Jan 29 2007
Getting Things Done - Part 1
In September I wrote about killing the clutter in my personal workspace. How did it go? I cleared up all of the gadgets except the most important: LCD monitor, PowerBook, speakers, and cell phone. I needed to add an external Firewire drive for data backup and things like a 50+ GB iTunes library and rapidly expanding iPhoto library.
The satisfaction of shedding tech gadgets was nice while it lasted. I realized that e-mail, documents, paper, and projects were still the same: stacking up and making me cower in fear. Around October I discovered Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders and GTD: Getting Things Done. By the very title I was hooked.
It turns out this wasn’t some creation of Merlin’s but that of David Allen. His book, Getting Things Done, is about just that. Create a workspace that allows you to take things out of your head and into a more permanent system. He cites we’re inundated with things to do and how can we possibly remember them all, let alone get them done?
I realize why clutter kills my motivation: it’s a constant reminder of everything I haven’t done such as those speakers sitting in my bedroom, those unripped CDs, magazines to read, bills to pay, people to call, letters to write, paperwork to file…the list goes on.
According to GTD I need to “get to zero” and the first item to tackle is a better (read: simpler) filing system. Stay tuned.
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[...] January I wrote about implementing GTD. I didn’t take any photos but if you close your eyes and imagine perfectly labelled file [...]