I’ve been trying a workflow to stick to a GTD plan. Now that I’ve got my email inbox mostly wrestled under control, I’m working more with 2 other apps that have really helped me keep on top of things. Is the plan perfect? Well… I’m writing a blog post instead of Getting Things Done, so I appear to be the weak link in the chain, but at least it’s not a software problem.
iGTD has been a really great app for tracking tasks. Not just a simple to-do list, but a more GTD-aware, context-oriented task tracker/manager. Very handy. It also integrates with iCal, and from there onto my iPod. I’ve got contexts for “In the Office”, “At Home”, “On the Road” and “Anywhere” – so I can pull up a list based on context to see what needs to be done. I also have Projects set up, including real TLC projects and various other groupings of stuff I need to do. I’m really digging the “Priority” and “Effort” controls – making it easy to find the most “important” task to do at any given time. Combined with start/end dates, I think I’m doing better at prioritizing what I’m doing. When I’m not stepping back to write a blog post, that is.
The other app I’m using more now is Journler. It’s a great outboard brain app, able to store info and organize it by categories and/or tags. It integrates with any app via Services, and is becoming my go-to app to find important info. I’ve used it for simply storing account info since January, but it’s growing pretty quickly to include anything I need to remember – stuff that doesn’t need to get published/shared to my blog.
The problem I’m having is in keeping things in sync between the 2 computers I use. I’m using the desktop as the “master” and periodically grabbing the iGTD and Journler data files/directories to copy onto my MBP, but what if I make an edit on the road, or at home? I might have to look into re-upping for .Mac after all, just to get iSync. Why on earth isn’t iSync Server bundled into MacOSX Server, so we can run our own iSync Server?
Before this, my strategy was to Use Lots of Big Whiteboards, but I’ve lost the real estate to do that effectively, having only one smallish whiteboard now. *sniff* I do miss the everything-at-a-glance power that strategy gives, but I think the new GTD trio of tools might work out to be more scalable.
OK. Enough blogging. Now to GTD…
I’m going to check these out – it’s one of the things that we were talking about in the office this morning – the various management apps out there and how much Entourage tries, but falls flat.