Quantum Forest logs are written by Luis A. Apiolaza in Christchurch, New Zealand.
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My previous post mentioned that I got David Allen’s ‘Getting things done’ (GTD) book. One of the central tenets of the system is the ability to keep a brain dump in either paper or electronic form, so one stops worrying about pending things. David presents his version of using a Palm for implementing GTD. However, his approach is overly complex for my situation, so I only use two projects lists and three context ‘to do’ lists:
There is no need for separations like @Computer, @Net and @Calls, because I always have access to computers, net and phone when I am at home or work. If something can be done at any place it will go to my @Home list. The larger the number of lists the bigger the chances that one will miss checking some of them. Although I could use Palm’s Tasks, Calendar and Contacts applications, I find that their integration is very poor. I certainly prefer to use link to Agendus Pro; it is not perfect, but features much better integration between applications and it uses my Palm’s default databases. It also allows attaching icons to ‘to do’ items—feature which I use to classify tasks within lists—and linking people to items. In addition to these simple lists in Agendus, I use Bonsai to outline my most complex projects (this includes less than ten projects at the moment).
PDAs are excellent for reviewing information and reminding me about meetings and tasks (what would life be without the alarms?). Nevertheless, they suck at typing information in, so I often carry a Hipster PDA, which is a fancy name for a bunch of index cards (5×3” or 127×76mm) clipped together with the smallest binder clip one can find. Well, that and a pen or pencil.
The item that I have not yet implemented is a tickler file, because still seems too much work and some of the benefits can be obtained just by including things in a calendar. I may change my mind on this one, depending in how the system works for me. Incidentally, I found a large number of tips on GTD at 43 folders.
PS 2006-03-13: I have updated the workflow in this post.
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