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@Computer & !@Computer

If I do 100% GTD that would be my two lists. I am a pathetic computer geek who played on computers for fun and then got a job in the computer industry. The only difference between what I do from 9 to 5 and 5 to 9 is whether my I am at home with my pets or at work with my coworkers. I don't travel. I don't spend time in waiting rooms or conference rooms between meetings with list of phone calls to make. I'm not a manger, so I don't even attend many meetings. I have very few distinct catagories to divide stuff up into. And one giant long list just turns into your run-of-the-mill ToDo list. I am at a loss how to apply GTD to my life when it is practically one big blob covering two standard deviations of what I do from the alarm waking me up to the alarm telling me it is time to go into hibernate mode.

Has anybody else felt like GTD seems to be for "executives" only?

andyc's picture

Tinjaw, I agree that was...

dro0g wrote:
Tinjaw, I agree that was one of the weakest points of GTD - Sometimes it seemed like it was written solely for self aggrandizing dotcom middle management...

I disagree. I find that the good thing about GTD is that it works for grunts, too.

For background, I'm a senior network administrator. I look after systems at 22 sites from Japan and Australia across to the UK (via India, China, Dubai and so on). I have a schedule that's about 90% to-do and 10% meetings, and spend 90% of my working days in my own office.

My contexts are basically

@Home
@Home-Waiting
@Home-Pending-Wife
@Home-Pending-Others

@Work
@Work-Waiting
@Work-Pending-Boss
@Work-Pending-Others

I dynamically create other pending and waiting lists for specific people when needed. The software I use (www.mylifeorganized.net) lets me place things in multiple categories. So, for example "Order ink from www.noodlersink.co.uk" goes on both the @Home and @Work lists. the -Waiting are the ones where I need to chase people if they don't get back to me (Weekly review). The -Pending are things to talk to someone about (OK, I actually use people's names in reality), but aren't urgent enough to go and talk to them right away. So, for example, an urgent need to talk to my Boss about something stays on "@Work". The status update on a lower priority item goes on the "@Work-Pending-Boss" list, which is my agenda for the meetings I have with him on a regular basis.

I need to add a good way of dealing with an @Errands list, since it became a "thing to ignore". Perhaps I should designate 1-2 lunch times as "Errand Day" to do these.

Andy

 
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