Tasks - PFP Assignment

1. Check out the GTD Flowchart 1 posted below. This flowchart outlines the task management system from Getting Things Done, David Allen, 2002, our course textbook on personal organization. You can find more GTD tips and freebies at Allen’s website as well.

To use GTD on your Personal Futures wiki you would want the following wiki pages:

1. Next Actions (Tasks)
2. Waiting For (or, this page can be the top section of your Next Actions page, which I recommend for simplicity)
3. Projects (+Skills)
4. Someday/Maybe (Ideas+Questions)
5. Reference

Plus:

6. An Online Calendar (Google Calendar is excellent and easy to set up)

Again, to use GTD on your wiki, you may want to add the Waiting For page, OR just include it as the top section your Next Actions / Tasks page (most of us don't have many "Waiting Fors" that we have to track, unless we are managing people who work for us). You should also add a Reference page, a place where you store reference information that you might use in the future. You already have the other three pages on the wiki already. Feel free to rename your Tasks page to “Next Actions” and Ideas+Questions to “Someday/Maybe” and to reorder your top wikipages so they are in the order you see above. Then put the flowchart on your wall, or on or above your computer, and look at it every time you organize your inbox (once a day, for most people), until you know it by heart.

Does the flowchart make sense to you? Does it look like a system you might use to organize your daily flow ofthings to do? If you used it, do you think it might help you “declutter your mind” and make you happier and more productive, as Allen claims? Write one paragraph on your impression of this system so far, having looked over this flowchart and having read at least a little of the GTD book in this class.




Yes, the flow chart does make a certain amount of sense to me. Moreso, at least, than the jumbled, "organic" mass that is GTDMasterFlowchart #3. It looks like a basic outline of a system I would use. There's really little to go by in the way of clarifying information as to what they mean by each term or step, so I guess it's assumed that these things will be intuitive. However, I think some of the steps are placed in chronological order of each other for the sake of the format of the chart, rather than being held as separate steps displayed laterally as I feel might be more appropriate. I think that using this chart might help me start to be more productive, but I might need a more involved version in order to really feel that it was doing me any good. The basic idea of the system is good; the specifics are left to be determined by execution. However, I feel at this point any systematic approach would be better than nothing at all.


2. Take a look at the GTD Flowchart 2 posted below. This is a more advanced version of Workflow 1. It gives even more detail on how to Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do all your life’s activities. Notice that at the bottom, it also gives twelve very useful strategies for how to eliminate the stress you feel when you are disorganized or overworked. If you want to try GTD, put this flowchart on your wall as well.

Write a paragraph on your impression of this flowchart. Does it confuse you to look at, or does it seem pretty logical? Does it leave anything out that you can think of? Does it have too much or too little detail? Does it inspire you to want to trythe GTD system, or turn you off?





This second version of the flowchart, just by glancing at it, immediately seems a bit less confusing and more informational and structured. It is not as loose or organic as the first, which might complicate the order and way in which I receive the information. It has a definite, geometric shape (which would make identifying a certain task or concept and pinpointing it infinitely easier), and the fact that it is more detailed unlike the previous version helps clarify the meanings of potentially vague concepts or directives. There are still some things it could explain more clearly, but this version, more than the last, is more likely to spur me into organizing my thoughts, information, and tasks. I would be more likely to post this version on my Tasks page or on my bedroom wall. I feel a little Feng Shui about the whole deal: if something is going to help you organize, it should probably be well organized. The first one is decently-organized, but I believe the second to be superior in this respect. Sure, it's geometrical, it's boring. I like it.


3. GTD Flowchart 3is one advanced user’s “map” for how to use the system. I wouldn’t bother to look at it until you’ve skimmed GTD all the way through. If you decide to start using GTD, it’s worth a quick look. It will probably help you understand the system a little better, and show you how you can customize it.





Yeah, this bad boy is a bear, don't know if I'll ever quite understand it.

4. Simplest, Fastest GTD System of All.
If you want to use GTD with a computer instead of in your PF wiki, you can simplify the system to just three word files with the following names, plus your online Google Calendar:

1. Next Actions (+ Waiting For, which can be the first section on this page, at the top)
   
2. Projects
3. Someday

If you've got a personal computer/laptop/smartphone, “Reference” becomes whatever filing system you already use on your computer, such as the Notes section in your Address books on your email program, the folders on your hard drive, etc. Install Google Desktop (a very fast and free search program), and all your computer files become searchable Reference material. A big advantage of using GTD on a computer (I use it on my laptop) is that you can set the margins for your Next Actions page as wide as you want (I set mine to 15 inches). That way each Next Action/Task that you have to describe can fit on ONE LINE, in readable 12 point type. If you need to rearrange / reprioritize your Tasks during or at the end of your day, and cross out Tasks you’ve done, it’s very easy and fast to cut, move, and paste your Tasks because they are each on a single line. That makes your Next Actions page so simple and fast that you may find you use it daily, as many do.
(Nothing to write here, just read this item).

If you want to start using this wiki page for your Next Actions / Tasks, go ahead and start writing them at the top if this page. May you have a happy, peaceful and productive future!