digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: Use whatever GTD® (Getting Things Done) setup works best for you rather than following a single "right" way, and build a hybrid system that fits your own needs. The speaker's own hybrid combines a digital calendar, a paper planner for most lists, phone apps for location-based lists, and digital notebooks for a Someday Maybe archive.
Key Points
- The speaker's experiment began as a temporary paper planner after a migration to a new system, and within a couple of days she felt more connected to her commitments using it, so it became permanent (this happened five years ago).
- Keeping lists in a physical planner helped with volume control; she previously had giant lists that became less of a burden on paper.
- Different tools suit different contexts: errands and doctor's appointment lists live on her phone because she carries it everywhere.
- After almost twenty years of practicing and teaching GTD, her two Someday Maybe lists (professional and personal) grew into a giant, amorphous blob that stopped feeling trustworthy, prompting a reorganization.
- Separating "someday" ideas from current commitments keeps the active system focused while still preserving creative possibilities.
- Periodically reviewing your system for tension, staleness, or obligations you only follow because you "should" is recommended.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Take a step back from your current GTD system and identify any practices that feel stale, create tension, or are followed only out of obligation. Explore and experiment with changes, but avoid breaking parts that already work well. Let the system adapt to your own sense of ownership.
- Her paper planner has five tabs: agendas, actions, waiting for, projects, and project support.
- Her phone holds the Reminders app list for errands and a few agenda lists for doctor's appointments, so the questions for her doctor are with her at the visit.
- Her Someday Maybe system uses curated Evernote notebooks organized by areas of focus, such as Health, Creative Projects, and Home, which makes items easy to find and alphabetize.
- She previously kept two Someday Maybe lists (professional and personal), which had grown into an unmanageable blob before she created a project to rebuild it.
Bottom Line
A GTD system is valid when it serves you, so experiment with tools and structure until your lists feel trustworthy and manageable.
