nap instead of cleaning the kitchen). It has my 3 Most Important Task ala Zen Habits, ADL (Activities of Daily Living) reminders, mood and health indicators and a small journal block that tracks the basic topic or trend for the day.
I fill out the first half of the day's schedule during some planning time the day prior. This primes me to remember those early AM meetings and also seems to make it easier to get out of bed in the morning (or harder to talk myself out of getting up).
I do leave some areas blank or just put in "work" for an extended period, so that I don't feel completely hemmed in by my schedule and can choose MIT #2 if I REALLY don't feel like tackling #1 right now.
These are punched at the end of the day and added to a Circa binder for record-keeping. I'm going to add some basic journal or note-block areas on the back. I rarely carry these with me when I travel for work, since most of what I do on-site is pre-scheduled and I can track my daily routines more easily based on when I need to be in customer meetings, etc.
The second part is a weekly paper calendar - you'd think that, working in front of my computer all day, just having my Outlook calendar for work would be fine, but I find that I remember stuff better when I write it down. Especially since my east coast co-workers seem to have a penchant for scheduling things early in the day. So appointments get written in my weekly calendar, with reminders also about things like hockey games, so I don't over-plan my day when there's a game to attend. It also gives me a broader feel for my week, so I know if I've got to get something done by Friday, but I've got conference calls scheduled all day, then I'd better get a handle on it by Thursday.
I track my to-do's, projects, goals and "someday/maybe" in the Circa pocket-docket with 3x5 cards. Easy to find for daily/weekly review, and if I have lots of to-do items, they are stacked in dependencies so that I don't get overwhelmed with the whole laundry list of stuff I have to take care of.
Finally, I have a 3x5 card wallet that I carry with me in my purse and keep a legal-size pad on my desk for incoming notes, and can carry my calendar with me as well, if I need to be away an extended period of time.
I'm toying with some of the hPDA forms right now, that I might want to carry with me - but for now I'm keeping it simple with basic lined Levenger cards (though I don't think I can justify the cost so will probably go with cards from the office supply store in the near future).