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GTD and Personal Life

Would anyone be willing to share if they've implemented GTD in their personal life and how successful it has been getting household members, etc. to use the system? I.E. drop notes, mail, etc. in your home inbox.

Thanks!

Matt Fauris

jeredb's picture

I converted my wife

My wife was in the middle of her Masters program and was having a difficult time dealing with the inputs in her life. I helped her with a short course of GTD, which followed up post-semester with reading the book.

Now, she and I are a Getting Things Done team. We both use OmniFocus, me more than her, and we constantly send things back and forth via email. That is our task "inbox", due to the trail it leaves.

We have setup several physical "inboxes" or landing strips to collect and keep cellphones, all of our office supplies, and incoming and outgoing mail.

We also have the understanding that if one is capturing ideas, that they shouldn't be disturbed (nothing like having an idea, getting it half way out and then getting knocked off track).

The wife and I have also incorporated a weekly review session into our Sunday morning breakfast. We discuss what was good about the past week and plan for the next, which has been very valuable leading up to the birth of our first child. It is also a time where we can pull each other back on the bandwagon, if one of us slips up.

I think augmentedFourth's answer is very, very important. Before I got the wife on GTD, I made adjustments to make GTD work for me. Just like at work, I can't get my boss to GTD, but I can take that input and put it into my system. And yes, it is weird when you finally have a list of the projects and home. Even weirder when your friends know about it and think you are a little anal.

 
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