Lifedev.net has a great refresher on GTD — for those who have not bought David Allen’s book yet.
“Getting Things Done (or GTD) is a system to free your mind of it’s resources and become more organized in the process. In short: it’s a way to become more productive and stress free, in one fell swoop. It’s a beautiful thing, really.”
One of the reasons I like Evernote for my GTD (Getting Things Done) Implementation is its category intersection panel. I’m at the office right now on a Saturday. I have 123 “Next Actions” to tackle. What do I do first?
By clicking on my “next” items in Evernote, in the bottom category intersection panel I can see different contexts for my next actions. By clicking “Office”, I can then further refine — I know I don’t want to make phone calls. It’s Saturday so that is pointless unless I just want to talk to voicemail. Pick something else.
The Category Intersection Panel can be turned on in Evernote by clicking Tools–> Options–>Categories–> then check the “Show Category Intersection Panel” box.
Some weeks are crazier than usual. Some weeks so many things are thrown at me that I just want to go back to bed and hide under the covers. Father ill in hospital, Major site going live, kids on school vacation, big home remodeling project attracting tv network, large new business proposals in the works, etc. etc. I can’t sort through all of the incoming information fast enough to figure out the “next actions”.
Mind is nothing “like water”. It’s more like mud. Too many things are rattling around in my brain, I can’t even think where to begin my day. Yes, they are in my GTD system (Evernote) or in my inbox , but do I trust myself to actually focus enough to check on them? These kinds of weeks threaten to undo the entire GTD methodology.
To keep me on track and help me to actually START the day, I’ve added David Allen’s “Mastering Workflow” chart to my laptop desktop. It is posted on the wall next to my desk as well, but since I spend so much time glued to my computer, I can’t miss it here. I use two monitors to help organize my laptop desktop, so the chart is sure to peek through on one of them.
This image is straight from David Allen’s “5 Phases of Mastering Workflow” article. You can download it for free by requesting it at his website. My only change was to add a few reminders (in red) to myself to make sure I check:
In this way, I do not waste 15-30 minutes when I go into the office in the morning. I know exactly what I must check, process, and what needs to be started on.
