Zum Launch von DZT gibt es einen Artikel über eine Produktivitätsmethode (GTD) aus meinem alten Blog (auf englisch). Eine gute Einführung über GTD gibt es auf imgriff.com.
During the last weeks, I’ve setup and fine-tuned a GTD system for my personal needs. GTD stands for Getting Things Done, a personal productivity method by David Allen.
Before I present my current setup, let me explain some general aspects first.
General Aspects
I’ve found that maintaining my to-do lists with computer software or some fancy web 2.0 app doesn’t do the job well for me and only leads to being distracted from the core purpose by all those nifty features. What I need is a system that’s flexible and as simple as possible, and that’s the main point why I’ve returned to paper-based lists eventually. On the other hand, there are aspects of a GTD system which I think can be implemented far more efficiently online than physical, e.g. a tickler. So I’ve eventually come to a hybrid approach employing both paper-based and computerized tools, which for me works out great for the moment.
Now on to my current setup.
Setup Overview
- Inboxes: one GMail account which collects all my email accounts, a physical inbox on my home desk, a special compartment in my wallet
- Next Action Lists: DIN A7 index cards
- Calendar: Google Calendar, a paper-based excerpt of the next three weeks as a PocketMod
- Tickler: completely online through Sandy, my personal email assistant
- Reference Archive: my GMail account, one physical file folder per year
- Project Lists: Google Notebook
Now how does this all connect?
Inboxes
If a task comes to mind while I’m on the road, I jot it down on an empty index card in my PocketMod using my Derringer wallet pen and store it in a special compartment of my wallet until I drop it into my physical inbox as soon as I return home. While driving, I use the mail recording feature of my cell phone. I use my SonyEricsson w810i’s shortcut “Main Button” + “7” + “8” to start the recording with minimal distraction from the road. When I’m working at the computer, it’s sometimes even faster to send myself an email to action@mydomain.com, which gets automatically labeled as !Action by GMail’s filtering feature. I use Google Apps for your Domain, which gives me an unlimited amount of email addresses of the form something@mydomain.com, all with the powerful features of GMail. Mails to all those addresses hit my single inbox and are automatically labeled as needed.
Next Action Lists
Being a computer nerd, I’ve played around with various online apps like Remember The Milk and Todoist, but have eventually settled on physical index cards for the sake of flexibility and efficiency. I maintain the usual GTD context lists like @home, @work, @errands, @phone and @pc. All of them are maintained on their own index card stacked in my PocketMod. I prefix every action with a small square and draw a check mark on top once the task is completed.
Calendar
I’ve fallen in love with Google Calendar because of it’s simplicity and collaborative appointment features and store all time-sensitive appointments like birthdays, work appointments etc. there. I don’t use email reminders for individual calendar items, but let Google send me a daily digest of my appointments. As a reference for the road, I keep a three-week paper-based calendar in my PocketMod. While there are plenty of templates for the PocketMod, I eventually created my own which I print out every three weeks and sync with my Google Calendar during my weekly reviews.
Tickler
In my opinion, the core idea behind a tickler is deferring actions which are not interesting at present, but have a specific time in the future when they have to get done. In my case, most of those are email requests or reminders sent to me. In this case, I simply forward the email to my personal Sandy address with the line “Sandy, remind me to … on …” and can be confident to be reminded at the right time. Of course, I also send Sandy direct email for actions I want to be remembered of in the future. Once I check my GMail inbox in the morning and find a reminder from Sandy, I put it on one of my context lists for further processing.
Reference Archive
I archive important physical documents in one single file folder per year, sorted by month. This is sufficient for me, since I have changed most of the documents I deal with, like my regular bills or bank account statements, to PDF/email notifications (safes cost also). Electronic documents are all archived in my GMail account. I use labels for the most important types of documents (bills, logins, memos, etc.), all filed under a super-label reference with the help of Folders4GMail. Confidential documents are encrypted with PGP, of course.
Projects
I use Google Notebook to keep track of my ongoing and future projects. I create an extra notebook per project called Proj:>, in which I collect the tasks needed to accomplish the project as single notes. This has the advantage that those notes (the single tasks) can be easily reordered by drag-and-drop. The next actions for each project are transfered to my paper-based lists regularly (during my weekly review at the latest). I also have a notebook called inbox for collecting thoughts and web page snippets while browsing the web. Try out the Google Notebook Firefox extension, you won’t look back. Once a project is completed, I usually add a short summary, export the corresponding notebook to a Google Document and archive it in my GMail.
My Google Notebook is also the place where I store seldom changing lists like my Someday/Maybe list or my 30-Day-Wishlist.
Project reference documents are stored in my GMail with a special label Proj/>. Once a project is finished, I edit the label to z:Archive/Proj/ to have it appear at the bottom of my label list.
Summary
That’s my killer GTD setup in a nutshell. It works out great so far, although I’ve been using it for only three weeks and I’m sure that it’ll get some tweaking over time.
Feel free to leave me a comment about your thoughts on this approach, I’d be happy to get some new insights for improvements! Furthermore, if you already are a GTD user, describe your approach and link it in gtdfrk’s GTD meme about killer GTD setups! Also, check out the interesting GTD setups of Jennifer, Stephen, Jeroen, Liz and Scot (Part II and III).
Useful links:
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