Getting Things Done, Things To Do, and ToDo lists

I’ve always been the type that tries to make a ToDo list when I know I have a long list of things I need to get done.  My trouble is…  that’s the only time I really make a ToDo list; when I have more than a handful of things I know I need done.  I know this because its how I’ve always accomplished things — when I reach my limitation for remembering things I need to do, I make a list.  Normally, if I know I need to do two things, I remember fairly well what they are and when I need to do them and I won’t need a “list” consisting of two things.

Lately, though, things have started to pile up…  Maybe its because it is that time of the year, or maybe it is something else, but suddenly I have a ton of things to do.  So…  I’ve begun looking for help in keeping track of what needs to be done.

This is not a new problem for me.  I bought a Palm Pilot years ago for this reason, but it outlived its usefullness because I don’t always keep ToDo lists.  Sure, I could use it for contact management, but in those days it was easier to just keep a sheet of folded paper with names and numbers.  A few years ago, I tried d-cubed, and found it useful.  It is based on TiddlyWiki.  The idea is that there are tasks arranged into projects that contain actions.  The projects and actions are inserted into a wiki that is self-contained in one file, making it portable to be read offline in any web browser (meaning it works in Linux, Windows, etc.) This is an overly simplified explaination, but that’s the gist.  It really helps with organization of tasks.  d-cubed is a software implementation of GTD (Getting Things Done), which is a method of organizing and accomplishing tasks.  A bit better than just a ToDo list.  I’ve never actually read GTD…  yet.  Using something like d-cubed, I feel I don’t really need to, since its pretty straight forward.

Recently, though, to help in my plight to organize my tasks, I found a better version of a TiddlyWiki implementation in the context of GTD…  monkeyGTD.  Its a pleasure to work with, once I got comfortable with the controls and the terminology of “projects”, “next actions”, and “ticklers”, it helps me organize quite a bit.  I can even schedule a fuzzy type of thing called a “someday maybe/future” task, which is like a task that I might want to do eventually.

…someday maybe/future read GTD, and get even more done…

In fact, I like it so much I have monkeyGTD on a USB key that I carry around with me, updating my tasks, along with TiddlyWiki on the same USB key so that I can keep notes about things that interest me.