Why Are You Simplifying GTD? Simplify How You Use It!

May 5th 2008

GTD

There are a lot of simplified versions of Getting Things Done out there, in response to a large number of people who think it is complicated or difficult to get into. However, the problem is GTD is already a very streamlined system and as is the case with simplifying anything you have to make considerable trade-offs to achieve it. Before you start looking elsewhere for answers consider simplifying your actual usage of GTD. A lot of people make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Inboxes
Have just enough inboxes to capture all that stuff coming into your life. For instance, do you really need to have four or five email and voicemail inboxes? The more boxes you have the more spread out and confused it all becomes, and the harder it gets to process and review everything. How long before you start failing to empty them all consistently?

Contexts
When you only have a few dozen next actions it’s not necessary to split them up with a bunch of contexts. However, if you have hundreds of tasks to work on it’s exactly what you need. For instance, you don’t want to be working through a huge list looking for all the actions you can do while sat at the phone. Don’t be forced into breaking down everything into contexts for the sake of it, use them when they would actually be useful. If you only have a few phonecalls to make it’s not really necessary to distinguish them from the rest of your list with a @calls context.

Ubiquitous capture
Again, have as many tools to capture thoughts, notes and other stuff as you need and no more. It’s amazing how well one simple, small notepad can serve you when it comes to capturing ideas. Remember, when you get home or into your office you have to process everything you have taken down. If that’s a chore you won’t do it. A fancy personal organizer may look cool but if it takes forever to sort your way through it, it is failing at its purpose.

Tools
Speaking of fancy tools, clever software, Moleskines and Filofaxes may be great and it can be fun to play around with them but it causes more complications than results. Though I may upset a lot of hi-fi fans here, to really simplify things make what tools you use not an issue. Go right to the basics and get a notepad and pen.

Weekly review
The weekly review is largely regarded as the bedrock of the GTD system and rightly so. With so many different lists and the emphasis on getting stuff out of your head, it’s critical all that data is kept up to date. While any simplified GTD system would be foolish not to have a regular review in it, the actual approach to it can be greatly simplified depending on what else you simplify (for example, streamlining the someday/maybe list means it’s easier to review). Rather than having a complicated review once a week break it down and do each part throughout the week. Review your projects on Monday, your next actions on Tuesday, your inboxes on Wednesday, and so on.

Someday/maybe
The idea of having so many incompletes on a list for weeks or even months on end is unappealing. So much of GTD involves processing stuff yet that’s not really the case with those items you put on a someday/maybe list. It may be part of a weekly review but because the items on it tend to be non-urgent it’s usually the first thing to get neglected. Break the list down like you would contexts and next actions, so that you have seperate lists for music you would like to buy, films you would like to watch, etc. Then when you review it be brutal and honest about whether you really want to act on it or not.

Tickler file
David Allen suggests the 43 folders approach to a tickler file which can be really extreme for many of us. Depending on how much input you get trim back the amount of folders. You don’t necessarily have to have separate compartments for every single day of the year. There are many alternative systems you can use to get regular reminders of dates too, such as a calendar or diary. The tickler file is just a way to remind you of future events, don’t treat it as anything bigger than that.