Ryan In Virginia
Registered
Hello,
I've practiced GTD on and off since 2005. In recent years, I've been using a paper-based day-timer system, similar to Franklin Planner. My daily actions are supplemented by my project list, someday-maybe lists, and higher horizons. I find that simple flat lists is not enough to keep me motivated, so scheduling tasks (and then sticking to that plan) has worked extremely well. I've always appreciated the daily notes section as a means to record new actions and reference items, as well and retrieve them later. Old pages are easily stored chronologically for later use.
My past success at managing life and work aside, I feel the need for more mental space, room for creativity, and flexibility. To that end I'm exploring my options for how I physically organize my workload. I've used the DAC guides on setting up a paper planner with limited success. I realized that one of my biggest mental barriers is the treatment and archiving of old pages. How do I retrieve information such as when an action was completed in an efficient way? It's been enough that I'll use such a setup for a few weeks, then get frustrated when I can't find older information, and return to the chronological setup of the Day-Timer.
I've come to the following conclusion of my needs, and am looking for a few best practices. I get the GTD methodology, but I feel like I'm continually spinning my wheels with its implementation. It's almost too flexible.
1. I need a paper-based analog system. I am in the urban planning and development field, and spend much of my time away from the computer. Multiple attempts with tech/cloud solutions haven't worked. This includes file storage and Evernote, which are blocked by my corporate network. Personal and business need to ideally be in the same system.
2. I need to quickly retrieve specifics, sometimes from months to years in the past. My current planner's indexing system has been great.
3. I need a way to store old pages and record my progress on my projects for reporting to superiors, the weekly review, etc.
4. I'm a visual person that likes seeing a dashboard of my current day, week, or month. If information is buried, it will often fall through the cracks.
Any help is much appreciated!
I've practiced GTD on and off since 2005. In recent years, I've been using a paper-based day-timer system, similar to Franklin Planner. My daily actions are supplemented by my project list, someday-maybe lists, and higher horizons. I find that simple flat lists is not enough to keep me motivated, so scheduling tasks (and then sticking to that plan) has worked extremely well. I've always appreciated the daily notes section as a means to record new actions and reference items, as well and retrieve them later. Old pages are easily stored chronologically for later use.
My past success at managing life and work aside, I feel the need for more mental space, room for creativity, and flexibility. To that end I'm exploring my options for how I physically organize my workload. I've used the DAC guides on setting up a paper planner with limited success. I realized that one of my biggest mental barriers is the treatment and archiving of old pages. How do I retrieve information such as when an action was completed in an efficient way? It's been enough that I'll use such a setup for a few weeks, then get frustrated when I can't find older information, and return to the chronological setup of the Day-Timer.
I've come to the following conclusion of my needs, and am looking for a few best practices. I get the GTD methodology, but I feel like I'm continually spinning my wheels with its implementation. It's almost too flexible.
1. I need a paper-based analog system. I am in the urban planning and development field, and spend much of my time away from the computer. Multiple attempts with tech/cloud solutions haven't worked. This includes file storage and Evernote, which are blocked by my corporate network. Personal and business need to ideally be in the same system.
2. I need to quickly retrieve specifics, sometimes from months to years in the past. My current planner's indexing system has been great.
3. I need a way to store old pages and record my progress on my projects for reporting to superiors, the weekly review, etc.
4. I'm a visual person that likes seeing a dashboard of my current day, week, or month. If information is buried, it will often fall through the cracks.
Any help is much appreciated!
