How do you use GTD - IT Professionals

[Harry]

Dear All,

I was wondering whether are there any forum contributors here who are in the IT profession, and could share their experiences using the GTD system.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Harry]

Re: How do you use GTD - IT Professionals

Dear All,

I was wondering whether are there any forum contributors here who are in the IT profession, and could share their experiences using the GTD system.

Thanks in advance.

Dear All,

Any one please? Really appreciate to hear from anyone...thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I think you are not getting many responses as there is not a lot of detail in your question. There are a great many roles in the IT profession; manager, developer, desktop support agent, etc.. As a manger, I use a fairly vanilla GTD implementation and it works well for me. Hope that helps.

 

[Anonymous]

GTD for IT professionals

1. It is a great tool for personal action item mangement be they single action items or mulit-action items (projects).

2. I have not yet see the use of GTD as a 'team tool'..... maybe someone can tell a story..

3. It is NOT a full-blown project managemet or program management system.... don't go there..

 

[felixc]

Any specific requirements for IT professionals?

What are you looking for that relates specifically to IT?

 

[Anonymous]

GTD for IT Professionals

I am an IT Director. I think GTD is the best system I have used to date! I use Outlook (per the Outlook download...tried the add-on and I had to return it because it wouldn't work with my system for some reason). I use the 2 minute rule, delegate with tasks to my team to make them accountable and have the @action, @waiting for and @read and reference folders. I also use the All day events as my daily list for items without a specific time. I average about 125-150 emails a day and this has been working very well.

Roughest parts: Always reviewing my folders, Projects and using a Blackberry.

 

[Harry]

Thanks for your replies.

I am an MIS Manager. I have been using GTD for the past 6+ mths, using Outlook for corporate email/PIM software. I have the @action, @waiting for and @read and review folders, and been managing my time at work/personal/family pretty ok so far.

But I seemed to be tied down in front of my PC, updating my Outlook software at most times. I wish to rely less on my PC, and be more mobile due to the nature of my work. However, I am not certain whether to use a conventional notepad, a PDA (Palm or PocketPC), or any other better alternatives.

 

[Ambar]

I have used my Palm from the beginning of my GTD implementation, and wouldn't want to live without it. I did find that Life Balance was an excellent addition, but lots of people seem to be happy using the built-in Palm to-do list manager and keeping it in sync with their PCs.

Cheers,

Ambar
http://ambarconsulting.com/

 

[jaythebull]

Old topic...but I found it searching.

I am an IT Director and am currently using a Planner Pad system along with a Levenger Flip Pocket Briefcase (for index cards). Works rather well for a GTD implementation. Still refining and working on it - but I have found paper seems to be working better for me than Outlook.

 

[bl1ndsqrrl]

It

I am a network administrator looking for a good electronic reference system. I need something similar to del.icio.us for tagging files in my reference system (hard-drive). Any ideas?

 

[monkeyjava]

I'm half network administrator, half ERP system support, and I've been using plain text files based on Merlin Mann's setup. I have one text file for next actions, another for projects, and the rest are project support files. I keep my home stuff seperate in a paper system.

My office is going to convert to Outlook (from Groupwise) in the near future, and after that I'm probably going to switch to a setup based DA's GTD and Outlook best practices.

 

[aderoy]

Another appliation that has gotten some very good reports - Zoot can be found at

http://www.zootsoftware.com

Allows linking to files on your harddrive, assigns keywords, and of course syncs with Outlook.

It can be setup with very little work to handle your NextActions to contacts to appointments etc. It is also a great grabbag for all those little checklists, memos or grabs from webpages.

 

[rangi500]

I'm a programmer and have been using GTD for about 2 years, with varying success. It's much better than what I had before, which was nothing, but I haven't really tried many other systems. I like how nothing "escapes" when you're doing GTD. You can capture things without having to stop and think a lot about them. I love the idea/goal of "stress free productivity". I've always been very productive but usually at the cost of getting all stressed. I think somewhere in the book David says that stress isn't caused by having too much to do (we will always have too much to do) but rather by not feeling sure you're doing the right thing in the given moment. My first 18 months of GTD was without the weekly review. Things have been much better since adding it in and I've come to enjoy it. I go to a coffee shop on Thursday mornings an hour before work to do the review.

I use plain-text files on my computer during the day and sync with a Palm Tungsten E for all out-of-office life. This works really. Around home I tend to write ideas on post-it notes then stick those to the Palm for later input, rather than fiddling around with the stylus when I'm having dinner or brushing my teeth etc.

Applying GTD directly to programming can be quite tricky. A software project can be almost infinitely divided into tasks, so it's hard to know what size task to classify as a NA.

Rangi