Not Getting Things Done
2 July 2008, mid-morning
I like reading about getting things done and all of that task management junk. I find it interesting to see how people keep themselves organized. For all of my reading on the subject, I am still incredibly disorganized. I was using a moleskine day planner for a little while, which worked reasonably well when I would actually use it. When I bought my iPhone I switched to using iCal again. You may recall I was using TaskPaper for a little while. With no way to sync stuff to my phone — neatly — I stopped using it for a long while. The latest development version is really quite nice, so I might switch back. There are some tricks out there to integrate it with an online version, tasko, which makes the whole system more appealing. Really, I should just copy whatever it is that Shima does. I think a part of me likes setting up elaborate organizational systems more than actually using them. (Are you the same way? You might enjoy reading this: iPhone Task Management a Go-go)
I’m pretty much in the same boat, except Windows is my primary OS.
I’ve given a few kicks at GTD, including buying David Allen’s book (1/3 read..I stopped at the part where you have to buy and set up a physical paper inbox) AND a hideously expensive full day course (work subsidized) on optimizing MS Outlook for tasks etc.
Lately I’ve been trying to get behind Remember The Milk – its free, and works pretty well, integrating nicely with gmail, gcal, and blackberry (they must have an iPhone interface)
Check out this blog post on using GTD with RTM.
by josh on July 2 2008, 11:33 am #
I know my friend Haran uses Remember the Milk — or he used to. I like Taskpaper because it’s very simple. RTM is pretty slick, but I still find it a bit too much.
by ramanan on July 2 2008, 1:29 pm #
I read GTD last summer, or almost all of it, up until the point where I was like, “this is too crazy, I can figure my shit out on my own.”
I just started doing it for real. I wasn’t forgetting to do things or anything, but I was feeling the vague, nebulous stress that goes along with having a million and one things up in the air.
So far I’m not so sure that the system itself is what works, or if it’s the daily and weekly checks that keep it running. I suppose the emphasis on ‘next action’ is crucial and extremely useful once you start doing it. But anyway it’s only been about a month but so far I’m stress free and getting more done.
I’ve been using evernote (and will post about it soon); I did try taskpaper and love the app but the sync isn’t there yet. Or at least, not as effortless as evernote.
by D on July 2 2008, 4:20 pm #
I got tasko set up so it syncs with my taskpaper lists at home. We’ll see if I can keep track of stuff that way. Evernote is totally insane, though I haven’t really figure out what to do with it. I’m not one to clip random shit, but maybe I should start.
I’ve also read through the GTD book, but never can really keep up with it. Or properly start it.
by ramanan on July 3 2008, 9:30 am #
Also, I am looking through my old GTD list and I stumbled on the following: “Sketch out layout of a Mix CD web site @notebook @mac”. I need to actually work on stuff and not wait for people to make muxtape.
by ramanan on July 3 2008, 9:37 am #
TaskPaper.com lets you sync taskpaper lists to the web. Apparently an iPhone application is in the works as well. I think i’m too used to Things at this point.
by ramanan on June 24 2009, 9:46 am #