The thread on physical followup files is very interesting to me - every so often I get all excited about trying to be more productive and, like, get all geared up for Getting Things Done or whatever, and once I had a physical tickler file for, you know, three days. I never stick with anything. Always have a couple steno pads bouncing around, and a ton of e-mail that all probably has everything I need to know in it if I can find it.
I’m hoping to change jobs sometime in the near future, which would be a great time to change how I approach work. Do any of you have a system you really like? If so, how do you apply it? (People who do GTD use paper sytems, or Evernote, or Outlook, or whatever - what do you like and why do you like it?)
Something that makes it all a lot harder is that at least currently I work at several workstations (my computer in the workroom, more than one public desk, etc) and can’t install programs on some of them, plus they’re shared with others. Does anybody else have issues like that and still use a software-based solution?
I have tried a million different programs and keep coming back to Nozbe. Weird name, based on GTD system and as far as I can tell has all the features one would want, including the ability to create projects and Evernote integration. It syncs on multiple platforms. I use it primarily for work, when I have work, which is not now.
You can download the program Nozbe but it is also web-based, so downloading is not necessary, just an internet connection.
I’ve also had fun lately with Workflowy. Infinite nesting, which is either heaven or hell depending on your perspective.
I try to do GTD. Always half-way there. My Inbox only gets empty when I take a few days off to work on it. My reviews are not systematic, I don’t refer to my task list every day, etc. Sometimes it feels like I’m working for my system instead of the other way around. But I do know it’s helping me.
Initially I had embraced the GTD principle of putting personal and work-related projects into one system. It worked but I had some embarrassing moments with coworkers noticing that I had personal stuff listed on my screen, so eventually I separated them.
My current platform: Remember The Milk (aka RTM) for task management (everything from our big renovation project to the weekly grocery list). It’s cloud-based and syncs nicely with my Android devices (it does iOS too). I can also forward an e-mail to my RTM account if I want it listed as a task. The tagging and smart folder system is flexible enough for GTD. If a project is big enough to require gathering documents, I give it a number in RTM and create a directory on my computer for it, with that number. If I think I’ll need to access the documents from elsewhere, I add the directory to DropBox.
All I do is flag mails which do have information I may want to look up later (so, my red flags aren’t “must do something about it”, they’re the shortlist of “if looking for old critical info, start here”) and, when I have so much going on that I am at risk of losing track, go paper (or .txt).
I think an aspect that helps me track “stuff” better than other people is that I track it at a higher level. For example, recently I was talking about how I needed to “reorganize the storage room” - one of my brothers would have put it one level lower, going from one task to over a dozen. Tracking a single task is a lot easier, if you’re the kind of person who can remember that this task has parts and if you are good at estimating times (partial and total) and acceptable break points.