The Perfect To-Do System Is Not Just Around the Corner
- Thread starter Sojourner
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mcogilvie
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The article linked above makes a great point. Lately, I’ve been thinking about a related issue: the turnover in “systems” from people who want to sell you their systems. Sometimes this manifests as claims of new discoveries or technologies that will revolutionize time managemen: “Save four hours per day with our nuclear-powered day planner.” Sometimes it originates in everyone’s desire for simplification: “Our new method relies only on three colored rubber bands around your wrist.” In many cases, I think it reflects a genuine confusion: ”Today I have a much better method than yesterday’s method.” Buyer beware!
The systems that I find the most interesting are the ones that account for traits that are lacking in a minority of the population. While those systems won't become universal (well, unless they're also better overall) they can be infinitely better for that minority.
Example: Then usual advice for organizing a closet (or any cluttered space) is to start by emptying the whole thing out. But for a person likely to be interrupted--either because there are toddlers swarming the house, or because they're naturally distractible, or both--that leads to chaos.
One home management expert has a very different system, one that gives specific steps for organizing a space bite by bite, without ever being vulnerable to chaos-through-interruption.
That system may (or may not) be slower for the people who can stick with the task for several hours, but it may be the only system that works for the people who can't. And that makes it special.
Oogiem
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That so clearly describes the effect of the major library project I've been working on. We have over 350 linear feet of bookshelf space in our house and it was filled to overflowing with some books stacked 2 layers deep. The goal was to remove, sort and catalog all the books, clean and reconfigure the shelves so things are easier to find and there is no wasted empty space between shelves so sorted by size of book too. Then reshelve the books and finish the location and labeling of what books are where so we can find them easily. I started the end of January and I'm still not done. In the mean time thre are piles of books all over everywhere. Sorted into keep, give away or sell and unsure about and by category. The catalog is at 3000 books right now and I'm not done by a long shot. It's been chaos since I started.
If I'd been able to work on it to the exclusion of everything else it still would have been chaos but only for a month or 2. I'm at over 140 hours into the project now but at least I can see an end to it. So far I've removed about 20 linear feet of books and it looks like all will now fit a single layer deep.
TesTeq
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@Oogiem I'm stuck with my library. It is much smaller than yours, but I find it very difficult to categorize books. There are cross-topic books (eg. GTD4Teens - productivity, teen education). There are different sizes of books. And... there's an A-Z order according to the author's surname. I try to use Book Track app but any app is an additional step in comparison to just walking up to the shelf. There's no special "location" field in the Book Track app - one can use tags for this purpose. And unfortunately this app can't find Polish ISBNs online.
mcogilvie
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I hear you. I don’t think I have more books than Oogie, but it’s not for lack of trying. Through Darwinian selection, I have arrived at an organization scheme in space and time. My home office holds professional books, the family room holds humanities and arts, the living room holds some heirloom books, and the kitchen holds two shelves of cookbooks. The basement shelves hold science fiction, mysteries, travel, some overflow science books, as well as an elephant graveyard of productivity books. For example, I have “Time Power,” written by the guy who taught Hyrum Smith, the founder of what would become Franklin-Covey, how to use a Day Timer. Of course, I keep David Allen’s books by my bedside
, along with other favorites and a ridiculous amount of guitar music.
Oogiem
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I'm using BookPedia as my book catalog program. Very powerful lots of options and working well.
I've been thinking lately that many "GTD software" designers and self-professed GTD practitioners (including me at times) have missed the boat in terms of what the object of the GTD game is. In my understanding, it's never been about having the perfect system, or about directly linking all your projects to your next actions to your reference documents. Nor is it about getting it all done, or getting x hours of deep work done each day, etc.
"Mind like water" - a sense of relaxed focus was the promise and the objective.
If you can achieve that with Omnifocus, a Bullet Journal, Todoist or a pack of note cards and a bag of clothes pins-that's great.
I have so often failed to notice when I am farting around with links, applescripts, time blocking, Obsidian, etc, I am about as far from Mind Like Water as I can get.
"Mind like water" - a sense of relaxed focus was the promise and the objective.
If you can achieve that with Omnifocus, a Bullet Journal, Todoist or a pack of note cards and a bag of clothes pins-that's great.
I have so often failed to notice when I am farting around with links, applescripts, time blocking, Obsidian, etc, I am about as far from Mind Like Water as I can get.
mcogilvie
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Absolutely. I find it useful to distinguish my GTD system from the shortcuts and conveniences I use. I use Apple share sheets often to move information around, and I use links as well, but those are conveniences. My system does not rely on them. At rock bottom, it’s calendar, lists and reference. Life gets more difficult and getting things done becomes harder when you rely too much on complicated processes and fragile technology.
bishblaize
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I get the sentiment there, and I think many of us productivity fans end up wasting time on such things. Equally though, as DA puts in GTD Fast, you need a system that is as complex as what you're putting into it. If you oversimplify, then it just makes things, ironically, more complicated.
I think "as simple as you can, as complex as you need" is probably the target.
I have been doing great since I went back to just a pack of note cards. I never thought of adding clothes pins.
Seriously though, after wasting a lot of time trying a lot of different apps, I have gone to a simple index card system of 3x5 cards. It works well for me because I also use 3x5 cards as my capture tool. Now I just put notes on cards and put them in the proper context in my card file. No more recopying information from a card into an app.
Murray
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Mine is similar, however it is a clear plastic. I have dividers for each of the GTD contexts and I have an additional divider labeled "This Week." During my Sunday weekly review, I go through all the cards and put any that need to be done during the following week in the "This Week" section. I do not look at the contexts again until I am done all the week's tasks or the next weekly review.
I keep a stack of blank 3x5 cards with me and every time I have a new task, I write it on a card. At the end of every workday, I put it in the section for the appropriate context.