brianryer
Registered
Maybe this thread can get back to discussing the original post from a slightly different angle.
Finding "one system to rule them all" has proven unworkable to me, not for lack of trying, but rather because, for me, the premise is flawed.
When working as a contractor I usually join an existing team that has many systems in place for doing their work. I become a user of those systems in one way or another; corporate email, edtorial CMS, code repository, and some of what I need to capture and clarify is generated in or through those systems. I mark something done in my GTD *and* mark it done in TheCompany's workflow tracker.
When working as a freelance I can choose all my tools myself, but so can everyone else, so in order to cooperate we produce an ad hoc system or use a shared tool. I mark something done in in my GTD system *and* mark it done in a shared Wunderlist.
When working as an employee it is likely that I have the "Limited access to work systems must use Web based tools" situation as well as the "Windows at work but Apple at home" situation.
The first situation has business data sensitivity complications, the functional weakness (yes, still) of web applications vs platform dedicated applications, the potential for service disruption, and other issues.
The second has all sorts of compatibility issues as well as the yawning gap between programmer sensibilities, which is more significant than most people at first assume.
Just as an example, I recently tried a trial of a GTD plugin for Outlook. It definitely made Outlook more useable as a GTD system, but was so completely at odds with the conceptualization of the process as compared to my OSX/iOS system that switching them chewed up too many cycles, never-mind all of the overhead required to keep then in sync.
If you can manage both personal and collaborative work with just one operating system/platform, and all of the work you do is also on that operating system/platform, you have a better chance of finding or building the one true GTD system for you. This is for me, and I believe most folks, only very rarely the case and usually temporary.
So, what to do?
I've decided to accept that any system is going to have loose ends (see Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and being human in general).
I also keep in the front of my mind that my GTD system is not the work, the work is the work. I use Omnifocus now and it's the best, for me, now, but I might switch to index cards. Ultimately I am the system I must trust, right?
Finding "one system to rule them all" has proven unworkable to me, not for lack of trying, but rather because, for me, the premise is flawed.
When working as a contractor I usually join an existing team that has many systems in place for doing their work. I become a user of those systems in one way or another; corporate email, edtorial CMS, code repository, and some of what I need to capture and clarify is generated in or through those systems. I mark something done in my GTD *and* mark it done in TheCompany's workflow tracker.
When working as a freelance I can choose all my tools myself, but so can everyone else, so in order to cooperate we produce an ad hoc system or use a shared tool. I mark something done in in my GTD system *and* mark it done in a shared Wunderlist.
When working as an employee it is likely that I have the "Limited access to work systems must use Web based tools" situation as well as the "Windows at work but Apple at home" situation.
The first situation has business data sensitivity complications, the functional weakness (yes, still) of web applications vs platform dedicated applications, the potential for service disruption, and other issues.
The second has all sorts of compatibility issues as well as the yawning gap between programmer sensibilities, which is more significant than most people at first assume.
Just as an example, I recently tried a trial of a GTD plugin for Outlook. It definitely made Outlook more useable as a GTD system, but was so completely at odds with the conceptualization of the process as compared to my OSX/iOS system that switching them chewed up too many cycles, never-mind all of the overhead required to keep then in sync.
If you can manage both personal and collaborative work with just one operating system/platform, and all of the work you do is also on that operating system/platform, you have a better chance of finding or building the one true GTD system for you. This is for me, and I believe most folks, only very rarely the case and usually temporary.
So, what to do?
I've decided to accept that any system is going to have loose ends (see Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and being human in general).
I also keep in the front of my mind that my GTD system is not the work, the work is the work. I use Omnifocus now and it's the best, for me, now, but I might switch to index cards. Ultimately I am the system I must trust, right?
