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David Allen: Handy lists to maintain

Submitted by Merlin on August 14, 2005 - 9:23am.

The David Allen Company [Cool/convenient lists to have]

David Allen’s suggestions for lists that are handy to keep around.

A few of my favorite ideas of his:

  • Might wanna buy… - could be one mega-list, or (more commonly) grouped by the type of thing it is: cds, cigars, wines, books, videos
  • Might wanna do when… - possibilities when you’re in a certain location or doing a certain activity. By city, country, or region (things to do/think about when I’m in Napa Valley, London, Santiago.) Or by activity (Web surfing places to visit.)
  • Quotes - “Cool Quotes - where I can jot down quotations I come across that I like.” (Joel Millican)
  • Restaurants - for business or pleasure, to review for ideas instead of same-old same-old.
  • Style or product numbers I may need when I’m buying things - oil filter, vacuum cleaner bags, labeler cassettes, etc.

I have many of these myself and more (broken stuff, skills to learn, personal Oblique Strategies, etc.), all kept in plain text, natch, which makes it easy to quickly append to them with Quicksilver.

I then sync all my text files to a thumbdrive every week or so. Provides a quick backup as well as a nice way to have emergency access when I’m away from my own computer.

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@nickel: Yep, it's absolutely the...

Submitted by Merlin on August 15, 2005 - 6:17am.

@nickel: Yep, it’s absolutely the place where a PDA excels. It’s so nice to have all that right with you wherever you go.

For myself, I keep most of the “vacuum cleaner bag” stuff in a program called “Splash Shopper” (which is made to sync with a Palm as luck would have it). I use the desktop version to store, maintain, and generate all my shopping list stuff on paper, then take it with me. Not the same, but it works fine for my brain and habits.

Your point’s well taken though. The thumbdrive is great for portability but not mobile access. All the more reason those godless heathens at Palm should send me a Treo (11 months on the review “waiting list” and counting). :)