On April 3, 2010, Apple released the iPad to the world.  A day later I completely changed how I do my weekly reviews.  Like most avid GTD’ers, I kept my weekly review to be a sacred and solemn time.  I normally did my reviews on Sunday evening in my home office so I could really dig into what was happening so I could get clear about what I had coming up the next week.  My weekly review was anchored to a time and place where I believed I needed to be to get through my lists.  Not anymore.

The weekend the iPad came out my weekly review was done on the couch sitting next to my 5y old son while he watched a movie.  I have to tell you, it was great.  I was in a relaxed place, with little distraction, and I was able to focus and process like never before.  Now before you hit enter on your comment asking how could I concentrate while sitting next to my son while he was watching a movie or stating there is no way someone could get a good weekly review done in that kind of setting, see if you can give me two more minutes to explain.  I’ll bet I can convince you it can be done in that kind of setting and it is so worth it.

Quick, think of the three most important things to you?  Got them?  Great.

Do any of those things relate to some area of focus at one of your higher elevations?  They do?  Perfect, now you can do a weekly review on an iPad.  Honest.

When I did my weekly review on my iPad I was able to do it while embracing an important area of focus for me – spend time with family.  My son didn’t care that I wasn’t watching the movie, but that night it was important for him just to have me sitting next to him.  I had my list manager open, was able to process my inbox, fire off a few emails, jot down some notes for later reference, and plan for my coming week on my calendar.  The iPad offered a lower intrusion barrier while sitting there with my son and that was what made things nearly perfect.

As I’ve continued to do my weekly reviews on my iPad for the past month I’ve learned a few things about my system and have made a few adjustments.  For example, I started to see my contexts list was starting to get out of control.  I had @computer:work, @computer:home, @computer:Maximo, @computer:reports.  Reviewing on my iPad allowed me to see that I had some contexts lined up almost 1:1 for a project list.  Culling my contexts down has made reviewing and lining up what to do next even easier.

Now I will be the first to admit that doing your weekly review on an iPad may not be for everyone.  For some, their weekly review is like I mentioned before, a solemn and sacred time for them to get clear – almost like meditating.  If that’s your style, great, stick with it.  No need to fix something that isn’t broken.  My transition from laptop and desk chair to iPad and lounge chair was probably a little easier because I’m basically using all the tools I had before.  I have an iPhone and a Mac, so most of the tools I had previously been using as part of my weekly reviews were ported almost seamlessly to the iPad.

The iPad’s form factor has also allowed me to do more mini-reviews and capture sessions.  For example, I knew for a long time there was a gap in my system where I wasn’t doing a good job capturing action items form meetings.  I have terrible hand writing and just the thought of having to try to review my notes repulsed me.  Those notes would previously gone into my paper inbox for later processing.  Now I just hold back for an extra 10-15 minutes after a meeting and capture my action items or needed follow-ups in electronic format.

OK… now you can you hit submit on your comment.

FWIW: The entire article was created, edited, and posted to GTD Staff via my iPad and iPhone.

Jason Verly is a Project Manager during the day and a tech crazy husband and father of two at night.  He is avid GTD’er, longtime GTD Connect member, and can be reached via email or on Twitter as @MyGeekDaddy.

Letter-size GTD Coordinator- Item #805099 - Last we heard, there were 4,700 units available in Staples stores.

Junior-size GTD Coordinator- Item # 805102 – Last we heard, there were 900 units available in Staples stores.

So, which Staples stores have them? This is where the adventures begins…

The easiest way to locate one is to  do a live chat with Staples.com to find the location of the store closest to you with inventory.  They have access to the full inventory and will be of great assistance. Give them the item numbers above or the name “GTD Coordinator.”  Unfortunately, if you call a Staples store the staff will not be able to find one, but the live chat agents will at least save you from hunting around to all of your local Staples stores.  If you do find one, they will be in the paper planner or calendar section of the store.

We’ll post what we know about 2011 inventory as we learn more about Mead’s plans.

1. In
2. To Home
3. To Office
4. Read/Review
5. Action Support
6. Waiting For Support

An additional six folders are blank for you to label as you wish.  Paired with the GTD System Starter Kit, you’ll have all of the key ingredients for getting a solid GTD system off the ground. Simply add “FREE FOLDERS” to the notes section of your order on checkout (no need to add them to your cart) and the File Folders will be included for free with your order. International orders qualify too!   Questions? Contact customerservice@davidco.com.

For more GTD videos, check out GTD Connect, our online learning center. You’ll find nearly 100 Videos on GTD Connect, from “2 Minutes with David Allen” clips to replays of our monthly Webinar classes.

Click to see larger image

A Community Contribution from Brian Isikoff, sharing how he manages GTD lists on his new iPad

I’m a four+ year adoptee of GTD, an IT Procurement professional since 1992, podcast producer, writer, and all around nice guy. Lastly, I’m the owner of a sparkly new iPad.

That iPad has quickly become the center of my GTD system. The form factor is the key for me.  The device is highly portable – certainly around the house, neighborhood, and many of my favorite destinations. The iPad’s planner-ish size and capabilities allow me to not only implement GTD but take many of actions captured in the system. To complement the native Apple calendar, contacts, and email, I added Toodledo (which syncs with the free web service of the same name.)

My iPhone  also running a synced copy of Toodledo (and calendar, email, safari, etc.) which provides the little notepad / Moleskine equivalent to my system. It’s also a little more discrete than pulling out an iPad – ideal for the BART train, while on a walk, coffee break or arriving at a meeting a little early.

Implementation Specifics

Click to see larger image

I set up Toodledo with the context view as the default. Rather than play around with tags or folders, I set Projects – Home, Projects – Work, and Sometime / Maybe as contexts. This ensures my central view (that context view) displays all my lists. I know from prior setups that having decentralized lists leads to a system breakdown for me.

I use an @ as a prefix for my contexted action lists. While I like using the symbol in general (it reminds me to take action), it more importantly pops all the prefixed lists to the top of my central view. This hits my central list preference of alphabetized action lists followed by projects and lastly my blue sky (someday / maybe).

For list specifics, I’ve added an @ Bills context – giving my monthly bills a scan on weekly and ad hoc reviews is a convenience for me. My @Calls has morphed in an @ Calls / Email list (since I can handle both with the phone and / or pad). With my primary @ Work and Projects – Work lists (and associated delegated, staff agendas, and focus lists) on my work laptop in Outlook, my iPad @ Work and project list serves as a capture point for actions I come up with when not at work. I merge them in my daily morning reviews in the office.

[Editors note: Although we're pretty jazzed about the iPad too, this is a community contribution and Brian's personal experience. This is not an official recommendation or endorsement for any of the tools or services mentioned.]

What does the David Allen Company recommend for implementing GTD® Task lists on the iPhone?

The iPhone was not built with a Tasks application, so you will need to find an App that will support the GTD best practices for a list manager (e.g. sort by category/context, allow but not force due dates, allows related notes to be attached to the Task, etc.)  What you choose for the iPhone would depend primarily on what do you need to sync it to.  The corresponding application you want to sync it to (Mac, PC or Web) would narrow down the best application for you to install on the iPhone for Tasks. The end result is that you would have a Tasks application on the iPhone–>syncing through a service–>that then shares that information with a corresponding application on the web or desktop.

Also, be sure you understand what makes a good GTD list manager. For example, if you read Getting Things Done, or even any of our Setup Guides, there are some key things a good list manager would need to have to work well. It’s not just about storing a flat list of To Do’s.  If you understand the best practices, then you’ll find the sea of Apps in the iTunes store much easier to wade through.  If you’re starting from scratch on all of this, read this post on How to Choose a GTD system.

The only platform we have any specific recommendations for is Mac. We recommend and endorse OmniFocus for the Mac and iPhone.  For PC and Web users, there are many options, but we do not have any specific recommendations around that at this point. We will post updates if that changes.

(I suggest you copy and paste into your word processor, and customize it for yourself. If you have a boat, go fishing regularly, or have other special kinds of trips, you might want a separate checklist for those. I used to additionally have a “take to boat” checklist, when I was sailing regularly.)

David Allen’s Travel Checklist

UNDERWEAR
SOCKS
SUITS
TIES
DRESS SHIRTS
SLACKS
CASUAL PANTS
BELTS
DRESS SHOES
JEANS
SPORT BELT
SNEAKERS
T-SHIRTS

TOILETRY KIT

HAIR DRYER
GLASSES
SUNGLASSES

ALARM CLOCK
UMBRELLA

BOTTLED WATER

GLOVES
OVERCOAT
CUFFLINKS

RUNNING SHORTS
RUNNING SHIRTS
RUNNING SHOES
RUNNING SUIT
RUNNING GLOVES
EAR MUFFS
BATHING SUIT
SWIM GOGGLES

MOCCASINS
SANDALS

SWEATERS
JACKETS
SCARVES
SLIPPERS
SHORTS

SUN LOTION
BUG SPRAY

STATIC SPRAY
TOTE BAG
IRON
STEAMER
SHOE RUBBERS
HANDKERCHIEFS
TENNIS BALL
NECK & BACK SUPPORTS
CLOTHES BAG
CLOTHESPINS

COMPUTER
AC CHARGER CORD
DC POWER CORD
DICTATION GEAR
HANDHELD CHARGER
IR KIT for POWERPOINT

CELL PHONE
PHONE BATTERIES
PHONE CHARGER

BATTERIES – AAs & AAAs
EARPHONES

BRIEFCASE
PACK
KEYS

TICKETS
CLIENT INFO
CITY INFO
UPGRADE CERTIFICATES
MAPS
MISC. READING

OVERHEADS
MARKER PENS
BUSINESS CARDS
PROMO MATERIALS
WRITING PAD
MODULE PADS (xtra?)
ENVELOPES
PETTY CASH ENVELOPE
IN-TRAY
COACHING SUPPLIES (LABELER, LAMINATES)
AIRLINE CARDS/UPGRADES

CAMERA – 35mm/Pocket
FILM
BINOCULARS

HANDLED?
PRINT OFF THE WEB
PHONE SILENCED
WEATHER CHECKED
CAR RENTAL
CAR P/U ARRANGED
COMPUTER BACKED UP
LOTUS NOTES REPLICATED
HANDHELD  SYNCED
TICKLER FILE FORWARDED
SPRINKLERS
CASH

International

PASSPORT
ADAPTERS
FOREIGN LANGUAGE BOOK

If you’re the “mover” type, would you use something like this?

New GTD Coordinators complete with blank forms and 2010 calendar:

Letter-size GTD Coordinator – Item #805099 – Out of stock in the Davidco store.   In stock at various Staples stores throughout the U.S.  Clerks are unable to look this item up if you call the store as it is not in the Staples online store.  Staples has 4700 units available in various retail locations. The easiest way to locate one is to  do a live chat with Staples.com to find the location of the store closest to you with inventory.

Junior-size GTD Coordinator- Item # 805102 – Out of stock in the Davidco store. In stock at various Staples stores. Clerks are unable to look this item up if you call the store as it is not in the Staples online store. Staples has 900 units available in various retail locations. The easiest way to locate one is to  do a live chat with Staples.com to find the location of the store closest to you with inventory.

Refills pages for existing GTD Coordinators:

Calendar Refills: Day Runner offers the following items which will fit your Coordinator:  Item #’s 061-785, 068-785, 481-185, 481-785.  These items are available on www.ataglance.com as well as www.dayrunner.com websites.  Mead has elected not to stock a customDavid Allen 2010 calendar refill-only product;  please customize your coordinator with the 2010 calendar of your choice.

Blank Forms Refill Paper: In stock in the DavidCo store for both Junior size (very limited quantities as of 4/26/10) and Letter size.  Includes blank forms for action lists and more. Does not include a Calendar. Some Staples stores also carry these as item #36367 (Junior) and #806744 (Letter).

If you have any questions, please contact our customer service team.  Thanks!

If you setup Outlook like our GTD & Outlook Setup Guide describes, you should be able to have that carry over to Tasks on the BlackBerry.  The trick for seeing your Task categories is to “Filter” them.

Several of our staff use BlackBerry devices, including presenter + coach Wayne Pepper.  Listen to Wayne’s podcast on how he uses a BlackBerry for GTD (16 min). He also wrote about an app he uses on his BlackBerry for quick capture.

I’ve been slightly bugged for years in places like hotel rooms, looking the next morning at my unpacked stuff, wondering which batteries I had run down and which ones were still charged. I finally found a solution that works for me.

If you travel with extra batteries for phones or computers, put a rubber band around the ones that are charged. When they are depleted, they don’t have one.   If they don’t have a rubber band, they’re dry. If they do, they’re charged.

(Extra tip: You need to make sure that you have and use a little pocket somewhere in your travel gear to hold the rubber bands when you take them off when you install the charged batteries.)

Before we get started, I should identify the basic function of the software.  MyCaption allows the user to create and annotate Tasks, Appointments, Memos, Email, SMS messages, at the touch of a button.  The process is such that after the software captures the user’s vocal recording, that data is sent to the company’s servers, where it is delivered to the BlackBerry device as one of the above formats.

So how can it work for GTD?First, as a Collection Tool.  Let’s say I’m out and about and I have a thought that I want to remember to watch David Allen’s latest Webinar on GTD Connect.  I would push the side button on my BlackBerry (which I’ve specifically mapped to the Task function) and a recording interface pops up.  I can then speak for up to 3 minutes, offering whatever information I might need (“watch David’s Webinar on Priorities”).  What I then receive back within 5 minutes is a notice that MyCaption has created a new Task, and I’m given the option to go to Tasks.

Notice however, that I identify this function as Collection.  That’s because I cannot yet place that Task within a Category, neither can I create a new Category if I wanted to.  In speaking with the developers of MyCaption, this is a function that they are currently investigating, but for now it’s unavailable.  So after creating this new uncategorized Task, I’ve essentially captured “stuff” that needs to be processed.  What I will do then is to sync my BlackBerry at some later point in time, and the Task shows up in my Outlook Tasks uncategorized (at the top of my view) and I now can Process this new input as I would any other new piece of collection: by asking “what is it?” “is it actionable”, etc.  Using my previous example, I would open the Task and categorize it as something to do “@Online”.  The inability to categorize while you speak is clearly a limitation, however the MyCaption solution is much more streamlined than paper collection as far as I’m concerned.

While that describes my primary use of the software, there are other features that many of you may find very valuable.  I can speak a reply (or replay all) to an email.  I can do the same with SMS text.  I can create an appointment through speech, you can annotate a Task so that my speech shows up as text in the “Notes” section of the Task.  My lifestyle is not so mobile that I find all these features useful, but as I hear of more and more BlackBerry users giving up their laptops on the road, these features may end up being mission-critical life-savers.

I should note that there can be a delay to receiving input (Tasks, etc.) from the MyCaption servers, and that can prove sticky if you’re trying to cleanly shift your thinking from one area to another, only to have the first area come back at you, but to me that’s a minor distraction, and the functionality of MyCaption well-compensates this downside.

There’s also the requirement that for email, recipients need to be either identified as MyCaption recipients on the BlackBerry, or your Contacts need to be loaded on the MyCaption servers, also a minor downside.

All in all, I find MyCaption to be one of the better GTD tools around for the BlackBerry.

Wayne Pepper is a senior presenter and coach with the David Allen Company.  While this review is based on his personal and objective opinion as a GTD expert and BlackBerry user, he received a free copy of this software to do this review.  Please note that this is not an official endorsement from the David Allen Company. We are not affiliated with MyCaption.  But they have a cool tool that works well, and we think you might like it too.

In the original Getting Things Done, much of the focus was on paper systems with an electronic complement. These days much of our world is the opposite.

I try to have as much as possible in electronic form with a paper complement. Having things on a computer or PDA allows it to be searchable and easily changed from one category to another. But just because we can search for something doesn’t mean we should. Why not just know where it is?Despite limitations of paper systems they do have the advantage of offering visual and tactile boundaries where a computer based system allows data to stagnate easily and just be searched. This clogs not only the system but our heads!

I have several programs on my iPhone dedicated to organizing and sorting information.  But I found myself using all of them all of the time. That didn’t make sense – I don’t open my file cabinet every day. My electronic boundaries had broken down! To-Dos had meandered to my references and journals had infiltrated my to-do lists. I found myself adding projects and actions to my reference memos because I had that program open but we would never add a To-Do into our file cabinet! So, electronic boundaries needed to be set and implemented as everything had turned into a digital inbox. Here are some tips to clean the digital house.

I use SplashNotes for my contextual action lists and ShoveBox for my digital file cabinet. ShoveBox is really great because it can handle PDF files, pictures, web archives and bookmarks as well as text. It also syncs with it desktop companion. The calendar program (iCal) is obviously for items that need to be scheduled. I found the Notes program to be less than useful so for me that is relegated to short text for mental affirmation and meditation. I also use a program called The Daily Tracker for habits that I am forming or breaking. All of these are on the first page or the dock.

By putting an item in the appropriate program my head felt immediately better because it knew where to look! I didn’t need to check my electronic file cabinet every day. A quick morning scan of the calendar and a check of my contextual action lists was all I needed. After a workout I know to enter it into the Daily Tracker for logging. If I encounter dead time I can open Notes and review my meditations.

With all of my content in order – and it does take time just as the paper review process – the GTD system can continue to flow into the modern era and beyond.

Peter Tambroni is currently a classical musician, music teacher,writer and photographer in suburban Chicago. He holds degrees from the Crane School of Music and the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign. He is currently vice president of the School District 83 Teacher’s Association.  Peter maintains and writes for MostlyBass.com and EvolvingEducator.com.  With his busy schedule, using GTD methods is an absolute must!

Because the iPhone was built without a Tasks application it means building not only a secure syncing solution, but a corresponding App on the iPhone. I thought Lotus would be doing that, but not from any releases I’ve seen so far.

A guy wrote to me this morning to ask what solutions are out there for this, as he’s about to roll out iPhones to their entire workforce. They use Lotus Notes and he’s been unable to find anything that will sync Notes To Do’s to the iPhone.  He asked if we are building it (no plans to.)

Has anyone heard of anything coming or available that will sync Lotus Notes To Do’s to the iPhone?  We’d love to hear about it.

But, I also think it’s important to acknowledge that GTD isn’t about always being tidy. In fact, the moments when GTD is most valuable are the messiest and ugliest moments. Take this recent snapshot of my desk, for example.

This is what it looks like after a week that included four speaking gigs, two road trips (to get to some of the aforementioned speaking gigs), an all-day conference, and two birthdays (my husband’s 40th and my son’s first). Oh, and that’s in addition to my full-time job at clockwork.net, blogging at geekgirlsguide.com and trying to maintain some semblance of a personal life. Gaaaah!

But, you know what? That’s LIFE. It’s freakin’ messy. The minute something feels “done” or “perfect” — something comes along to mess it up. The real power of GTD is in realizing that it’s not about how awesome your desk looks, it’s about realizing that — for most of us — there is no such thing as “done.” We have to get comfortable with  that fact.

Ultimately, my desk tends to reflect my state of mind: when my desk is a mess it means that, before I just go about mindlessly cleaning it, I need to get my head back in order. What are my priorities? What do I need to do? What do I want to do? What can I realistically accomplish in the time I have?

In my own life, it played out like this: on Tuesday morning last week (around the time this photo was taken), I sat down at my desk and felt immediately overwhelmed. Every inbox in my life was literally bursting at the seams. Instead of freaking out, I grabbed a very large cup of coffee and began a Weekly Review. I immediately started to feel  calmer. I checked the calendar to ensure that I could spend the day getting things back into focus. My inboxes slowly started to dwindle.  (By the way, the most frustrating thing is processing one’s inbox while more input keeps coming in — getting to zero took me all day.)  I channeled my energy either where it was most needed (urgent  emails!), or where I most felt like letting it go (Did I remember to book that hotel for our anniversary weekend?). I ended the day feeling like things weren’t perfect, but they were good enough for now, and I’d finish the rest tomorrow.

I’ll be the first to admit that this discipline of defining the edges of my own work doesn’t come easily. I’m the type of person that will stay up until 1am to finish something because I feel compelled to, not necessarily because it needs to be done. But, I’m working on it. I’m working on learning that my time is finite and I could literally spend
the next 7 days in front of a computer working non-stop with no breaks for sleep or meals and I still wouldn’t be “done.” I’m not a widget maker, I’m a knowledge worker and my work is never done.

Yeesh, it feels uncomfortable to even say that!  “Hello, my name is Meghan and my work is never done.” But, it’s true. And the more I practice saying it, the more I believe it, and the less I feel compelled to keep my inboxes at zero all the time (which, I can tell you from experience, is a losing game). The more I believe that I’m never done, the more I can choose to close my computer at 5pm and give my kids my full attention or keep my iPhone turned off on a date with my husband. These things are just as — if not more — important that my inbox or my desktop.

So, the question is not: is your desk spotless right now? The question is: do you feel in control right now, and how long would it take you to get there? If the answer gets a bit messy, don’t worry about it.  That’s part of the game.  After having said all that, I totally want to see your awesome desk. (Send those along to us at editor@gtdtimes.com)

Meghan Wilker is a regular contributor to GTD Times. She’s also been featured in David Allen’s In Conversation series on GTD Connect, spotlighting some of the most fascinating people in our network of GTD’ers around the world.

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.

GTD really required me to do something about filing stuff, but I decided for lack of space, I had to find a digital solution. Eventually I decided to use a Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanner (I chose the compact S300M model but there are bigger desktop models if you’re inclined) and for software I selected DEVONThink Office Pro for document management. (I will review this software in a future contribution. While I love it, you can use the scanner without it, and there are Windows versions with included software.)

The scanner is brilliant. You simply put in a stack of papers, double sided is fine, and push the button on the scanner. The pages whiz through the scanner and in no time a window on my Mac asks me what to do with the image; I choose “save as PDF” and it compiles the stack, in order and minding both sides of the pages, into one PDF. I name the file and hit “Save.” Since my downloads and default save location for everything is my “Personal Records” folder in DEVONThink, it’s immediately collected. Originally I would then process the scanned documents into various sub-folders but I found that to be unnecessary because the software is brilliant at searching so I don’t think any organization is necessary.

My file naming convention helps. I use grouping prefixes, such as “TAXES,” “READ,” “INSURANCE,” “MEDICAL” and then name the document descriptively. For example, all records pertaining to my dog Olive are “OLIVE Vet bill for eye infection 20090315” (I like that date format: YYYYMMDD and use it all the time.)

So what do I scan? I started by scanning literally every document I was holding on to and it took a lot less time than I would have expected. This included: financial statements, tax returns, tax related correspondence, legal documents, insurance policies, medical records, receipts, proofs of purchase, warranty info, birth certificate and other forms of ID, personal letters, birthday and Christmas cards, instruction manuals, recipes, magazine clippings, research materials, etc. The scanner accepted everything, included very oddly shaped documents such as birthday cards and two foot long receipts.

Finally, if you have supporting OCR software (DEVONThink has it built in), PDFs can be converted to searchable PDFs so you can easily search for “Samsung HD TV” and find the receipt and warranty information from the content in the document. However for most documents I do not convert them to searchable PDF, as just a well named file is most often all I need to find something.

Every Sunday night I scan papers that have accumulated in my (physical) in box and throw away or shred the now unneeded paper.

Having this system has liberated me so that I can keep anything that is mildly interesting to me. I no longer have to feel the dread of, “Where I am going to put this?” and “Who am I kidding? I will never find it even if I keep it!” I have no doubt that I will end up being more creative and productive as a result of this system.

Chip Joyce is a regular contributor to GTD Times and member of GTD Connect.  You can also read his great post on his Mac + paper hybrid system.

But, in the weeks since we talked, I paid more attention to how GTD factors into our family life and realized that — though they are quite young — there are elements of GTD that I am already teaching my kids.

Of the five levels of control in GTD (capturing, clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and engaging), most of what my kids are learning right now has to do with capturing, clarifying and organizing.

Capturing & Clarifying
My kids have a few inboxes that are specific to them. One is in my car: a plastic basket that sits between their car seats. Any books or toys that come into the car go in that basket (when they’re not in use).

Every couple of weeks, we empty it out and bring the stuff back into the house (or, in the case of rocks, sticks and other “treasures” — back into nature). This has two benefits:
1. It keeps mom happy because I don’t want to have the kind of car that looks like something exploded in the backseat.
2. It keeps the kids happy because if they get bored in the car, everything is within easy reach while I’m behind the wheel. And, there are far fewer cries of “I can’t find my [insert name of special toy you can't live without here]!”

The second inbox is in my daughter’s “office” [pictured]. My husband and I share a home office (one room, two workstations); along the wall opposite our workstations, we’ve set up an area where our daughter (and, eventually, our son) can “work” as well. There is a table with two chairs, a homemade bulletin board, and a tower of drawers that contain art supplies, paper, puzzles and toys. On top of that tower is an orange box with a lid. Every art project she brings home goes into that box (super special items get featured on the fridge first). When it fills up, we go through the box and decide which things to keep forever. Those items get moved to a different box inside the closet (her first reference folder, I guess!), and the others are laid to rest. (If this seems cruel, then you have no idea how many art projects kids generate; if I kept them all, I’d need a bigger house. There are also lots of great ideas on how to archive kids’ art over at ParentHacks.

Organizing
One of my favorite GTD mantras — and one that I think is well-suited to young children — is the idea that where something is should map to its importance to you. In mom-ese, that’s pronounced, “Put your toys away!”

I make it clear to my kids that putting stuff where it belongs is not just about being tidy, but also about ensuring that the things you enjoy don’t get broken, and that you can find them when you want them.

In practice, this means my daughter has lots of drawers and containers that belong to her and I try to make it as easy as possible to remember what goes where. She and I have decorated special “treasure boxes” to keep things in. Doll clothes are all visible in a clear plastic pouch that once held a bubble bath set and a collection of plastic animals are easily found inside a former Robeez shoe bag. (Clear plastic pouches are THE GREATEST. Toys are easy to find, and Al Gore pats you on the back for reusing something and reducing waste!). In the tower of drawers near her desk, she knows that crayons go in the top drawer. My daughter has learned that the fun is ruined if she’s ready to color and the crayons aren’t there.

In grownup terms, there is a tangible benefit to putting your stuff in a prescribed location.

Reflecting
While I don’t literally sit down and do a weekly review with my kids, we — as a family — have a habit of picking up the house on Sundays. In effect, this is a weekly review for our family. We clean up the stuff that’s gone astray as we’ve rocked through another week. It prepares us for the week ahead.  We make sure all the laundry is done and ready for Monday morning. We check the calendar and the notes from daycare to make sure we’re bringing diapers and extra clothes when needed. We pick things up and ask, “What is this? Where does it belong?” and put them away. Monday morning is a clean slate.

While none of these ideas are unique to GTD, they are developing a base set of skills that will help my kids practice GTD when they are older. Importantly, they are learning some of the “why” behind them. Why do we keep our stuff organized? Because we can find it when we want it, and the things that are meaningful to us are less likely to get wrecked.

So, here’s the thing: I’m no Mommy Dearest. My kids’ desk doesn’t look like this every day of the week. It’s important for kids — and grownups — to have the freedom to make a big, fat mess. But, as the days of the week go by, and this little table gets covered with art projects and dinosaurs and doo-dads, I don’t sweat it. I know that come Sunday we’ll pick it all up and start again. And my daughter knows that all her special things have a place where they are safe.

The last, and most important piece of GTD that I hope my kids are picking up is that the best thing about keeping track of everything that you need to do is feeling good about deciding to not do any of it. On Father’s Day this year, I could tell that what my husband really wanted to do was hang around and read books. My best memory of that day is all four of us lounging in bed with a book (the nine-month-old was chewing on his, but he did have one!). There we were, doing nothing — and knowing that was the best possible thing to do.

Meghan Wilker is a regular contributor to GTD Times.  She is Managing Director at Clockwork Active Media Systems, a Minneapolis-based web and application development company. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and their two children. Meghan discovered GTD four years ago, when she read Getting Things Done for the first time. She’s been honing her GTD skills ever since. Read how she hacked Mail & iCal for her GTD system.

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For those of you on Mac, you have a similar function through QuickSilver.  If you want to reach Buzz about ActiveWords or any of the other products he mentions, you can reach him at buzz@activewords.com.

I’ve been using the trifold wallet for a couple of weeks now, and as a capture tool it can’t be beat. I have an iPhone and use the application Things on my Mac

…(I tried Omnifocus too, but it was too complicated). The problem is that I can’t capture info on iPhone: it is too cumbersome to type quickly. Too often I was failing to capture thoughts because I didn’t have the time to fumble with the iPhone’s virtual keyboard. I have had BlackBerry and Treo devices in the past, and even with a real keyboard, a pen and paper are the best capture tools for me because I can draw arrows and circles, underline words, etc.

Before buying the trifold I tried a homemade solution by carrying some cards in my wallet, and a collapsible pen in my front pocket, but that didn’t quite work. The pen tended to fall out: I went through three in no time. Having cards jammed somewhere in your wallet that need to be pulled out, written on, and put back, was far from elegant. So I retired my nearly new and expensive wallet for the trifold.

Every night I transpose my notes from the wallet into Things on my Mac, and then I sync wirelessly with the Things app on my iPhone. That’s where my lists reside.

Chip Joyce
New York, NY
Profession: new business development expert

Listen to Wayne’s 15 minute podcast.

As I was putting together my personal system, I realized that there were no great tools for implementing GTD on the iPhone (the tool that I wanted to use). Being the geek that I am, I decided to write one. The result is Action Lists, a fairly strict interpretation of the GTD process for the iPhone. My goals with Action Lists were to be the best GTD implementation on the iPhone, and to make it easy to use so that you can quickly get to the information you need. There’s also a free version called Action Lists Lite that is limited to only a few tasks so that you can “try before you buy.”

I know that you aren’t in the business of plugging non-David Allen Company GTD solutions, but I wanted to make you aware of this new tool, and thank you again for a great experience up in Chicago this January.  - Charles Perry, Daze End Software

We know this is one of MANY applications and tools out there to support a GTD implementation.  We don’t have an official endorsement on this, but it’s one you can check out for yourself.

Perhaps it’s a way to do on-the-fly mindsweep captures?  Assist with the collection phase? Wrangle your open loops?  If any GTD’ers out there are using it, we’d love to hear how you’ve made it a part of your GTD system.

I have now completed my PDA/cell phone transition from using separate phones for work/personal (circa 1993) to using just a simple cell phone and a paper system of GTD lists (printed from outlook) along with my capturing inputs with my GTD note taker wallet (2009 and beyond).

My final stage of evolution started with combining both work/personal into a Blackberry smartphone (used over the last 2 years). However, I have noticed that I get more satisfaction with paper lists and enjoy the physical “crossing out” or throwing away tasks that are completed (rather than deleting tasks from my PDA).

The final push was instigated by a cost savings push to eliminate the PDA and wireless email support that moved me to paper GTD lists exclusively. Here is a photo of my legacy phones (two I no longer have, so I substituted photos) and how they evolved to a hybrid system and finally to a full GTD paper based system. So far, I am enjoying the freedom of having fewer electronic devices to maintain.

IBM Offers Lotus Notes For Apple’s iPhone

Sep 30, 2008 00:01:00 (ET)

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)–International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said Tuesday it was making its Lotus Notes tools, including email and calendar applications, available for Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone.

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM said that the latest version of Notes would allow customers to access the software via the Safari browser on the iPhone.

The iPhone, which is still primarily a consumer device, has begun to attract the interest of corporate customers as a competitor to Research In Motion Ltd.’s (RIMM) BlackBerry device, since Apple launched a software developers’ kit allowing anyone to develop applications for the phone and making it easier for the phone to be connected to corporate IT systems. Network operators have begun offering corporate tariffs for the iPhone.

When Apple launched a 3G version of the iPhone in June, the company’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, said that 35% of the Fortune 500 companies had signed up to trial the phone.

Other business software companies including Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and SAP AG (SAP), offer software for the iPhone.

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today’s most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=ssOOQJa0bVq17iQhEhuI6g%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 30, 2008 00:01 ET (04:01 GMT)

Image from TechShout.com

I laughed when I read a blog recently where someone tried swiping at GTD saying that “GTD is for techies only.”  David Allen’s roots in working this methodology, as well as my own, come from the paper planner world.  You can’t get much more low-tech than that.  In fact, some of the most elegant and accessible lists I’ve seen are paper ones.  Sure, there’s the rewrite factor of paper, but electronic list managers have the “over-featured” trap to watch out for. There are pros and cons to both.  I say, go with what works best for you.

Some of the most technically savvy people I know manage their lists on paper to shift their consciousness away from all of their electronic input.  It’s a fantastic pattern interrupt to switch over to a paper list when you stand in front of a fire hose of email and the Internet all day long. There’s also almost a zero learning curve with a paper system.  And, if you’re building it yourself from blank paper, you have a ton of flexibility on what it looks like.

So for any of you looking for a hard copy GTD system, with ingredients you can likely find around in your house or office, here’s what to do:

1.  Go to your graveyard of old 3-ring binders (every company has one!) and find one you like.
2.  Find some divider tabs (if you can’t find some, Post-it notes or flags will work to delineate each section.)
3.  Grab a stack of blank paper from your copier or supply closet and hole punch it into the binder.
4.  Download this free article on Setting up a Paper Organizer from the GTD store and assemble the sections.
5.  Populate the lists with your complete inventory.

If you can’t find all those supplies at hand, even buying them from your local stationary supply store would only run about $6.  Could you spend more than $6?  Sure.  You could really trick it out with a leather binder and high-quality paper.  If you’re choosing one of the many web-based electronic systems out there, you’ll want to make it accessible from anywhere–especially when you’re offline.  This kind of paper system would work well if you’re doing a hybrid of digital and paper.  For example, electronic lists could be your home-base, but you print key lists to a binder for easy access and portability.

Next time you walk into a meeting, notice how many people have a paper lists or printed calendar with them. It’s more common than you think. If it’s your style to do things on paper, do yourself a favor and create a great hard copy system.