43 Folders

Back to Work

Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

Join us via RSS, iTunes, or at 5by5.tv.

”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

My GTD txt template

As a kind of addendum to the previous post on hacking Getting Things Done , I thought I’d share my Hamburger Helper template for a new GTD list. It’s pretty underwhelming, I have to admit, but it has a few features that are kind of neat.

gtd_template.txt

First off, it’s text. Nice, simple, ASCII that opens perfectly any place UNIX line breaks are honored. If you save it as stationery in BBEdit, it will be available as a new document type any time.

Second, it’s structured using Markdown, so I can instantly convert it to a valid XHTML doc. (Remember: always leave two spaces before a line break if you want to make a “<br />”; I made a text factory in BBEdit that does this automatically).

Third, there’s a little area for “Done.” This is an artifact of my “Now Up-To-Date” days; I like seeing what I’ve accomplished. It just makes me happy, and I’ll own that. This is totally optional, but it can also be a handy place to drag “Pending” items that need to live someplace else.

Finally, you’ll notice an infelicitous sounding area at the bottom called “Dumps.” This is so that, when I do the Quicksilver trick, new line entries get shunted to the bottom—so as not to disrupt any previous entries.

A tip: if you want to be a really good GTD doo-bee, only use that append function for @inbox; personally I also use it all the time for @sometime, @tech, @groceries, etc.—anywhere I know stuff “just needs to go.”

Please do share your mods and suggestions in comments and via trackback.

Merlin's picture

I don't but you certainly...

I don't but you certainly can. I like that Einstein quote that goes "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

If you feel like some given pile can benefit from being further broken down, you should do it--as long as it doesn't become so overly specific that it becomes hard to track and maintain, you know?

 
EXPLORE 43Folders THE GOOD STUFF

Popular
Today

Popular
Classics

An Oblique Strategy:
Honor thy error as a hidden intention


STAY IN THE LOOP:

Subscribe with Google Reader

Subscribe on Netvibes

Add to Technorati Favorites

Subscribe on Pageflakes

Add RSS feed

The Podcast Feed

Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »