Last Saturday I finished Getting Things Done, and the next day I began the slow process of dumping everything into an inbox, and starting to Get Stuff Done. Thus far I like it. It’s frustrating at first to adhere to the processing policy of "once you pick something up out of the inbox, don’t put it back in the inbox." I’m a fan of looking at it, saying "this is what I’ll do" and putting it back in the inbox. With GTD if it’s an actionable item you can do it, delegate it, or defer it. I’d say I did 30% of it, delegated 15% of it, and deferred the other 55% of it. The un-actionable items get tossed, put into reference, or put in my incubator (a someday/maybe list and folders). This had the effect of creating some projects (and their corresponding next actions), moving some projects to the someday/maybe list, and creating a nice little set of lists. Next Actions (Tasks): 35 Someday/Maybe: 14 Projects: 19 Waiting for: 6 Read/Review: 4 Files in the A-Z drawer: 53 But, I haven’t sorted all of my old filing system, and I haven’t gone through my email. (Although my email is a pretty tight ship, thanks to gmail) I’m not really going to put stuff from my current work because I’m winding that down; work and moving is part of why I chose to start up GTD now. It’s much simpler to start a system when (a) your system has relatively few things in it and (b) you’ve got something important (like a move and a wedding) to plan that needs some serious organizing. I’m also not sure I’m going to use a tickler file, although I did make one. And thus the GTD starts. Thus far, I’m a fan.
2 comments
Chris
Just imagine what you might find if you google it…..
No, it’s a set of files for dates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickler_file
Megan
I am maybe more curious than I should be as to what a tickler file is…