I Give Up… I’m Going To Try GTD
I’m a long time hold-out on GTD and 43Folders. Gene, my day-job boss, is a real advocate for this stuff and I know it works great for him. I’m just not sure I’m disciplined enough to get Getting Things Done done, but I’m going to finally give it a try. I’m starting with the first tool Leo suggests at ZenHabits.
This “Gene” fellow you mention sounds like quite the chap! While widely-criticized as a re-hash of the ideas covered in GETTING THINGS DONE, David Allen’s newest book, MAKING IT ALL WORK does a much, much better job of factoring in the “Six Horizons of Focus” — the “altitudes” at which you consider your life, your priorities, etc. — and how they tie to everything you’ve managed to collect (now “capture”), process (now “clarify”), organize, review (now “reflect” upon) and then do.
If you haven’t already read GTD, you might consider starting with MAKING IT ALL WORK, since you’ll be less likely to write it off as a “gosh, he says I need 43 folders” set of tricks and more likely to see it as a systematic approach to thinking about your “stuff.”
Also, the “Things” iPhone app and Macintosh app is getting a lot of good coverage as an excellent GTD app (and a viral marketing success story, especially via Twitter). I also like “Remember The Milk” (rememberthemilk.com), but to effectively use the iPhone app, it’s a $25/year “premium” membership.
You might check with Gene about how to set up Outlook to work with GTD, or see the free and cheap whitepapers/advice at davidco.com.
Cheers.
Eneg,
He IS quite a fine chap and has continually earned my increasing respect. In fact if memory serves he once gave me a copy of one of those fine books you mentioned. I’ll take your advice and give GTD a more careful read.
Thanks for the software tips too. I actually read about that outlook trick tonight and it sounded like a very useful thing. I bet Gene uses that too.
Thanks Again!
Michael (a.k.a Ekim)