Best Electronic Practices for GTD?

M

MadDog

0
I'm excited about implementing GTD in my life to start 2010 and already find myself thinking about how to organize the electronic part, which for me currently is Toodledo online and an iPhone, on which I currently have Appigo's ToDo and Notebook.

I'm seeing that in implementing, the devil is in the details and people have taken a million different ways to adapt their imperfect electronic tools to use GTD.

What I'm wondering is if there's a "Best Practices" guide somewhere that boils this all down to give me a starting point so I don't have to go re-invent my own wheel? If someone's already got this dialed into GTD, I'd rather start with what they're doing than develop my own. You know, how to treat Next Actions, where to put Project Lists, and all that.

I don't that's asking too much, is it?
 
re: Digital GTD - Best Practices

I haven't read or found anything, but off the top of my head…

1. Should be able to quickly capture ideas and know where they are going as you capture them.
2. Should assist you in separating tasks and projects but keep them hyperlinked
3. Should be able to separate projects and sub-projects but keep them hyperlinked
4. Should be able to input tasks and ideas via email
5. Can be trusted even when you lack an internet connection.
6. Is not too co-dependent on "syncing", since one bad sync messes everything up.
7. Should keep screen taps and column clicks to an absolute minimum (e.g., if you have to tap three screens or columns to specify due dates, start dates, contexts, etc. imagine how many extra taps that is over time).
8. Have a lo-fi backup plan in the event that your smart phone or computer suddenly dies. (e.g., consider backing up your lists / files every day or week)
9. Don't stay too loyal to an application if it's really not working for you. Dare to try new offerings, but try to stick with each one for a committed period of time. You don't want to spread your system too thin across lots of different applications at the same time. Try one at a time and see how it goes. And when things don't work, capture your thoughts about what the system is missing for you.
10. Focus on the GTD Habits and Principles more than the tools you use to implement them. Tools will come and tools will go, but the habits and principles will remain. The better you get at discerning and using them, the better position you'll be in to know what tools will or will not work for you.
Click to expand...

That's all I can think of right now.
 
Must allow you to get your data out in both electronic and paper form. If cloud-based, must allow you to keep a full copy of the data on a local system.

Electronic export is essential if you ever want to switch to a different software package. Local storage frees you from the vagaries of Internet connectivity. Decent print capabilities allow you to take your lists offline, and are useful if you ever want to switch to a paper system.

Katherine
 
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