Quote:
Originally Posted by rdbot
Out of curiosity, how are u personally doing this?
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I don't know that my workflow is all that ritualized to the point where I could explain it. It's a collection of habits I've picked up over the years that seem to work for me.
I have two big folders at the top of my project tree - "Work" and "Home". All projects go into one of them. I have a perspective that hides my home projects at work, and similarly, one that hides my work projects when I'm at home.
During particularly busy times, I'll do daily reviews, but mostly I try to handle the big planning on the weekend. I sit down with my iPad and spend some time getting all my projects in order. Activate some, deactivate some, flag a few actions here and there if they won't otherwise be visible.
If I try to optimize on a day-by-day basis I find it eats a whole lot more time than it saves and stresses me out. If I can get the week pointed in the right direction and then do a little bit of steering as needed, it works better for me. I can't articulate how many actions is "enough" to have on my plate - it's just a gut feeling I've developed through years of repetition.
That said, when in doubt, err on the side of too few rather than too many. Keeping stress levels low is the single best thing you can get from this.
On the context side, I have a hierarchy that
roughly duplicates the org chart of the company. The vast majority of my work actions go in one of those contexts - it's either the person I need to get something from, or the person I need to give something to when it's done.
(A recent addition to this setup was a "Meetings" category, describing the ones I go to regularly. Actions that fall into the "everyone at the meeting needs to hear this" category go there, rather than being assigned to any given person.)
I mostly defer actions by setting/updating a start date on them. If I'm talking with someone and they need more time, I open the action on my phone and use the "+1 day/week/month" buttons to get it out of my face until the appropriate time.
Other than that, it's mostly just bouncing back and forth between Forecast and Flagged view in the iPad app - I have it propped up on my desk next to my keyboard.
Stuff gets *entered* on all three devices, and gets checked off /deferred on the phone, because it's always in my pocket. But the weekly planning and daily tracking of that plan all happens in the iPad.
Like I said, not super-well organized, but I hope it's helpful. The
single most important tip, though, is to remember that GTD-style productivity is a skill, and just like any other skill, it takes practice and patience to develop it. You'll get there, though. :-)