About a month and a half ago, a friend of mine told me about Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, and that it was changing his life in so many positive ways. I got the audio book and started listening to it to and from work. Little by little I started to see great advantages to many of the concepts he coaches on. There are loads of good sites on getting started with GTD, which a simple StumbleUpon or Google search will lead you too.

Here’s how I am doing GTD:

1. Treo 700wx – I know paper is a recommended way to get started, but I have my Treo with me all the time so that made an easier transition.
2. Pocket Informant 2007 – nice for the Treo to customize categories, lists, and a whole bunch of other cool features. This isn’t a necessary piece however to run GTD using the Treo.
3. Jello.Dashboard – very cool Outlook plugin that is very easy to install. I like Jello because I see at a glance my next actions, Inbox, contexts, projects, and calendar.
4. An In Basket on my desk
5. A Review Basket on my desk
6. I am in the process of building a tickler file system, but it is not at this point a highly critical piece to my GTD system because I don’t use paper that much.

That’s it so far for my GTD experience. There are tons of other things that I could be doing, but I figure I will ease into them as I create new habits and abilities. I will say, as most other GTD’ers do, that the weekly review is painfully hard – not because of my ability, but because I get so many distractions right during the time I have scheduled. I am gradually educating my co-workers and boss that I have a standing 2 hour block on Friday afternoons wherein I don’t want any interruptions.

Here are a few of the links I have found helpful:

• Getting Started – 43Folders.com provides a simple overview and steps to begin GTD.
• GTD in Windows Mobile – JeffKirvin.net outlines using GTD on Windows Mobile – very simple and easy to understand.
• Tons of GTD references – this site on zenhabits.net is jam-packed with great links to learn about GTD. I haven’t even covered the entire gammut yet, but many of the references on this site have shed light on how to cater GTD to my way of functioning.

Well There you have it – my simple post on GTD adding to the ginormous hay stack GTD references.

Happy New Year! Let’s make it the most productive year ever!

~CoolNerd