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Last post Author Topic: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO+THREE ASSIGNMENT  (Read 81539 times)

mouser

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GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO+THREE ASSIGNMENT
« on: September 06, 2006, 12:19 AM »

GOE: THE GREAT DONATIONCODER.COM 2006
GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT
- WEEK II + III -


DAVID ALLEN'S "GETTING THINGS DONE" (GTD)


The deadline for this assignment is September 23.


1. Introduction to the Getting Organized Experiment (GOE)
In the First Week of the Getting Organized Experiment we started you off very gently with a basic overview of our plan for the three month experiment, and a simple assignment to secure some basic supplies and arrange a dedicated work area in your home free from distraction.

If you will recall, the objective of this three month project is to take a whirlwind tour of various Time Management systems and techniques, and find out which techniques work best for each of us.  We start with the belief that there is no one single best system that for all people - but rather that different people respond best to different strategies.

It is your job, should you choose to participate in this experiment, to ensure that at the end of the 3 month period, you have formulated a system of habits and techniques that works for you, and transforms you into a more relaxed and more efficient person.

By the end of this experiment, you *will* have a working system in place, either by adopting one of the existing frameworks completely, or by creating your own hybrid set of strategies based on what you learn from existing systems.  That is the commitment we want you to make to yourself.  There is no room for excuses about "this system is a gimmick and it didn't work for me!" - because if it doesn't work it's YOUR responsibility to invent a system that does.

By sharing our ideas and experiences, we hope to be able to learn from each other and come up with some novel principles of our own.  But remember that your success in this experiment probably has less to do with the particulars of any system than it does with your willingness to commit to the discipline of following some regiment of planning and working.


2. Week Two Assignment: Learn the Getting Things Done (GTD) System
David Allen's Book "Getting Things Done, The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" (2001), has developed something of a cult status among time management and efficiency fanatics.

Your assignment for Week Two of the experiment is as follows:
  • Learn the Getting Things Done (GTD) System.
  • Experiment with GTD.
  • Decide which aspects of it seem useful to you.
  • Think about which aspects of GTD do not suit you well.
  • Think about what's missing from GTD that you still need.





3. A Short Course on GTD
There are plenty of good sites on the web devoted to GTD that you can learn from without reading the original GTD book, or David Allen's follow-up book "Ready for Anything", so I'm not going to attempt to present a comprehensive explanation of the every nuance of the system.

However, I will try to discuss what I personally think are the most significant and unique ideas that make up the core of the GTD philosophy.

From my view, there are really only two major concepts at the heart of GTD:
  • 1. The critical importance of getting things out of your mind and organized externally.
  • 2. Formulating concrete "actionable" next steps for each task as early as possible.

So let's take a look at these two concepts in more depth:

a) The critical importance of getting things out of your mind and organized externally.
This is the idea that to me has the strongest intuitive appeal. Our brains are never fully at rest - they are constantly churning through the unfinished tasks that pre-occupy our minds.  Many of us walk around in a kind of anarchistic state with a hundred different ideas and obligations vying for contention.  This is essentially wasted mental effort - it's energy spent by your subconscious trying to interrupt you and remind you not to forget about one responsibility or another.

The solution to eliminating the stress and distraction of this background subsconscious effort is to have a system for moving these tasks out of your mind and into some external storage medium.  While this may seem like common sense, one novel consequence of this interpretation of the problem is the critical importance of having an external system which is absolutely complete, up-to-date, and frequently reviewed.

This is such an important insight that it bears repeating.  Many of us keep track of project ideas and todo lists in some notebook or notetaking program, but do we regularly review these lists?  If not, then the exercise is fruitless because your subconscious will not be able to let go of "managing" these ideas and trying to remember them and remind you of them.

Only by having a formal mechanism for offloading tasks and ideas and getting into the habit of regularly reviewing these notes (on a weekly basis for example), will you be able to relax and trust in the knowledge that you no longer have to "remember" what you have to do, because you know that it's written down somewhere where and doesn't have to be kept in mind in your subconsciousness.  The idea is to keep your mind nimble and non-preoccupied with anything but the current task you are working on, confident that there is nothing you are forgetting or could forget.

b) Formulating concrete "actionable" next steps for each task as early as possible.
While I am completely sold on the first principle of GTD, I find the second principle a bit less compelling, though I acknowledge its usefullness.  The idea of the second principle is that we can become much more efficient if we simply try to figure out the next concrete action that can be applied to any task, as early as possible, and as explicitly as possible.

In practice, this means that whenever you process an incoming new item, or update the description of a task or project for your external file/list, you want to be asking yourself: "What is the next *action* I can take to advance this project/task".  You would apply this to everything that passes through your hands, and use the answer to that question to guide how you respond to new tasks and how you file these tasks in your organizational system.

In answering that question, David Allen also recommends a "2 minute rule" - when you encounter a new item (for example you receive an email), you immediately ask yourself "what is the next action i need to perform to process this item?".  If the action can be performed in under 2 minutes (delete the email, send a rapid response, etc.), then do it right away.  Otherwise, file it away for later processing in a way that will guarantee you come back to it and review it in a reasonable period of time.  GTD says you should move that email OUT of your inbox, where it has not been categorized and marked with a next action, into some special folder related to the action to be performed with it.  For example you might create a secial folder for all email that requires you to perform some common action (like reply with a price quote).

By always focusing on identifying actionable steps associated with a process, the idea is that you transform an amorphous task which would require concentration and effort to work on, into something that is immediately available for processing when the opportunity arises to do some action.  For example, rather than simply making a note that you need to "plan your vacation", you would attempt to identify some concrete actions you could take on that project, like "pick up travel brochures at the corner travel agent."  By taking the time to identify that actionable step, you can now do work on this item almost subconsciously the next time you head out to the corner shop (one trick Allen advocates is organizing actionable lists by task or locale, to make it easier to find tasks that are actionable in any given context).

My only problem with this second principle is that it seems to me that so many of the tasks and projects I work on are not easily amenable to identifying a simple "next actionable step", and involve much more complicated multi-dimensional problem solving simply to discover reasonable paths of subsequent work.  There is a real risk of taking counterproductive steps if one is always insisting on taking concrete steps before one knows which direction you want to travel in.


4. Organizing Your Stuff in GTD
There are some specifics of GTD that may be more or less appropriate to different people, depending on the nature of your work.  In general, GTD is very big on the idea of using manilla file folders and full sizes sheets of paper to store each idea/task on a separate page.  GTD suggests the use of a "tickler" container which contains 43 separate folders designed to hold information arranged by date (think of it like a calendar in folder form where you can store multiple pages inside each day and month box).  One of the more popular time management websites (www.43folders.com) got its name from this idea.  Personally I find the idea of a tickler container of questionable value, but it may be useful to those who have a high number of time-sensitive deadlined tasks.  It does seem to me like a very high maintenance thing for casual use.

GTD recommends keeping separate folders for Projects, and for collecting items that you don't plan on working on immediately but want to review later.  While GTD advocates for the use of full sheets of paper, I have personally found that using 3x5" index cards is much more practical.  They are easier to organize, manipulate, rearrange, and store.

Remember that the process of Regular Reviews, where you go back over all of your projects, your action lists, your calendar, etc., is absolutely critical to the success of the system.  If you fail to perform regular reviews or failt to keep your records complete and up-to-date with EVERY task, deadline, and project, then the entire system breaks down because your subconscious will insist on resuming the role of nagging distractor, trying to juggle in memory all the items that might be missing, and interrupting your productivity at inopportune times in an attempt to ensure that these non-documented items are not "forgotten."


5. The GTD Processing Diagram
The diagram below (from www.diyplanner.com) shows an outline of the basic GTD processing cycle.  New items/tasks are always immediately classified as actionable or not (garbage or reference material).  If they are actionable, you ask if it can be done in less than 2 minutes and do it immediately if so.  If it can't be done in two minutes you file it away for later review, either in a Project file for multistep projects, or in a Calendar if it has a specific deadline, or in a file for tasks that should be done when opportunity arises.  Additional lists (folders) can be used to keep track of items which have been delegated to someone, and thus the action now consists of Waiting for someone else to do something.  Depending on the size of your lists you may want to break them down into subfolders for better organization.

gtd.pngGETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO+THREE ASSIGNMENT


6. How is GTD Different Than Other Techniques?
There are a few aspects of GTD that are unusual and somewhat controversial:
  • GTD eschews the notion of detailed prioritizing - the approach is much more one of opportunism.  It emphasizes having actionable next steps for all items, and being agile enough to operate on any task when the opportunity arises. This is also one of the weaknesses of GTD, in that it provides very little guidance on choosing WHAT to work on and WHEN, mostly leaving it up to you to choose intuitively [Allen suggests a few different loose guidelines to choosing what actions to work on and when, but this is one of the areas that other time management systems, which we will be visiting in upcoming weeks, place much more emphasis on].
  • GTD eschews the notion of daily todo lists - Allen argues that they just don't work well.  The basic argument is that they become messy half completed catch-all collections without proper context, which are impossible to maintain.  Instead he advocates for the use of action lists and calendars.  The calendar is to be treated as a sacred resource for hard deadlines, while action lists contain items that can be immediately acted upon as single-step operations, not tied to a specific day or time, and which can survive prolonged periods as independent items (one item per sheet of paper usually).


7. Learn More About GTD
I've only presented a brief outline of what I think are the most important core elements of GTD.  You still need to read more in order to understand the details and figure out how well it will suit your needs.  Below you will find some of the best GTD resources on the web.  Go explore and think about what aspects of GTD you want to adopt in your quest for the perfect time management system..


« Last Edit: September 18, 2006, 11:43 PM by mouser »

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #1 on: September 06, 2006, 04:23 AM »
ok here ya go.. hope you didn't think things were going to stay at a snail's pace.. 
« Last Edit: September 06, 2006, 04:25 AM by mouser »

jgpaiva

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2006, 05:03 AM »
Ok, now i understand what gtd really is.
I got even more interested :D
Thank you so much for your time in making this, mouser!
It's a fantastic post and gives quite a good idea of what gtd experiment 2006 will be.
Looks like it's time to send you some credits ;)
 :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2006, 05:04 AM »
Make sure you visit the wikipedia page also and some of the other pages to get a more well-rounded view from others about what *they* think are the key ideas of GTD, as they might not always agree with me.

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2006, 05:46 AM »
My very low-fi desktop organizational system:
myfiles.jpgGETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO+THREE ASSIGNMENT

just two 3x5" boxes with index cards; on the left are blank ones, on the right are items sorted according to when i expect to have them done (current day or two, within the week, within the month, longer term), or according to a few categories (software updates).

i just love how fast i can write down an idea or new todo task and drop it in the box of pending tasks, and how easy it is for me to scan through the items, sort them according to priority, move them around, etc.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2006, 05:50 AM by mouser »

nudone

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2006, 05:48 AM »
looks good. very simple. that's what counts.

Perry Mowbray

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2006, 06:07 AM »
Are the colours (on the cards) colour coding?

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2006, 06:16 AM »
the colors are meant to be coding different things but since i have different sections it's sort of redundant and non-systematic at this time - perhaps i will find a system for the colors eventually.

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2006, 06:18 AM »

in case it's not clear - please do feel free to chime in with any disagreements you might have with my depiction of GTD, and discuss what you think are pros and cons, or add stuff I missed, or correct me where i got things wrong.  this is meant to be a community effort where we can debate these things.

also, please feel free to just post a little oneliner saying you are still commited to and following the experiment and enjoying it  :Thmbsup:

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2006, 06:52 AM »
If you find the experiment useful you can digg it here:

tomos

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2006, 07:25 AM »
still in, had a quick look at some of those links, but they'll have to wait till reasonable amount of stuff is DONE!  :)

so far I'm very happy with one thing in particular - my desk is clean and clear, & has been since monday morning.
That in itself gives me room to breath & somehow gives a bit of perspective too ...

just thinking "out loud" now:
i suppose you could use an index card filing system as well for the 43 folders idea (one folder for each of 31 days & 12 months)
Tom

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« Last Edit: September 06, 2006, 01:16 PM by Mentat »

momonan

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2006, 01:14 PM »
Thanks for the thumbnail review of GTD.  Very helpful.  :up:  I've been going in a different direction entirely: trying to sort out not just what to do, but what's important to do.  But now I realize it would be a good idea to step back and make sure I know HOW to do what I want to do.  It seems like it will be useful to get a handle on the GTD methods first, then apply them to my larger scheme.

Also, since I spent most of the morning browsing the computer and otherwise fooling around, I have another brief review to conduct, that I hope will be helpful.  When I was trying to get a handle on budgeting my money, I took some time first to just jot down how I was actually spending it.  This revealed huge gaping sinkholes, which I was later able to close up.  That's the way I feel about time, how.  Unlike the money situation, I don't have several months to get to the bottom of it.  I can spend at least a few days keeping track, though.  Of course, I know I waste a lot of time.  But I want to see it in writing:  how much time each day (how many actual HOURS) do I spend doing nothing useful (not even successfully recreating), and what is it spent on.   Maybe I can chisel away at it and then even include a finite amount of time for this activity (with the help of app103's "instant boss"?) before moving on to my real TODO list (or after).
When you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning - Catherine Aird

urlwolf

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2006, 05:43 PM »
momoman,

for knowing where your time went...
I use tasklog by Skrommel and Visual timeAnalizer. that last one seems to be replaceable by titlelog, another ahk created in this forum by dboogey.

TaskLog logs the overall activity I'm doing.

I have the following categories:
Pause,writing,reading,programming,surfing,mail,stats,planning,realLifeChores
I have a different icon for each one.

Visual timeAnalizer tells me how much time I spent browsing, and where, and it also counts how long it took me to read which pdf, write doc X, code script Y, etc. It is very visual.

Let me know if that helps, I can give you more detail...
« Last Edit: September 06, 2006, 06:15 PM by urlwolf »

jgpaiva

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2006, 05:48 PM »
I use tasklog by Skr jpjaiva
Actually, tasklog was made by skrommel. (i made hotstringscript, which was the one i corrected you here: https://www.donation...13.msg34968#msg34968) ;)
(Really sorry for confusing you guys..)

Perry Mowbray

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #15 on: September 07, 2006, 04:32 AM »
I think the thing I like about this system so far is that everything that needs to be done gets popped into a pool, out of which I can select what I want to do (when there's time).

I understand that priorities are not part of it for the purist, but like some others, I think I'd prefer to record a priority (just to help me differentiate between the tasks).

But the big pool of tasks has some real benefits: if you choose the one you most want to do then you're more likely to be most productive on that one rather than the one you're don't want to do. That's not always true of course, and it's open to deceiving yourself... but the point of it all is that we are wanting to get stuff done and not just make a show!

I guess that's what I like about ToDoList too (or most software based lists): you can record this stuff and filter it in or out, archive it, sort by something else, or put it in a different file. I was a bit concerned that with a big list and paper that trying to sort through paper would get unwieldy. I'd appreciate some feedback from you paper-shufflers out there  ;)

- Perry

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #16 on: September 07, 2006, 04:56 AM »
I think the thing I like about this system so far is that everything that needs to be done gets popped into a pool, out of which I can select what I want to do (when there's time).

I understand that priorities are not part of it for the purist, but like some others, I think I'd prefer to record a priority (just to help me differentiate between the tasks).

But the big pool of tasks has some real benefits: if you choose the one you most want to do then you're more likely to be most productive on that one rather than the one you're don't want to do. That's not always true of course, and it's open to deceiving yourself... but the point of it all is that we are wanting to get stuff done and not just make a show!

Hi Perry,
May I pop in again with the dangers of the infinite resource pool:
https://www.donation...34.msg35405#msg35405

Although it's nice to have all your tasks in a large list that keeps growing, and it's certainly a feeling of liberation, the next thing you know is that you are cherrypicking tasks that are easy, or you feel like, etc, and a good chuck of tasks never get done.

So as much as I like the collection idea from GTD, I think infinite pool and cherrypicking are issues.

Perry Mowbray

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #17 on: September 07, 2006, 06:20 AM »
So as much as I like the collection idea from GTD, I think infinite pool and cherrypicking are issues.

I do agree, which is what I meant about deceiving oneself. That's where I thought that priorities may influence the mix. Hmmm, maybe priorities and deadlines.

Where the infinite pool comes in really handy is when there is no priority or deadline: it's just an idea that I want to achieve (someday), and I want to break it down into managable tasks along the way. It certainly isn't going to work for the purchasing of ingredients for Friday night's dinner party: that task has to float to the top before Friday night!!

- Perry

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #18 on: September 07, 2006, 07:08 AM »
i'm trying to make this work:

define your 'serious' goal projects - give them a timetable - over a year or whatever. regard these as 'work' with 'real' deadlines, i.e. they might sometimes be a real effort to start or continue but who said 'work' was fun. commit to spending as much time as you can to completing these projects but don't beat yourself up for not doing them every single day - 3 times a week sounds good to me, well, that's what they always say when taking exercise.

define all other tasks as garnish and nibble at them when you have a bit of time, or when it just feels right for a snack sized task.

the important thing being to keep your eye on the whole 'meal'. you don't want to gorge yourself on just the garnish/snacks and you don't really want to just spend everyday eating the same big meal goal project.

apologies for reinventing the wheel here and not really stating anything new (i might be simply trying to convince myself of what i'm meant to be doing).

so, how to avoid ignoring 'low' priority tasks that will never get done? er, well, not sure. the techniques i've read in Forster's 'Do It Tomorrow' do pretty much have this answered but it's either too rigid for me to follow OR i'm still working my way up to that level of discipline - not decided yet.

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #19 on: September 07, 2006, 01:16 PM »
Is anyone here a member of GTD connect?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Orchant/?p=196

I'd be interested in hearing what you think.
Certainly this looks completely in disagreement with the dc philosophy in that it creates two 'classes' of GTD users. That's my thinking at least.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2006, 06:43 PM by urlwolf »

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #20 on: September 07, 2006, 01:31 PM »
im not philosophically opposed to sites that charge for some premium thing, but no way would i pay $50 a month for this thin offering.

nudone

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #21 on: September 07, 2006, 01:45 PM »
from what i understand of the article it just sounds like you are paying for a 'personal trainer' type thing. if you can read the books and motivate yourself then fine - if you can't and you've got the money to spend and you think regular guidance and a bit of encouragement will help then i say, then why not?

people pay for someone to make them exercise so why not pay someone to make you get your things done. sounds ideal to me.

of course, if this meant that all the techniques for GTD would become exclusive to those that pay/subscribe then it wouldn't be very good. but how could that happen anyway. and it's not like they are going to devise new super techniques that suddenly work miracles (well, i very much doubt it).

so, it looks good to me - i wish someone would pay me just to tell them to look at their 'to-do' list and say a few words of encouragement.

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #22 on: September 08, 2006, 03:58 PM »
How's everyone coming with this?

  • Have you learned and understood the key ideas behind GTD?
  • Have you figured out which details make sense to you and which ones don't?
  • Have you put some or all of the principles to work?


The deadline for this assignment is September 14.


Please report in and report how you are doing and any observations you may have made about GTD..

mouser

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #23 on: September 08, 2006, 05:12 PM »
One thing I really want to emphasize:

To make the GTD approach work, you absolutely MUST write down EVERY task that you need to do.
That means keeping a pen and notes/paper near by at all times, so that when you think of a new obligation or idea you can write it down and file it away.

It's critically important that you never find yourself saying "ok i'll remember i have to do that.."  The whole point is to completely free yourself from having to remember to do anything.

allen

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Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENT (SEP 5, 2006)
« Reply #24 on: September 08, 2006, 10:14 PM »
Still have room for me to jump in and try to get my green badge? I've already got a napkin that says "Make coffee, change diaper" :)