Tag Archives: Life

I have been practicing GTD for about 3 months, and now that I’ve lived with the system for a while, I am identifying what works for me and what doesn’t. My personal GTD methods definitely need some overhaul.

It is very important to me to separate my work tasks, calendar and email from my personal tasks, calendar and email. I guard my free time jealously, and I know myself well enough to know that any work-related actions I see during my off hours will either have to be addressed immediately or  niggle in the back of my brain until they  get done. So I just don’t look at work stuff when I’m not working.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t looking at my personal lists except for once a week, usually on the weekend when I wasn’t very interested in “getting things done.” So things weren’t getting done. I identified these problems with the system:

• There were too many actions on my Next Actions list. It was overwhelming, and I tended to ignore the list rather than address it.
• Because my calendar and task list were confined to my home computer and weren’t in front of me every day, I wasn’t checking them, so things were slipping. I need reminders that are more “in my face,” particularly in the contexts where I am most likely to take the actions.
• I don’t want to spend a lot of time maintaining my personal system. I do too much of that kind of management at work, so I want my free time to be as free as possible.

Here are the solutions I came up with:

1. When I review my Next Actions list, I will identify the 3 Most Important Things (MITs) I want to accomplish (thanks, Zen Habits, for this tip!). I give myself a week to accomplish them. When they are all checked off, I identify the next 3 MITs.
2. I write the 3 MITs in one of two places: the dry-erase board in my kitchen (@home context) or in Google Notes on my Google homepage, which is the first thing I see each day when I open my Web browser (@computer/@phone context). The dry-erase board is also magnetic, so I can attach any papers I need. This ensures that the action is “in my face,” and I am reminded to do it in the appropriate context. I can also record urgent actions that come up between reviews in these places and not forget them.
3. I transferred my calendar appointments from the calendar confined to my home computer to Google Calendar, which is also displayed on my Google homepage. This ensures that I will check my personal calendar at least once a day, when I start my computer.
4. I still carry a Moleskine notebook, but instead of relying on it to remind me of next actions or appointments, I use it to record inputs into the system: new actions, ideas, appointments, needs, notes, contacts — whatever I need to remember. I also record in my notebook the completed MITs both to update my Next Actions list and for the sense of accomplishment.
5. I still keep my Next Actions, Someday/Maybe and Projects Lists on my home computer. Once a week, I do a more thorough review, record any new inputs and update finances.

In addition to these changes, I’ve focused on simplifying my finances as much as possible. I automated every payment I can or enabled online bill-paying and scheduled Quicken to automatically deduct the payments when they hit, so that my accounts are always up to date. I actually cancelled a credit card because it didn’t allow me to automate payments.

Finally, I know GTD exhorts us reduce our number of inboxes as much as possible. But I also know my email-checking habits. If I see an email in the Inbox, I have to read it and deal with it right then, regardless of its urgency. That’s why I had to separate work and personal email, so I wasn’t dealing with work stuff during my free time. I moved all my personal email to my Gmail account, so I can check it even if I am not at my home computer. Finally, I set up a throwaway account for businesses to send emails to, such as when I make online orders, which I only check once a week or so. When there gets to be too much noise in that account, I’ll turn it off.

Of course, no system is going to work right out of the box for everyone, not even one with so many adherents as GTD. But part of the fun is tweaking and refining the system, right? I’m sure I will have to make more adjustments as I go along.