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ZTD and transitioning to using GTD

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ewemoa:
Started re-reading GTD recently and am finding:

-Appreciation for certain aspects has grown
-Many seemingly important points didn't stick the last time through

So it seems like it's going somewhere useful.

OTOH, last time through, failed to successfully set up fully and maintain a running system, and this time through I get the sense that the book is almost designed to lead one to ask for help for the implementation stage (specifically from... :) ).  This pattern seems to exist elsewhere in other materials, but perhaps that's for another post...

Anyway, after some consideration of transitioning / adoption and looking around, came across ZTD and Minimal ZTD at ZenHabits.  (I found mention of ZenHabits in the forums here, but not ZTD -- please share pointers if any.)

Still working on digesting them, but so far they appear to be close to proper subsets of GTD with Minimal ZTD being close to a proper subset of ZTD.  Started wondering if trying to adopt a series of well-defined subsets of GTD (or other system) might tend to lead to more successful transitioning.

Any thoughts or reflections?


On a side note, considered adding to:

  https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=34699.0

but ended up posting here per mouser's suggestion.

mouser:
Thanks for sharing the minimal links -- I agree with your assessment that books like this are designed to "sell" a system, and that you can't sell an organization system unless it has been inflated to the point of needing assistance and accessories, and you can't write a full book about a system unless you bloat it up with unneeded stuff.

Simpler is better!

Going to go check out the ztd stuff now..

mouser:
Ok so i read the minimal ZTD.. i think it's ok and close to but but not quite the minimal gtd i would/do use.

ewemoa:
So...what's the system you'd use? :)

mouser:
I thought you'd never ask  ;)

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.

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