Sean’s Blog

I almost feel like I’ve been cheating for the past week. After a long time pimping MonkeyGTD, I’ve switched to Remember The Milk. I don’t think I am going to be switching back anytime soon either. After I wrote the post last week about staying organized away from the computer I started to look into applications that would work on my Blackberry.

Remember The Milk got some serious love on Lifehacker’s Best GTD applications and I though I would give it a try. I was pretty much immediately blown away. RTM had everything I was looking for and more.

First off, it is web based and free (for the non-pro version). It easily manages my tasks and has a mobile interface (this was the killer for MonkeyGTD in my book). It integrates with Google calendar and can send me messages when tasks are due.

One of my killer apps was to be able to jot down books I wanted to read and then have access to that list at the library. I simply created a list called Books, and started keeping track of books I wanted to read whenever I came across them. Then when I made a trip to the library, i just logged on top the mobile interface, pulled up my book list and grabbed several of them. I added a couple books on the fly at the library that I didn’t want to take out yet, but wanted to read in the future.

When I got home, I put in a task to return the library books due on the books due dates.

The Pro version has tools that will actually sync with the native Blackberry applications, but right now I don’t need that level of integration.

MonkeyGTD is a great tool, but I am going to be sticking with Remember The Milk. Give it a try. It rocks my geeky world.

I’ve generally gotten pretty good about keeping organized while I am at the computer.  Using MonkeyGTD and keeping my inbox clear have really helped.  But at least 75% of my time is spent not in front of the computer and without any of these tools I’m not much better then my previous unorganized self.  There are tons of methods on the web about keeping organized away from the computer.  But most involve notebooks or PDAs and i really don’t like to carry anything extra.

What I do always have is my phone.  Because I always carry it, making sure I have some important lists on it has really been a life saver.  One of my big annoyances is books I want to read.  I have a context in MonkeyGTD where I keep a list to read, but when I’m actually at the library, I generally don’t have it handy.  So what I’ve started doing is emailing myself a message and then copying it to a memo.

Now there are some obvious problems with this setup.  First off, you need to be able to access your email on your phone.  I have a Blackberry, so this isn’t a problem for me.  You also have to remember to send and update your lists.  There should be some way to automate it so when I enter something in whatever I am using, I won’t need to do these multiple steps.  I’ve tried brining up MonkeyGTD in the built in Blackberry browser, but it is completely unreadable.

I think I am going to try another task manager, even though I really like MonkeyGTD, that may handle mobiles a little better.

Work email has always been one of my real challenges.  I don’t have much choice in what program I use or the ability to really customize it.  So when I realized I needed to take control of my email, I needed something simple and flexible that was almost completely platform independent.  I needed a process since I couldn’t really use a tool.  I liked Merlin’s Inbox Zero process over at 43Folders, but it seemed like overkill for what I really needed.

So I came up with something quick and dirty that knocked out my inbox and has kept it clean for several weeks.

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I’ve been getting burned out recently.  I just don’t seem to have the enthusiasm that I i previously did.  Not at work and not for blogging.   I’ve noticed that this occasionally happens and I usually have some good tricks for dealing with it.  I though since I’m going through one of these periods, I’d share some and hopefully get out of my rut.

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I was going to post this in my weekly links post this weekend, but as I started thinking about it a bit more I thought it might make a good post. So earlier this week, 43folders posted a round up of their GTD articles. Alot of these are great tips if you are using GTD or are interested in getting started with it.

About a year ago I started using GTD. And I am still using it, although nowhere near the way I started out with it. This in itself makes it the ONLY system that has ever gained any traction with me, and I think it is a testament to it’s versatility and power. The only reason I stuck with it though is that I made some changes and discoveries about how I work.
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   Several weeks ago, I signed up for IwantSandy.com. IWantSandy is a virtual personal assistant which is really scheduler and reminder program. The cool thing about Sandy though is that she will contact you in pretty much any way you choose. Email, SMS and Twitter are all ways that she can get ahold of you.

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