OK, so I'm beginning to become obsessed with organizing my life. I've been using OF for about 1 year now and have been on and off, meaning sometimes I think I know what I'm doing and sometimes I don't.
A common thread that I read on MANY GTD related sites is "do it if it works for you".
Well, after MANY iterations, trials, errors, problems and mishaps, I think I might have a work flow that 'works for me'.
The setup:
First of all, I have OF at work, home, and on my iPhone. I essentially work out of my PROJECT folder, that is to say, I like the setup, icons, and structure. I have 4 major folders representing 4 main locations (i.e. office, school, home, and family [not exactly that... names are removed to protect the innocent]), and within those folders I have on average about 10 projects dispersed and running. Each project therein has my todo's. Simple, yes, not done yet.
I'm the type of person that doesn't like to commit to deadlines; yea sure, if there is a definitive deadline that I HAVE to stick to I enter it and abide (this dude abides). If there is no specific date, I procrastinate, and there lies the problem, and my reason for not fully committing.
But WAIT! maybe I've found a solution! I may have said I like the setup of the project folder (*reread... yes I did), I am also WAY more comfortable with numbers (yea... ok... go there... geek). So keeping with a structured outline, I've added 7 [foreshadowing] Single Action Lists to the TOP of my project list that look something like:
01. MONDAY
02. TUESDAY
03. WEDNESDAY
04. THURSDAY
05. FRIDAY
06. SATURDAY
07. SUNDAY
Oh yes, and an 8th:
00. ON FIRE TODAY
Within each of those SALs is a weekly repeating action:
"REVIEW ACTIONS FOR X-DAY!!" (X = TUES, WEDNES, THRUS, FRI, SATUR, SUN, & MON depending upon which day of the week)
The workflow:
So each day I have a list of todo's that I've brought over from the previous day's 'review'.
This setup simplifies my project area (not many subs of subs) and forces a daily 'look ahead' so that I can bump in actions and push them until I finally get sick of them and actually do them.
The Problem:
As you probably can already guess, I lose 'project' labeling once I put the todo into the "day-of-the-week" SAL. For example, the project 'Home : do laundry' now becomes '06. SUNDAY'. This is somewhat annoying since I foresee a loss continuity with project tasks later on down the line.
I've tried creating days-of-the-week in the context view, which maintains the project link, but there is no structure in the tree or icon change (see initial "like"... yes... I'm a visual guy).
This system is kinda 'working for me' but I wanted to hear if there were any other ideas out there.
Baring day-of-the-week SALs in each of the main folders (space hog), or a 'daughter' project (not in the system), or maybe just changing the context to reflect the projects (against the definition of context), I'm at a creative loss.
Any poetic musings would be greatly appreciated (except a flaming hiaku... that would just ruin my day)
A common thread that I read on MANY GTD related sites is "do it if it works for you".
Well, after MANY iterations, trials, errors, problems and mishaps, I think I might have a work flow that 'works for me'.
The setup:
First of all, I have OF at work, home, and on my iPhone. I essentially work out of my PROJECT folder, that is to say, I like the setup, icons, and structure. I have 4 major folders representing 4 main locations (i.e. office, school, home, and family [not exactly that... names are removed to protect the innocent]), and within those folders I have on average about 10 projects dispersed and running. Each project therein has my todo's. Simple, yes, not done yet.
I'm the type of person that doesn't like to commit to deadlines; yea sure, if there is a definitive deadline that I HAVE to stick to I enter it and abide (this dude abides). If there is no specific date, I procrastinate, and there lies the problem, and my reason for not fully committing.
But WAIT! maybe I've found a solution! I may have said I like the setup of the project folder (*reread... yes I did), I am also WAY more comfortable with numbers (yea... ok... go there... geek). So keeping with a structured outline, I've added 7 [foreshadowing] Single Action Lists to the TOP of my project list that look something like:
01. MONDAY
02. TUESDAY
03. WEDNESDAY
04. THURSDAY
05. FRIDAY
06. SATURDAY
07. SUNDAY
Oh yes, and an 8th:
00. ON FIRE TODAY
Within each of those SALs is a weekly repeating action:
"REVIEW ACTIONS FOR X-DAY!!" (X = TUES, WEDNES, THRUS, FRI, SATUR, SUN, & MON depending upon which day of the week)
The workflow:
So each day I have a list of todo's that I've brought over from the previous day's 'review'.
This setup simplifies my project area (not many subs of subs) and forces a daily 'look ahead' so that I can bump in actions and push them until I finally get sick of them and actually do them.
The Problem:
As you probably can already guess, I lose 'project' labeling once I put the todo into the "day-of-the-week" SAL. For example, the project 'Home : do laundry' now becomes '06. SUNDAY'. This is somewhat annoying since I foresee a loss continuity with project tasks later on down the line.
I've tried creating days-of-the-week in the context view, which maintains the project link, but there is no structure in the tree or icon change (see initial "like"... yes... I'm a visual guy).
This system is kinda 'working for me' but I wanted to hear if there were any other ideas out there.
Baring day-of-the-week SALs in each of the main folders (space hog), or a 'daughter' project (not in the system), or maybe just changing the context to reflect the projects (against the definition of context), I'm at a creative loss.
Any poetic musings would be greatly appreciated (except a flaming hiaku... that would just ruin my day)
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