Ways to organize your workspace
August 17th, 2009 GTD Times Team - Staff ContributorsCategories | Community Contributions | Gear | Getting Started | Implementation
This week, in our ongoing series giving you a look inside other people’s GTD setups, Andy Reed sent along some photos for our GTD Times readers.
On his desk, Andy uses Inbox, Pending and Read/Review trays.
He also uses a Tickler File system for hard copy items, and OmniFocus on the Mac for action list management.
To learn more about how David Allen has his space setup, grab the free article Organizing your Workspace. If you have GTD photos you’d like to share, please send them along to us at editor@gtdtimes.com.
The small tickler file looks nice. Where did you find that?
Jay, I think that’s probably a normal sized file holder next to one of those lovely big 24″ iMacs.
I must say, in my experience, extra screen real estate definitely corresponds to increased productivity. I achieve this with a flatscreen plugged into my MacBook (which sits on a little stand to raise it up to be about the same height).
I share Dinah’s thinking on the use of a second display screen. I got one about a year ago, and now It’s hard to imagine not having it. (MAC makes it easy to set up).
This looks similar to my setup … I even have the same brand of mounted sorter (the black mesh one). Except my sorter is labeled: “In”, “Hold” (essentially the same as pending), and “Out”. And I don’t have a physical tickler file. I also use OmniFocus; in my case it is configured with three windows stretched across two 20″ and 23″ Apple displays; these windows show: next action by context, next action by due date, and a master view of all tasks for quick editing.
Michael – I am looking for this type of wall mounted mesh letter trays. Do you remember the name of the place you got your from or even the manufacturers name?
Thanks.
I picked up a second monitor to plug into my laptop and it easily increased productivity by 100% in my online/coding work!
One more note: Turning second screen in Portrait mode is very very useful (I use a 24″ Pivot in Portrait position); you can see much more /long pages /long task lists /long emails with less scrolling /email preview at bottom etc.
Sometimes I turn to Landscape when need to work on 2 full pages of a A4 document /horizontal worksheet /edit a landscape photo.
I once used two 18 inch screens on my PC, and it really increased my productivity in a significant way : it’s easy to work on a document while keeping an eye on email/task lists, and when preparing a slideshow for budget or planning sessions, having the spreadsheet on one side and Powerpoint on the other makes things really much easier, not only from a pure practical viewpoint, but also to keep a high level overview of what one is preparing. Highly recommended when possible.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do with business cards that lie all over the place? A simple system?
RE: Business card filing – perhaps something like this:
http://img4.realsimple.com/images/0902/rolodex_300.jpg
I have one in work which is similar, but is enclosed and has a lid – can’t think for the life of me what its called though!
Regarding Business Cards – I use Outlook and put them all in there via a scanner application. Then I throw the little buggers away. Keeps you uncluttered and the information is all in one place.
That would be a Rolodex
Or some variation thereof anyway.
I take snapshots of my business cards straight into Evernote. Works like a charm for searching.