Amanda Pelser… Ramblings of a Communications Director …

I decided to get this book after watching a great series of short videos from a training session with Shawn Wood at Seacoast Church.  I was at a point where I felt pretty overwhelmed with various responsibilities and really needed a better system in order to free my mind from holding all the details.  I needed to be able to release the stress and anxiety that goes along with trying to remember everything.

Shawn’s videos are a great overview of the process, so start there. Getting Things Done gets into the nitty-gritty details.  The book has been out for several years so it does not cover current technologies that can help in implementing a GTD process, but it is the basic process is what matters most.

Here’s a few of the keys to a GTD system and how I’m organizing my life.

• Create a trusted capture system.  I capture things in the following places: physical inboxes at work and home, email inbox for work and personal, Evernote inbox, and Remember the Milk inbox.  Some people need a small notepad to carry around to make notes.  I generally use whatever paper I have and make sure that it gets to my physical inbox.  Otherwise, I use my iPhone and send myself an email, send a note to my Evernote inbox, or send a to-do by email to Remember the Milk.
• Process things in your inboxes regularly.  Delete things that are not needed.  File things that are for reference.  I keep very few paper files any more.  Almost everything gets scanned to PDF.  Then, I file and tag everything in Evernote on my Mac.  If it can be done in less than two minutes, do it and be done with it.  Anything else needs to be delegated or deferred.  If I’m giving something to my husband or one of my team members to do, I keep the item marked as “waiting” in my email, Evernote “waiting” notebook, or tagged with “waiting” as a task in RTM.  For anything else, I create a task in RTM, tag as a project or something that I need to process in Evernote or my email.  I create to-do items for everything that I think of regarding a project.  David Allen suggests just the next action step, but I find if I don’t record everything that I think of that needs to be done, I keep too much of that project in my head and it weighs on me too much.  Even if it seems silly or trivial, I’ll spend the time to make a note of it rather than carrying it in my head.
• Do your work.  Tagging things on my to-do list in RTM always me to better choose what to work on based upon amount of time available, current energy level or mindset, resources available (like phone or internet), time item is due, etc.  It makes determining the best thing to do at a given time so easy.
• Review your inboxes, to-do items, project files, calendar, etc in depth once a week to determine any next steps on projects, trigger your memory of anything that you may have forgotten, need to follow up on or reschedule.  I’ve been doing this on Fridays.  It is the best day for me because it is usually my quietest day of the week with the fewest interruptions.

Here are some additional things that I’ve been doing and technologies notes…

• One of the goals is inbox zero; don’t store things in your email inbox.  One of the ways that I can stay on top of this is to move things to my project folder or to-do folder when I glance at my email on my iPhone.  In addition, if I can take care of it with a quick, simple response, I do that from my iPhone.  Because we use Google Apps for our email and my phone is set up using Exchange protocol, everything I do on my phone is mirrored on my computer / webmail.  This makes getting through my email so much faster.
• When I see links to things that I want to look at later, I send an email with the link to my Evernote inbox.  When I process my Evernote inbox, I can look at those links I saw in Twitter from my iPhone or put them in my read/review folder to look at later.  For longer term links and blog posts (I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds), I tag items using Delicious.  This makes it easy to point someone else to something that I found or get to it from any computer.
• Josh was eager to learn this system, so I’ve been helping him set up his processes in Outlook, Evernote and RTM.  We added each other as contacts in RTM so we can send to-do items to each other.  We also promised to process our physical inboxes at home; I can trust that if I put something in Josh’s inbox, he will look at it within a day or two.  This has kept our kitchen island free of clutter because I can put mail and catalogs and such in his inbox.
• We also make it a practice to “invite” each other to important things on our calendar even if it doesn’t directly involve the other person so we’re aware of where the other one is.  We also have our calendars shared with each other so that we can see the other’s full calendar to see where they are and what they are doing.  That way, if Josh is scheduled to be in a meeting, then I don’t continually call his cell phone looking for him unless of course, it is an emergency.
• I have Evernote and RTM connected to my Twitter account.  I can send a DM to either and whatever I send is in my inbox for the next time I process my inboxes.

If you’re looking for a way to handle the demands of your job, juggling to-do items at home, and decluttering your mind, this book is a great place to start.  But, don’t it half way.  You really have to set up your system and commit to it, including regular review.