GTD miscellaneous stuff

[Stephen Chakwin]

Let me respond to some recent posts concerning implementing the David Allen
Getting Things Done paradigm through OO.

A lawyers' Mac-using group that I am part of fooled around with an FMP
implementation of GTD but I don't think it caught on for a combination of
reasons: it was a little awkward to set it up and keep it current. Also the
issue of using a Palm as an entry/monitoring device is a real one.

I used LifeBalance for several months to run my own version of GTD and
ultimately gave up on it.  I agree that it's an excellent application of its
kind and that it works well in handing data back and forth between Palm and
Mac.  It's also available (or was) as a free trial for a set time and has
very good discussion forums (and nice and responsive tech people), so if you
find it attractive, give it a shot.

I wound up not using it because I found that the Palm did not work well for
me as a list maintainer or as a calendar.  It's a fine telephone and address
book and an excellent way to keep snippets of useful information, but I
found a paper calendar much more flexible, much easier to enter and
customize information in, and better suited to my needs.  For on-the-run
catching information and ideas, I use a small digital recorder by Sony that
fits into a shirt pocket and a tiny notebook with an attached collapsable
pen in a leather case that doubles as a business card holder.

For Project lists I used OO, then Word, then Entourage before my current
venture into Tinderbox.  I could derive context-defined To-Dos in all of the
applications that I used, but Tinderbox gives me the best tools for keeping
them anchored to both the context and the project from which they are
derived.

Bear in mind that the David Allen system - which I have known about since at
least 1998, written about, and taught informally - although it is the best
system I know of to keep entropy at bay,  demands a lot of discipline and a
lot of  maintenance to work well.  When I have let it lapse, it turns into a
nightmare because its main virtue (that it's foolproof) vanishes, and you
are left with a complicated, attention-demanding, but not especially useful,
group of activities.  I strongly urge anyone considering this system to buy
and read "Getting Things Done" (it's in paperback on Amazon, is not
expensive, and is easy and enjoyable to read) and do what it tells you to do
to clean up your messes.  Only after you have done this will you appreciate
both how powerful and how demanding it is.

The GTD system, by the way, does not care about technology.  You can
implement it perfectly with a few dollars' worth of supplies and a trip to
Staples. Or you can spend as much as you wish on cool things to make it fun.
It doesn't care.  It works if you do.

Stephen