stay organized

I’m going through all my goals and setting deadlines. If the deadline is beyond 2006 or I can’t give it one then the goal is going!

I’m using 43things like a public projects list and Someday/Maybe doesn’t belong here.

Despite working with computers, heck, virtually living on them, I went low tech for GTD, a pocket size Filofax. I used a label-maker at work to turn some standard dividers into GTD dividers, it does make a difference when it looks nice.

Diary – 1 week on a page (otherwise it gets too fat)
Inbox – a couple of lined pages for brain dumping
Actions – GTD style next actions on 4 pages, @work, @home, weekday errands, weekend errands. When I run out of lines I transfer over any outstanding tasks onto a new one. This helps prevent anything sitting too long.
Projects – adapted from the “HipsterPDA” Pack, one page per project except one very big one which runs onto multiple pages of notes
Reference – Subway map, conversion charts and holidays and stuff that came with the diary pages, and a few notes. Also a list of important to remember stuff from previous diary pages (which I’ve removed and thrown away)
Someday/Maybe – a list of long term goals and a couple of projects on hold
Addresses – the usual
Highlight tags and postit notes
Pen
Spare pages
Stamps

The trick with any system is to use it and I’ve found that for me this is the one that I DO use, my ‘trusted system’. It’s kept me sane while my life went haywire, it’s been a life saver. And it’s a pretty color :-)

I ended up with a pile of stuff from the old apartment so yesterday I got another bookcase and a shelf to put the DVDs on and I’m rearranging to fit everything in. Coming along nicely so far. I should be finished by the end of tomorrow.

GTD continues to work for me.

I wonder about adding this as a goal because I can never call it done and I like goals that I tick off. OTOH I can use it to record occasional thoughts on GTD and ‘life hacks’.