gtd in academia? + recommended software?

[dhawk312]

I am an early career academic at a research-oriented university. Transitioning from being PhD student to a tenure-track faculty member has been great; however, I find my time management and organizational system used during my PhD student time is not adequate for the responsibilities and obligations I now have (e.g., serving on countless committees, advising students, a flood of daily emails and paperwork).

I am currently reading Allen's GTD book and would like to test out this system. The system itself seems very much tailored for non-academic, private industry work. Can anyone recommend readings or advice for implementing in an academic context where basically everything changes semester to semester or year to year? In addition, what OSX software do people recommend for newbies testing GTD? I was considering Things or OmniFocus but they are very expensive and both sound like they are about to be updated. I am considering just using Wunderlist and Evernote, which are my normal productivity software. But, I wanted something that forces me to use the full GTD technique.

 

[vbampton]

I'll leave the academia side of things to those more qualified, but just remember, GTD is a set of principles and can therefore be applied to almost any situation.

I'm an OmniFocus fan because it can be as simple or as complex as you choose. Their upgrade policy means even if you buy OF1 now, OF2 will be a free upgrade. Things may have a similar policy, but you'd have to check with them.

 

[Oogiem]

I'm not in academia in the same sense but I am a student. All the software out there has its own quirks. I'd start on paper and make one of your current active projects "New GTD tools defined and in place." As you start to implement the thought processes and tasks and principles of GTD also jot down notes about what you like and don't like when working with your tasks and projects. I'm a farmer, also doing a major software development task, also have many hobbies and I use GTD principles to manage all those conflicting and varied roles and projects.

I've learned that, for me, I may think I long for the simplicity of simple software tools but I soon run off the end trying to get the tool to do something it wasn't designed to do and get very frustrated. SO for me the best software tool is the most powerful in the class. Nearly all software tools have ways of setting them up that are simple but the power is there under the hood for when the training wheels come off.

I use Omnifocus and run it on my Mac, iPad and iPhone. I know it's being upgraded now but rev 1 is very powerful. In fact, so far I'm not convinced I even will upgrade as the new features seem more of a hindrance than benefit to me. But in any case OF has said that buying OF1 now will get you a free upgrade to OF2 if you want it.

There is a good guide here at DavidCo abouit setting up Omnifocus as your GTD system. While I don't agree with some of their suggestions they are quite workable and get you going. Once you know more how to work within the GTD system you can tweak your OF implementation to match.

FWIW my own projects tend to change drastically 4 times a year with various projects very dependent on the season and weather. GTD is the only way I can manage my complex changing system.

 

[SiobhanBR]

Since you are already familiar with Evernote, I would recommend getting the Evernote and GTD guide and starting out that way. Once you've implemented your GTD system and lived with it a while, you will start to get a feel for what your own personal needs are and will then be in a better position to look at changing your tool (particularly if what you're thinking of is expensive). It's hard enough implementing GTD at first, if you can use a tool you already know you eliminate a huge part of the learning curve. (For what it is worth, I did it the other way around and I am trying to learn Evernote as my GTD implementation tool - it is really working for me.)

I would also highly recommend you take out the GTD Connect membership if you haven't and take advantage of the excellent discussions on the Connect forums and all of the great reference material that is available to Connect members.

 

[mcogilvie]

I am an early career academic at a research-oriented university. Transitioning from being PhD student to a tenure-track faculty member has been great; however, I find my time management and organizational system used during my PhD student time is not adequate for the responsibilities and obligations I now have (e.g., serving on countless committees, advising students, a flood of daily emails and paperwork).

I am currently reading Allen's GTD book and would like to test out this system. The system itself seems very much tailored for non-academic, private industry work. Can anyone recommend readings or advice for implementing in an academic context where basically everything changes semester to semester or year to year? In addition, what OSX software do people recommend for newbies testing GTD? I was considering Things or OmniFocus but they are very expensive and both sound like they are about to be updated. I am considering just using Wunderlist and Evernote, which are my normal productivity software. But, I wanted something that forces me to use the full GTD technique.

I am a tenured professor at a research university, and there are some other academic types around. However, Victoria is quite right: GTD is a set of principles that works for pretty much everyone. Sometimes I think the best way to appreciate GTD is to try some other "time management" books- then you begin to see the difference. As you have found out, work at a university is very flexible. As long as you do your three jobs well and put in your 70 hours a week, no problems. But it has a lot in common with other demanding jobs. I don't have time to write about how I think about research, teaching and service in relation to GTD, but I can come back to it if you like. Let me just say a bit about tools. Any number of tools will work for GTD, but your tools have to work for you. Your list tools has to show you want you want to see when you want to see it. Wunderlist has a good set of features (I am using Things but I'm keeping an eye on the OmniFocus 2 beta). However, no tool will force you to do GTD. My advice is to set up context lists and project lists in Wunderlist, ordered so that your most common contexts are on top. I have a category I think of as 15K in between projects and areas of focus for ongoing work, mostly committees and other responsibilities, so I have a list for that too. Try it out, do whatever it takes to make work happen using it, and report back.

 

[dhawk312]

I am a tenured professor at a research university, and there are some other academic types around. However, Victoria is quite right: GTD is a set of principles that works for pretty much everyone. Sometimes I think the best way to appreciate GTD is to try some other "time management" books- then you begin to see the difference. As you have found out, work at a university is very flexible. As long as you do your three jobs well and put in your 70 hours a week, no problems. But it has a lot in common with other demanding jobs. I don't have time to write about how I think about research, teaching and service in relation to GTD, but I can come back to it if you like. Let me just say a bit about tools. Any number of tools will work for GTD, but your tools have to work for you. Your list tools has to show you want you want to see when you want to see it. Wunderlist has a good set of features (I am using Things but I'm keeping an eye on the OmniFocus 2 beta). However, no tool will force you to do GTD. My advice is to set up context lists and project lists in Wunderlist, ordered so that your most common contexts are on top. I have a category I think of as 15K in between projects and areas of focus for ongoing work, mostly committees and other responsibilities, so I have a list for that too. Try it out, do whatever it takes to make work happen using it, and report back.

Can you let me know how you think about the professor duties and GTD in relation to one another? I am really interested in using GTD to manageorganize my job and personal life. As you know, the 80 work weeks make this difficult.

 

[mcogilvie]

Can you let me know how you think about the professor duties and GTD in relation to one another? I am really interested in using GTD to manageorganize my job and personal life. As you know, the 80 work weeks make this difficult.

OK. I have four areas of focus for work: research, travel, teaching and work. These are GTD 20K. Work is a catch-all, including committees and advising. I have a separate list for 15K not-project responsibilities that don't end, but I hope to God not to have to focus on them, committees for example. I have learned not to make up projects when there isn't one there. I don't have a project for the colloquium committee which I will co-chair next year, it's 15K; I do have a project for each speaker I invite. Projects finish, next actions get done, but committee meetings are forever. The 15K list reminds me that I promised to show up for things and do something if asked. I teach one course a semester, and teaching it is a project. If I have to grade an exam, that can be a big task, so I start with a next action like "prepare solution" and go from there until done. Research projects are really projects, but usually shift in formulation as I move through them, starting from "topic R&D" and ending with "topic ms published." Research ideas are someday/maybe, but I keep them on a separate list called "Research Ideas." Right now, I have six research projects, 2 travel projects, 1 teaching project and two work projects. I have nine items on my ongoing work list of 15K work items. A lot of people would consider these projects. There might be a project for each semester's major advising. I don't do that anymore. My role is to be a good advisor, and I think I am pretty good at it. Students don't value proactive behavior in an advisor, but they do like the sense that someone has their back. My not treating these as projects, I save myself a lot of trouble in maintaining my system. Same with committee meetings. If I see something that needs to be done, it's a project, but the committee is a source of projects, not a project in and of itself. After much experimentation, I have five real contexts: Desk, Anywhere, University, Home and Out. I have equivalent desks at both home and work, but I get more done at home. Anywhere is a short list. I look at all my lists all day. I also have lists for Ticklers (dated reminders), Agendas, Waiting For, Someday and Maybe. That's really about it. Sorry for the somewhat disjointed collection of thoughts, but I can't use my mouse to edit with the new forum software.

 

[dhawk312]

Thanks for the long and detailed reply. How do grants and conferences fit into your system? Do they get placed into the same "project" folder or do they get their own? For instance, if you're doing research on X but also plan on writing a grant proposal on this same idea or submitting part of it for a conference presentation, how is it sorted in your system? Is it one single large project, or is each classified as a separate project? Sorry for all the questions. I am trying to wrap my head around best practices to implement GTD successfully. Do you handle Ticklers using physical folders or electronically? If that latter, how?

 

[mcogilvie]

Thanks for the long and detailed reply. How do grants and conferences fit into your system? Do they get placed into the same "project" folder or do they get their own? For instance, if you're doing research on X but also plan on writing a grant proposal on this same idea or submitting part of it for a conference presentation, how is it sorted in your system? Is it one single large project, or is each classified as a separate project? Sorry for all the questions. I am trying to wrap my head around best practices to implement GTD successfully. Do you handle Ticklers using physical folders or electronically? If that latter, how?

Grants are part of my work area of focus, rather than research, but conference talks go in travel, and conference write-ups in research. This is personal preference, but it's because grants involve budgets and other non-research stuff. Conference write-ups are writing about research, so in research. Conference talks are part of preparing for a trip, so they are in travel. I use an electronic tickler. It's just another context, with things like due dates for conference registration, renewing Zotero, renewing my passport, et cetera. It's distinct from calendar items, because when an item shows up as due, it triggers a project or next action.

I should say that my electronic files are in dropbox organized at the top level by area of focus using number prefixes to force the order: 1 Research, 2 Travel, 3 Teaching, 4 Work, 5 Personal, 6 Fun, 7 Finances, 8 Home, 9 Health. It's not a GTD filing system, but it works for me.

 

[dhawk312]

Thanks for the clarification. Any other tips, advice, or recommendations as I start to implement GTD in this context? How do your colleagues respond to your GTD approach? Is it something that comes off as cold and selfish, or do they not even notice?

 

[mcogilvie]

Thanks for the clarification. Any other tips, advice, or recommendations as I start to implement GTD in this context? How do your colleagues respond to your GTD approach? Is it something that comes off as cold and selfish, or do they not even notice?

I think my best advice is that David Allen always has good advice if you pay attention to what he is actually saying. You can find people all over the internet attributing things to DA that he never said. My colleagues notice that I am among the better-organized, and my graduate students know that I am juggling a lot compared to them, but that's it. GTD is not cold or selfish, and I'm not wearing a hat that says "Ask me about GTD" or anything like that.

 

[mcogilvie]

BTW, I think the books "Professors as Writers" and "Advice for New Faculty Members" by Robert Boice are pretty good. I also like "Advice to a Young Scientist" by Medawar.

 

[dhawk312]

Thanks I've read both the Boice books. I'll pick up the Medawar book soon. I finally have time this weekend to start setting up my GTD system. I have done the Capture and Clarify steps, I'm about to start the Organize step. For the capture and Clarify steps I wrote each project, task, email, and whatever on separate sheets of paper. I then put everything into my Wunderlist inbox. Now I need to place the items into next actions, projects, waiting for, etc. I'm a bit confused about this at the moment because I've never thought about my work this way. Does a project folder just contain the name and overview of a project as a reminder that I ought to be making progress on it, while the next action folder would contain the actual next step for this project? Can you share your GTD item/folder hierarchy?

It sounds like:

20k
-Research
--R&D topic X
--Lit review Y
--Finish MS on Z
-Travel
--Conference 1
-Teaching
--Class 1
--Class 2
-Work
--Horrible Committee 1
--Pointless Committee 2

15k
-Symposium Series
--Speaker 1
--Speaker 2

Next Action
-Any action associated with the above projects? Like this:
--Prepare presentation for conference
--Complete paperwork for committee 1 task
--Print materials for class 1
--Write introduction for lit review on paper idea y

 

[mcogilvie]

Thanks I've read both the Boice books. I'll pick up the Medawar book soon. I finally have time this weekend to start setting up my GTD system. I have done the Capture and Clarify steps, I'm about to start the Organize step. For the capture and Clarify steps I wrote each project, task, email, and whatever on separate sheets of paper. I then put everything into my Wunderlist inbox. Now I need to place the items into next actions, projects, waiting for, etc. I'm a bit confused about this at the moment because I've never thought about my work this way. Does a project folder just contain the name and overview of a project as a reminder that I ought to be making progress on it, while the next action folder would contain the actual next step for this project? Can you share your GTD item/folder hierarchy?

A very common approach in Omnifocus or Things is to use a container for Areas of Focus, with projects and next actions inside. Contexts are an extra field in OmniFocus and generally tags in Things. None of this is applicable to Wunderlist. I would just make lists: Projects Work, @Desk, @Errand, Waiting For, et cetera. You can tag items in Wunderlist with, e. g., #Research and you can click on the desktop to see all items tagged with #Research, across contexts. I like this set-up a lot, and have set Things up to behave the same way. The problem with Wunderlist is that there's no search on mobile devices, so that overview of an area of focus is only on the desktop. Of course, tagging also takes time and may not be worth it to you. I find that I can mostly connect the dots by seeing something like:

@Desk
Tedious form #Work
Write paragraph on marmite in physics #Research

Projects Work
Marmite/Vegemite project #Research

which filters to show just #Research across lists @Desk, @University, Projects Work, Waiting For, et cetera. But that is just me. Other people do just fine with just plain lists, while others have unbelievably complicated structures in Omnifocus. Try the simplest thing and go from there.

 

[dhawk312]

Yea I want to do the simplest thing then move forward. Based on what I've read here and other places I think I'll give Things 2 a try. Then once I get used to the GTD method I'll try other software, if need be, to suit my needs. Ideally, I'd like to use the least amount of apps, like only Evernote for this sort of stuff. But EN is overkill for me at the moment. I primarily use it for storing reference material or backing up emails. I'd probably need to delete all of my to-do type notebooks and tags too so I'd like to get comfy in GTD before I do this. I like Wunderlist because it's cross platform and free, but the Android app is far too limited compared to the desktop version. I want an app that I can easily filter info based on my needs/context, whereas Wunderlist at the moment just shows full lists in each folder.

I'll probably have lots more questions as I start using Things and further implement GTD. Thanks for all the help so far.

 

[mcogilvie]

Yea I want to do the simplest thing then move forward. Based on what I've read here and other places I think I'll give Things 2 a try. Then once I get used to the GTD method I'll try other software, if need be, to suit my needs. Ideally, I'd like to use the least amount of apps, like only Evernote for this sort of stuff. But EN is overkill for me at the moment. I primarily use it for storing reference material or backing up emails. I'd probably need to delete all of my to-do type notebooks and tags too so I'd like to get comfy in GTD before I do this. I like Wunderlist because it's cross platform and free, but the Android app is far too limited compared to the desktop version. I want an app that I can easily filter info based on my needs/context, whereas Wunderlist at the moment just shows full lists in each folder. I'll probably have lots more questions as I start using Things and further implement GTD. Thanks for all the help so far.

Things is decent, but it's Apple only, no Android, and no easy export either. If you are cross-platform, you probably want something that works mobile and desktop/laptop.

 

[Folke]

I think over time you will notice that the main factors influencing your choice and setup of a system is not whether you work at a university or at a nuclear power plant or at a cosmetics manufacturer. It seems to usually boil down to more personal factors, such as how much detail you want, how many "angles" you want to cover, how confident you are with your own memory etc etc - in other words, what you feel comfortable with.

I do not work at a university. As an outsider, I would suggest the following three areas of responsibility for your consideration: Researcher, Teacher, Administrator. I would be inclined to take away the Travel AoR (no matter how much I travel) and I would name the AoRs as a "job", not as a "type of action" (e.g. Teacher, not Teaching). To me personally, AoRs are more useful and easier to identify with - and to review and plan for - if I think of them as a definable "job", something that I might (theoretically) have signed up for as a well-defined separate ongoing responsibility. For example, as a Teacher, my job responsibility would be to make students learn things, but occasionally I may have to find facts for my teaching or even make some experiments to find out how something really works, and although these actions would be of a Research type, they would still be within the Teacher's responsibility. Similarly, as a Researcher I may occasionally need to teach somebody something (e.g. a young assistant). Such Teaching type tasks I would still consider to be within the Researcher's responsibility, and it is easier to see and remember this if you name them as "jobs".

In all three "jobs" (Researcher, Teacher, Administrator) I may occasionally (or often) need to travel. But it is totally unthinkable, even theoretically, that anyone would ever need or consider hiring a "general traveler" (i.e. a Travel AoR). In my job as a Teacher I may need to travel to attend courses or take students on a study trip. In my job as a Researcher I may need to travel to exchange ideas and knowledge about the latest findings in my own or neighboring fields. As an Administrator, I may need to travel to attend coordination meetings of all kinds, perhaps related to the curriculum, admission rules, grants etc etc. I would (and actually do) treat my travel related activities using contexts in combination with agenda lists (in some form, depending on the app).

 

[mcogilvie]

I think over time you will notice that the main factors influencing your choice and setup of a system is not whether you work at a university or at a nuclear power plant or at a cosmetics manufacturer. It seems to usually boil down to more personal factors, such as how much detail you want, how many "angles" you want to cover, how confident you are with your own memory etc etc - in other words, what you feel comfortable with. I do not work at a university. As an outsider, I would suggest the following three areas of responsibility for your consideration: Researcher, Teacher, Administrator. I would be inclined to take away the Travel AoR (no matter how much I travel) and I would name the AoRs as a "job", not as a "type of action" (e.g. Teacher, not Teaching). To me personally, AoRs are more useful and easier to identify with - and to review and plan for - if I think of them as a definable "job", something that I might (theoretically) have signed up for as a well-defined separate ongoing responsibility. For example, as a Teacher, my job responsibility would be to make students learn things, but occasionally I may have to find facts for my teaching or even make some experiments to find out how something really works, and although these actions would be of a Research type, they would still be within the Teacher's responsibility. Similarly, as a Researcher I may occasionally need to teach somebody something (e.g. a young assistant). Such Teaching type tasks I would still consider to be within the Researcher's responsibility, and it is easier to see and remember this if you name them as "jobs". In all three "jobs" (Researcher, Teacher, Administrator) I may occasionally (or often) need to travel. But it is totally unthinkable, even theoretically, that anyone would ever need or consider hiring a "general traveler" (i.e. a Travel AoR). In my job as a Teacher I may need to travel to attend courses or take students on a study trip. In my job as a Researcher I may need to travel to exchange ideas and knowledge about the latest findings in my own or neighboring fields. As an Administrator, I may need to travel to attend coordination meetings of all kinds, perhaps related to the curriculum, admission rules, grants etc etc. I would (and actually do) treat my travel related activities using contexts in combination with agenda lists (in some form, depending on the app).

As it happens, your reduction of travel into different areas wouldn't work for me, as I often combine research-related travel with recreation. Colleagues who take students to archeological digs are combining research and teaching.

 

[Folke]

As it happens, your reduction of travel into different areas wouldn't work for me, as I often combine research-related travel with recreation. Colleagues who take students to archeological digs are combining research and teaching.

I guessed as much, but then again we tend to get this type of problem in all walks of life - a difficulty to place every "thing" in exactly one of the existing buckets we have; and we cannot have buckets for every combination. It never gets truly perfect, no matter how we slice it. In the end, it boils down to what we find convenient and practical. I can perfectly understand and respect your good reasons for making Travel a separate "multi-AoR". I am just trying to point out that there are other ways also worthy of consideration. The alternative that I would have used (and actually do tend to use) is to try to classify things by "who" (i.e. which "job role"; i.e. AoR) initiated the whole "thing" and is the primary driver of it. If other AoRs want to tag along, then that's usually fine (synergies), but I normally do not change the AoR classification just because of that. (Lots of things we do invite synergies between multiple AoRs.) But I agree, this approach can have its downsides, too.

 

[Gardener]

I'm getting the impression from this thread--though I may be hearing people wrong--that people store their tasks and projects in a hierarchy that leads up to an Area of Responsibility. That is, for example, if you're using OmniFocus and you follow a project all the way to the top, you'd travel through a folder for an Area of Responsibility.

I don't do that, and I struggle to see the value in it. The lack of value to me may be due to the nature of my job, where a substantial majority of my tasks support more than one purpose. If I went down a hierarchy starting with Areas of Responsibility when looking at my projects, I would constantly be trying to remember which AoR I declared to be most important for the project in question.

The same would be true of my personal life. A sewing project, for example, is about skill-building and art and frugality, and potentially any area of my life that's affected by clothes (feminity, social anxiety, work), and it might be intended to replace other clothes and therefore be about decluttering, and I'm fairly likely to track and blog it, so it will also support writing and my blog and and and and...

Do people use a top-level sort of Area of Responsibility, and do they find it useful?