fplanque: IT world

Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think there is no decent GTD software for Windows.

I don't want anything that integrates with Outlook. I don't use Outlook.

I want something standalone. Plain and simple. Something where I can create tasks, organize them into projects, tag them into contexts and filter them a million different ways.

Searching on the web keeps pointing me towards Tudumo, which, frankly looks awesome on paper (I mean on the web). I also feels pretty good when you install it.

Now try creating 639 tasks (basically I copy/pasted a part of my todo list for b2evolution) and the thing turns into a slow bloated .NET application nightmare.

Pathetic!

Who needs a todo list manager when you only have 10 things to do anyway ?

Woohoo! For the first time in years my email inbox is empty!

It is really odd actually: now Thunderbird looks like it's frozen and stuck in redrawing the right side of the screen. It's disturbingly white!

But it feels good. The last time that happened was actually 2004! (based on the oldest email that was in my inbox...)

So how did I do it? No merit: I just moved it all into ACTION folders!

Well actually, it's more subtle than that:

• anything that wasn't actionable got deleted or archived
• anything that could be answered or done in less than 2 minutes got handled and archived/deleted.
• anything that required more than 2 minutes got into an action folder.

So far, it's basically plain David Allen's "Getting Things Done".

And so far: there's a hell of a lot of stuff to do in the ACTION folders!

This is where I'm going to start the real optimization... inspired by Tim Ferris' "4 hour workweek". For each item I need to decide:

• Can I *not* act on it and forget about it?
• Can I delegate it to someone else?
• Can I automate it so I don't get the same problem again in the future?
• and last resort: just do the goddam thing!

“Talk does not cook rice.”
– Chinese proverb

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
– Mark Twain

“The middle of every successful project looks like a disaster.”
– Rosabeth Moss Cantor