Skip to main content

GTD

In my previous post, I mentioned I have been using GTD. In fact, I’m a big fan of it.

I have worked for many years as a programmer, then as a systems analyst, also as an architect. Of course you have a lot to do in this positions! But it was when I occupied the Project Manager and the Consulting Manager positions that my to do list exploded. It seems that in these positions you substitute some big tasks for a plethora of small tasks. You have some tasks to solve problems with development, another set of tasks to solve problems with analysis, with infrastructure, with architecture, with you stakeholder management needs, with your project bureaucracy, with updates on workplans, with status reports…

Basically, David Allen (the author of GTD) suggests keeping everything out of your mind – you make a mental dump on lists. Then you organize the lists: you identify the “next action” for each item (e.g.: for an item like “Fix the car” you probably have a next action of calling Dad and get the mechanic’s number). You keep these next actions in context lists, so when you’re in “email mode” you can execute a lot of these items.

This is just a quick overview. You have to read more about it to start understanding its power.

GTD is particularly well suited for this situation: managing a lot of items while maintaining focus. I suggest you to learn a little bit more about its principles:

  • “Getting Things Done” by David Allen is the bible of the method;
  • www.davidco.com is David Allen company’s website where you’ll find a lot of free material. Read the “coaches’ corner” articles!
  • http://www.43folders.com/ is a very good blog where Merlin writes about personal productivity much based on GTD.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Plans

As vacation season approaches, our interest in traveling increases. I addition to my recent trip to India I have made some other trips on the job or on vacations and I collected some interesting websites that can assist in planning trips, cross-country meetings or even dealing with other cultures. Have a nice trip! First of all, what time is it … there? To avoid calling someone in another country without noticing it is 4:00AM. I strongly suggest consulting TimeAndDate . In my personal page, I have two links to this site: one to the “Personal World Clock” and another to the “Meeting Planner”. It works great when my group is organizing concalls with people in India, in Europe, in Brazil (of course) and in California/USA. Another preoccupation: how much is it? (or how much it was, when you’re creating your expense reports). I usually recommend oanda website converter. It allows you to convert between many currencies in specific dates and also allows you to print a convenient conversion ...
2 comments
Read more

An experience in customer care

After some months desiring a DVR (VCR-like equipment with a high capacity hard disk) I found a Sony HDD250 for 20% of the regular price in a prestigious US store. The price was due a small scratch and a missing manual. I bought it! Back to Brazil I downloaded the manual and installed the cables but…the remote control did not work - it was of another equipment. OK, I should have noticed that but… I was VERY frustrated. The wrong side of customer care: 1. I wrote BestBuy. In a canned answer they suggested me to phone the store attendant or returning the equipment. They neither tried to understand my problem. 2. I talked to Sony (I have two of their “universal” remote controllers). Answer: if the code was not in the manual I could not operate the DVR. They suggested me buying a replacement control from a company that …did not sell it. In another demonstration of “customer care”, their product forum has many complaints about not being possible to manually setting the clock - and no answer...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tools for blogging

Maintaining a blog sometimes is a difficult task, specially when you’re in the middle of a battle. It takes discipline and the belief that your ideas and experience could improve someone else’s. There are some tools to assist you in writing a blog but I discovered that my old palm and a simple sheet of paper can work better than new editors or browser plugins that allow you to post from any webpage. Maybe I’m facing a corollary of KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid). On the other hand, reading many blogs is almost impossible without a specific tool. I had a good time using RSSOwl and now I’m using GreatNews , both are free. I tried the Google Reader version of it but I’m usually offline when reading the blogs – usually at the airport. I also use my iPod to follow podcasts. If you’re a project manager I recommend Jerry Manas Project Results Podcast . What are you using to follow my blog? Leave your experience as a comment here!
Post a Comment
Read more