GTD Explained: More Tips & Hints for Getting Things Done

If you haven't seen the Real Women Scrap TV episode about Getting Things Done...watch that first, then return for these additional tips...

I've had quite a few follow up questions since the show asking for more clarification and hints for making the GTD system work. So, I thought I'd share some of that with you since I know that often if one person has a question, others are thinking the same thing.

A question from Michele:

Tasra, I love this idea but I'm a little confused about how it will actually work. What happens when you run out of pages for a section? For instance, the ASAP tab would be in the February section which would have the fewest pages. To me, the ASAP section would be a running to-do list, that would fill up very fast. Is it easy to open up the binding of the planner to move pages and or add pages if necessary? Thanks! Michele Monet

My response:

Thanks for your questions. It can be a little confusing at first and even as you start to put it into action. A short video and intro isn’t enough to give the entire GTD system a thorough review. But, hopefully it will encourage you to pick up the book. It really has some valuable information about exactly how to process and organize to make it work for you.

Specifically for the planner I used, I’ve found that I haven’t even used an entire page in any section yet. It’s not that I don’t have a lot to do, but I also use my email inbox. And when you use GTD it’s not all one long to-do list, but each thing is categorized so what would normally go on my regular list like calls and emails get separated out. This separation allows me to fill it up more slowly. And I don’t list anything that requires less than 2 minutes...it’s the 2 minute rule...you just do it. Then you don’t have to record it.

If this planner doesn’t give you enough pages, try just a regular office notebook with hundreds of pages and create your own dividers. Use it to see how much space you need and then go from there. I will probably replace this every 4 – 6 months which is great for me because I like to have new, fresh organizers. I’ll still use the same system and maybe even the same planner so I can transfer the pages, but I get to start fresh. Considering it’s relatively inexpensive compared to a regular DayPlanner, I can justify the cost.

technorati tags: GTD, GTD_system, Getting-Things-Done, David-Allen, Video, Scrapbook_Planner

Comments

[lisa S.]

Thanks for the tips on GTD - keep 'em coming!