The last few years, it seems like the scope and sometimes the complexity of the things I need or want to accomplish both at work and at home has expanded dramatically. Several years ago, I tried using a DayTimer, but I was really just using it as an appointment book with some to-do lists. After that, I used various Palm handhelds until the novelty of those wore off. I think my lack of sticking with any of those devices was a lack of a defined process, mine or anyone elses, and also that the things I was working on at the time just weren’t complicated enough to warrant the extra effort needed to come up with an organizational method, or to adapt someone elses.
A few days ago I had to go to a meeting and I was staring at the massive pile of papers and magazines on my desk. I couldn’t figure out which of the several pads of graph paper I ought to take with me, and even if I’d needed to take some background material with me, I wouldn’t have had time to find it in the Pile.
This brief moment of confusion made me realize I need both a way to carry “stuff” around, plus a method to organize the stuff I encounter so I can refer to it later if I need it, get rid of it if I don’t, and most importantly, act on it when and if I need to.
I located the old, mostly empty DayTimer binder in one of my cabinets. Its only contents was an airline itinerary from 1997, a floppy disk from my days at NeXT, presumably containing the PGP keys I was using at the time, though I have no way to verify that because I no longer have a floppy disk drive, and a business card from one of my best friends, Kevin, for a company he hasn’t worked for in several years.
Luckily for me, there are several good websites about organizing and planning, including the excellent DIY Planner, which is kind enough to offer free, printable templates for lots of the things one might want. They’ve got some forums and some links where I was able to find enough information to give me some ideas on how to get started. I think I’m going to buy the book Getting Things Done by David Allen, because I get the impression it’s geared towards teaching you to process the incoming stuff so I don’t end up with a big pile of it accumulating on my desk or running around in my head. I have a suspicion adapting or adopting a method and getting in the habit of reviewing the various lists is going to be as or more important than carrying them around, so I’m looking for outside help on that one, hence the book. I’ll probably say more about it one way or another once I’ve read it.
Oh yeah, I also really like the Hipster PDA, and will probably make a small one to carry next to my wallet, for things like shopping lists and a few phone numbers, cause who wants to carry a notebook-sized binder with them all the time?