A
Anonymous
Guest
I've been incorporating various versions of the GTD system for the last three years. It's by far the best I've used in regard to flexibility ease of use.
With the start of the new year, I'm re-examing how I can improve on the system I'm using. My situation is this: I work a full-time job in public relations, but manage a freelance communications studio in the evening and wee hours of the morning. I've also been fortunate to be a hired pen for a few computer books for a couple major publishers. I also have a family and the hectic life that comes with trying to juggle all of these "roles." Being organized is the only way I can stay afloat in this environment.
In that light, I thought I'd ask if any other GTD'ers would mind sharing how they've set up their GTD system. Not to be rude, but I'm really looking for folks in similar situations: two full-time jobs with everything tracked in one system (either pen or digital).
I'll start:
1) Everything is tracked in Outlook on a home computer (freelance machine) and an office computer (day job). I use a PocketPC essentially as a means of synching data between the two computers.
2) All projects are tracked in Outlook Tasks. I can't stand the appearance of Outlook Notes and the inability to scroll.
3) I've created a category for each project and view Tasks using the Category View:
[f] Acme.com Redesign
[f] Widget.com Storefront Upgrade
[f] Jones Corporate Brochure
[w] Lumina Press Release
[w] Rotary Club Speech
[w] Integrate Acrobat 6.0 with Team
[f] indicates a freelance project; [w] indicates a work-related project.
4) Next actions for each project are individual tasks assigned to the project category:
[f] Acme.com Redesign
- Get logo from client
- Set up hosting package
- Concept home page
I use these tasks as project planning notes so I can easily see what I have to do for each project.
5) Next Actions are pulled from the project tasks and assigned a category of [f] *Next Actions or [w] * Next Actions.
Since 99% of what I do is on a computer hooked into the Internet, context-specific lists don't work for me.
6) When I'm at work, all tasks are sorted by category and filtered so only tasks with [w] are displayed. Likewise, at the home studio, only [f] category tasks are displayed.
I've tried to simplify this system, but I keep coming back to this method of dividing the projects.
Anyone else want to chime in?
With the start of the new year, I'm re-examing how I can improve on the system I'm using. My situation is this: I work a full-time job in public relations, but manage a freelance communications studio in the evening and wee hours of the morning. I've also been fortunate to be a hired pen for a few computer books for a couple major publishers. I also have a family and the hectic life that comes with trying to juggle all of these "roles." Being organized is the only way I can stay afloat in this environment.
In that light, I thought I'd ask if any other GTD'ers would mind sharing how they've set up their GTD system. Not to be rude, but I'm really looking for folks in similar situations: two full-time jobs with everything tracked in one system (either pen or digital).
I'll start:
1) Everything is tracked in Outlook on a home computer (freelance machine) and an office computer (day job). I use a PocketPC essentially as a means of synching data between the two computers.
2) All projects are tracked in Outlook Tasks. I can't stand the appearance of Outlook Notes and the inability to scroll.
3) I've created a category for each project and view Tasks using the Category View:
[f] Acme.com Redesign
[f] Widget.com Storefront Upgrade
[f] Jones Corporate Brochure
[w] Lumina Press Release
[w] Rotary Club Speech
[w] Integrate Acrobat 6.0 with Team
[f] indicates a freelance project; [w] indicates a work-related project.
4) Next actions for each project are individual tasks assigned to the project category:
[f] Acme.com Redesign
- Get logo from client
- Set up hosting package
- Concept home page
I use these tasks as project planning notes so I can easily see what I have to do for each project.
5) Next Actions are pulled from the project tasks and assigned a category of [f] *Next Actions or [w] * Next Actions.
Since 99% of what I do is on a computer hooked into the Internet, context-specific lists don't work for me.
6) When I'm at work, all tasks are sorted by category and filtered so only tasks with [w] are displayed. Likewise, at the home studio, only [f] category tasks are displayed.
I've tried to simplify this system, but I keep coming back to this method of dividing the projects.
Anyone else want to chime in?