bignoseduglyguy

Getting things done - my way

As a long time user personal digital assistants (PDAs), I always used to find myself feeling a little cheated when I bought a new model to upgrade or replace the last. Whether it was my original Psion 3a clamshell or the Palm, HandEra, iPaq and Clie that followed, the device never quite lived up to the unwritten but hinted-at promise that goes hand in hand with PDA ownership: I WILL MAGICALLY ORGANISE YOUR LIFE. Now I don't believe I am flattering myself when I say that I am a fairly intelligent and clued-up kind of person but one always hoped that just a small part of this allure would prove to be true - that the latest shiny package of sleek hardware and cutting edge software would automatically bestow me with a greater ability to manage the tasks and projects in my professional and personal life.

Like many folks, it has taken me the best part of forty years on the planet to work out that there is no such thing as 'time management'. I slowly came to the realisation that if I wanted to bring a larger element of control to what I do on a daily basis, I actually needed to concentrate on remembering and prioritising stuff - rather than trying to squeeze more time out of each twenty-four hours. Not only that, I would probably need a few ideas to get me on the right track. However, as I am pathologically allergic to self help and time management books, I was reluctant to explore such avenues. My aversion goes back a few years to when I joined a US-based team in Washington and was taken to store to get the requisite $300 dayplanner and both the text and tape versions of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Ready to undergo a Pauline conversion on the road to time management Damascus, I plunged into the book only to become disappointed somewhere around Chapter 3 when I finally realised that this wasn't a satirical take on US corporate life. I just couldn't get to grips with what seemed to be a awfully complex way of trying to achieve simplicity and decided to carry on doing things in my own maverick fashion.

Then, last year, I came across an online group populated by those who use PDAs to implement the 'time and stress management' principles outlined in the best-selling Getting Things Done by David Allen. Despite reservations based on the Seven Habits experience, I bought the book, posted to the group and eventually had to admit that when you stripped away the quasi-zen stuff, David Allen had combined a bunch of common sense with some logical but not obvious techniques into a fairly workable system. Over the Christmas break, I put these into practise and, for the first time, was actually able to measure a distinct improvement in my focus and productivity. Like most of those who read or post to the GtD_Palm Yahoo group, I have taken the core principles and have been implementing them in my own fashion, changing certain elements to suit my particular needs and have found that I have been able to significantly and positively influence my own behaviour. Nobody is more surprised than me - though She Who Must Be Obeyed was a little suspicious when I started doing request DIY tasks on time and planning time off more than a few days ahead. As with any such endeavour and in order to bring consistent improvement and benefit, one needs to first make it consciously habitual and then work towards making it subconsciously automatic. I have 'fallen off the wagon' a few times, especially recently when I was under a significant and unpleasant amount of pressure to 'deliver the goods' in taking over and turning around what was seen to be a failing team. Ironically, it is situations such as these when perhaps I would have benefitted most from adhering to the principles but there you go, I'm only human and I survived none the less.

For those interested in the fine detail, I use a Sony Clie running Jeff Mitchell's most excellent Shadow Plan to track all my projects, not to mention a host of other checklist and records. From Shadow, I link out to CryptoPad, the encryptable MemoPad replacement and ActionNames/Agendus, my preferred DateBook, Contacts and To Do replacement. As to how I use these to implement GTD my way, I've got a Someday/Maybe action to post my methods to the GtD_Palm group...now all I need to do is prioritise it and set a target date...