Do You GTD? Well, Do Ya'?!

[HappyDude20]

Fellow Macs!

So I implement the GTD system for almost 2 months now and no matter how sick you may be of hearing about GTD over the past few years, I'm glad to personally no longer be wasting away in front of the TV or laptop all day.

I won't get into the GTD method for those who don't know what it is...just make sure to google GTD David Allen. (But I'm sure most of you already know what it is)

I used the aspects mentioned in the book, from the weekly reviews, in baskets, read/review folders, tickler files, etc.

Purpose of this thread is...

1. To spread any GTD tips that can be utilized among fellow Mac OS X users.
2. To answer my question, this one, right now:
A. For my weekly review I first started out hand writing out all my projects, next actions, etc. etc. It was too much writing, taking almost 3 hours once each week. So I switched to typing it all out using Pages 09. Works great and I print out what I saved and start cranking out and completing my tasks... only problem is, i know there have to be simpler methods. My current problem is that once I have an 8page paper with all my listed projects with their respective next actions, I sit down to write in index cards my next actions in their appropriate contexts (i.e. @home, @school, @computer, etc.) but this becomes a bit of an inconvience to have to keep going back to my index cards to write the next action to inch any project along forward. So what i'm wondering is, since I already do my weekly reviews and organize my upcoming week using Pages, why not utilize some sort of GTD app that will keep organizing my next actions in corresponding contexts? Obviously i'll need to print this out and prefer it that way seeing as how if I still had an iPod Touch i'd use a GTD iphone app but worries. Pen & paper work great for me.

But enough about me, I'm interested in hearing how you implement GTD.

 

[Gelfin]

Ugh. I'm a serial GTD failure. I see the value of it, but after trying multiple approaches, both software and deadtreeware, I've just about come to the conclusion that there is something in my brain that is just not compatible with this sort of time management.

The biggest problem is that when I'm at my most productive, I'm hopping from task to task, inventing, mutating and completing tasks faster than I could capture them in my inbox, and several hours later I've gotten tons of work done, but the state of my inbox is so far out of sync with reality as to be useless, and it turns out to be an incredible time waster to figure out how to reconcile them. Not to mention the subliminal guilt akin to having failed at a diet for the millionth time. I shouldn't end up feeling guilty about my most productive periods.

I've mostly fallen back on ad hoc to-do lists on sticky notes for those occasions when I've got so much to do that I have trouble keeping focused and on-task, and just winging it otherwise. Get me a GTD system I can plug into my head and we might be onto something, but otherwise I think I'm hopeless.

 

[HappyDude20]

The biggest problem is that when I'm at my most productive, I'm hopping from task to task, inventing, mutating and completing tasks faster than I could capture them in my inbox, and several hours later I've gotten tons of work done, but the state of my inbox is so far out of sync with reality as to be useless, and it turns out to be an incredible time waster to figure out how to reconcile them.

I'm in the same boat. I'll get on a high where i'm getting things done little by little, next action by next action, but at the same time new things are entering into my inbox throughout my day that by the end of the day sometimes im just too tired. I'll start the next day with the new items unprocessed and my next actions still only at their projects list and not under the proper context areas they should be in... I've personally discovered it's a lot easier for me to complete my next actions if i have the information, say written on an index card or w/e as opposed to searching through my 35 current projects looking for something @computer when i'm in front of the computer.

I'm already typing away using Pages 09, so figured some app must do this even better.

So far i've found "Omni-Focus" which I have yet to use, but many people swear by it. And secondly "Things" app which utilizes the GTD method. Things definately seems promising and I love that these two apps can organize next actions in terms such as approaching due dates and my favorite, contexts.

downside, ...not free.