In a
previous post, I wrote a little about the basics of
Getting Things Done (GTD), David Allen's ubiquitous productivity system.
(Don't mind me, ubiquitous is my new favorite word. If you have a favorite word, suggest it in the comments--my husband will thank you for it.) People that know me will be shocked to learn that I don't use pencil and paper when I'm GTD - I use technology.
Specifically, I use two free web services,
Sandy and
Jott to get my ideas out of my head, and to organize them into contexts, next actions, and projects. I also use
Google Apps for calendar and email. To stay motivated to process my inboxes every day, I use
Don't Break the Chain. I use very, very little in the way of paper notetaking.
I keep my laptop on my kitchen counter through the day. I use a tabbed browser, and when I boot up my computer in the morning, I get my mail tab, my calendar tab, and Don't Break the Chain. That's it. I'm not allowed to open up any forums, blogs, or news sites until 2:00 p.m. You never met someone who could fritter away ten hours at a pop reading forums and blogs until you met me!
Gotta love Sandy. It's like having a personal assistant, except she's digital! I just want to be able to change her to "Enrique" and I'll be all set.
Here's how it works: I need to get something done. I email it to Sandy. The kind of things I email to her look like this:
Sandy, remember groceries *eggs *butter *bananas
Sandy, remember to TALK to Mike about the kitchen remodel @Mike
Sandy, remember to INVITE my mom to lunch @email @todo
Sandy, remember to CALL to make a well-baby doctor appointment 555-1234 @phone @todo
Sandy, remember to CALL Carol tomorrow to ask her to babysit 777-8888 @phone @todo
Sandy, remember to BUY "S" hooks @errands @todo
Sandy, remember to PREPARE a veggie dish for church next Wednesday @home @todo
Sandy, remember John Smith's new phone number is 444-5678 @contacts
Sandy, remember @errands @reminder Tuesday *library *chiropractor *Lowe's *grocery
Sandy, remember no violin lessons week of 2/3 @reminder @calendar
This is, quite literally, a brain dump. I will send such an email to Sandy whenever I think of something that needs to be remembered. I email her any number of things, any time of the day.
What's nice about Sandy is she doesn't just keep my brain dump in a jumbled mess. She organizes it for me, and can regurgitate it on command, as well as send me a nice list each morning.
When I wake up, sitting in my email inbox is a cordial message from Sandy, telling me my agenda for the day. I have a nice, neat todo list categorized into my contexts (@errands, @home, @phone, etc.).
What's more, I can call up any number of lists throughout the day, whenever I like. Say I am laying down with the baby to nurse him for his nap, and I have time to send some emails or do some work on the computer (gotta love a laptop with a wireless card!). I simply email Sandy and say, "Sandy, lookup @email" or "Sandy, lookup @computer." She will immediately email me a list of everything I have on my todo list that I can do at the computer or via email.
I hate making phone calls. So when I have one to make, I might as well make several and get it over with. When the kids are all at the lunch table, I know I have about fifteen minutes. I'll email Sandy and say, "Sandy, lookup @phone" and promptly receive a list of all the phone calls, with phone numbers, I need to make.
While I'm on the phone, say I make an appointment at the doctor, get asked to coordinate meals for a mom with a new baby, find out someone's family needs prayer, and agree to return a book I borrowed from a friend on errand day. As all these things are happening on the telephone, I'm emailing Sandy like wildfire! I'll say:
Sandy, remember a week from Tuesday at 2:20 pediatrician @reminder @calendar
Sandy, remember set up new project coordinate meals for Jane @JaneMeals @home @todo
Sandy, remember @errands *return book to Sam @todo
Sandy, remember to pray for the Johnson family @prayer
But wait. . .there's more!
What if I'm not at home by my trusty laptop? Well, I call Sandy! Seriously!
It's a service called Jott, where you leave a 30-second voice message, and the folks at Jott transcribe your voice message and email it (or text it) to someone. I have Jott in my speed-dial in my cell phone. I call Jott. They say "who do you want to Jott" and I say "Sandy." It's time to record my message, and I say "remember to call Jane tomorrow @reminder."
No, I'm not kidding. I really call Sandy.
But wait. . .even more!
Ever been out and about and decided to stop at the store? This happens
to me all the time. Maybe I need to pay my mortgage (the bank's
closest branch is inside a grocery store). Maybe I know I'm out of my
crack
Coke and I'll get a monster caffeine headache if I don't pick some up.
Anyway, now I'm thinking, "oh, geez, here I am at the store and I
know we're out of something but what is it. . .
Sandy
will send my grocery list to my telephone via text message.
Seriously! I can call Jott and say, "Sandy, lookup groceries @sms" and
she'll send me my list! I can also do this with errands, "Sandy,
lookup errands @sms."
There can't be more, can there?
I use Sandy like a "file cabinet" as well. For example, most of the
recipes I use regularly I get from a parenting forum I frequent, or
from allrecipes.com or a similar website. Guess what? Every recipe I
get, I email it to Sandy to keep for me. Yep, she'll keep them filed
under "recipes" and in alphabetical order. I can even give them a
secondary tag, like the website where I got it, or what kind of recipe
it is, as you can tag something as many times as you like. My email to
Sandy will look something like this:
Sandy, remember Oatmeal
Fudge Bars @recipes @yaapsrecipes @desserts (that's the subject line -
the actual recipe a copy and paste into the body of the email).
Sandy will keep this recipe for me, until I ask her to "lookup @recipes" or "lookup @desserts."
I keep all manner of things like this. The measurements of the bedroom
windows. The size of tires Mike's car takes. And guess what? Sandy
will text any of these things to my cell phone if I happen to be out
away from my computer and needing the info.
Where does Don't Break the Chain come in? Well, I get to "X out" another day if I used some time that morning to get all my inboxes processed an empty. That means email inbox, empty. Mailbox, empty. Inbox, empty. Voicemail mailbox {sigh, this is a hard one for me}, empty. Everything processed and sitting on a context/next action list waiting for me.
So if you're GTD the low-tech way, please ignore this whole post. Seriously. This system works for me because I worked in an office for years, and I had an assistant for many of those years. I am totally used to spewing a "brain dump" on my assistant so he/she could help me remember important things in an organized way. It's just something I've grown accustomed to doing. Not to mention, I've organized my life and the lives of my coworkers using a computer calendar, task list, and email client for years! It's second-nature to me, so there's very little in the way of a learning curve.
If low-tech ain't broke, don't fix it. But if you're used to using a laptop/cellphone/pda/smartphone/blackberry, and you'd like to try GTD the high-tech way, I highly recommend both Sandy (Enrique as soon as I can figure out how to rename/regender her!) and Jott.
Comments (1)
umm...that is pretty cool! i'm checking it out now!!!