Who Needs GTD?

Over the past few years, I’ve made a number of abortive attempts to get my head around the Getting Things Done methodology, largely because it’s chock full of great ideas, and I’m a known procrastinator. It’s always seemed to me that being able to have a more productive day was the thing I needed to get to that “next level.”

Yet over time, I’ve found that I’ve gotten busier and busier, to the point where I just don’t need it anymore! It seems that when you’re busy enough, and if you keep sensible track of the things you have to take care of, the process itself just falls into place. It’s when you don’t have stuff to keep you busy that you really need something like GTD. When you’ve got a full plate, you’re forced to deal with things out of necessity.

Sure, it might not be the most scientific explanation, but it’s working for me. Unimportant tasks just get set aside, as more and more important tasks come to the fore. They get taken care of, I become more productive, and the tools I need are all there for me already.

For the record, here’s what’s getting me organized these days:

  1. Apple Mail – Simple, fast, intuitive, and with SpamSieve, it’s a no-spam environment.
  2. Highrise – We’ll write more about this one soon.
  3. Basecamp – Priceless.
  4. Plain Text Files – TextMate makes plain text feasible!
  5. iCal – It gets an honorable mention, I use it a lot.

That’s it. No big-picture plans here, just using what works best and stays flexible enough to adapt itself to whatever I need to get done. Who needs GTD?

Raymond Brigleb

Creative Director, dreamer, partner, father, musician, photographer. Has been known to ride the rails. Pulls one heck of a shot.