My History of Getting Things Done

The whole point of the GTD approach is to have a single trusted system which covers all the "things" in your life: to dos, appointments, projects, etc., etc. Sadly, my single trusted system has developed technical problems which I can no longer tolerate, and I need to find a new system. Over the next several posts I'm going to document my search for a new system. But first, let's talk about the systems I've used before.

For over two years I used the Hipster PDA approach: carry index cards, put each to-do on a single card, and keep the cards separated by contexts or projects. That probably seems terribly Luddite of me, but it worked beautifully through several phases of my life.

After working for a company with a severely punishing culture for two years, I left and became an independent contractor. I specifically wanted low-stress work. I wanted to be heads-down, with a low profile, fewer projects, and less dynamic priorities. I traveled pretty much full-time, but even with that I had much less stress than before.

The Hipster PDA got me through that very well. I had only 2 or 3 work projects at any time and a couple of personal projects. I had lots of little things to do: Some originated from email but just as many came from phone calls or just popped into my head.

Each task went on an index card, and I collected all my cards by project. I didn't use contexts very much because all my projects either had to be done at my computer or at home.

I also discovered how useful a tickler file can be: I wrote tickler items on cards and put them in a recipe card holder divided into months. And my beloved Someday list! All the wild daydreams I had about things I would do if only (fill in the blank). With a Someday list, those things no longer nagged at me. Each time one came up, I wrote it down and put it in an extra section at the back of my tickler. I also added a new tickler card to remind me to review my Someday list on the first of each month. I no longer felt like I was deprived of following my dreams, because my dreams were all written down and I knew I could come back to them at any time. What a stress relief!

Then I started a weekend masters degree program. I had a lot more tasks to do, and more projects, but the Hipster PDA approach worked fine. I started using contexts, because I now had several of them: in class, at study group, online, at the library, at home, at work, etc.

I changed jobs because I found it nearly impossible to travel full time and still study. I got a nice boring desk job at Dell, nothing stressful or challenging. That was OK, because I could put more energy into school. And my Hipster PDA still met my needs very well.

Then I graduated school, and Dell laid me off. Now my project list was down to one: Get a job! (Not really. I still had some home-maintenance kind of projects. But finding employment was Job One.) My Hipster PDA still met my needs. Few of my tasks came from email, but a lot came from meeting with people and reading things about job search. Note cards and a pen worked great: low maintenance, easy to use, quick, and platform independent :)

But then I got a job at Google, and everything changed. I went into learning mode, trying to quickly come up to speed with the products, people, and processes at Google. Suddenly my life revolved around email. I had many small projects, most of which I needed a computer for, but some had to be done at home and some at work. And suddenly I found myself having to make a lot of phone calls.

Now that easily 50% of my emails directly translated into one or more tasks, it made no sense to transcribe those to index cards. I would spend all my time copying from my computer screen to index cards!

So I went on a search for an automated GTD approach. And that is the topic of my next post.