Anyone else here use GTD?

[fredtgreco]

I am wondering if anyone else on the PB has been using David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) "system" to organize their work.

I've dabbled in it for sometime, but have recently been really pushing to implement it.

If so, what things have you found helpful?

 

[Tim]

I do. My learning on this system has come from the free materials available. I am still trying to find the book at the library (I must be frugal during these times).

I just re-organized my Outlook to-do lists again, in an effort to better group my 'projects' so that I can immediately see the next step that needs to be completed. I am still trying be better at breaking projects into small enough (discrete) steps, so that each step is easily managed mentally. If I don't do this well, a particular step will seem to difficult and lengthy, and I will procrastinate.

And the 'weekly review' really does help at reducing the pressure of mentally keeping track of all items that need to be addressed. Search the GTD website and you should be able to find a list of triggers. Triggers are useful when doing the weekly review because they help you remember things in all aspects of life that you may need to capture. This would include from family member telephone calls to computer repair to major goals for your career.

I would love to hear more about your experiences with this, Pastor Greco.

 

[ooguyx]

I use it with OmniFocus on my iPad. I haven't used GTD apart from this program, and think that it would be too much work without OmniFocus.

I like:
-The idea of getting things out of my mind and into an "inbox". This really helps to clear up what precious little brain space I have.
-Organizing my "to-do's" into projects and being able to look at the "next actions" of each project. This really helps me determine what I should do at any available time.
-With OmniFocus you can set contexts based on physical location for things that need to be done a certain places i.e. Grocery Store, computer, school, etc. Again this helps determine what I can do based on where I am.
-I really do like the idea of only putting things on the calendar that must be done at a specific time. Previously I would schedule every task and, as you can imagine, something would come up and my whole day would be off. Now I use the free blocks of time on my schedule to do next actions.
-I have also found that the system really falls apart when I don't do the "review" phase. Personally I do it once a week and decide which items are on hold, deleted altogether, or implemented. So if you are going to use GTD, don't forgo this part.

Like I said, I couldn't imagine using GTD without OmniFoucus. There are other application out there that do GTD, but this one has been the best.

Hopefully that helps.

 

[LawrenceU]

I have adopted quite a bit of his method. For my 'planner' I use a Rhodia book 'hacked' into a GTD nerve center. I love using it and have been doing so for about three years now. There are a ton of different 'systems' that folks have developed for doing this. I like the fact that it can't crash, batteries can't die, and it 'talks back to me'. Instead of little sticky tabs that all the websites show people using as page markers and section dividers I use Levenger Page Points. (I use those things for all sorts of tasks. Best little bookmark ever invented.)

 

[Skyler]

I keep To Do lists on my cell phone. Whenever I'm cleaning out my "cubicle" I throw everything into a big trash bag labeled "In". Only when I have everything that isn't where it's supposed to be cleared out do I start actually putting things away, dealing with each random item I pull out before moving on.

 

[TexanRose]

I tried for months to get GTD at the library, but it was the sort of book where all of the copies were always checked out, with a long waiting list to boot. Finally I caved and bought it used on Amazon, and it was well worth the $7 or $8 I spent.

The most helpful tip for me was the breaking jobs down into "next actions." But I really haven't fully implemented his system yet, because I've never done the initial "collection" or "corralling your stuff" that he describes in chapter 5. Doing so would require a large block of uninterrupted time, and as a mom, uninterrupted time is, well, non-existent. Perhaps I could break it up into smaller time periods somehow.

 

[Skyler]

(I borrowed the book from a friend. =D)

 

[Nebrexan]

Fred -- I use a derivative idea from it, and it has been a tremendous help to me in handling e-mail. I used to leave all active e-mail in the inbox. Taking a suggestion from a blog post I read somewhere, I created two folders, @ACTION and @WAITINGFOR. When can't handle a new e-mail right away, I move it to one of those folders. Mail in @ACTION requires me to do something for it; mail in @WAITINGFOR means I'm waiting for someone else to do something. Copies of e-mail I send also go there ("Please do this..." or "I'll do this..."). It keeps my inbox clean, and Outlook shows the number of messages in each folder so I know what needs to be done.

 

[BobVigneault]

I bought the book 2 or 3 years ago and it's on my To Do list of books to read and systems to implement but I haven't got to it yet. Sadly, I'm not trying to sound snarky - this is the truth.

Lifehacker, has a lot of links and recommendations related to GTD systems. Very popular with the editors there.