The List: Getting Things Done…or At Least Trying To

This is the first in what will be a series of “The List” blog entries aimed at providing quick assortments of tools I use to try and keep my life in order. Feel free to comment and add your own entries or email me with update suggestions

A few months ago I became a convert to David Allen’s Getting Things Done approach to time management. It’s a system that emphasizes taking all of your tasks out of your head and putting them on a list–thereby freeing you from having to remember countless to-do items. The system plays extremely well to my weakness (a sieve-like long-term memory) and my strength (a willingness to put software to work for just about anything).

After a few months of fiddling, I’ve found a few tools and sites that have made GTD work for me.

Here’s The List: 

• Palm T|X: Yeah, I know, PalmOS systems aren’t enterprise friendly. But it was the most bang I could get for the buck (with BlueTooth and Wifi no less!) 

• CodeJedi’s Shadow Plan for Palm OS: This is a very rich outliner where I build my lists. And it can automatically create links to items in …

• DateBK5: This is a more feature-rich replacement for the Palm calendar and tasks applets.

• Slap:  A clever utility that provides one-stop data entry for the Palm. You enter the info then click one of five icons to automatically store the text to your calendar, address book, task list, and so on.

Other good GTD resources:

• OfficeZealot’s Getting Things Done Zone: Links to blogs and stories related to the GTD lifestyle.

• Sylvia’s Getting Things Done Resource List: It looks a little dated (textured background wallpaper will do that to a site), but it has a good collection of links to GTD info.

• 43 Folders: One of the Meccas of the lifehacking movement (folks dedicated to finding “solutions to everyday problems or frustrations.”) Not strictly GTD, but there seems to be some serious overlap.

Good luck!  Now stop reading this and go get some things done!