implement GTD

Someone lost my original copy (And by someone, it could well be who ever had it last gave it back to me, and I left it in the bottom of a bag some where) but my new shiny version arrive this afternoon, so I shall be rereading this as part of one of my side projects very soon.

I keep thinking “soon” will be this weekend, but in fact, I’m away for some serious party action down south. I guess I’m destined to be disorganized a little longer, I follow some of the core ideas very lazily right now, but I need to really iron out a hard and fast method of my own and stick to it long term.

I’ve really let myself go on the Getting Things Done front for a while now, while I’m still mindful of it, I don’t follow though as much as I should, and indeed could in a lot of ways.

So, I’ve started to just readdress where I’m going with it, mostly figuring out what bits of my old/current system I don’t like and are holding me back from getting into a habit that actually works.

First thing to do is identify all the little things I keep putting of at home, so when I have a few spare moments I can look at my job list and pick something of it, otherwise I just forget what needs doing. I can genuinely sit staring at the PC for ages bored, then come downstairs I think to myself “Oh, I could have done some washing up in that time”.

I got to reading the first section of the seven habits book this morning, and while I’m not into the meat of it yet, the overview has kept my interest and the basic underlying theme is layed out plainly, and keeps with my initial assesment. The book is about changing yourself and thinking about why you do things rather then how you do things (As a system like “Getting Things Done” is).

It’s a subtle but important shift in the focus of the material I have been reading lately, and yet better reflects my world view as a whole. After all, organization can only take you so far, and I guess recently I’ve started to put a lot of energy into reshaping my life even before I started reading the book.

Not that I’ve been waiting for something like this book to come along or anything, I can see how some people could pick it up and see it as a huge eye opener, if you haven’t put much thought into how you as a person fit into your enviroment as a whole, then it might offer a new way of thinking. For me it sits nicely with a path I was already on, and so gives me insight into someone elses thoughts on a similar path that I can draw on as I wish.
_{x-posted to my blog}

Okay, this isn’t directly “Getting Things Done” but it fits better with this goal, then one all of it’s own.

For me, I like GTD because it’s pratical, rather then American “Rar-Rar” hype, and “7 Habits” certainly runs the risk of been of less pratical use and more talk, but a friend recommended it when we were talking about productivity methods while on holiday the other week – And honestly, talking about such things on holiday isn’t as bad, or sad as it seems! – Anyway, it got my attention enough to make it worth a read, so I’m at least aware of the principles it lays out, even if I don’t choose to apply them.

Having shunned computers for organisation, in addition to my pocket planner, I now added a full blown A5 Filofax to my paper based portfolio of goodies.

Sure it was a bit expensive, but my motivation for getting a Filofax branded organiser was based purely on praticallity; You will always be able to get stock for it.

This year, sure, it costs a little more then an unknown brand does (But not that much), but come January I can just fill it with new paper, and only replace the bits I need to. Plus I can get a hole punch to suppliemnt it with my own layouts as I need to which is cheaper then buying a whole new planner, and avoids having to go though the bonding process again.

I’m likely going to switch to Filofax for my pocket planner in January as well, since I’ve tried looking for refills for the planner I’m using now, and can’t find them anywhere. In fact, I can’t even find the companies website.

So when it comes to things like addresses, I want to know I dont have to move them from one planner to another each year, it’ll all just sit nicely together.

All I need now is some natty way to keep them in sync easily.

After trying a whole load of computer based solutions, I’ve pretty much given up on using software organisers. They just don’t work well enough, either full of bugs, lacking features, and even at the best of times inherantly they only exist on your computer, not very usful for checking when your free while in the pub.

So, at the weekend I got my self a paper based personal planner jobby. I was tempted to jump out and get a FiloFax – since they come with the widest range of “stock” so I don’t end up replacing the whole thing each year and can just buy extra sheets as needed. But for now I decided it would be best to roadtest with a cheaper version (Which since its well into the year are on offer).

It’s working out really well so far, particularly with it been the time of year plans for the summer are starting to form. And logistically, it’s just the right size to fit in my pocket of most of my trousers. This is certainly the way forward for keeping track of most things.

About two weeks ago I started my inbox – a large Quality Street tin that was emptied over Christmas.

And sure enough, I keep putting things into it pretty effectively, however, I never actually do anything with them, as the large pile of stuff that just slid off the top of the over flowing pile and on to the floor illustrates quiet well.

From tomorrow I need to make a really effort to add a review cycle as well and get on top of this stage of things.

I’ve been reading sites such as DIY Planner for a little while now, which offer templates and print outs for “Hipster PDA” style planners, usually for 5”x3” index cards, and for some reason I’ve always dismissed these as for so long I haven’t had a printer at all at home, and now that I do, I never some how made the connection that as well as been able to print to A4, I can actually print on to other media such as index cards. – I even started to look for a specific “Index Card Printer” (Which as it turns out, photo printers do the job, if desk space were an issue, or you wanted a cheaper option in a second location)

Now that I think about it, it’s really pretty obvious, but at the time that link just never formed in my head – Now that it has, I can solve the problem of not having just the write format of planner and pads, and put my own together. – I need some kind of case/pocket so they don’t get bent/wet and such, but thats the easy part now I can actually get the printer rolling out my own pages.

I spend so much time reading up articles about how to be more productive and organized, I really don’t have time to actually do anything!

Okay, that’s not totally true – but the there is certainly a very particular brand of procrastination that comes alone with ideas such as “Getting Things Done” that is particularly common on the internet within blogging and social network sites. – Everyone clearly has a desire to achive great things, to get the most out of every waking minuet, to free them selves from the stress that the cluttered masses around them is burried under.

But in truth, I suspect most people never really achive it. In fact, I think it’s a fad that will pass sooner or later, and only when the fad has passed will it power a second age of true productivity. There is so much information right now its very difficult to consume it all, and the fact is I don’t have the energy to ’’do’’ anything about it alot of the time, but I can sit down and read about been more productive – after all, it must be good for something, right?

Well, maybe.. But in truth I know it’s not really changing my life in the background I’m slowly and surely preparing to have a system, some days it comes in leaps and bounds, other days I feel like it’s not working and try something else. Each article I read prompting another change, or not depending on if I agree with the surgestions, or think they are just a pipe of rubbish.

At some point, I will find my self with a system I am happy with, it will have evolved into another failed system that captures only a moment of my time, and I’ll stop reading the articles with such hunger for that magic solution, and finally settle into Getting Things Done my way.

There was a time that I really didn’t like wikis, they looked ugly, messy, disorganised and unfocused.

Which actually of most of the wiki implimentations I had seen, was true. But my blanket apraisal of all wikis based on the few I had seen turns out to be wrong. In particular, I’ve started using pretty heavily the stand alone Javascript based TiddlyWiki variant YetAnotherTiddlyWikiAdaptation it’s a single HTML page you keep locally and view in a browser, and this version came with most of the plugins I wanted actually working Including the ability to encypt some of the entries.

Now, I know the encryption won’t stand up to much at the mercy of a determind cracker, but it does mean should I lose the USB key drive it sits on, some scally can’t access my stuff on a whim, and that to me is about the level of security I need. I did for a time use a PGP secure drive on it, but its so much hassle, and not very portable. So since I’m only keeping ‘low level’ passwords, usually sites I log into once a month or less rather then systems passwords or banking details.

On top of the security features, there are some very nice features such as been able to create ‘tabbed frames’ of content, and dynamically create lists based on a tag. So now all my “Next Actions” get the tag “nextaction” and I get a handy list of them all. Another list for “Waiting For”, and another for single “ToDo” items.

I also have another version at work I use for documentation, particularly now every time someone asks me how to use one of my systems, I add documentation about it as well. – So maybe one day I’ll be able to take a holiday without getting a single call from work. ... Maybe.