Having trouble with GTD? Try WSD

Like many of you in the blog world, I have been seduced by David Allen’s promise of personal productivity. But like many of you, I lapse more than a nudist Catholic on a casual Friday. (note: rework joke, it makes no sense) Actually I lapse before I finish the book. I start out hopeful, enticed by the Lockean promise of the phrase “fresh paper,” and I start setting up buckets and contexts and whatnot. Then a few pages later, he uses the word “actionable,” and I have to put it down, take ten seconds, and reaffirm my basic political affiliations and instincts.

The basic problem with GTD is that for someone starting from complete disorganization, it’s too grandiose. I’m a fan of baby steps — incremental improvements that reward you enough to keep you playing.

Whence, the Writing Shit Down plan. Here are the rules:

• Carry a pen with you at all times. And forget the Space Pen. They have mini-pens at Staples which cost less than 2 bucks and they have a hole, which allows them to be placed on a keychain. You can’t write upside-down, but if that’s your biggest personal productivity problem, you’re living a more interesting life than I am.
• Carry index cards in your wallet. I use an all-ett for this express purpose, but it’s not for everyone. (although, it’s probably worthy of a post in and of itself; remind me.) So if your wallet doesn’t fit index cards, use something smaller than index cards. You could try this picopad. Whatever, the important thing is that your pen and paper is on your person at all times.
• Don’t bother clipping the index cards together like in the hipster pda, if they’re in your wallet. This will serve as a disincentive to reorganize them and flip through them. Those little clips are stiff, and they take up valuable writing space on the front card.
• Now here’s the key part: Write shit down.
• After this, it becomes simple. Context is determined by where you put the shit you write down. For instance, if it’s for you to do at the computer, put the card on your computer next time you’re there. If it’s at the grocery store, leave it in your wallet.
• Tickler files are great for people who have everything on paper. You don’t, or else you wouldn’t need me to tell you to write shit down. Either way, there’s no way you’re going to look through your filing cabinet every day. Try Ben Sinclair’s FutureMail. It’s like having access to a time machine, but without the Oedipal tensions or Libyans.

If you can manage to write shit down for a few weeks, THEN you can start playing with GTD. Otherwise you’re a little like the dysfunctional couple who thinks a baby will solve everything: If it’s not working now, why complicate it further?