A lot of people read the Getting Things Done (GTD) book and like the concepts that are presented but are at a loss as to how to get started. In GTD, David Allen does not espouse a specific system of productivity but rather provides guidelines for how to execute a system that you need to create. The biggest issue I hear from friends and family who have read the GTD books is that there is too much going on in their lives right now to get a system started, making GTD a great idea but too hard to put into pratice.

Unless you are a C-level executive and can afford someone from Davidco to come over and coach you through the conversion, getting started with GTD can be a formitable barrier. In the next four Wednesday posts, I will lead you through one way to get started with GTD by taking the essential GTD principles and presenting a simple system you can use right away to start putting them into practice.  This simple system is not “true GTD,” but rather a short -cut to help you get started.  As you master each small part, you should read the GTD book and upgrade your GTD system.

In this first post, we are going to tackle getting control of your inputs, those things that are coming at you that you need to get done that are keeping you from getting your system developed.

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So I was doing my normal scanning of my RSS feeds in iGoogle, when I found an article on Lifehacker.com called, GTD:How To Fail at Getting Things Done.  As a GTD black belt,  jumped over to read the article (which was a good article).  In the article there is a link regarding the Weekly Review.  I clicked it, only to find that it led me to my own comments about the Weekly Review, from a previous Lifehacker back in July.

Referenced by Lifehacker.com?   Check.

Now that makes for a good weekend…

I love Remember The Milk (RTM). It’s a ToDo list Web2.0 service. It is a linchpin of my GTD system. Today, the fine folks Down Under, released some software updates to the system.

The whole list can be found here, but some of my favorites include:

• Wide Screen Support. At home I have a modest 19″ wide screen monitor, but at work I have a beefy 24″ widescreen monitor. RTM now has a wide format for accommodating wide-screen monitors. It is nice, and the extra real estate is used well.
• Tags Now Visible In Task List. Tags are a must for me, as I use them to establish relationships between certain tasks, and for use in Smart Searches. Now the tag names appear in-line with the task name, as well as off to the side, in the information box.
• Tag Management. A new Settings screen that allows for better management of tags. You can now merge synonymous tags. You can delete tags you no longer want, and you can create new tags on the spot. I spent 10 minutes cleaning up my tags.

If you are looking for a To Do list manager that is chocked full of features, and easy to use, get over to RTM and check them out.

I wanted this week to talk about what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite web services. The funny part is, that I almost never visit the site. The service is called Jott, and if you are not familiar with the service, allow me to gush for a few minutes about what an awesome idea it is, and some of the ways I have put this site to good use, including one way that it patched one of my leaks in my GTD system.

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