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read the book etc, not sure how to start... help!
duncanshannon | Sep 13 2006
Hi- I've been thinking about GTD for about a year now (off and on) and im switching jobs again and I think it might be a good time to try GTD. I've read the GTD book, read a bunch of posts on line about people using it, studied the GTD flow chard etc... im just not sure what my first real step(s) should be. I am having stuff start to pile up at my new job already (im not 100% sure of the scope of my responsibilites is yet either) and i want to keep track of things. My boss is very driven and I want to keep up. I've been just using a notebook so far, taking lots of notes with action items on a per day basis. They use Lotus Notes (v5.0!) which im not great with yet. I think i like the idea of Gtiddlywiki (sp?) on a USB stick to be my 'system'. I can get the 43 folders setup once i actually get my desk. I have a treo 650 but am considering getting rid of it and going back to a plain ol cell phone. How do i take my first couple of steps? Do I really need to do this for work and home life at the same time? I feel like i need to determine my "@" lists to start dumping stuff in, but im not sure I know what they should be. I know the process says to collect and process. Can someone coach me a bit here and help me get my baby steps going? Thanks much in advance. Im really looking forward to some GTD nirvana. 11 Comments
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 Good advice hereSubmitted by sonia_simone on September 14, 2006 - 11:42am.
The advice here is just right. Start with work, and start lo-fi. Either keep your NA lists on paper in your notebook, or keep them in a single Word doc for all contexts--print that out and mark it up. Either way, update your NA lists when they're too messy to see everything clearly, or more often if you like. I still keep my NA lists in Word, and I print a fresh copy at the end of every work day. Avoid any gadgets (even hPDA, in my opinion) until you've established the baseline habits of keeping a clear in box (email *and* physical) and capturing every NA. I would wait to try out any technology fix at least a month after you establish your basic habits, to be sure they're really ingrained. If you want to get something neato to motivate yourself, get a great pen. (However, I'm obsessed with pens, so that bit might not be right for you.) But definitely do *not* get sucked into the technology vortex for managing projects & NAs until you are more established with GTD. Also, I really advise you to follow Allen's book to the letter in getting started. It helps avoid getting overwhelmed by The Sinking Feeling. » POSTED IN:
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