I've been off the GTD Wagon for almost a year now and I'm trying to climb back on. I can't specifically recall what led me to drop the process altogether but there was something about it that was causing me stress and making me dread opening up OmniFocus every day. Eventually, I started to ignore it wholesale and ultimately left it behind.
But here I am now, looking for some insight/feedback on topics, trying to find something that will help me a bit more this time around. I've switched to PC/Android and I think I'm going to go with Doit.im or Nirvana after trying a bunch of apps (nozbe, zendone, todoist, facilethings, gtdnext).
But here I am now, looking for some insight/feedback on topics, trying to find something that will help me a bit more this time around. I've switched to PC/Android and I think I'm going to go with Doit.im or Nirvana after trying a bunch of apps (nozbe, zendone, todoist, facilethings, gtdnext).
- Project Structure - I feel like this is one of the things I was doing wrong in my old system in OmniFocus. I had lots of projects and I think that led to me being a bit overwhelmed (I also think the fact that I was looking at the projects more than just the "Next Actions" contributed to this). I used a lot of folders for breaking down areas of my life; Family, Home, Work, Finances, Hobbies, Career, Personal, Travel and Goals. Each folder could have its own individual projects as well as an Actions (for single action items relating to that particular area) and Ideas (for on hold/someday maybes relating to that particular area). Looking back on it now though, I'm starting to wonder if this was overkill. I.E. Did I NEED a project for all the Single Action Items relating to Home or Finances? Why not just individual tasks not related to a project, like "Mow the Lawn" which just pops up based on context or scheduling. I'm curious how some of you GTD vets handle this.
- Goals and Shifting Projects - One of the other things that I feel contributed to anxiety with the system was seeing a large number of my Someday Maybe projects that I wasn't actively working on. I also had issues where I'd want to put one thing on pause and switch to something else. For whatever reason this gave me a lot of trouble, but I also wonder if this is more a character flaw/something I need to overcome or be more disciplined about (finish a project before starting another) or if the system should be flexible enough to handle my shifting interests.
- Doing too much Micro-Management - I also feel at times that I had GTD trying to do TOO much for me. I'd set weekly reminders to mow the lawn and go through my mail, monthly reminders to pay bills, etc. At times I wonder if maybe I was relying too much on the tool to take care of stuff that I could easily knock out without the help or aid of a tool.