I recently switched back to using my Pocket Lyndhurst Filofax. Notebooks were going ok, but for the question of where my 'GTD-style' lists went. I tried putting them on the computer, but I never got around to even putting them there in the first place. I came up with a couple of different ideas for mixing them in with my usual daily notes, or putting them in the back of the same notebook, but neither felt right. It would either take too long to find a list when I needed to quickly check something, or it would take too long to copy the lists over every time I started a new book.

Latest Update: Removed PlannerLove - the site is sadly departed, and the domain has been bought by some domain squatters.

Sacha is currently writing the book on Emacs. When it comes out, it would seem rude for me to not buy a copy and read it. And she's a small powerhouse of infectious enthusiasm, which will drag me back to Emacs. So, I'm giving up early and going back now. I know when I'm beaten. I'd just got myself nicely settled as a Vim user, too...

Recently, I've been trying out a new way of doing GTD, and it seems pretty good to me. In the end, it was Emacs I couldn't cope with using, but if you get on with Emacs, this could be for you. Let's start with a disclaimer this time, though...

• This is one for the geeks.

It's all based around using the Emacs text editor, which isn't the easiest thing around to use, even just to edit a text file. It balances a couple of elisp programs on top of that, too, which let you do all sorts of clever things, using nothing but plain text. If you're geek enough, though, and the idea of keeping everything in plain text appeals to you, this is one fast GTD system...

Latest Update: Linked up a couple more systems under Mixing with Other Ideas. If you like the PigPogPDA idea, it's well worth visiting some of these sites to see what other people have built with some similar ideas.

See Also

• nowMap - my latest simple system - a quick overview of what you're doing now, on a single sheet.

(Click on any pics to see them bigger in Flickr, with any comments and notes.)

Introduction

What Is It?

• A Moleskine hack.
• An extreme Moleskine hack.
• A simplified GTD system (What system? See our GTD Introduction), with relatively little actual organising. May be useful if you fancy Doing GTD Without Doing GTD.
• A complete personal management system for those who's needs aren't too complicated.
• A rather over-the-top system for dealing with just the capturing and processing end of GTD.

Merlin has pointed to and added to an Ask MeFi post on motivating yourself to do things you don't want to do. This is a bit of a 'missing area' in GTD. It works on the assumption that you know what you want to do, and you'll do it, as long as you can track it. Most people probably don't quite meet those criteria, and need a bit more on the motivating side of things.

Even though I'm not doing GTD in any precise way, I still tend to use many of the ideas for most things. Feeds, though, have just never fitted in to my GTD system, even though treating your unread feeds as another inbox seems to be a very natural way to work. Pascal Vernier has written a post about processing feeds with GTD - worth a read if you use RSS feeds and you do GTD.

Once you've been doing GTD for a while (however half-assed your implementation), you start to find yourself thinking in GTD terms. You spot something that needs doing in the living room, and your mind jumps straight to "Hmm - tidy side table needs to go on @Home." The problem is that this isn't how GTD is supposed to work. You're supposed to just capture the fact that the side table is a mess, and process that note later. Once you get used to doing it, though, you shortcut through the steps and just find yourself wanting to stick the item straight on the appropriate list.

MyTicklerFile is a web-based implementation of what David Allen calls a Tickler File in GTD. It's been known to secretaries and PAs for years - known over here in the UK as a Brought Forward filing system. Looks like it's another web-based calendar, really, but with a bit of a GTD flavour to it.

Kevin Rosenjack has announced that his company, BrightPool, is kindly providing free hosting of the Ruby on Rails GTD app Tracks. I probably wouldn't want all of my stuff on someone else's hosting like that, but it's a great chance to try out Tracks without having to set up Ruby, Rails, etc first.

• Interview with Marc Orchant: Marc has long been a GTDer, and one of the great gadget lovers. He was one of the big influences on me getting a Tablet PC, and although that hasn't worked out all that well (love the machine, never use it as a tablet), he's always worth listening to.

GTD, or Getting Things Done, is a productivity system, and also the book that describes the system. Unlike most other attempts at making a 'system', GTD is complete - it tells you what to do with every new thought or idea you have, and how to turn them into actions, in a way that can be turned into a simple flowchart.

The completeness of the system appeals to many people, especially those who feel they don't have enough time to do everything. The straightforward flowcharted nature of it, like executing a set of programmed steps, appeals to a lot of geeks.