Why using ToDo Lists & GTD?

First things I wanna put straight:

  • I sometimes have issues keeping track of what I’m supposed to do, when to do it and in which order.
  • Sometimes I heard about GTD on twitter or in blogposts, but when I tried to read into it I thought that I don’t really feel like learning another complicated system for stuff that I can solve with small slips of paper.
  • I always wanted to use my iPhone for ToDo-lists, as I use it for everything else in organisation: contacts, calendar … so why not todo-lists?
  • I feel that I can be doing things faster if I used some kind of organised approach to my todo-listings, therefore I just thought: why not try out another fancy internet-solution? And synch it with an iPhone-app, so I always have my lists at hand?

Thats exactly what I’ve done. After all, these apps and internet solutions build on the same GTD-principles, and therefore learning GTD seems to be important for programmers of those tools, but not for the end user like me. But of course the solution to my problem wasn’t only to download some software, as you’ll have to think about what software solutions you use and for which set of tasks this works. After all, many things like appointments fall into the realm of calendars; and many “small tasks” should not be set on a todo-list at all, as those tasks are too small (“check todo list”; checking this item is superflous) or too large (“be happy”; falls into the realm of so called goals). Then some software has limitations about what you can do with your todo list (like outlook). So everything need to be planned a bit, so you get a solution you can use.t

And this is the main issue. Usability. I need a system that can remind me what I have to do for the day and that doesn’t take loads of time to configure. So far I can’t make a clear statement, but I see some issues and problems here and there – while other parts of my solution seem to work perfectly. I’ll tell you in my next post if the solution I try is usable or if its utter nonsense to try to use online & mobile applications to get yourself remebered and organised.

, Posted Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 under Reviews.

4 comments

  1. I like your logic very much! Gosh, I think we all need help in the organization department. The number of times I have written a to do list and then altered it at the end of the day to fit the criteria of what I actually managed!

  2. Thanks! The follow-up-post can be found here: ToDo And GTD

  3. Brilliant, like the follow up post. Really interesting..must be organized from now on! No excuses anymore really are there..

Leave a Reply