 August 7th 2007
 Getting Things Done
 6 comments
Welcome to the second part of this guide looking at questions you need to ask yourself when thinking through how you are going to create your GTD system so you have something that fits your own personal needs. This was originally going to be a two part series but thanks to feedback I hope to expand it further. If anybody tries applying these questions to their systems to see if they can cut down the amount of times they fall off the bandwagon, let me know about it.
Heavyweight or lightweight?
Are you a very busy person who always has lots of projects to manage, or do you simply want a system to give your life a bit of order? Do you use every element of GTD from the higher-level vertical map to the low-level management of projects and next-actions, or do you just stick to the basic principles? These points can have considerable influence on how complex your systems needs to be, though I’m sure a lot of readers will agree that simplicity is the key, no matter what your demands are. If you are a lightweight user you don’t need to bog yourself down with features you won’t use.
Are you in one location or do you travel a lot?
GTD author David Allen travels a lot and he swears by lightweight portable systems. However if you are tied to one location you don’t have to worry about the mobility of your tools. If you are just primarily located in your office, using your desktop computer would pose few problems, but if you were travelling to different countries all the time you couldn’t exactly carry your workstation in your hand luggage.
One tool to rule them all or lots of specialist tools?
Having a tool that does everything can be great in terms of mobility, but what about ease of use? Or the dangers of having all your eggs in one basket? Or the jack-of-all-trades nature of such tools? Enough of the clichés! Alternatively you can have one system for projects, one for someday/maybe, one for notes etc. However, you won’t necessarily be able to see the big picture (something my own system relies heavily on) without opening an handful of notepads, pulling out lots of cards or bringing up a bunch of applications on your computer.
Reader discussion
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Hi James. Again, another good set of thought-provoking questions!
“Heavyweight or lightweight?”
If you choose heavyweight, how much of the ceremony could you impose on others? A heavyweight system may work for a freelancer who doesn’t join a customer’s team. Since I’m collaborating a lot with such teams however, it’s mostly them who impose their system on me so mine needs to be lightweight.
“In one location or do you travel a lot?”
Well, my father has worked more than 25 years for IBM, mostly in one location, but I doubt we could find career paths like that nowadays. It’s not just about traveling, but also about changing your workplace or place of residence. Imagine your wife gets offered an excellent job in a city at the other end of the galaxy and both of you decide to relocate. You could become a commuter or even a workweek hotel guest in an instant…
“One tool to rule them all…”
To me, it doesn’t matter that much whether I use an integrated or a best-of-breed solution. Rather, the key issue for me is to use a standards-based solution or at least one that lets me “losslessly” import and export my data. There’s hardly anything more mind-calming than a company that gives me the means to say goodbye to their product should I choose.
Thanks a lot, James!
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Thanks for the comment again Rolf, it’s good to get a different perspective on the questions. Being more of a lightweight, one location, one tool kind of person I have to think outside the box to understand other perspectives.
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These are great questions. They do invite logical thinking when it comes to choosing the right things. People often rush on decisions without even considering how rational their decisions are.
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Hey there. I have been thinking about this too; designing a GTD system from scratch, paying attention to the workflow, input filters, etc. Very useful post.
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These questions are indeed very helpful. It’s always good to question ourselves first before making some decision. I’m sure it will help a lot of people in doing the things they’ve been planning.
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