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What is GTD? November 20, 2005

GTD is the acronym, and common nickname, for Getting Things Done, a time and personal organization management methodology, written by David Allen. The book of the subject can be found at Amazon here, David Allen’s company is here, and his own explanation of what GTD is can be found here.

I personally use the GTD methodology, with a few minor tweaks to my own circumstances and preferences, as is common to many practitioners of it. I use a Blackberry as my primary communications tool; it often becomes my always-available capture device (read the book…), as it is always with me. But, depending on the circumstances, I may also use a HipsterPDA, again, modified to my own purposes (which is the whole point of the hPDA), or Microsoft OneNote, or MindJet MindManager — the important thing, in GTD terms and techniques, is that no matter who I create actions or record information, everything ultimately ends up in one Inbox, for later processing. In my case, I use Microsoft Outlook, and the NetCentrics GTD Add-In.

The book retails for less than ten dollars. There are a multitude of sites, blogs and discussion groups around the web discussion the application of the methodology; you could read those without having read the book first, but the maximum benefit comes with the book. It’s an easy read, although actually implementing the processes for the first time may require you to set aside a weekend, or a series of evenings (everyone’s circumstances are different). If you only read one organizational management guide book, this would be the one I recommend.

The rest of the “GTD” category on this site will have comments about specific situations and scenarios relating to the implementation and use of GTD, and any relevant articles about the topic I see and recommend. The separate “Time Management” category will contain more general observations and links.

Check it out, let me know what you think - comments are always welcome.

(Sidebar: This is a backdated post. I’m actually writing it at 12:20 on November 20th. I want to put this into the early part of the GTD category as an explanatory post, as I intend to refer someone to this, and the whole category block. I’m also interested to see if the post, being backdated like this, turns up correctly in the RSS feed, if at all, as a basis for future knowledge).

Technorati Tags: Time Management, GTD

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