Coming Back to GTD

George M

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Had been an avid GTD user for years, but slowly slacked off of GTD over time. Am back in GTD now. Started re-reading Getting Things Done by David Allen, and signed up for Nozbe to be my electronic GTD system. So,I am starting the GTD journey again. In mid-read of GTD and capturing all of my open loops. Will keep posting as my journey continues.
 

George M

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TesTeq...thanks for the comment...yes, the Nozbe Team does provide great GTD information in various instructional videos. I am finishing up chapter 5 in Getting Things Done, and I am also gathering all my lists of "stuff" and "open loops" and putting them into Nozbe. This weekend will be more brain dumping into Nozbe and working my way through incomplete trigger lists for more "open loops".
 

Jennifer S

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I'm coming back to it as well. I consider myself a beginner because I barely started the GTD system before I gave up on it. There was a lot about that I didn't understand. But this time I'm going to ask questions and get help instead of giving up. Looking forward to the journey!
 

George M

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I'm coming back to it as well. I consider myself a beginner because I barely started the GTD system before I gave up on it. There was a lot about that I didn't understand. But this time I'm going to ask questions and get help instead of giving up. Looking forward to the journey!
Thanks for the comment, Jennifer. I will keep posting how my journey is going, and we can share this journey together.
 

George M

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Taking my time reading Getting Things Done, finished chapter 6 this morning before work. I gathered up all my lists of stuff and open loops, and finished putting them in Nozbe. Everything is in one location now. Need to finish sorting them into categories (context), projects, and determine next actions. The journey continues.
 

TesTeq

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Need to finish sorting them into categories (context), projects, and determine next actions. The journey continues.
STOP! What do you mean by this sequence: sorting them into categories (context), projects, and determine next actions?
A Context describes the environment and tools needed to do the Next Action. So it is not possible to sort Next Actions into Contexts when these Next Actions are not determined yet. And you do not sort Projects into Contexts.
 

George M

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TesTeq....thanks for the comments...I understand your points...and they are all good...once I finish my brain dump this weekend, and capture everything, or as much as I can...then I will put them in the proper context, etc...this is the bumpiest part of the journey for me...thanks again...
 

Ravine61

GTD'R 4 Life
Hi George;

Best of luck to you, as you "begin again" with GTD...I started my GTD journey in 2014 and I know it is not one that follows a "straight line"...it is soooo easy for me to slack off, and/or partially utilize GTD.

Not sure if this is helpful, but I have found reading other "philosophies" very very helpful to me, as I dug deeper into why I could not stay with GTD for very long..."The Power of Habit" (C Duhigg), "Willpower" (R Bauermeister), and "Deep Work" (C Newport) are a few books that GTD lead me to, and that I found very very helpful in self-diagnosing why I just could not embrace and put GTD to use 100%.

Looking forward to hearing how you are doing, as you jump back into GTD, and Congratulations on bring it back into your life!
 

George M

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Ravine61...thank you for the comment. It will be an interesting journey, and I am happy that you will watching my GTD journey, and sharing it with me. GTD can be a tough system to follow in totality. I believe that the rigidity of GTD and failure to do the Weekly Reviews were instrumental in me dropping out of GTD. Now I am being drawn back because of structure and concept of GTD, however the strict rigor of GTD may still be a problem for me. I guess I will see that, as I implement GTD again. Those are great books. The Power of Habit and Deep Work are on my to-read list. I just finished reading The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, which also influenced me in coming back to GTD. Thanks again
 

TesTeq

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TesTeq....thanks for the comments...I understand your points...and they are all good...once I finish my brain dump this weekend, and capture everything, or as much as I can...then I will put them in the proper context, etc...this is the bumpiest part of the journey for me...thanks again...
I'm watching you too! ;-)
Let me explain one thing: a good enough brain dump is a good enough start. It doesn't have to be perfect. Why? Because you ALWAYS (later) can capture any new or forgotten thought. The main purpose is to write down these ideas that sit in your brain and actively cature your attention.
 

George M

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TesTeq...you are correct...we will always be doing a brain dump or closing open loops. I have a good start so far for my brain dump. Will keep reading Getting Things Done, and refine the results of this huge pile of stuff from my brain dump and loop closings.

Thanks for watching over my journey back to GTD.
 

Ravine61

GTD'R 4 Life
Hey George;

TesTeq's comment made me wonder if you are using any platform to utilize GTD ~ like Evernote, OmniFocus, pen & paper, etc. I use OmniFocus, and got to the point where when I did my "Brian dump" into my InBox, I could not stand to have the individual items that were listed there hang around very long! All I had done was just create one very long "to do list" with no context to it.

So, this incentivized me to dig into each item and determine "what my desired outcome" and what is "next action"...which helped me take care of each item

Again, this has been a multi-year journey for me, and I still fall off with it all. Best of luck as you make your back to the GTD path!
 

George M

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Ravine61,

I am using Nozbe for my GTD app. It was designed for GTD and is very easy to transfer my GTD actions, lists, etc into it. I like it so far. I can use it across multiple platforms - my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad. So far so good with Nozbe.

OmniFocus looks like a great program for GTD. It sounds like OmniFocus is working well for you. If I don't like Nozbe over time, I will look at OmniFocus.

I do use Evernote but not for GTD.

Thanks for the comment
 

George M

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Finished my first "brain dump" and captured my "open loops" over the weekend. Have about 200 items. Broke them all out into categories. Made my projects list. Have a "next actions" list going. Starting clean today. Will capture "open loops" as the week goes on, when they pop up; and, will work from my " next actions" list. Will add to "next actions" list as the week goes on. Was a good GTD weekend, and this will be a good GTD week.
 

Ravine61

GTD'R 4 Life
Wow, you were busy this weekend...Great job George M, with powering thru so many essential tasks of the GTD methodology!
 

George M

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Ravine61..thanks for the comment...yes, it was a busy weekend...wanted to get back on track and start GTD'ing again...
 

TesTeq

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Finished my first "brain dump" and captured my "open loops" over the weekend. Have about 200 items. Broke them all out into categories. Made my projects list.
What about Someday/Maybe list? For me it is more important than Projects list. Someday/Maybe list remembers for me everything that's inactive so I don't have to remember it.
 

George M

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Having a good first week being back in GTD. Am keeping up with everything so far, and capturing "stuff" as it comes up, or I think of it. Nozbe works well for GTD. First Weekly Review in a few days. That will be interesting.
 
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