random thoughts on working, gtd, getting things done, hobbies, semiconductor industry,scripting etc.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

getting things done... My experiments with David Allens GTD system

I have experimented with various systems to keep track of my Action Items/Schedules and TODO Lists below are the things I have experimented till date.

Things I have been using

  1. freemind: Mind mapping tool
  2. monkey gtd +prism:
  3. taskjuggler
  4. ganttproject
  5. taglog
My understanding of the GTD system.
  1. Collect: Collect thoughts This could be either
    1. Planned: Where I spend a pre allocated time to jot down my thoughts. For example spending an hour today to make a list of what I should do before going on a holiday. For Planned collection of thoughts freemind is the best tool.

    2. Unplanned: You are working on something and suddenly remember that you need to get a new pair of socks for that trip. for unplanned thought collection it is a mix of what is handy when the thought occurs... I have tried paper and monkey GTD and am finally moving to a mix of launchy and perl scripts


  2. Classify: Here the captured thought's are moved into either Action Items or filed for reference. This has to be a planned event so a job for either freemind or monkey GTD

    Action Items can be classified into multiple categories
    1. based on duration: Short term (Less than a day), mid term ( a day or two), Long term (weeks/months/Years)
    2. Based on priority: urgent important, urgent not important, important not urgent, not urgent not important
    3. Based on who should do it: me, delegate

  3. Track: Traking requires regular review of the action items and can take the form of todo list or capturing the activities done per day.

The problem I am facing is that there is no unified GTD system I can use while working. Let use see what a few perl scripts can do about it

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