Joe, I know what your feeling.

I’m not an accomplished GTD guru but have evolved over the past year. I have looked at plug-ins and other software but don’t think that is the way to go. There is something to be said for understanding technology and NOT using.

I have created 4 task folders based upon the book. Next Actions, Projects, Waiting for/delegated and someday/maybe. This is where I dump my head, note cards, etc… If emails come in I process them to one of these task lists, my calender or delete. The Move to Folder function is pretty tasty. People aren’t kidding when they say that there is no substitute for the Weekly Review. This is the time when I hit these lists again. The trick for me is to not review these lists daily, just the next actions IF needed. This works well for me. I place the next actions that I am working on for the day/week on a note card or tablet and get to work. The great thing about the the tasks is that you can use this to review the work completed for any specific period of time. Works well for monthly and annual reporting. You might be surprised how much is on your plate and what you have completed.

I print a weeks worth of Outlook daily schedules and the next 2 months in the page/month view. This helps me wind down one week and ramp up for the next and forces me to perform the review. There is something to be said for rituals.

Good luck,

Bill

Mac Homeboy/Windows Work

I used a book, Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook, to help configure Outlook for better task management. Its a little outdated since they made a bunch of changes in Outlook 2007 and I’ve since moved to the Google for my email/calendar needs so I havent look at it in a while but it has some really good tips about using the options in Outlook to manage tasks pretty easily. The stuff on views was really helpful for me to hide the stuff I dont need right now and bring it up as its coming closer.