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ZTD and transitioning to using GTD

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dr_andus:
The minimal system I use is:

1. Ideas and Potential ToDo items must get written on (3x5) INDEX CARDS, one card per idea, with date written prominently on the card).
(a notebook is NOT a viable alternative; only an index card will work because only index cards may be easily and independently shuffled, sorted, laid out neatly).

2. Never try to keep anything in memory -- immediately log ideas/todo items to a card to get it out of mind.  Ideally you should not act on cards immediately -- give yourself time to decide the idea is not worth pursuing.

3. Keep TWO collections of cards -- one should be easily accessible at all times, and consist of cards still under active consideration.  The other is a storage collection for cards that have fallen to such low priority that they could be thrown away (just throw them away if that doesn't bother you; i find keeping them in storage less traumatic).

4. Occasionally go through your active consideration collection and organize cards by project/theme, and move cards to the storage collection.  Paperclips can be useful to group cards logically.

5. When working on a project, grab the cards related to the project and lay them out and decide which ones you can tackle.  When a card is completed it can be thrown away.
-mouser (November 07, 2015, 05:44 AM)
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Any reason why you wouldn't want to use a software tool for this? (e.g. an online tool that would give you mobile and cross-platform access?)

mouser:
I've thought quite a bit about using a software tool for this task, and about custom coding one..

The truth is that there are very good reasons to use a software solution -- a major one being the power to tag and search items.  There are tons of advantages to using notes in digital form.

But the bottom line is that the tactile advantages or being able to physically handle and lay out cards, separate from what's on the computer screen, is non-trivial.  The physicality offers some unique advantages that I have not been able to give up so far.

dr_andus:
I imagine the analog nature of cards may act as a filtering device (to only record thoughts or tasks which are worthy of using up an index card for and going through the motions of creating a record), as it's more hassle to create a paper card than to type a few lines into a software (?)

I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, as software tools can make it all too easy to end up with massive lists of not necessarily important todos, and selecting what's important is a skill in itself, so the analog barrier may turn out to be useful in filtering out the junk.

ewemoa:
But the bottom line is that the tactile advantages or being able to physically handle and lay out cards, separate from what's on the computer screen, is non-trivial.  The physicality offers some unique advantages that I have not been able to give up so far.
-mouser (November 07, 2015, 06:49 PM)
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Where's my immersive VR environment?

cranioscopical:
there are very good reasons to use a software solution -- a major one being the power to tag and search items.  There are tons of advantages to using notes in digital form.

But the bottom line is that the tactile advantages or being able to physically handle and lay out cards
-mouser (November 07, 2015, 06:49 PM)
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Create your online notes using a template for printing on index cards?

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