Getting Things Done system

[Meadbh]

About a decade ago (it was when I had a Sony Clie handheld) I used Franklin Covey software, which integrated with Outlook. I liked it because it helped me to focus on what was really important. Now I know what's really important without external aids.....and it is FIRE. With multiple changes in hardware over the years, I no longer pay for add-ins. I now use Outlook, which synchs with my BB. For lists, I use Outlook's Task list, and Lister or Our Groceries are good apps too. I travel a lot and love Blackberry Travel.

 

[Nords]

I know, I know, cue the jokes from those who are retired and trying to do as little as possible. Nonetheless - Has anyone here tried this? What did you think? How long did you stick with it?

Lots of (still working) entrepreneurs come up with ways to get more things done. I wonder if any of them have pondered the dubious value of getting more done.

I think the true Zen achievement is finding less to do. Then you don't need to do more to keep track of the more you're trying to do more of. The more less you find, the easier it becomes to do more of doing less.

Bonus points for doing less with less...

 

[Meadbh]

Lots of (still working) entrepreneurs come up with ways to get more things done. I wonder if any of them have pondered the dubious value of getting more done.

I think the true Zen achievement is finding less to do. Then you don't need to do more to keep track of the more you're trying to do more of. The more less you find, the easier it becomes to do more of doing less.

Bonus points for doing less with less...

An important component of the Covey approach is to determine what is both urgent and important, and prioritize it. But you also identify what is neither urgent nor important, and you don't do that at all.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Hah, NOTHING is urgent or important to me, at least at work)

 

[Ronstar]

I use Apple "reminders" that sync on my iMac/ipad/iphone and my work microsoft outlook tasks through iCloud, coupled with Evernote that also syncs through all my devices.

 

[TromboneAl]

This prompted me to dig out the To Do list I made prior to retiring 6+ years ago. I made great progress the first few months and completed more than half the list - but haven't crossed off a single item in the past five years.

Priorities change...

Pls post it.

 

[Nords]

An important component of the Covey approach is to determine what is both urgent and important, and prioritize it. But you also identify what is neither urgent nor important, and you don't do that at all.

Speaking from considerable hard-earned 1990s experience, I think that implementing a Covey system to identify what doesn't need doing... is oxymoronic.

And suggesting it also misses the point of the post.

Funny story. When my spouse and I returned to Hawaii in 1997 for our new duty stations, her command's CO was hot for Covey. At considerable govt expense, he qualified himself to administer the Covey training. Then he insisted that all of his officers, civil-service staff, and senior enlisted attend a three-day off-site conference to receive the benefit of his newfound training, and then he repeated it until all officers on the watchbill had received said training. The offsite was paid for, of course, by command funds. (He was gone from the command for nearly two weeks, which I'm sure pleased the XO immensely.) The CO even nagged my spouse about it (during her transfer leave) to the point where she found it easier to quit trying to take her 30 days' leave, check into the command, start drawing Hawaii military allowances, and then show up for the damn training.

Once everyone had been trained, he implemented the Covey system. At some point afterward he administered some sort of Covey survey to all members of the command. The worksheets (or whatever they were called) were bundled up and shipped off to Covey Galactic HQ for proper analysis and reporting.

A couple weeks later a Covey employee, a retired Navy O-6, called the command. The command admin officer happened to receive the call and found out that she'd previously served with this retired O-6. He privately shared with her that the surveys revealed that the command was one of the most screwed-up and disgruntled organizations that Covey HQ had ever seen.

The Navy's Fraud, Waste, & Abuse hotline also got a number of anonymous calls from the Hawaii area code about the application of govt funds for this CO's training. Who knows, maybe they got some calls from Covey HQ too.

That was the end of her command's Covey era. Unfortunately my command kept on diving deeper into it...

 

[obgyn65]

I also use reminders in Outlook at work which I have synchronized with an iphone bought a couple of weeks ago. I have also saved my Outlook caldendar file on another PC to make sure I still can access it when I FIRE in 2012.

I use Apple "reminders" that sync on my iMac/ipad/iphone and my work microsoft outlook tasks through iCloud, coupled with Evernote that also syncs through all my devices.

 

[tmm99]

VM,

Thank you for posting this. Along with my regular work, I am doing more and more work that involves getting buy-in from different groups for time sensitive work (mini projects that involve multiple people from multiple organizations), and I am realizing followups are the hardest. We end up having too many status meetings to get the updates relayed to everyone and that is IMO a lot of wasted time spent delaying reaching our goals. I have a feeling this book will help me organize some of the pieces that always seem to be left behind (until the next status meeting) which delay execution.

 

[11522914]

I have used this free program and it works well. It just me that doesn't.

GTD-Free Home

 

[WM]

Lots of (still working) entrepreneurs come up with ways to get more things done. I wonder if any of them have pondered the dubious value of getting more done.

I think the true Zen achievement is finding less to do. Then you don't need to do more to keep track of the more you're trying to do more of. The more less you find, the easier it becomes to do more of doing less.

Bonus points for doing less with less...

I am typically wary of these kinds of business productivity books for the same reason - I distrust the "more is better" ethos.

But I don't think it's always true that "less is better" either. IMO, the important thing is that you're being mindful of how you're spending your time and energy. And how those choices shape your life and those of the people around you.

The thing I like about this system is that, despite the name, it's not about blindly doing more. It's about clearing your mental clutter so that when you do want to take on something more challenging, you can really focus on it. And when you're relaxing, you can really relax.

 

[target2019]

One thing worth pointing out is that the GTD system is primarily aimed at the harried manager or megacorp employee. You know the person. Stacks and piles of papers and folders in many different places. Oh yeah, that's me!

But seriously, the system is for those who HAVE TO process a lot of things daily.

An article in the Costco magazine for y'all.
Costco Connection - December 2008

 

[REWahoo]

I don't think this subject is appropriate for an early retirement forum.

 

[obgyn65]

Why is that ? I think the subject is appropriate for those early retirees who wish to share ideas about how to plan tasks and remember important dates such as birthdays etc.

I don't think this subject is appropriate for an early retirement forum.

 

[MichaelB]

Why is that ? I think the subject is appropriate for those early retirees who wish to share ideas about how to plan tasks and remember important dates such as birthdays etc.

obgyn65, I think REWahoo was just being a little playful when he said that, like many other humorous posts members make when "being retired" crosses the path of "getting things done".

 

[Ronstar]

obgyn65, I think REWahoo was just being a little playful when he said that, like many other humorous posts members make when "being retired" crosses the path of "getting things done".

I didn't start using a system until I became semi-retired. As one gets older, one needs reminders and a schedule in order to fit all the fun in the available time.

 

[freebird5825]

Never read that book...

I use my email's calendar feature with the built-in color coding for classifying types of events, setting advance or periodic reminders, and using the text window feature of the event for keeping notes on progress.

I can take care of a task in real time or postpone it with just a few clicks.

You can take the Engineer out of an organization, but you can't take the organization out of an Engineer.

 

[TromboneAl]

I got the book from the library, and am halfway through. It seems very good so far. Thanks WM.

It is appropriate for a retired person as well as to a harried business guy, here's why: A major focus of the book is to get everything you need to do into a reliable system, so that your mind doesn't spend time thinking about things you need to do. That is, if you can't be sure that your system will remind of things that you need to do, your mind will continually dig them up, and obsess about them.

In a recent post, I said that even in retirement, I always feel that there's something I should be doing. I realized that this is in part because there are things I need to be doing. Changing the oil in the car, preparing a tune for a gig, cleaning the house, paying the bills, balancing the checkbook, etc. It may be that using a system like this will help me.

I also found this free online app for implementing the system:

GTD Software Online for Getting Things Done » Vitalist

I'm still playing around with it, but it seems pretty good, and only costs money if you want some heavy-duty extra features. It has a mobile device interface as well.

 

[omni550]

I got the book from the library, and am halfway through. It seems very good so far. Thanks WM.

It is appropriate for a retired person as well as to a harried business guy, here's why: A major focus of the book is to get everything you need to do into a reliable system, so that your mind doesn't spend time thinking about things you need to do. That is, if you can't be sure that your system will remind of things that you need to do, your mind will continually dig them up, and obsess about them.

In a recent post, I said that even in retirement, I always feel that there's something I should be doing. I realized that this is in part because there are things I need to be doing. Changing the oil in the car, preparing a tune for a gig, cleaning the house, paying the bills, balancing the checkbook, etc. It may be that using a system like this will help me.

I also found this free online app for implementing the system:

GTD Software Online for Getting Things Done » Vitalist

I'm still playing around with it, but it seems pretty good, and only costs money if you want some heavy-duty extra features. It has a mobile device interface as well.

View attachment 13256

T-AL,

I noticed that their free version only allows 5 projects. I'm sure you've crafted a work-around for this. Care to share?

omni

 

[TromboneAl]

T-AL,

I noticed that their free version only allows 5 projects. I'm sure you've crafted a work-around for this. Care to share?

omni

Right. I figure that most of my to-do (action) items don't involve projects. But even if they did, I think a workaround would be to just include a project name in an action. That is, instead of the build a bed frame project, I could have actions such as "Bed Frame: Create Lumber List," "Bed Frame: Buy Lumber," etc.

But I'm still new to it, so I'll know more later.

 

[W2R]

As a retiree, I don't really have much that I need to remember.

Some things I associate with particular dates, such as my January 1st rebalancing and withdrawal. So, there's no way I would forget that, any more than I would forget that December 25th is Christmas.

Right now I have one thing that I need to remember jotted down in my Excel retirement/personal_finance workbook, that I check every day. Two other deadlines I am simply remembering, and plan to do a few days in advance.

I can't remember anything else that I need to do......

 

[TromboneAl]

I finished the book. I realized that his system isn't that much different from what I've been doing, but with a few important ideas.

The most important is the next-action orientation.

With my system, I'd have a reminder on Dec 15 that said "Determine Roth Conversion Amount."

With his system, the same thing would be broken down into actions: "Purchase TaxAct," "Install Taxact," "Estimate Taxes," and "Determine Roth Conversion amount," and "Convert Roth."

Concerning vitalist.com, it's not ready for prime-time. No documentation, and a lot of things don't work well.

I've been looking at todoist.com, but that requires a $29/year fee if you want it to email you reminders.

Now I'm looking at rememberthemilk.com.

 

[HFWR]

I use the doodoo list...

 

[deserat]

Lots of (still working) entrepreneurs come up with ways to get more things done. I wonder if any of them have pondered the dubious value of getting more done.

I think the true Zen achievement is finding less to do. Then you don't need to do more to keep track of the more you're trying to do more of. The more less you find, the easier it becomes to do more of doing less.

Bonus points for doing less with less...

hehehe - gotta love the Zen oxymorons - I have one: "it's about you but it's not about you."

 

[target2019]

At home I use reminderfox, a plugin to Firefox and Thunderbird.
ReminderFox- The simple reminder application for Firefox
It is simple enough to capture recurring things, like quarterly taxes, but not really too complicated in that you stop using it.
The GTD free newsletter is pretty good. Comes once a month or so, and has stimulating comment on todo lists and such.