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Thursday, December 12, 2013

My GTD (Capture)


    1. Physical In Basket - Kitchen
    2. Physical In Basket - Office
    3. iPhone
    4. Day Planner
    5. Outlook
    6. HP Flatbed Scanner with sheet feeder.
In looking back over the past posts, I realize that I spent way too much time messing with the tools and not nearly enough using them.  It is entirely too much fun building and designing the "perfect" system, only to have it collapse under it's own weight.  I found that in light use, the complicated system exceeded my expectations, but as soon as the inputs began to come in fast and furious, I would fail at the basic precepts of GTD.  My in baskets would begin to overflow, not because I couldn't keep up but because the very act of classifying and dealing with them became too onerous and I out off cleaning them out daily. No more daily Inbox Zero!  So, back to basics.
My physical inboxes are pretty standard, just places to hold the things and keep them off the kitchen table and my desk.  Not that my wife and children are consistent in using them just as inboxes.  Often, during my evening routine of bring everything down to the office to process, I find things that seem to have taken up regular residence in there.  And I do it too, I admit.
My phone is just a iPhone 4,  OneNote is installed but I rarely use it.  I do have pictures of the consumables my printer uses so I can look when I am in the store and can't remember just which toner cartridge I need.  I am currently using Instacorder to record voice notes and email them to my self so I can capture any errant thoughts and ideas that may make it into a project.  I would like something that transcribes the voice notes into the body of the email like I had on the old android phone, but haven't found one that I like yet.  I could use Toodledo to enter any Next Actions but I have found that waiting to process the ideas until later on allows me to be more objective about "if" something really needs to be done.  The rest of the apps on the phone I will go over in the "Do" post when it is written.
I do carry a day planner with an 8.5x11 note pad and a printed version of my Outlook calendar in it in my briefcase for those times that I am not digitally connected.  Those times are few and far between as wireless tech has come a long way in the past little bit.  That being said, I will use it in meetings,  where it is a bit distracting to have someone talking into their phone as a note taking method.
I have upgraded to Outlook 2013.  When I did, I took my Twitter feed, my Facebook feed, and my "leisure" RSS feeds out.  I moved my RSS feeds to Google Reader, before they closed, and then found Zite for the iPad and fed my initial feed list to it.  The magazine it created more then satisfied my leisure reading needs, and when Reader closed down, I was only minimally affected, as I had not actually viewed my feed list in some weeks. Twitter and Facebook reside in my browser, and are accessed only when I have some free time.  I do get some email news letters, but my they are moved to a separate folder in Outlook and I can access them with the iPad far more comfortably when I am in relaxation mode.  The links from Outlook and IE to OneNote work just fine, and I am not one to collect articles as much as I once was.  In fact I don't keep anything from my leisure reading any more unless it suggests a new project or helps an existing one along.
Any important documentation, usually snail mail, is scanned into OneNote through the scanner, sent directly to the unfiled notes as a pdf image and OCR'd by OneNote.  It is usually filed right away as that falls within the two minute rule of processing.
And that pretty much wraps up the capture portion.  Simple and as frictionless as I can make it.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Blog Reboot

 

Well, after losing all the photos and screenshots from my earlier posts, and after having not not posted for well over a year I have decided to reboot the blog.

A few things have changed in my GTD set up and I will begin with my first post in "Series 2" by reposting my processes and set up from the beginning.  As well, I seem to be drawn to the current "Life mapping" craze that is currently going on, so there may be a post or two on the tools and measurements I use to track my progress on the various projects I undertake.  After all, if it is not tracked, measured, and reviewed on a regular basis, there is no way of knowing if it is meeting your expectations,or moving you toward your goals.  In short, it isn't a project.

I hope to gradually transition the blog to a slightly broader scope after that, with a focus on the habits of success, my own personal career management, as well as any related subject I happen to find interesting at the moment.  As a voracious reader, I will probably toss out a few of my opinions about the current book of the month, as well.

See you in a week!

Bruce