A GTD Retrospective
Posted: July 13th, 2006 at 7:20pm
After reading how David Seah is managing with his implementation of GTD, I thought I’d take a look at my own system to see how things are going. If you haven’t heard of GTD (Getting Things Done), I wrote a review of GTD some months ago on my other website. I also recommend checking out Merlin Mann’s “43 Folders” and the Official David Allen website too.
I started using GTD in my final semester of university, and I’m quite sure it’s the reason I managed to stay (relatively) sane in those final few months. As much as I hate to admit it, I was incredibly unorganised in my first few years, so any kind of system would have made a big difference. I’d heard a few developers talking about GTD on some game development forums, so thought I’d give it a whirl. Whilst I didn’t achieve a “mind like water”, I did manage to reign in all my tasks into one place. Considering the position I was in before (“mind like whirlpool”), I was quite pleased.
The bits that work
The Two Minute Rule
Like Dave, I find the two minute rule to be incredibly useful. I would often look at even the smallest of tasks and decide “I’ll do it tomorrow”. Not a good habit. There’s only so many times you can put a task off until it becomes urgent, and getting into the “I’ll do it tomorrow” habit is a sure-fire way of getting yourself into trouble.
Taking up the two minute rule helped me to break this habit, and made me far more productive. Anyone who suffers from procrastination will know that once you’re started, nearly all resistance vanishes. Thrashing through a list of two minute tasks often left me with more energy to pursue the bigger tasks.
The Someday/Maybe List
This was another simple change that I’ve employed. I have a lot of ideas, and I usually think of new ones when I’m supposed to be doing something else. It surprised me that I’d never thought of keeping track of all these ideas in a single place. The “Someday/Maybe” list is a place for me to make a note of all these fantastical ideas, and writing them down means I won’t be distracted by them whilst I’m working.
Having an “In” Tray
University generated a lot of actionable items, such as coursework, research subjects and a small forest’s worth of lecture notes. Before I had an in-tray, they used to just sit in my bag and wait for something to happen. As you can probably imagine, this was note the most effective system in the world.
Contextual “To-Do” Lists
My time was generally split between four places – university, home, walking through town and sitting on the bus. Dividing tasks into contexts instead of subjects eliminated a lot of mental sorting when in different locations. For example, if I needed to buy something, I would put it on the “@Town” list, which I’d check when in a position to do some shopping.
I also had an “@Bus” list, as the journey lasted around an hour, so it was a good place to revise my notes from the day and plough through a list of small tasks.
The bits that don’t work so well
Projects
I like the idea of the “next action”, but I like to plan further ahead than a single action. Writing software can be a very daunting task, and there’s often a whole heap of things that need to get done. Next actions are often very small, and it doesn’t seem like the best way of managing a large scale project.
Perhaps keeping track of all this is beyond the scope of my current GTD system, but I know other developers have used it to perhaps some tweaking is in order.
Keeping It All in One Place
I regularly switch between the computer and my desk, so finding a way of storing these tasks and projects has become quite a challenge. I’m still a fan of using paper, but it’s much easier to modify tasks that are being managed on the computer. Sometimes I find myself writing the same thing on paper and on the computer, which is very frustrating.
No Scheduling
Whilst to-do lists do the work of deciding what needs doing, they don’t help with when it needs doing. The calendar can remind you of deadlines, but there seems to be a gap between the action and the deadline. In a way, this is connected to my problem with GTD’s management of projects and my own tendency to plan things out quite thoroughly.
How do I fix these things?
Over the next few weeks I want to modify my entire system to iron out these problems. My current plan is to keep a project plan at the front of each project’s folder, and to schedule my day into hourly “blocks” where I can work through the project’s list of tasks. Project milestones will get added to the calendar, and I’ll trial a completely paper-based system.
Has anyone else encountered these problems with their own systems (either GTD or something different)? If so, how did you remedy them?
Keeping a progress log, part II
Posted: July 5th, 2006 at 10:00am
Note: This was originally posted on the Sodaware Blog on November 17th, 2005.
In the last thrilling instalment, I briefly covered my progress log, a book which I use to keep track of how close I am to achieving my major goals, as well as my overall level of productivity.
In this entry I’ll be describing:
Creating my 90 day goals
As mentioned in my last entry, I have a total of 21 goals to achieve in 90 days, divided equally into seven categories. I got this idea from “The Power of Focus”, and I’ve found it helpful for making sure I have balance in my goals. I use the following categories:
- Financial – This covers how much money I want to earn and how much I want to save.
- Business – This concentrates on what I want to achieve with my business, and where I want it to be once the 90 days are up. If you don’t run your own business, this area would cover work instead, and may include goals for promotions, raises or important tasks you want to achieve.
- Fun – Sometimes it’s easy to forget the fun side of life, so I use this section to note any fun things I want to do, as well as how many days I want to take off work.
- Health – This makes sure I’m thinking about my exercise and diet plans.
- Relationships – This includes family and friends, as well as work relationships. It’s important to nurture your most important relationships, and to make time for the people in your life that matter.
- Contribution – I like to do my bit for others. My contribution goals tend to focus on my work with the Scout Association, as well as helping people on software development forums and producing material for when the rest of this website goes live.
- Personal – The last section contains any goals that don’t quite fit anywhere else.
I use mind-mapping to create goals for each area, and then decide on the time span for each goal. I may wish to achieve some in less than 90 days, and others may be longer term goals. It’s important to note that I usually have more than 21 goals at this point, so I pick the three most important goals from each category, and these become my 90 day goals. I keep a note of the other goals, and these will usually become integrated into my weekly goal setting session.
Tracking my progress
I use a modified version of “The Printable CEO” for my daily tracking, and although it doesn’t look as good as the original, it gets the job done. I keep the list of activities that are worth points on a seperate piece of card, which also acts as a bookmark. The list itself is modified from the original, and it now reflects my interests and line of work.
Even though I’ve only been using this part of my system for a few weeks, I’ve already spotted a few patterns. It’s a great way to identify which areas need improving, and also which days are least productive. So far Monday is my worst day, and Thursday my best. Curious.
The “b-Alert” system
I read about the “b-Alert” system in the book “The Power of Focus”, and I really liked it. It’s not particulary complex, and it only takes a few seconds to update it at the end of the day. The idea is to make sure you have balance in your daily activities (much like creating balance in your goals).
“b-Alert” stands for:
- Blueprint – This might consist of a few “to-do” items, or it might be something more complex. Either way, it’s good to have an idea of what you want to achieve during the day.
- Action – Action is the most important activity, hence the bold letter. Not action = no results.
- Learning – A daily dose of learning helps you increase your own knowledge, and stimulates your mind. You don’t need to devote hours of study in the library, and what you learn doesn’t have to be profound. Don’t limit yourself to a single source either. Books, journals, and magazinesare all good sources, but what about blogs, podcasts, audio tapes and even interviews?
- Exercise – It only takes thirty minutes a day. I always exercise for 20 minutes every morning, and although some days I really don’t want to, it’s made such an improvement to how I feel that I really wouldn’t want to give it up. As with learning, vary your sources of exercise. It doesn’t have to be a fourty minute session in the gym thrashing your biceps, it can be a nice walk or a bicycle ride.
- Relaxing – If you’ve worked hard, you deserve time to relax. Spend time with your loved ones, admire nature or have a nap! The break will do you good, and leave you feeling recharged and ready to face whatever challenges life decides to throw at you. Remember – you deserve the break, so don’t feel guilty for not working. If you work for yourself, this can sometimes be hard to do but it’s important that you don’t let yourself get burnt out.
- Thinking – A little reflection can go a long way. This is what I use the “What went right/wrong” sections in my progress book for.
My book has a grid for tracking this, and once I’ve worked on a particular section I circle the letter. At the end of the week it’s quite easy to see which areas aren’t getting the attention they need. You don’t need to work through the letters in order, you simply use them as a guide for planning your day.