Black Belt Productivity

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Black Belt Productivity would like to welcome in Allen Hall, Graduate Student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and blogger at searching4arcadia. He brings us the perspective of a student who has implemented GTD. There is a lot of talk about who GTD is good for profession-wise. We are trying to bring views from a number of professions that have successfully implemented GTD.

We thank Allen for his post, and we look forward to see more from him in the future.

- Michael

What state of affairs was like pre-GTD?

Let’s just say that most of my friends and family considered me completely hopeless. In fact, most of them still do… once you dig a hole, you know… I’m sure I suffer from some sort of ailment… most likely it’s just laziness. This does not bode well for organizing, cleaning, or various other important aspects of real-world life. Let’s just say that I was in desperate need of help.

Oh, I read 7 Habits, and worked on various aspects of my organizational world, but for some reason, nothing took. So, I had aspirations for organization and productivity, but nothing was really effective for me.

How you found out about GTD?

I think it most likely was 43Folders by way of my searching regarding Moleskines. I found Moleskines first, then GTD followed. It was the title that intrigued me: Getting Things Done. Lord knows that’s what I needed. The name stuck in my brain, and I went about researching it. Low and behold, a cult-like following amongst über-geeks… very intriguing.

How easy/difficult was your implementation?

Implementation has been fairly easy. The trick of course is how much I implement. I should preface all of this by saying that I am probably the wrench in the works of all organizational/planning systems. They don’t see me coming. I come, I wreak havoc, I squash, I try, and I fail.

Two systems have now made a mark on me. The first to make a serious mark was Covey’s 7 Habits. I think Covey’s book got me seriously thinking about my place and action in my various life-roles. He asked the question of where I was headed. That was important at that time. What was missing, however, was a flexible and useful system to actually get there. He has one in the book, and a friend of mine implemented it ver well (incidentally after i explained it to him). But, well, I’m the wrench, remember? I wasn’t for whatever reason able to implement it very well myself. It worked ok, better than the other little systems I dorked with, but it wasn’t “IT”. Conceptually the book was fantastic. System-wise, wasn’t where I was at. GTD has been the second book to make it’s mark.

GTD helped explain why I was in the state I was in. It explained how I could organize my world around me to effectively lessen my burden and give me the biggest chance of accomplishing the tasks before me. I had brain-overload. I had so much stuff in my head, so much to remember… tasks that continually weighed on my mind during everything I did. As a graduate-student trying to get my doctorate, my time is not my time. So any time I did anything other than work, I felt depressed. Anytime I did work, the weight of the burden before me slowed my progression. Too much was going on in my head, and it was overwhelming me. Sometimes it attempts to do so still; however, I now have a methodology to bring it under control. All thanks to GTD.

Since my implementation pretty much just gave me a reason to write stuff in my current moleskines, buy some 3×5’s, a cheap-o printer, and download some software, I was in good. Implementation ease: extremely easy. Now, processing everything you have in your physical and mental world- perhaps not so easy. The brain-dumps are fantastic, and they free up brain-space, but the physical dumps are much more difficult. I’m still processing; wonder when I’ll be done. Part of my problem was not devoting the time D.Allen requests to get the system implemented all at once. Rarely do we/are we able to take out the time to do this. I’m convinced it’s a good move, but I have to admit most people when trying a new system are not going to stop their lives for 3 days to implement something they haven’t tried yet. Now that I’m in it, I can see how it would be useful to do so.

What are your current tools for your system?

Well, these are always in flux, and I’m continually looking for a 100% buy-in system where nothing gets lost. Right now for me, the critical aspect of my system is kGTD, Quicksilver, Thunderbird, ShirtPocket Briefcase and 3×5’s, Bibdesk, and the odd-moleskine.

BibDesk/LaTeX, etc.: As I’m still in academics, writing and reading articles is a critical part of moving forward in my career. So of course, my filing system is critical. Since most academic journals are now online in some manner (pdf), and since I write my articles in LaTeX (with iTeXMac), I use BibDesk, a useful tool for the bibtex bibliography system for TeX. BibDesk auto-files my articles by first-author in my Mac, and allows various methods of searching within the system, and auto-completes in any program I specify with it’s autocompletion plugin. So, as I write, I can cite within my articles from my article database or pull up all my articles on subject X for my coworkers and paste in a citation list for them into my e-mail messages. It also takes rsi and isi citation files easily- minimizing my work on inputting citations. I will be implementing a similar physical filing system for my paper-articles A-Z by first-author, and will use bibtex to make some index sheets for ease of finding articles by first-author on subject X for instance. So far I haven’t needed too many paper articles (most articles after 1980 or so are in etext by now), with the possible exception of some strange Russian or Japanese article (hard to read anyway).

Email/Thunderbird: I use Yamb plugin for Thunderbird and the system-wide notification system, Growl, to notify me when e-mail comes in. I filter out list-serv messages and adverts I wish to keep into areas outside of the Inbox- into it’s own folder in Local Folders, and have Yamb set to notify me only when something hits my inbox. When I have my inbox to zero, this means that most messages coming in will be easily acted upon or manually filtered (if I have the time) into kGTD for review, or into an @action folder. Of course if less than 2 minutes, it’ll send a reply if I’m not currently busy. I find that Growl is a nice way to control how my e-mail controls me. It pops up a nice little notification box that goes away on it’s own, and all is happily ignored if it’s not from someone I am expecting or urgent. This helps the urgent (but not necessarily important) to stay in the background while I’m working. [Some things from Covey have stuck.]

kGTD and Quicksilver: two beautiful and wonderful programs. First a note on Quicksilver (QS)- I don’t really know how I got along without it. Honestly. I can get to everything I need now without surfing folders and can launch and do many tasks with a few key-presses. It is so satisfying to be able to pop up the Quicksilver action panes, get things done, and then go back to normal use. Anyone who hasn’t tried this application, well, I may have to disown you as a friend. Ok, just kidding. But, you need to try it. A few QS specific things I do: one, I have a “Thoughts etc.” file that I can pull up with a simple trigger and append text to- so if I need a general area to spew forth ramblings, I can do so very quickly and have it out of my brain and onto other things [many blog-topics hit this file first]. I also have my kGTD inbox insert script on a trigger, allowing me to input tasks directly into kGTD without leaving an application or opening up any files. It’s there in my inbox ready for my review. Onto kinkless GTD: A fantastic and free implementation of GTD ontop of a wonderful program for lists and outlines: Omni Outliner Pro (OOp). Ethan is to be commended for all his hard work and scripting power! To top it off, I can print my action lists out onto 3×5’s, and carry them with me quite easily. The link with Quicksilver is a fantastic selling point for kGTD for me. Seamless and doesn’t obstruct workflow… wonderful thing.

iCal: kGTD of course syncs with iCal… I have figured out how to print my iCal calendar onto a 3×5 card. I print two weeks on one card (front and back), and throw them in with my 3×5’s action lists. Currently I don’t really utilize the syncing ability between kGTD and iCal that much- other than it’s easy to get to iCal todo’s in various ways. As well, with the due-date option, and the importance settings now in the newest release of kGTD it’s a bit easier to see what needs doing the most in comparison to earlier versions. Again, I don’t for whatever reason use this feature that much.

Lo-fi- Papyrus: Sometimes in order to balance out the high-tech, you need some lo-tech. I tend to either have 3×5’s in my back pocket, or a Moleskine cahier. I found the hard-back Moleskines, while georgeous, are a bit difficult to carry in the back-pocket where I tend to want my real-world input device. I do feel it’s critical to have this, many times I find myself in the hall-way describing some crazy experiment I need run, or discussing questions for one of the researchers here. Woe to me if I miss some excellent expertise because of my shoddy memory. So, it goes down onto paper in the middle of the hallway. This one area… the union of Lo-fi and Hi-fi, is next on my list to fix. I’m currently thinking of scanning in cahier pages, or 3×5’s with drawings and adding meta-tags for easier searching. I recently implemented Levenger’s Ballistic Shirt Pocket Briefcase (BSPB). I’m very happy I bit the bullet on the price and got one. [I hear there are cheaper versions out there as well.] There are three pockets in the BSPB. One keeps my kGTD lists and any current inbox list I’m running by hand. The middle pocket keeps my spare empty cards. The last pocket keeps my written on/drawn notes etc. (non-lists). It’s flexible so it doesn’t make me sit like I was born with my left-side a bit larger than my right… and it uses wonderful leather in various places [too bad it's not all leather- I believe the all-leather versions have only 2 pockets]. Definitely the thing to have if you’re into 3×5’s. I place my iCal calendar for that week on the front, so I can see my time-obligations very quickly.

Lo-fi- Writing Implements: (Pelikan m150 and Parker Vector) Ahhh, the joy of fountain-pens. My Pelikan m150 makes it a joy to write down anything. Nothing on paper is a chore now. Filled with Noodler’s Legal Lapis, and I have a permanent way to keep my beautiful notes. Yes, I’m insane, I know- don’t knock it ’till you try it. I’m soon going to own the pen of all pens- a Parker 51.

Speaking of tools. GTD is one of the few systems which gives you flexibility to use tools that are to your liking, and suit your needs. This is one of the things about David Allen’s work that makes it very flexible and implementation-friendly. As well, up until recently, I never really understood the need for tools that I would love. I personally feel this step is very critical to the every-day use of your system. If you like writing in Perl, you may implement a perl-driven method of running your lists… or if you like the feel of fine leather, perhaps you’ll buy some Levenger goodness (or similar). Your interest and like of your tools will make them hard to put down, and make them hard not to use. This one step may spur you forward. That’s one reason that I love fountain-pens. They just scream out: “Use me! Write with me! I’m sitting here capped, and you could be seeing my nice gold nib lay a smooth line of gorgeous blue-black ink on your page!”

One little small comment- automation. It’s a beautiful thing. I currently own a Roomba and my apt. has never been cleaner. It’s a great joy to just push a button, and have something done for you while you’re off doing other things (like getting ready to start your day). I highly recommend automation if possible in areas which may free up your time. Heck, I just cleaned my stairs while my Roomba was cleaning my apt. For those who know me, this may indicate a scary place freezing over in the near future…

What is the state of affairs like now, post-GTD?

Finally I have a system that allows me to handle the myriad of tasks that I must complete. They go into areas that make sense for the places I need to accomplish them, and they’re easily reviewed and kept in mind when I have time available to complete tasks. The system explains to me how I need to sort my tasks, and how to list them as actions which are complete-able instead of general items which imply so many smaller tasks that I just stare blankly at- stunned by how much I must do. There’s a small peace and relaxation in that. Things are there, not lost in my faulty memory- not weighing down my shoulders in a way that stuns me into inaction.

The areas I’m lacking at the moment- a home work area. As a grad-student funds are a bit crazy, and I still don’t have a single home work-area. This will change in the next 3 months. Master plan “La Grande Porte” will be implemented. The Big-Door… 2 filing cabinets, 1 door.. bam- desk. I am really looking forward to it. Most of this is motivated by places to put stuff. One of the most important concepts that make GTD so successful for many of us disorganized fools (yes, I am one), is that it forces us to make places to put our stuff- especially our mental stuff. The big problem with organization for me, I’ve found, is not having the box, or place to put something. So drawers become disorganized catch-alls that you’re scared to look into. [Just like our minds, when we didn't have a place to put all our thoughts/tasks we were supposed to remember.] So, in placing a work-area in my apt., I hope to run through the inbox steps on everything, and get things together. The prospect is very exciting.

There’s more that isn’t here, and hopefully I’ll have time to share it with you all in the future. I applaud everyone’s efforts in trying to get things done, and thank you for this opportunity to share and to learn from all of you. BTW, I’m more like a brown-belt if anything. In fact, my family would say I’m a clear-belt. [that's one step below white, BTW, ha ha ha...]

-Allen