Blue Knight Sojourn of the Mind

### ATTENTION ###

I have combined all the posts in to a separate area on this blog. You can reach it by selecting the “Getting Things Done” link on the top of the page or by clicking this link.

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So the first thing in making the “Getting Things Done” system working is getting some categories in place. On Pocket Informant I create a category group called what else? “GTD”, and then I go to town with the categories.

I create the categories with the @ symbol in front because they are easier to identify as getting things done, and this is also the way GTD recommends.

So to start with here are some of the categories:

@Calls
@Errands
@Tasks
@Agendas
@Read/Review

So lets break it down a bit of how I use the system.

For @Calls it is strictly that make calls at the time that you have available. I usually put a telephone number in the to-do here because as I am driving I can easily bring that up at a stop sign or a light and then just select the number itself to start dialing using the Microsoft Mobile system.

For @Errands it is as David Allen has described in the book, those things that are out and about.

For @Tasks, I used to have them broken down in to @Office and @Home, I use them strictly for non-computer based tasks for home and office, if I need the computer I break that out in to separate categories. This is for me since I am a computer Geek and I need the extra break out of computers due to constant work on the computer. In the filters we are actually going to sub divide this again in to Office and Home.

For @Agendas I use it as David describes which is to create agendas for meetings, this can get a bit blurry with the @Office and @Home tasks, but I utilize it strictly for conversation based, or meeting based tasks. Plus in the next post I will describe how my filtering works to isolate this a bit.

For @Read and Review I use it for exactly that, something to read and review in the future.

Then lets go on to the “@Waiting For”, initially I was breaking it down to a home and work tasks but then I started using Filtering with PI8 and custom views that no longer is there a need to break it out.

Then for Actions to be taken based on E-Mail this is the @E-Action, I use it just as David describes on his list, this is for the higher priority E-Mails that I can not answer really fast but need to be filed somewhere until I can formulate the proper response for them.

For Projects I do something different and that will be in a separate post a bit later. Lets just say that without Pocket Informant 8, I was unable to do this cleanly.

I will actually probably add categories as needed and will post the list later.

So for now I have pretty standard categories of:

@Agendas, @Calls, @Computer, @Computer - Internet, @E-Action, @Errands, @Home, @Office, @Projects, @Read/Review, @Waiting For