Behance is one of my favorite sources of creative inspiration and productivity tips. Their Action Method is a neat way to keep track of your to-do items. I'm pretty sure most of their profits come from selling paper products, but there's also a web version of Action Method, and a new Action Method iPhone app that plugs into it.

You don't really have to subscribe to the methodology to use the iPhone app. In fact, even though it syncs to the web, you can use it without an account. They work really well as basic, intuitive to-do lists. You can set due-dates and reminders, create new projects and assign tasks to them, and label things in three different colors.

You can also delegate tasks to people in your iPhone's address book. Both the web app and the iPhone app are free, with the option to upgrade to a paid premium account.

Carbonmade is a online site where designers can show their work in a ready made online portfolio. The site is easy to get around and perfect for designers who don't care to manage their own domain and website. A free account will provide you with 5 projects to show and a total of 35 images. Their pro plan is $12 per month, gets you 50 projects, 500 hi-res image uploads and 12 videos.

The site is stupid easy to manage and you can tag your projects so they show up in different design categories like graphic design, 3D modeling, copywriting, etc. If you're trying to get freelance work, you can click a setting to show that. There's also the capability to add your Google Analytics account number to your portfolio to monitor web traffic to your site.

The more projects you have, the higher your portfolio appears in the various design category pages. Carbonmade is not ad supported so the non cluttered space is nice. Of course, you may also want to consider other design communities like DeviantArt, Creattica and Behance, or better yet, try them all for the exposure.

What other creative sites for the design professional are some of your favorites?

Let me be totally honest here: I am not the world's leading expert on GTD. Nor have I completely settled on a true, universal solution -- because I don't think one really exists. Like most complex problems, there are many approaches, and very few true solutions. Plus, everyone has a different workflow and circumstance, so there's no way to prescribe something for everyone. That said, you will find patterns in GTD implementations (which is kind of the point, especially if you're adhering to a particular type of system -- Behance's Action Method or Zen to Done or whatever).

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?