Getting Things Done

I have recently become a David Allen fan. This happened mostly thorugh the instigation of Merlin at 43 Folders, whose list of 5ives I’d been reading a while, but only discovered the main site fairly recently. David Allen is the author of a book called Getting Things Done, a book I just can’t recommend enough if you’re looking to become more productive.

I did it all- I did the personal review, I set up a tickler file, I reorganized my whole workspace and re-processed all my “stuff”. I now live by next actions. I even duplicated the workflow chart and printed it out and taped it up in front of my workspeace.

Forgetting things used to be just part of my modus operandi. I thought of it as part of my inimitable charm. But there’s really nothing very charming about it, and sometimes you really need to retire the personal cliches. I still forget things, but I feel like I’ve really made progress in that regard.

I haven’t gone as far as the Hipster PDA, though. I’d just bought a new Palm Tungsten to replace my HP Ipaq H1910 (broken by lifting a heavy object against it inadvertently- the danger of the belt clip) and I love it. Palm always had a certain elegance that PocketPC lacked. PocketPC feels too much like someone trying to cram Windows onto a 3 inch screen, whereas Palm OS always felt more like it was actually designed with a PDA in mind. I started with a Palm IIIx way back in the day, but went to Ipaqs when I worked for Compaq (and then HP, inadvertently). I won one in a contest and got a good deal on another, and Andrea and I both used them. But when it was time to replace it, I just felt like there was a lot more bang for the buck in the Palm OS, and I haven’t been disappointed.

So to sum up, David Allen knows his stuff. Check it out if you feel like you could use a little (or a lot, as was my case) more organization in your life.

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