Filed under: GTD Me
On choosing a GTD workflow... and sticking with it
The point of GTD is pretty simple: get things accomplished effectively and efficiently. How you do that is by 1) making sure you are collecting everything you need to do, 2) managing the lists of to-do's and supporting materials, 3) acting upon the items on the lists in an efficient way. Simple in concept, and devilishly complex in action. It's that big, gray fuzzy area people have so much trouble with, since GTD is a process with a set of tools, not a paint-by-numbers exercise. Over the coming months I'll keep tweaking my workflow and reporting what I've found. We'll take a look at some popular systems, and ways to craft your own in different configurations.
As I said, everyone works a certain way, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach. I'll try to take into account the various approaches to GTD. Contexts, for example, are a variable for many people. Contexts in GTD refer to the "where" you're likely to do something. You don't need to see your "buy milk" to do at work, do you? Contexts help keep lists separate. Some people like a broad set of contexts, like @work and @home and perhaps a couple more. Other folks are meticulous with contexts and creating numerous sub-tasks with proper tags within each.
This week I'll lay out some ground rules for those of you looking to get started with GTD quickly, and what you can expect when choosing a set of tools. But most importantly, what are the things you need to do to ensure you'll actually use whatever system you choose?
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
