Getting the stuff into your GTD system
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 2:26PM Alright. I admit it. I'm a GTD wannabe. I'm not obsessed or anything, but I like to find ways to make my everyday life easier and more efficient.
Over the years I've tried lots of different tools for keeping all my tasks and todo's in order, but I always end up with just using eMail, and occasionally a simple textfile.
As you might have guessed, one of the mail hurdles that I experienced was capturing the stuff so that I could start processing it in the first place. Hence MailMe. :-)
Anyway.
I have set up a rule in my e-mail software that highlight the notes from MailMe so that I can spot them directly when I get back to my computer.
I can then quickly move them to the appropriate folder.
In my main eMail account I have 6 different folders:
- Inbox - where everything comes in, regular eMail as well as MailMe notes
- Action - with all the stuff that I have to do myself
- Waiting - the stuff that other people are doing for me
- Read - things I want to read when I have time
- Someday - the ideas and projects that I may have time for... someday
- Archive - the vault of messages that I for some reason want to keep for future reference
Every morning I empty my inbox and move the messages to the appropriate folder, and then I start working.
No system is perfect, but this is simple yet (most often) powerful enough for me.
In a couple of weeks I'll write about how you could integrate MailMe with other great "GTD-ish" software, like e.g. OmniFocus.
PS. As you might have guessed by now, David Allen and Merlin Mann are great sources of inspiration for me, and over the years their advice have saved me tremendous amounts of time. DS.