implement GTD

• action
• reply
• read/review
• archive

When i check my inbox, I either reply to the message there and then or move it to one of the other folders depending on the next action. Stuff that’s been done or for information gets moved to the generic ‘archive’ folder. (As email has good search and browse, this seems more in keeping with GTD than setting up byzantine folder structures for every eventuality.)

Seems to be working ok so far. My goal is to clear the inbox by the time I finish work each day.

Don’t seem to be looking at the thing any more. What’s to become?

Still doing quite well at this. Desk is still completely clear. Filing system is working well. I’ve rejigged the to-do list to be a bit simpler (I had too many contexts so was losing track of what needed to happen), so now the key stuff fits on one sheet of paper.

Need to look at email workflow next – I still keep everything in my inbox, which is a bit wrong. Any suggestions?

Things are still getting done and, though there is not enough time to do them all, at least I know what I’m meant to be doing. And my desk is still amazingly clear…

So this GTD malarky is going quite well. I got through almost all of my ‘on the phone’, ‘on email’ and ‘at the office’ lists this week. Did my first weekly review yesterday – there’s now time locked into the diary for this every Friday. So I poured the loose contents of my office into my in-tray and went through it all with my PA, setting up actions, projects or reading as appropriate. Still not sure I’ve quite got the system for turning projects into next-actions quite right for middle-sized-stuff. But I’m feeling reasonably organised and it seems to be working well.

So my desk is still clear. I’ve set up a few more bits (three trays for in, read/review and filing; hanging files for regular meetings I can quickly drop documents into).

But my next-action lists are now huge. The good thing is, I can now see exactly how much I’m meant to be doing. The bad thing is, I’ve realised there’s not enough time to do it all! Still, best to know that now…

So I’ve now also created various next-action lists in a fresh new notebook. I think I unleashed some kind of mental next-action torrent in my brain, which kept me up until about 2am – every time I tried to get off to sleep, another action I hadn’t dealt with bubbled up in my brain and hung around till I got up and wrote it down.

Looks like my lists will work well for standard to-dos, agendas etc. Not quite sure how to tackle projects. I have loads on the go at any point. Should I keep a list of projects, and maybe one next action for each? Or try to list out all the actions for each in advance, as the book seems to suggest? Hmmmm.

Desk still clear (though new, improved in-tray beginning to fill up…)

So: New year, new personal organisation system. I kicked this off at work today, following the book pretty much to the letter. Everything was piled in and around my in-tray. Then we went through, binned things, filed them in a new reference filing system as recommended, or added them to next-action lists. Filled up 5 large sacks wish rubbish that I’d accumulated, and reduced 5 shelves of filing to 2.

Disappointingly, the labelling gadget that David Allen got strangely excited about in the book (“It’s the best thing ever! Buy one now! Makes filing fun!” kind of thing) didn’t quite work – will have to find a new one. But otherwise, a successful start.

New year, new attempt at being better-organised. Nearly finished the book and will be making a start on some of the ideas in the next week or so…