Tag Archives: mobileorg

I finally caved in and bought David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Although I’ve been using the system for a couple of years now, I didn’t feel like I’ve been using it effectively. Mostly this was because it was my understanding of the system based on the summaries I’ve read about it on the ‘net (wikipedia, google etc). I felt like I was missing something fundamental.

Instead of writing my own summary of the book, I recommend people just buy it and read it. Instead, I will be focusing on how I use it in practice using emacs + orgmode + mobileorg (for iPad). I recently organized a birthday party using gtd and I must say, it was very successful.

Collecting

One of the fundamental stages of gtd is collecting everything you need. One of my problem was that I tried to collect and process at the same time. The problem is, I then got stuck in a stage in-between collecting and processing, unable to move forward. What priority does this item go into? Is it in the right order? Don’t do this.

Instead, collect. That is, write down everything that’s on your mind, no matter how insignificant it is.

Mobileorg on the iPad (also available for android) was a godsent, although you could probably use a normal pen-and-paper too. The point is, have something to write your thoughts down at any time. I could be reading a book or just zooming out on the train, and suddenly I had this thought about something regarding the party. Just write it down. Doesn’t matter if I have written it down before, or it doesn’t make sense, or has nothing to do with any of your current projects. Just write it down. It’s the collecting phase.

Once I get home, sync the mobilorg app with my desktop system, and go to the next phase.

Process

In the process phase, I go through each of the items I have collected in the previous phase. Is it part of a project (say the birthday dinner)? File it under the project. Is it just something I need to know, file it under Reference. Is it just some random thought, trash it if not useful, file it if potentially useful.

Once everything is files away, I go through the projects I have going and organize it. Are there actionable items? What is the next step for the project? Do I need to retrieve more information from somewhere (creating a new action item).

Review

Unfortunately, this is one stage I’m still not very good at. I try to review my projects at least once a week to see if there are any progress, but I know I could get better at this.

Still, by using gtd, I feel I have much better control over my projects. By taking something like the birthday dinner and organize it like a project, I never felt like I was not in control at any point. I could always go back to my list to check out where I was and what I needed to do next. And even when things changed at the last moment, it still didn’t spin out of control.

Is gtd for everybody? Probably not. It works for me given the tools I have, and it does make my life a little less stressful. I do miss something like a mobileorg for the phone, but that’s a minor issue. In general, I highly recommend the book and system that everybody should at least try.