31–40 of 74 posts
This is a great summary. I have always liked the idea of GTD, it is just that it can be a bit overwhelming at times :( Is there a GTD lite or something for beginners ?
Emacs Org-Mode, along with its org-capture mode and the ability to clock in/out, is a perfect tool to implement this, btw. https://emacs.cafe/emacs/orgmode/gtd/2017/06/30/orgmode-gtd.... http://orgmode.org/worg/org-gtd-etc.html
With vim-orgmode I can quickly edit stuff in familiar editor.
I have tried various other formats, including taskpaper and various to-do lists but org-mode stands out by far.
I've tried to implement GTD a couple of times before but I always fail when I end up with organised but huge lists of things to do, along with things that become irrelevant over time (time-contextual "could-do's") and getting snowed under by day-to-day maintenance chores. Has anyone had success implementing it, and if so, was there any trick or technique that helped it "click" for you? I also realise I might just be…
I started with this: https://trello.com/b/2f37iYzy/sample-gtd-board Then I made some alterations to fit my lifestyle. For one, there's a giant "Homework" list with all of my assignments for the semester and due dates. This helps me make sure that on any given day, I know whether an assignment is coming up. I sync this Trello list with my Google calendar, which sends me an email reminder the day before something is du…
I've tried to implement GTD a couple of times before but I always fail when I end up with organised but huge lists of things to do, along with things that become irrelevant over time (time-contextual "could-do's") and getting snowed under by day-to-day maintenance chores. Has anyone had success implementing it, and if so, was there any trick or technique that helped it "click" for you? I also realise I might just be…
I think the system works well for people who are already inclined to the general mindset and other systems likely work better for different types of people. For me, it is a slow process to reach a perfection of the system.
I am currently going through my fourth major overhaul of my system and I think when I come out the other side I will be about 80% of the way to where I want to be. I think I am about 60% now, but even when I was only 20% in the beginning it was an improvement over zero.
The last large overhaul I did shifted me from David Allen's notion of contextual based lists to lists based on criticality. Contextual was largely irrelevant to me since nearly everything I do can be done on my phone and otherwise computer, which is where I spend most of my working day.
I have 4 next action lists for the tasks in my personal life. Critical - Nothing sits in here for more than a day or two. The struggle for me is being honest about only putting items in here that I truly cannot let go past a day or two, not items that I wish I would do in a day or two.
Priority - This holds items that absolutely need to be completed at some point in the near future (within a week or two), but not necessarily today. It is reviewed every few days and actions are taken care of, shuffled up to critical, or shuffled down to Important, or elsewhere.
Important - This exists so that I don't fill up Priority with junk, but still feel like I have place I will review regularly so that these items don't fall through the cracks and end up as last minute fires to be put out.
Remember - Along the same lines, this exists so that Important isn't full of junk that I am just temporarily attached to. Most of 'remember' ends up being filed to a project, deleted, or placed into incubate. This folder was a key addition to remove the stress of what to do with ideas I felt were important in the moment, but knew they couldn't possibly take precedence over anything that had a real timeline.
I am returning to running my own business at the first of the year and so the new overhaul is all about managing separate clients and the related projects/tasks. From previous experience, I know how hard it is for me to comfortably step in and out of work, especially at home. I am developing a series of forms, note tags, and procedures to dump my mental operating RAM into Evernote at the end of a work session and then reload that project/task specific data into my mind whenever I return.
Like GTD in general, so much of the value for me is in having the confidence to say, "you can forget completely about that for now, it has been documented and filed in such a way that you need have no fear of not remembering and accessing it later in the moment when it is needed."
I love GTD...in theory. It is rational, and it should work. In practice, it ended up being demoralizing to realize how little of what I should do and would like to do I actually have time for. It was "stress free" in the sense that I was missing fewer urgent (Covey) things for sure. It was very stressful in that it set a mood of "never enough...never enough". I think everyone should try it though and obviously, ymmv.…
I don't consider this, human brain is just an amazing organ, we haven't even used 20% of our brain potential, and we want to take load of it. When you really want to do or you are really interested in something, then you can't forget that.
There's no evidence that we don't use all of our brain.
GTD does work but to be almost any system that is used with habit like fervor will work. General productivity of contacting people and writing up things is pretty easy to manage and in large part most of it is just getting it out of your head so that you can focus on other perhaps cerebral things. But that is the problem. Systems like these aren't at the surface terribly helpful with creativity. However I do believe…
Practically speaking, this means a few things:
- You need enough slack in your to-do list to allow you to delay or put off tasks if you suddenly get an idea that you want to explore.
- You need a way to capture and explore ideas at any time. This is why a lot of people carry little notebooks in their pocket. I prefer to use my mobile phone.
- You need a way to reference previous ideas, as creativity often takes the form of updates, modifications, or combinations of previous thoughts. Again, the notebook or mobile phone can do this for you.
- You need a way to take action on ideas--to start making them real. A lot of creative ideas sound great at first but fall apart when you try to actually build them.
To the extent GTD can help you do those things, it can help you be creative. But there is nothing inherently creative about a particular system of organization.