How I’m Getting Things Done (part 4)

September 15, 2008

Getting this far was the easy bit, just a bit of effort to clean everything up and scrap all the clutter. Implementing a system to stay organised is where the challenge really was. I’d read a lot of reviews about different ways to keep things under control using a variety of tools, but decided to come up with my own criteria for my ‘trusted system’ and see how each tool worked.

My requirements were:

• Online – While I am a huge Moleskine fan and use one for all my day-to-day notes (check out my review of the beautiful Gfeller Moleskine cover here), I needed the flexibility of an online system to be able to reorganise and arrange items easily. Being online also means being accessible from anywhere there is an internet connection.
• Free, or cheap – I didn’t want my system to be expensive to maintain, so cost was definitely a consideration.
• Versatile – Some systems do GTD strictly by the book, without much room to move. The system I was going to use had to be able to withstand some customisation.
• Accessible – Being online is good, but having a variety of ways to get to my system is essential. If it’s a trusted system, then everything needs to be able to be entered, at any time. It’s no good having to wait to get back to a PC to offload an idea or task.

I didn’t have to look too far to find a product that matched or excelled all of these requirements: Remember The Milk. RTM is an amazing product – it’s online and reliable, even providing Gears support for offline use; it’s free, with a paid option to increase connectivity to Windows Mobile and Blackberries; and it’s one of the most accessible services I’ve seen yet, as it works with: Twitter, Netvibes, iGoogle, Google Calendar, GMail, Outlook, RSS, Firefox sidebar, iPhone, mobile browsers, SMS and the list goes on.

Once I decided on RTM, I took all the actionable items left over from the cleanup and placed each on an #Actions list. Then I filed all the hardcopy material away, but still close to hand, as I no longer needed the piles on my desk to remind myself of what needed to be done. The #Actions list then got tagged with contexts. I realised I didn’t need a whole lot of contexts, so these ended up just being @work and @home. These contexts were supplemented by tags (including +waiting for and +tickle) and dates. Using combinations of tags, smart lists can be created; for example, creating a smart list sorted by date of everything with an @work tag from the #Actions list gives me my todo list at work, including things I’m waiting for and things I’ve deferred, while a smart list sorting by @work, +waiting for and +john shows all work tasks I’m waiting on John for.

Another list, titled #Projects, tracks the individual projects I’m working on and are tagged in a similar way as tasks, with an additional GTD altitude tag, such as +20000 (there’s a good explanation of GTD altitudes here). These projects all have related tasks on the #Actions list. #Agenda is another useful list, with + tags indicating agenda items for particular meetings or people (for example, +john or +review). When I’m preparing for a meeting, I can pull up a list of #Agenda items with a particular tag and have everything ready to go. A #Someday list tracks everything I’m not yet ready to commit to, so I can relax while knowing what I’m not doing.

I also maintain an #I/O list, with +buy, +rent, +lend and +borrow tags to track things I need to get, or have borrowed and lent. I have a bad habit of lending things out and promptly forgetting where they went or borrowing something and forgetting where it came from, so this is a convenient way to track everything. There are also a number of other lists in the system that just make use of the RTM functionality, such as a list of weekly review steps, or even a shopping list.

I use two monitors at work, and have a custom Netvibes page on the left monitor using Google’s Chrome browser application shortcut tool that prominently displays the #Actions/@work list. I check this to see what needs to be done and can quickly enter new tasks into the system here as well, complete with tagging and due dates. In addition to this, Outlook 2007 on my primary screen is synced to the RTM calendar feeds, and my tasks show up on my Outlook work calendar, making it simple to review the ‘hard landscape’ of my calendar appointments while also checking the day’s tasks. When I’m at home, GMail and Google Calendar both show my RTM tasks. I have set a bookmarklet to load the RTM iGoogle widget in the Firefox sidebar both at home and at work, giving one click access to viewing and adding tasks.

I use a Nokia E65 (while waiting for an iPhone…) which is always on me and has customisable quick keys. One of these is programmed to the RTM mobile site to quickly check my lists, while adding tasks on the go can be done by sending an SMS to RTM via Twitter, just by adding ‘d rtm’ to the start of the message.

Put simply, using Remember The Milk, I can check and add tasks in a central location easily, anywhere. RTM’s flexible search functionality lets me create a variety of automatically-updating lists based on tagging and dates and can also accommodate other lists as they are needed. If the RTM team comes up with Outlook syncing or a Symbian application, I would not hesitate to pay for the Pro upgrade. Even better, they’re also an Australian-based team!

While I continue to look at new and try different GTD tools (quite a distraction in itself), I always come back to Remember The Milk. For me, it really has become a trusted system. In the final part of this series, I’ll detail my workflow and how I make the whole system work for me, everyday.

(link to part 1)
(link to part 2)
(link to part 3)
(link to part 5)

Posted in GTD