Getting Things Done
Posted by: Richard in Apple, Personal, Technology, tags: getting things done, GTDMSN Search Results
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I’m not always the most organised person, and recently it’s reached a point where it’s rather gotten in the way of a few things, not least the feeling of being rather overwhelmed by “stuff”. This has manifested itself most in my finding it increasingly difficult to simply ’switch off’ and unwind, without worrying about clients, projects, and so forth.
I’d picked up a copy of Getting Things Done last year, but not got around to actually, well, getting on with it. A problem deferred is a problem solved, for a while at least. But it’s all caught up with me, and Something Needed To Be Done.
Since moving to Glasgow, I’ve made conscious decisions to take up - and stick with - running and learning the piano. And it’s worked: In a few months it’ll be two years of running as a hobby (a surprise one at that; I’d thought it’d be a chore). Unfortunately, the general feeling of being overwhelmed by everything has started to get in the way of both enjoying running and the piano. I’ve not had a lesson in a while, and not done any practise either. So, my third life-style change I plan to stick by is one that I hope will actually facilitate more of the other activities, as well as giving me more time for Frances, the house, life in general, and actually enjoying myself by being able to switch off.
So today is The Day I start to put the ‘GTD’ approach in to action. Finding every pile of things (physically and on my computer) into an inbox, which I’ll then start processing. Simply writing down all the things that occur to me as I wonder about the house is already making me feel better, so I’m quite optimistic this might just work. And that’s before I’ve tackled my e-mail, much less made a decision on a piece of software to use (There are some very cool options with the Mac, and with the iPhone SDK promising even cooler stuff, it’s quite a choice).
Anyway, watch this space 
Right, coffee break over with. Back to the collecting and tidying. It’s actually a lot more fun than I’d thought… But please, don’t tell my mother….
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May 26th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I look forward to hearing how you get on with GTD. I’m a big fan of the lifehacker.com website where I learnt a bit about the ‘technique’ but have yet to try it out although I know a couple of people who have.
May 26th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Well so far, so good. I’ve had an incredibly productive day, and corralled all the ‘Stuff’ I could find, and got a good few hours of ‘processing’ done, so I’d almost got to the bottom of my In tray before I headed out to the running club. Incredibly liberating, a great weight off my mind, and surprisingly enjoyable. Can safely say getting a labelling machine and ensuring a quick and easy filing system makes it much easier, and more fun. I’m discovering Gadgets don’t have to be shiny!
Am giving OmniFocus a go for the task management part. I’m tempted by a few of the others (Things in particular), but am very conscious that the Omni Group is a bigger setup and more likely to get the iPhone-support out that will be absolutely critical….
Now for some time with Frances. Priories
May 27th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I followed this during my working years but I cannot remember who told me.
Never put the worst or most difficult tasks on the bottom of the pile or the bottom of the list.
Do them first.
The ‘glow’ then carries you forward.
June 7th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
@Mrs K - That’s an excellent piece of advice, although I find it really hard to put into practice.
I’m not a GTD-stalker, I’ve just followed one of the links from Gordon McLean’s live blogroll… but I did get the GTD bug a couple of years ago and have built my own GTD app, tedium. I haven’t tried it on the iPhone, but as it’s web-based it should work.
And even if you don’t use the app, you might find my A-Z of Personal Productivity blog series has some useful tips and ideas in it.