My GTD Implementation

Comments (23)

Harry Unega Says:

January 25th, 2007, 21:48 pm

interesting post. i’ve been wanting to try the moleskine too.

i love your blog, btw. i just discovered it and have been looking back in the archives and found a LOT of really good stuff.

JoCook Says:

January 29th, 2007, 7:03 am

Great Post. I find though, that I’m more inclined to keep with a system if I like the tools. For me, the purchase of a moleskine (well, several if I’m honest) and a decent pen was worth it because it means I keep at the GTD. It’s a bit of an investment. Not very zen though!

Leo Says:

January 29th, 2007, 12:57 pm

Thanks for the comment, Jo. I agree with you … if your tools, like a Moleskine, help you stick with your system, then it’s worth the investment. That’s the argument one half of me has been making. But if you read elsewhere on my blog, I’m a bit frugal. So the frugal side of me says that I am already sticking to my system, even with the cheep (read:free) notebooks I’m using now, so the cost wouldn’t be justified in my case.

But the argument within me goes on.

What’s your GTD implementation?

Leo Says:

January 29th, 2007, 13:07 pm

Updated post for Jo: I just checked out your blog, and saw your analog implementation. Pretty cool.

What are you using right now? I also saw the falling off the bandwagon post … how’s it going?

SpiKe Says:

February 13th, 2007, 1:59 am

Hiya, thanks for linking to my own GTD implementation. I’ve just put up part 2 of it which you can check out here

Eric Says:

March 20th, 2007, 13:55 pm

>what I really want is a Moleskine pocket notebook, but I keep
>telling myself that the coolness of the Moleskine doesn’t justify its
>additional cost on top of the free notebooks I get at work.

Get the moleskine! Life is short. Like Starbucks/Carribou, Moleskine is a “cheap luxury”.

Your GTD system listing is perfect:
1 paper organizer
1 online organizer
1 email + 1 calendar

I find myself having too many different capture tools and task organizers. Depending on my mood during the day I might use OneNote, a random piece of paper, the moleskine, Tracks, a regular notebook, TaDa lists, etc.

zenhabits Says:

March 20th, 2007, 14:15 pm

Hi Eric … thanks for the great comment. I’ve actually decided to buy the Moleskine … they just don’t sell it in my area, which means I would buy it online … but if you’ve read my post on “How I Ended My Love Affair With the Credit Card”, you know that I don’t do much online buying these days. I will get to it though. For now, my cheap-o notebook is working fine.

I agree that the simplicity of my system is important … I think many people have redundant systems, which means too much maintenance, too much work to enter or find data, and in the end, problems with using the system consistently. That’s a problem no matter what, so I try not to make it worse with extra tools. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve tried plenty of online (and off-line) tools, but I’ve settled on just the ones I really need and the ones that meet my needs. Your needs (and likes) will be different, so we each have to find what works for us. I hope my implementation has helped others with their systems, tho!

Mike K Says:

March 25th, 2007, 3:07 am

Great post, and great site! Loving the system you use is pretty much the biggest incentive to using it, and Tracks is definitely the first action/task/planning/etc app that I have a great time using (Remember the Milk came close). I was searching around for what to pair Tracks with, and after reading your post I decided to add GCal to the mix and make that my (online) GTD solution. Did you do anything to integrate them? I was thinking of adding a GCalendar widget to Tracks as a weekend project, but would be very interest in hearing if there’s something better already out =)

zenhabits Says:

March 25th, 2007, 6:29 am

Hi Mike … thanks for the positive feedback. I’m glad you like the site. As for integrating GCal and Tracks … no, I haven’t done anything like that. I’d love it if you shared any solution along these lines. Basically, my process is usually to check GCal in the morning, to see what I have scheduled, and I only really open it up through the day to add appointments for future days. It’s not something I use on an hour-by-hour basis, so I haven’t really needed to integrate it with Tracks … but I’m sure that it would be even better if they could be integrated. Let me know! - leo

Mark Says:

March 27th, 2007, 23:29 pm

Leo,

I’ve been thinking of using Tracks to “track” all of my active projects at work and wonder if you’ve installed your setup to a development/live server or are running the application locally…

You’ve got a great blog going here — thanks!

zenhabits Says:

March 27th, 2007, 23:35 pm

Hi Mark … thanks for the question. Actually, I was too lazy to set it up myself, so I currently use a hosted version:

http://tracks.tra.in

Another popular one:

http://gtdtracks.com/login

The hosted ones work well for me, but I’m sure setting it up yourself would be even better.

Hope this helps! Glad you like the blog. - leo

Olly Says:

May 5th, 2007, 7:56 am

Hi
I’m a BIG fan of GTD and have used Outlook for the past year, which I set up using the advice in ‘Take back Your Life’ by Sally McGee which is Outlook applied to GTD.
I like the sound of Tracks but am finding the involved process of configuration a bit difficult (esp when my cmd won’t find the directory I want due to a microsoft error requiring a hotfix I can’t find)
Has anyone else had problems getting Tracks to work?
Regards
Olly

Leo Says:

May 5th, 2007, 8:30 am

Hi Olly … I use a hosted version of tracks (try either gtdtracks.com or tracks.tra.in). Good luck!

Michael Says:

May 8th, 2007, 9:23 am

Many people find Tracks no so easy to use. I’m one of them and this is why I created Nozbe:

http://www.Nozbe.com

Web is full of many tools for the GTD - everyone can find something for themselves. If you want something quick and easy to use - you may give Nozbe a shot. Thanks!

Michael Says:

May 15th, 2007, 16:18 pm

Hi.

First of all thanks for your articles, which I found through stumbleupon (lucky me). I have always been looking for a way to bring some structure into my life.

As I was already using freemind, I have expanded it to be my tool for processing my inbox and keeping track of my projects and tasks. Thinkingrock is also great, but as I said, freemind has already been there and it is just as easy to use.

Again, thanks for your work here!

Leo Says:

May 15th, 2007, 19:23 pm

Hi Michael: Thanks for your nice comment, and for sharing what has worked for you!

anon Says:

June 22nd, 2007, 19:40 pm

Your writing is inspired, clear, and very B.S. free, which I really like. Thanks for such a great blog.

Luke Says:

July 10th, 2007, 22:23 pm

Hi there,

Has anyone tried out iGTD as an application for GTD? I investigated Tracks - I have no interest installing a DB application just to support another app…

-L-

Leo Says:

July 11th, 2007, 0:05 am

@Luke: I actually don’t use Tracks anymore, as I’ve migrated to a paper solution, but just FYI, you don’t need to install the DB to run Tracks … it’s hosted online … here are two options:

http://gtdtracks.com/

http://tracks.tra.in/

Luke Says:

July 11th, 2007, 14:19 pm

interesting - Thanks Leo!

graeme Says:

July 17th, 2007, 22:07 pm

hi, thought this might be of use to some people interested in installing tracks on a web server, i have just managed myself and found these instructions really useful:

untillately.eu/2007/05/22/installing-tracks-on-dreamhost-updated-version/

Leo, i love your blog :)

Nina Schuhmacher Says:

July 30th, 2007, 15:46 pm

Moleskine [trademark] is a hoax and it seems to sell like snake oil.
We like to be fooled :-)

Web Design for Small Business Says:

August 18th, 2007, 4:24 am

I’m a designer and I’m new to using the GTD method to organize my life. But I’m seeing the benefits of it a month into it.

The software I use is Midnight Inbox.

I find the interface simple yet elegant. However it did take me some time to figure out the way as I wasn’t very familiar with the GTD-way. For long-time GTD practitioners it should be no trouble using it at all, though.

Sherman