I joined GTD Connect a week or two ago, and I’m discovering that it is an excellent resource. The amount of content is awesome, and you have developed an active community. (Initially I thought: $48/month is a lot of money. Now I realize it’s worth it.)

I read Getting Things Done about three years ago, and although much of it made sense, I missed a lot of it. I’m now reading Making It All Work, reading articles on GTD Connect, and listening to Connect webinars, and I’m developing a much deeper understanding of GTD and how to apply it.

Thanks!
Bruce

~~~~~~~

If you’re ready to stop stressing and start accomplishing your goals, David Allen’s Getting Things Done can help you create a simple, effective personal productivity system.

About David Allen

David Allen is the author of the Personal MBA-recommended book Getting Things Done, as well as Ready For Anything, and Making It All Work. For more information about his work, check out David Allen’s website.

Here are 10 big ideas from David Allen’s Getting Things Done…

1. If your day-to-day life is out of control, it’s almost impossible to think strategically or plan effectively.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed about how much you have to do (and who isn’t, really?), it’s difficult to focus on ensuring your life and work is moving in the direction you want to go. That’s why it’s important to get control of your daily tasks before working on your big-picture life planning.

GTD is a “bottom-up” approach to productivity. The goal is to establish a sense of comfort and control over the work that’s on your plate right now, so you can free up some mental energy and space to think about the big stuff.

2. Define what being “done” looks like.

Most of the tasks people keep on their to-do lists are “amorphous blobs of undoability” – commitments without any clear vision of what being “done” looks like. That’s a huge problem – your brain is naturally designed to help you figure out how to do things, but only if you know what the end point looks like.

Everything you’re working on should have a very clear stopping point – a point where you know you’re done. If you don’t know what that point looks like, you’ll find it very difficult to make any progress at all. When you’re having trouble making progress, first clarify what being done looks like.

3. Mental work has five distinct phases: Collect, Process, Organize, Do, and Review

Not all work is the same. There are five separate phases of effective work:

• Collecting is the act of gathering inputs: resources, knowledge, and tasks. You’ll have a much easier time making use of your available inputs if they’re all in one place before you begin.
• Processing is the act of examining your inputs: what you can do with the resources at your disposal. This is where you start separating things according to what you’re planning to do next: tasks, projects, future plans, and reference information.
• Organizing means taking the results of your processing and putting it in a system you trust, so you don’t have to remember it all. Tasks go on your to-do list, projects go on a projects list, future plans go into a tracking system, and reference information goes into a file or database you can access easily.
• Doing means working through the tasks you can accomplish right now.
• Reviewing means examining the results of your work, revising your strategy, and improving your systems for better results.

Keep the phases deliberately separate, and you’ll get a lot more done.

4. Get everything out of your head.

Many people try to keep track of everything they need to do in their mind, which is a big mistake. Our brains are optimized for fast decision-making, not storage. Trying to juggle too many things in your head at the same time is a major reason we get stressed out when there’s a lot going on: we’re using the wrong tool for the job.

The best way to stop mentally thrashing and start being productive is to spend a few minutes putting everything on your mind onto paper. You can write or draw – whatever works for you, as long as you can see it when you’re done. Once the information is out of your head, it’s far easier to figure out what to do with it. Even 10 minutes of Externalization can help you feel less freaked out about your workload.

Of course, it’s better not to be freaked out in the first place, so make it easy to capture what you’re thinking on paper. I carry a wallet that has a space for 3×5 index cards and a pen – whenever I have an idea, it’s easy to capture it, even if I don’t have my notebook or computer with me at the time. If you reduce the Friction you experience when capturing ideas, you’ll naturally capture more of them.

5. Projects and tasks are two different things: track them separately.

A major mistake that most people make when keeping track of things to do is conflating tasks and projects. That’s a good way to feel overwhelmed fast – many things can’t be accomplished in one sitting.

For example, I just finished the book I’ve been writing for a little over a year. If I had “write the book” on my to-do list, I’d quickly be overwhelmed – the project was just too big. Instead of “failing” to accomplish that to-do for a year, it’s far better to treat it as a project – something that takes more than one task to accomplish. I can’t “write the book,” but I can complete a small section of the book in one sitting.

Since projects and tasks are two different things, it’s best to keep track of them separately. Personally, I carry a small notebook with me to record active tasks with 3×5 index card inside that lists my active projects. The index card is just the right size to list 4-8 active projects – if I have more than that, I know I’m spreading myself too thin.

6. Focus on the Next Action required to move forward.

Big projects have many steps, and can be overwhelming in their complexity. The key to handling these projects is not to focus on everything that has to be done – that’s a great way to freak yourself out.

Instead, just focus on the very next physical action you need to do to move the project forward. It may be looking up a piece of information, making a phone call, or accomplishing a small task. Whatever it is, it’ll move you closer to completing the project, so don’t worry about everything else – focus only on what you can do right now.

7. Use the “2 Minute Rule” for small tasks.

Don’t worry about tracking small tasks – if you can accomplish the task in less than two minutes, just do it! Writing down every little thing you have to do takes more time than it’s worth – if you need to send a 30-second reminder e-mail to someone, there’s no sense in taking 20 seconds to write it down when you could just get er done.

Personally, I expand this to 5 minutes – the principle is the same. Your goal is to get things done, not to flawlessly capture each and every little thing in your perfectly designed system.

8. Use Reference and Someday/Maybe files for things that have no immediate next actions.

There’s no sense in keeping FYI or long-term dreams in your active daily task tracking system. Reference files are great for storing information you don’t have to act on right now. These files can either be physical or electronic – for example, I keep important paperwork and legal documents in a fire-proof safe, and electronic files and websites in a file on my computer or in Evernote.

Someday/Maybe lists are great for deferring ideas that you’d like to work on someday, but you’re not committing to right now. I have ideas about fun new things do to every day – way more than I have time or energy for. Instead of losing these ideas, it’s far better to capture them in a reference file you can look through later, when you have more capacity. When you’re ready to commit to a new project, the someday/maybe gets promoted to an active project.

9. Build a trusted system that helps you keep track of your commitments.

Your mind keeps things in working memory if it thinks you’ll lose them if it doesn’t. That’s why building a productivity system is important – it helps your mind let go of tracking unnecessary details so you can focus on the task at hand. That’s why Externalization works – when you put something on paper in a place you know you’ll be able to find later, you’re freeing mental resources that can be put to better use elsewhere.

An effective productivity system consists of the following:

• A list of active tasks – next actions you’ve committed to accomplishing in the next few days.
• A list of active projects – 4-20 project you’ve committed to accomplishing in the next few weeks.
• A calendar – commitments to meet with other people in the near future.
• A someday/maybe list – ideas you’d like to explore, but not right now.
• Reference files – information or documents you’ll need to refer to in the future.
• A capture device – some way of capturing ideas or next actions as you think of them.

That’s it, really – you can use any number of tools for the above, as long as they cover those basic needs. Personally, I use a notebook for active tasks, a 3×5 index card in that notebook for projects, the calendar on my computer, someday/maybe and reference files in Backpack and Evernote or physical files, and my 3×5-sized wallet for my capture device.

10. Schedule non-negotiable time for a Weekly Review.

Life moves fast – we often have so much to do that’s it’s difficult to take a step back and examine whether or not we’re getting the results we want. That’s why it’s extremely important to schedule some time each week to do a “Weekly Review.”

Here are a few things you should include in your weekly review:

• Process and organize – anything you’ve collected but haven’t handled yet.
• Review your active tasks – are there any to add, delegate, defer, or delete?
• Review your active projects – are there any to add, delegate, defer, or delete?
• Review your calendar – are there any meetings to add, delegate, defer, or delete?
• Someday/Maybe – anything to add or promote to an active project?
• Reference Files – anything you need soon? Anything to add or update?
• Goals – are you moving in the right direction? Are you making progress? Are any changes necessary?

Don’t skip this review – it’s extremely important if you want to decrease your stress levels. Personally, I find it best to schedule my review for the end of the week: Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. It’s a great way to wrap up the week, feel good about what you’ve accomplished, plan for the next week, and set yourself up for a relaxing weekend.

BONUS TIP: developing an effective personal productivity system takes time and experimentation.

Many people get frustrated when adopting GTD because it takes so long to get everything under control. Cut yourself some slack: GTD is a collection of habits, and habits take time to develop. Instead of trying to install everything at once, work on improving in one of these areas until it’s effortless, then focus on installing the next habit. In time, you’ll master them all.

Also remember that the goal of GTD is to make it easier to do work that matters – not procrastinating by endlessly improving your system instead of doing productive work. Try to avoid succumbing to “productivity porn” – experiment constantly, but remember that the most effective systems have the same thing in common: they’re usually the simplest thing that could possibly work. When in doubt, err on the side of doing less.

Josh Kaufman is an independent business teacher, education activist, and author of the Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume, which will be published by Portfolio on December 30, 2010.

A Community Contribution from Jason Verly

For anyone who uses a Mac and utilizes the GTD method, you may eventually look into what software you can use to help manage your project and next action lists. Currently on the Mac, the leading apps to help manage your lists are OmniFocus and Things. Each app covers four of the five steps of the GTD workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, and Review. (Sorry, but you still have to do ‘Do’ on you own.)   Here is a comparison of how each application handles these four steps.

Read more from Jason Verly’s article

Editors Note: Many of you know we are partners with OmniGroup. We wanted to provide this article to our GTD Times readers, as Jason has done a great job comparing these two popular applications.  It should give you some great information from a fellow GTDer, when choosing which one is best for you.

My Year in Review, by Sarah From

This time last December, I was working in an office crammed with stuff.  Conference programs, old speeches, copies of travel receipts, notebooks brimming with ideas from half a decade ago, and drafts of reports long-ago published were filed and piled around me.  I wasn’t a hoarder – I just considered stacking things to be a valid organizing system.

Since I was generally able to find what I needed when I needed it, I didn’t consider myself disorganized.  Psychologically, my stacks served as a symbol of the important work that I was doing – work so important that it kept piling up and didn’t wait for me to get around to filing it.

At the same time, I knew my stacks weren’t really doing me any favors.  They took up valuable real estate on my desk, limiting my ability to spread out when I needed to do “big thinking” on projects. Occasionally I would fail to do something or be somewhere because the information I needed was buried and forgotten in a stack. I would sort through my stacks, filing and shredding from time to time, but the stacks never went away.  They were weighing me down.

Enter David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system, recommended to me by a number of trusted colleagues.  GTD is a system for collecting, processing, organizing, reviewing, and doing all of the “stuff” that comes into our lives.  Though there are many different products & commentaries on GTD, the place to start is David Allen’s book, which is a cheap and quick read.

I embarked on the first stage of GTD during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  For five days, I went through every piece of paper, every receipt and takeout menu. Armed with a label-maker, a stack of fresh file folders, and an inbox, I followed David Allen’s instructions and began to bring order to my office.  By the first week of 2009, I was back to work with an organized workspace and a new system in place.

My desk and my mind clear of clutter, I was able to clarify my priorities and take care of first things first.  Trusting that every email, meeting request, or task I agreed to do would be captured and processed in my system, I was able to shed the nagging feeling that something was falling through the cracks.   My follow-through on the commitments I made radically improved, and I developed peace of mind that I was doing what I should be doing at any given moment.

This summer, as I prepared to shift from full-time office worker to full-time student and part-time consultant, I brought GTD more fully into my home.  I set up a home office and have maintained a zero-tolerance policy on stacks of papers.  The only place that papers are allowed to pile up is in my inbox (which gets regularly emptied), meaning that on more days than not, my desk actually looks like the picture above.

I now allow myself the time to do the regular maintenance that I need to keep my work, and my life, moving in the direction I want to be going.  When I wasn’t giving regular attention to all of the things that needed attending to, stuff quite literally stacked up. I used to feel that I couldn’t afford to spend time “organizing” – work and life moved too fast.  Now I realize that I can’t afford not to.

This is not to say that life feels totally under control and my time spent is always aligned with my priorities – far from it. But GTD has helped me develop a “new normal” for myself.  And this calm, organized normal feels a lot better than the overwhelming stacks of unaddressed stuff I was living with before.

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.

TheBrain also just launched a new hosting service for PersonalBrain users called WebBrain, with a great example about GTD.

I’ve been a GTD Connect member for just a little under two years.  I’m a Dallas-based Consultant and I DO NOT make a living from writing enthusiastic reviews on GTD or have any affiliation whatsoever to David Allen Co.  But big changes have happened at the GTD Connect site and I’m writing today because of one simple fact:  The more the merrier!

GTD Connect member Brian D., one of the members who regularly contributes thoughtful posts to the forum, posed this question in the GTD Connect Forum today: “What one feature do you find most valuable on Connect?”  A lively discussion ensued, per usual.  Augusto P., another sage member, referred to Connect as his “mental gym”-a place to bounce practices and ideas off of other professionals to improve his own GTD practice.  It got me thinking about all of the changes in the last few months and what a huge difference I’ve seen in my own ability to get things done.

I admit there have been times over the last two years that I have thought of canceling my membership.  Although I enjoyed all the content available on the site, I was beginning to perceive that the value I received was less than the price charged to be a member ($48 per month or $480 per year.)  In the last 2-3 months the content has been significantly enhanced and new content is added every week.  Just a few of the things that have changed are:

• Regular webinars on related topics:  From Procrastination to the Guided Weekly Review, these webinars give us a taste of having a Coach right there with us!  The material presented is all new and comes from many years of coaching in the field.  Joining Kelly on some of the webinars is Meg Edwards.  I had the pleasure of working with Meg through the telecoaching program at David Allen Co.  These two Coaches have probably worked with thousands of GTDers and they teach from experience.

• Enhanced Forum postings:  The Coaches participate more than ever!   From posting pictures of their own work areas to weighing in on various discussions, we have the experts right here with us answering questions and guiding us toward improvement every day.

• Interviews with David:  Coach Kelly regularly interviews David and other coaches in a fun and informal format designed to feel like she is just popping in to see what’s new with a co-worker.  The easy, relaxed and often fun way they interact with makes for very compelling listening.

• Content based on member feedback and suggestions:  They are listening to our suggestions and responding quickly to our needs.  No 6-month window of development for these people!

The entire GTD Connect experience is starting to feel like a family.  From the Coaches, the staff, and member to member, there’s an experience here unlike what it was in the past.  If you tried it in the past and canceled, I’d encourage you to take another look.  And be sure to jump right into the Forum!

[Editors note:  From the whole GTD Connect team--David Allen, Kelly Forrister, the DavidCo coaching staff and member support team--thanks for the shout out Barb!]

Link Projects to Actions (solving the timeless question and request from GTD’ers, “How do you know which project a next action relates to?”)

Process input more easily (gives a GTD toolbar for one-stop processing, linking and organizing)

Create projects and sub-projects (both can be linked and tracked along with their actions–for example, Project “Get Married” might have a subproject called, “Put on Reception” which then has a linked action step, “Call DJ”.)

View projects and actions in a variety of ways (the Add-in builds additional views, such as Active Tasks by Project, Completed Tasks by Project, etc.)

In the latest 3.0 release, there are few new things they’ve introduced:

Two-minute timer (yes, as dorky as it sounds, the little 2 min timer app in the DavidCo store is a big seller and is a feature in the new version of the Add-in)

Project Central (for more easily managing your master projects list)

Simpler interface (in my opinion, it’s the easiest and most intuitive in all the releases I’ve seen over the years)

Obviously, if Outlook is not your tool of choice, then this Add-In won’t be either! But if you’ve been looking to “GTD-ize” Outlook you may find this to be a useful enhancement, especially if you already have a good understanding of GTD. In my many years of coaching and presenting GTD to clients, my advice is always–do not look to the tool to teach or do GTD for you. It will enhance what you already know about the core concepts of GTD projects and next actions.

Chris Taylor, editor for Goose Educational Media, wrote up a detailed book review of Making It All Work that we thought you may find helpful. He wrote:

We broke the review into two parts, as I felt Making it all Work really lent itself to that format.

Part 1, focusing on control
Part 2, focusing on perspective

You can also read their review of GTD. Enjoy!

(Yes, we know many of you like “Things” by Cultured Code too!)

January’s Wired magazine carried an article by freelancer Chris Hardwick testing out different systems for helping him structure his work and life better.

He sums up:

Now, I know that David Allen is the head vampire of productivity, but if you only have the fortitude to read a single book, I’m gonna throw my lithe frame behind The 4-Hour Workweek. Ferriss lays out a series of nimble yet perfectly legal cons to help you break out of the corporate Bastille — and work from the actual Bastille, if you want. That sly creativity best fits the rogue nature of the freelancer.

David Allen is head vampire? I’ll have to check for fang marks from my book to see if he got me.

As it happens, I am also a freelancer and I have read Timothy Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek. So I feel like I can respond to Hardwick appropriately. He is right about some things–like the idea that the books can supplement each other–but I think his recommendation is way off target.

For those who haven’t read it, The 4-Hour Workweek is essentially based upon two big ideas:

Idea One covers strategies for separating your work from a physical location–the office–so that you can work from home, work from Europe, or wherever it is you want to be.

Idea Two argues that for very little capital, a single person can get an Internet business going that will provide them enough money to live on with a barest minimum of work (hence the title of the book).

I believe his ideas are sound. In fact, I’m testing out an Internet business right now with Google ads to see if I can start a side business for some extra income.

But what Hardwick misses about the GTD system is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a corporate CEO working 80 hours a week or whether you’re living off the wealth of your Internet business and only work 80 hours every year. You still have to get things done. You still have to pay taxes and bills, enrich your relationships with family and friends, plan your vacation, and maybe–as in the case of Ferriss–learn to tango (Ferriss holds a world record in tango).

For me, GTD has helped me get out from under the feeling of always being behind, helped me stop thinking about work when I shouldn’t, and introduced a system that means I can remember to buy batteries at the store when I’m actually at the store.

Only with that in place could I really seriously consider the suggestions of Ferriss. Now, one of my projects is creating the website for my Internet business. If things are successful, I’ll add new projects like setting up marketing and shipping.

But I just can’t see tackling those things successfully without having Getting Things Done under my belt.

In a mammoth post Venkat relays how a day that starts off terribly and only manages to get worse is made not merely manageable, but actually successful by virtue of his GTD habits.  What’s more he manages to gracefully articulate exactly why GTD proved invaluable in the trying circumstances he describes and even more surprisingly he seamlessly weaves in an insightful review of David’s new book, Making It All Work, and even puts it in context alongside David’s first book, Getting Things Done.

Although only an overachiever like Venkatesh would consider an epic like the one he’s penned a mere blog post, it is absolutely worth the ten or fifteen minutes it will take you to read and digest his post.  Not only is it time well spent because of the information it contains and the inspiration it will provide but also for the powerful examples he delivers in what was a very personal blow by blow of a day that he artfully shows us was saved by David Allen and a pair of swim trunks.

Editor’s Note:  Venkatesh has previously contributed to GTDtimes.  You can find his other post here.

Too Much to Do

In April of this year, I left my full time job to “go freelance.” My schedule has been all over the place as a result. Between writing and doing web development for my fiancé’s graphic design firm,  managing my coworking office space in downtown Tacoma, operating my small theater production company, presiding over my condo association,  trying to get a novel published, and last – but most certainly not least  – getting married at the end of the year; you could say I’m a pretty busy guy.  While no single one of these activities takes up a full work week, the number and variety of things I needed to do made me feel like I was dropping the ball on all of them.

No More Dropped Balls

David Allen’s Getting Things Done changed all that. I’m actually making some headway on all these fronts. I first implemented his system with long lists in Microsoft Word. That was until I discovered “Things” to manage my things.

Things is a GTD system designed for Mac computers with mobile applications for the iPhone and iTouch. To any user of David Allen’s productivity system, Things should look very familiar. Hot keys (or mouse clicking) will bring up a task window for easy entry. To each task, you can add notes, due dates, links to files, and customizable tags, which serve as “contexts.”

I appreciate that the tags are easy to use and customize. I kept many of the preset tags-phone, read/review, errand, home-but (following GTD) I created a “Waiting For” tag, which allows me to keep track of shipments, emails, and phone calls I’m expecting. I also created a “pack” tag, which I use in the weeks before a trip.

Things offers a feature called “teammates” which helps with collaboration. This pulls from your Mac’s address book and allows you to add a contact’s name to the program. Have something to talk over with a coworker? Drag the item under their name and it’s waiting for you when you see them next.

I can also set up scheduled and repeating tasks very quickly. A new task to post on my blog shows up daily. A task to review my projects list shows up every weekend. The “today” toggle lets me quickly see my scheduled items, items due in the next couple days, and any overdue tasks.

“Things” Everywhere

As David Allen said, the key to the system is that it’s with you all the time. Because of the iPhone sync, if my phone is with me (and it always is) my system is with me. The quick entry field lets me jot down a note in less than a minute if I’m at a restaurant, in a meeting, or otherwise away from the computer. Later, when the phone and computer are on the same wireless network, they sync. (One current drawback to the iPhone app is that is does not allow for my context tags, although Things developers have indicated the next update will have tags enabled.)

A Few Things that Would Improve “Things”

There are some features I’d really like to see added. Currently, the drag-and-drop feature lets you place action items inside project folders for easy sorting. Handy, normally, especially during my weekly review when I check that I have a next action item for each project. But, if you spend most of your time in the next action window as I do-and as Allen would probably recommend-the feature becomes cumbersome. I don’t need to know that “Call parents for carpet cleaning recommendations” is under the “home care” project. I just need a list of calls to make. But I can’t turn it off, which means that I lose a lot of screen real estate and can only see a fraction of the calls I need to make on a single screen. I’ve opted for more items on a page, so I don’t use the projects tab the way I should.

The projects list and the someday/maybe list don’t play well together yet, either. I can’t add a project directly into the Someday list, I have to add it in projects and then drag it into the list.

And I have yet to touch the “inbox” feature. For the life of me I cannot figure out what to put in there that I can’t do with the next action list. Putting items in this folder doesn’t make sense. If I’ve taken the time to type out my action note, it’s safe to say I’ve already processed it from one of my real inboxes-mail, email, voicemail, etc.

There was one debilitating bug. A few months after use, the program slowed to a crawl as a result of some flaw in the XML database to the point I could barely open it. Browsing the support forums, I couldn’t find anyone else who had the problem, so I think it was an isolated incident. Getting it running again took a couple hours, and illustrated to me how much I’ve come to rely on the program.

Things is still in beta testing for the Mac, and will be officially released January 6, 2009 at MacWorld. It is currently free and will be $39 when it’s released (if you sign up for their newsletter before its launch) and $49 after that. The iPhone program is $9.99.

Final Thoughts on “Things”

Things has been intuitive, helpful, and even fun. My minor quibbles are nothing compared to the benefits I’ve gotten from the program. The Mac-iPhone sync gives me a quick-entry capability to get my thoughts out of my head and into a program that is always with me. It has become invaluable to getting things done.