Extreme GTD Makeover

Most GTDers I know go through periodic changes of their systems, either by moderate incremental tweaks, or by the occasional, revolutionary, "back to the drawing board" re-think of their tools and methods. Personally I have done this with my Outlook-based GTD system 5 or 6 times in the past 3 years.

But my latest re-invention was by far the biggest since I started GTD. This time, I really think I've nailed it. What's more, for the first time, I have switched to paper. And I'm loving it.

Those who know me would never imagine that I would use an analogue tool for anything that has an even half-functional digital equivalent. (I have a accelerometer-based spirit level app on my iPhone for crying out loud - and I've used it!)

But like many others I have discovered some of the magical and practical properties of pen & paper. For example, on paper, if you suddenly notice an association between two things in a page of notes, you can simply draw a line or arrow to link them without having to think about how.

My new system, which I've been using for about a month now, is a return to GTD basics. I call it "almost-pure" because for the first time I am following almost all of the techniques in the book almost exactly, with just a few important modifications. So here it is:

Motivation

There were 3 main problems that drove the design of this system:

1. The nature of my job has changed, taking me away from my desk for most of the day. I'm in meetings a lot, and needing to return to my desk to check my lists was driving my working hours way up. I needed a portable system, and iPhone apps weren't cutting it.
2. Over 3 years, my previous GTD system had become quite cumbersome. I realised the overhead of maintaining it was getting in the way of actual work, again affecting my work hours. I needed an extremely lightweight system, that I could get up-to-date really fast.
3. I found that many Actions were lingering on my lists, becoming less and less relevant as they aged. I needed a way to keep my system fresh and alive, where an important Action is not lost in the noise of numbed-out actions that had lost their meaning.

Ingredients

You will need:

• 1 Calendar (for this, I still prefer electronic, for the ability to have pop-up reminders)
• 1 Notebook
• 2 Pens (different colours for notes, etc.)
• 1 Highlighter (optional)

In your notebook you will need:

• 1 Projects List
• 1 Actions List
• 1 Someday/Maybe List

Preparation & Set-up

Get a new notebook - fresh and clean. I like to give mine the Swiss Army treatment, by sticking a simple year calendar for this year and next year inside the front cover, and a list of phone numbers of people I call a lot inside the back cover.

Make sure your pens work. Nothing is more frustrating than having a thought/idea and not being able to write it down because of a crappy pen. I actually prefer a cheap, reliable, replaceable (read: losable) standard-issue office supply pens, but if you really love your Mont Blanc, use that.

At the top of page 1 of your notebook, write "Projects". At the top of page 2 or 3, write "Actions". I like to highlight both of these headings, to make them easier to find - more on that later. On the last page of your notebook, make a "Someday/Maybe" page.

Aside from your notebook, I'm going to assume you already have an electronic calendar with pop-up alerts set as default. I'll also assume you have the other standard GTD equipment ready: a physical inbox tray and "pending" tray, a filing cabinet set up as described in the book, a labeller if you're into that, and a clean workspace with as few distractions as possible.

Notable Omissions

There are a few things deliberately missing from my system, which are recommended by the book: First, I don't recommend using a "tickler" file. In 3 years of practising and reading about GTD, I have never once heard of anyone actually using a tickler file successfully. It is just a high-maintenance procrastination system, as far as I can tell. Second, I don't use separate Context-based actions lists. I just have a single, big list for all my actions. Third, I don't use a separate Waiting For list, either. More on this later.

Projects List

The first page in my notebook is my Projects List. I use it exactly as described in GTD - as a "stake in the ground" to make sure I don't forget the slightly bigger picture that my Actions List doesn't quite cover.

I write my Projects with a square box, then a one-line definition of the project outcome. I leave a 2cm margin on the left for the hard deadline of the project if it has one. When a Project is complete, I tick the box, and I also enjoy drawing a line through the text - both because it helps draw the eye to incomplete Projects, and also because it is immensely satisfying (one of the less-obvious benefits of a paper system).

Importantly, I don't do anything special to link Projects to Actions. I'm actually starting to think it's better not to have a strong link between them. There is not always a perfect vertical relationship there, so it's more flexible to not impose one. It turns out that if you have a solid Weekly Review habit, you don't need a linkage anyway.

I try to be very strict with myself to make each and every Project specific and outcome-oriented. Every Project I write down is an answer to the question, "How will I know when this is done?" And sometimes, "Why am I doing this?"

Also, I try to keep my Projects fairly low-level. There is usually no need to write down big projects here, since they are usually tracked by everyone on the team at some higher level. The "Projects List" could be renamed to "Commitments List", since it is really a list of commitments I have made to others, or to myself, to deliver something specific. In other words, it's the productivity equivalent of "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves".

Actions List

The page after my Projects List is my Actions List. Most GTDers would agree that the pure definition of "Next Action" is probably the most important lesson of GTD, and so I try to be as pure as possible here. Next Actions should literally be the answer to the question, "If I decided to work on this right now, what would be the first physical thing I would do?" The best thing about this system, is that it has a built-in way to make certain that I am answering that question properly, which I will explain in the next section.

Like Projects, I write my Actions with a square box, then a 1-line (occasionally 2-line) description of the physical action. I keep it concise, but I also try to write down as much detail as possible, so there's no friction when I try to do the action. For example, if the action relates to an email, I put a reference to the email like this: (e: Duncan 8/13 14:35). I leave a larger, 3cm margin on the left, which I use not only for the hard deadline of the action (right next to the box), but also for the Context if it has one.

The margin is one of the important deviations from "pure" GTD. Even though I might have more than 200 actions on my Actions List at any one time, I don't split them into separate lists by Context. Instead, I just have one big list of actions, but I leave a margin on the left to write a Context if I need one. I find that it's actually easier to scan the margin for any actions I can do in my current context, than to try to find the right context list. As a bonus, I might also find some actions I can also do in my current context that I haven't marked as such. It's also easy to scan for actions that have deadlines drawing near.

When I complete an Action, as with Projects, I tick the box and draw a line through the entire action, including the context and deadline date.

Notes

I use my notebook for brainstorming ideas and meeting notes (always on their own page, and always dated) as well, so my Projects and Actions lists get interleaved with with notes as I go. This is why I highlight the "Projects" and "Actions" headings to make them easy to find quickly. I thought about other fancy schemes, like having Projects and Actions lists at the back of the notebook, with notes in the front; but in the end I just find it simpler and easier to let them mix up together (but never on the same page).

Any notes I have taken are essentially inbox items to be processed. Every morning I process my notes from the meetings of the previous day, extracting Projects and Actions as I go. When I've finished processing a page, I draw a big diagonal line through it, so I don't waste time looking at it again.

Action Lifecycle

Almost all of my Contexts are actually specific people - i.e. the person I need to speak to about something to move a situation forward. I always have too many commitments that I can handle by myself, but fortunately I have a team of people, as well as other colleagues, to whom I can delegate or request actions.

I noticed that many of my actions move through a predictable lifecycle:

1. First, they are simply actions on my Actions List.
2. Then, while reviewing my Actions List, I find actions that can be delegated to other people. I write that person's name in the left margin, and that then becomes the Context of that action (i.e. I need to speak to that person about it to explain exactly what I need them to do, and/or how I need them to do it).
3. Finally, having explained the action to that person, it becomes a Waiting For. I simply write "w/" in front of the person's name (which is already in the margin). Next time I am with that person, if they have had enough time to complete it, I can ask them for the status.

This is why I don't need to have separate actions lists for Contexts, nor a separate Waiting For list. My big, single Actions List serves all three purposes, with a minimum amount of rewriting and maintenance overhead. It's so simple and easy. I love it.

The All-Important "Line"

This trick is probably the most important part of the system - certainly the most important deviation from standard GTD. I got the idea from Mark Forster (somewhere between DIT and Autofocus). It is known as the "Closed List", and it is a stupefyingly simple, yet phenomenally powerful tool for keeping the Projects and Actions lists fresh and alive, keeping the motivation up, and forcing the Next Action decision. I cannot stress enough how important this is.

After setting up this system for the first time, transferring all your Projects and Actions to the notebook, you simply draw a big line underneath your Projects List and Actions List, with the current date at the end. I like to make mine stand out, so I use a felt-tip marker for the job. From that point on, all new Projects and Actions are written below the Line. The lists above each Line are called the "Current Projects" and "Current Actions", and the ones below them are called the "New Projects" and "New Actions".

The idea is, I try to complete all of the Current Actions first, before the New Actions. When all of the Current Actions are complete, I draw a big, satisfying, diagonal line through the whole list, then draw a new Line below the New Actions and date it. At this point, the New list has become the Current list, and I have started a new New list. Same goes for Projects, although it will take longer than Actions to close off each list.

Note that I don't forbid myself from doing Actions below the Line - I just prefer not to, since I am motivated to complete the Current list so I can close off the New list before it gets too big. Strictly speaking, there are only 2 good reasons to do something from below the Line:

1. it has a hard deadline very soon or today, or
2. I am currently in the Context (usually, with the person whose name I've written in the margin)

I don't use the Line for my Someday/Maybe list, since it is essentially a random wish-list of things I would like to do, but I don't feel a strong commitment to getting it done. It's a place to go shopping for interesting projects or ideas when I feel the need.

Strange and Wonderful

The Line has a curious influence on my lists. Obviously, it works as a motivational tool - I want to draw that big diagonal line, and I want to close off the New list.

More subtly however, it forces me to re-evaluate the last remaining Actions on the Current list. When I only have a few left, it probably means there is something broken with those few Actions. Given that my notebook has 40 lines per page, if I only have a few Actions left on a page, I must have looked at them and deliberately skipped over them at least 30 times! There are only a few reasons for skipping over an Action so consistently, with simple solutions:

1. Waiting For: If it is simply waiting for someone/something, follow up with that person for the status. If the only Actions left are all waiting, I will probably just rewrite them on the New list, but this is an extreme measure. If there are a lot of these and they keep resurfacing when I'm trying to close off my list, there may be another type of problem in the delegation area - a people problem.
2. Low Priority: If I have been skipping over the Action because it is simply not that important, I need to ask myself if I will ever really do it, and/or if there is any commitment to get it done soon. If not, I can either just cross it off (I usually put an "X" in the box to indicate that it was dropped), or I can move it to Someday/Maybe.
3. Consistently Avoided: If the Action/Project is important, but for some reason I have just been skipping over it again and again, it's very likely that I didn't do the GTD Processing step thoroughly - in other words, this is not really the true Next Action. In this case, I re-evaluate the Action as a possible project, or try to figure out what the real Next Action is. Usually, I find that there is another Next Action before this one, so I write the real one on the New list, and cross off the old one.

This is how Problem #3 above is solved - i.e. Bad Actions are evicted from my list, keeping it fresh and alive.

Weekly Review

Yes, you really, really, really need to do a Weekly Review. Every week. But the good news is that because this system is so lightweight, it now takes me just a couple of hours, where it used to take an entire day. A solid Weekly Review holds the system together - it provides the invisible links between Projects and Actions; it sorts out the good the bad and the ugly when it comes to the quality of my Actions list; and it gives me the freedom to let things get messy during the week, in the name of producing output, because I know that at the end of the week I'm going to clean up and get things back into perfect clean order again.

In short, a good Weekly Review habit replaces the need for a lot of structure in the system. And that reduces overhead.

Priorities and the Issue of Trust

The primary objective of GTD is to get things out of your head. Anything that is stored only in your head attracts stress to it like a magnet. Some people confuse this idea of getting things out of your head with forgetting. The objective is not to forget things. That would be absurd. The objective is to make sure that your head is not the only place important things are stored, so that if you did forget, it wouldn't matter. Knowing that you could forget something and it wouldn't matter demagnetises it, so stress cannot accumulate around it.

But for this to work, you have to trust your system. Sometimes, it seems like adding an important Action to a big list will let it get lost in the noise and forgotten, and this means I can't completely let go of the responsibility of remembering it. To remedy this, I occasionally use a highlighter to highlight the Action after I write it down. This way I know my eye will be immediately drawn to it as I scan my Actions list. This seems to be enough to allow my brain to relax and just trust the system, which is the point. Obviously, I try to use the highlighter as little as possible, otherwise it would stop being effective.

It's important to separate this from the concept of "priority". In GTD, we are encouraged to downplay priority (it is last on the list of factors to consider when deciding what to do at any given moment - Context gets the top spot). Priority is fickle. Priority is dynamic and shifting. Something may be vitally important one minute and just another thing to do the next.

Priority doesn't necessarily mean the sequence of doing things. It means that if you have 10 things to do, and you will only have time to do 7 of them, which 3 will you throw away? Using the Line, the great thing I have come to understand about priority is that I intend to do everything on my lists anyway - so priority is kind of irrelevant. As I scan my lists during the day, I will pick out something to do, which may not be the absolute #1 top priority of the moment every time, but it will generally be near the top. As my list gets crossed off, only the less important things will remain, and I will be in a big hurry to get rid of them so I can get started on my New list. I may decide to drop them, or relegate them to Someday/Maybe, or just get them done and out of the way as fast as I can.

Very often, I notice that I have highlighted something when I wrote it down because I thought it was super important in the moment, but later I realise that it really isn't. That's OK, because at the time, highlighting it allowed my brain to let go and allow me to move on, and that is the primary objective of GTD.