Productivity 101

If the circumstances of your life change so does your GTD system. If the changes in your life are relatively small, adjusting the GTD system is not that difficult. But bigger changes like a change of jobs can create quite some stress. It also takes time to get to the point again where you feel control over the work that needs to be done.

I have experienced this first hand in the last half year. It has taken considerable time and effort to adjust the system that I was used to. Not having control makes that the mind like water state of mind can be very far away.

In my new job the standard is Windows. For an OSX guy this was quite a challenge. At home we have several Apple computers. After trying hard for about 6 months I have come to the conclusion that Windows only is not going to work for me, for now at least. But I am really used to have one system for work and personal stuff. Having two systems for me creates stress, because I miss a complete overview of what is going on in my life.

In order to be able to have one system I had to take most of the GTD workflow online. Because of the fact that the summertime is less busy this was the time to try out taking the workflow online and I have to be honest, it wasn’t that hard. In this post I will give you a basic overview of the different parts of the system. Later on I can dive into the specifics of the different parts.

• Mail: Gmail is the one place where I handle and store all email.
• Calendar: Google Calendar.
• Tasks/Lists/Notes: Evernote. They offer  a native client for OSX and Windows and they have web based version.
• Projects: Evernote. For tracking progress on projects as well as storing info on projects.
• Files: I use Dropbox for sharing files between Windows and the Mac, but they have also a web client.
• Documents: Google Docs when online, otherwise the Office suite that is sitting on the computer I am working at.
• Instant Messaging: Meebo. Just sits in a browser window.

There is just one area where I haven’t figured out a trusted system and that are my contacts. For now my Treo 680 is the trusted place for storing all my contacts. I am looking into storing and syncing my contacts to Google or to a service like Plaxo.

As you will notice when you browse to the different sites most of them are in beta. So you have to be comfortable using services that are still in beta. I must say that my experience with beta in the Web 2.0 era is that your data is OK. But to be on the safe side I have a Mozy Unlimited account so all my data is safely stored away somewhere online.

The result is that I have everything available whenever I am sitting behind a computer with an Internet connection. So at work it is my Dell, at home the iMac or an old iBook G4.

written by Fokke \\ tags: GTD