Getting Things Done

Efficiency: Getting Things Done.

The last year has seen a massive shift in the amount and type of work that I have to do, both at my job, and the rest of life. No longer am I able to simply get up, turn on the computer, push a few pixels in Fireworks, write a few lines of code in TextMate, shut down, go home, practice a little music, and hang out with my wife. I now have a near constant flood of e-mail coming in from my blackberry, phone meetings scattered throughout the day, lingering support contracts from my freelancing days, three bands (and a number of prospective musicians) to manage for a 500 member church, and a 1.5 year old daughter (’nuff said). Life is a little more… complex (crazy? hectic? scattered? neurotic?). It’s hard to get my stuff done.

Today in a conversation with Victor, the concept of GTD came up. Something I’ve toyed with in the past, but never really took seriously. Now, I’m convinced that a GTD system is the key to my continued sanity. I don’t think my problem is that I have too much to do, my problem is that I don’t know how to do it efficiently.

I have a collection of tools and systems that seem interesting to me. Using them correctly and efficiently, and with discipline is another matter. I don’t have that part figured out yet. Some things I’m starting to use and do:

Action Pads by Behance - for recording notes during meetings (trick here is processing the notes)
Things by Cultured Code - for brain dumping to-dos (trick here is consistently entering… things)
Basecamp by 37signals - for assigning and tracking tasks to my team
Inbox Zero - for managing email and generally remaining sane
43 Folders and Lifehacker for continued education on GTD.

Any other recommendations? What do you do? Any other good resources you check regularly.

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Posted March 8th, 2008 in Getting Things Done by Matt