Things - Part 2 of How I Get Things Done

This entry expands on my previous post on managing communication to Get Things Done (GTD). In that post I stated

I set the timer for 48 minutes and kick it off and focus solely on items in my GTD list - nothing else exists in the world if I can help it. I ignore all non-urgent electronic communication (anything mentioned above and email) and I only communicate with others on purpose if its relevant for the task at hand that I'm working on. What is considered urgent or not is often for me to decide on the fly.

That sounds fine and dandy - but just how does my GTD list get populated? I basically try to follow David Allen's instructions (at least those outlined in the first three chapters or so) to a tee. This includes having a system that I can trust that I put every actionable item I need to take in it. The system that I trust is a piece of software called Things created by Cultured Code.

It is essentially setup the same way that Allen instructs well. Any actional item that I encounter that I can't get done in a *very* short amount of time (2-5 minutes) typically gets placed in my Inbox so that I can decide what to do with it later. For the entire time that I'm working, I am focused solely on those tasks that I have given myself in the Today section, giving higher priority to those makred as Due on that day. Every single item is assigned to an Area of work (e.g. work for my Employer, Personal Projects, Housework, Developer Communities, etc. etc.) and within those Areas can be projects - which are items that require two or more actionable steps to complete.

I have found that using this system has had two effects on me:

1. I'm much better organized and prioritized in my daily work. Organizing all of my actionable items in such a way allows me to focus on one thing at a time knowing that the sequential order based on priority has already been taken care of for me, thus negating my ADD.
   
2. My mental burdens are very low - I no longer obsess about work or what I haven't done when I'm not working because I have my things to-do ready for me when it's work time again.

The book and the software itself comes out to around $70 total, but given the boost in productivity and quality of work/life if its had on me, $70 is one hell of a deal.