A Slacker Approach to Getting Things Done (GTD)

I discovered that Jonathan Powers (Filmnut) had written a short post about trying to use Gmail and Google Calendar to manage to-dos. Since I have switched over to both services, I thought it might be interesting to look into this, since Google seems determined not to provide a to-do system integrated with both.

His approach:

[from Just Say No To Sexy Systems]

It is a Getting Things Done system for procrastinators. It allow us to put things off until the last possible second, but then forces us to come through like a champ.

Slacker GTD uses two services: GMail and Google calendar. Pretty simple.

Anytime I realize that I have something (anything!) to do, I send myself an email. It goes directly into my inbox, so that I am forced to see it. Then, the next time I login to my Gmail account, I process the to-do by simply adding it to my Google Calendar (which is linked to my Gmail account).

I fooled around a bit, doing what Jonathan suggested, and came up with what I think are improvements, which I am going to try to a while. But first, let's set context.

I have made a failrly serious investment of time in using Backpack as what I call activity management, by which I mean managing the details associated with some large effort, such as an upcoming trip, or all the details associated with the next stage of a project. [I still keep a Basecamp account alive for heavyweight project interaction, although I find I am using it less all the time. But I certainly don't use it to manage lower-level details, like "get plane tickets for the 20 July flight to Oakland."]

The problem with Backpack is that it is not integrated with my everyday calendar. So I create lists of things to do in Backpack -- which aren't datable, by the way -- and then forget them, until I wander into Backpack to do something and remember 97 things I should have done yesterday.

To make a long story short, like Jonathan, I have tried a mazillion tools, and all of them lack the "in-your-face" effect that putting things in email and my calendar might.

So, here are my modest improvements on Jonathan's Slacker GTD:

1. Instead of sending the email, and then subsequently moving the to do information into a Google Calendar event, I take advantage of the event integration at the time of creating the email, as shown below. I merely copy the subject line of the email as the title of the event. I also have defined a special calendar for to dos -- called "[to do]" -- and I use the event options to put the event on that calendar.

   
   

   This means that when the email arrives, the event -- the to do -- is already on my calendar, and I don't have anything else to do... except label it perhaps, which brings me to my second modest improvement.
   

2. I like to use labels to tag email items, so I created a filter that labels all my to dos. First, I came up with a bit of text that is fairly unusual -- "[to do]" -- which I use as the prefix of all subject lines for to dos. Then I defined a filter that looks for all emails sent by me to me that have that bit of text, and when such emails are discovered, I label them with the "/" label (which moves to the top of the labels list alphabetically) and star them. Starring makes it easy to select all to dos and other hot items, like emails to be replied to, in one click.
   
3. For those who subscribe to Google Calendars from some other application -- like I do with Apple iCal -- the [to do] calendar info can be sucked down using the iCal or RSS feeds. In my case, I am only using iCal as a local offline store of calendar information, and as a sync point for my phone. Note that Gmail also supports a event reminder mechanism, so that you can be alerted to accomplish your to dos that are managed in this fashion.

I wonder what impact this approach will have on my use of Backpack? One of the reasons I am using Backpack as opposed to a dedicated client app on my Mac is that Backpack is collaborative -- I can invite others to share the information. But Google Calendar events and calendars are shareable too. In principle I could delegate a task to a colleague using this same technique, simply inviting them to the event, and making it clear in the notes (and the body of the email, for my gmail tracking) that the task is assigned to them. (It would be even easier to contemplate moving completely into Googleland if they would provide labels for events, and a unified view across emails, chats and calendar events... but that's wishing for a lot.)

Backpack provides a (pretty raggedy) means to have emails associated with Backpack pages, so I could in principle cc the appropriate Backpages whenever I created these Gmail [to do] emails. But that seems like double bookkeeping when all I want is to make my life simpler.

We'll have to see, but over time a slacker solution like this might lead me away from using Backpack altogether, especially since I presume that Google will be rolling out an integrated to do solution in the near-term.

tags: slacker+gtd, getting+things+done, filmnut, jonathan+powers, backpack, basecamp, google, google+calendar, calendaring, to-do+lists, gmail, tagging, activity+management

Comments

[Ben Tremblay]

I just came from http://getreal.corante.com/archives/2005/06/10/virtual_teams_are_just_teams_with_amplified_collaboration_needs.php

A problem commenting; I found it ironic that a page about collaboration had an "EMail this article" but no way of adding a comment! I must have overlooked something ... there was already a comment there. I'm usually pretty good with interfaces ... cognitive ergonomics and all that.

(I just looked again, but could find no "Comment" link; this page was easy since I'm registered with TypeKey.)

In any case, here's the comment I wanted to leave there.

==============================
A very nice post ... I look forward to snooping your site.

Just to let you know that " more on how to create a better team on the CTC blog." is 404), viz.:

http://blog.ctcevents.com/more.php?id=13_0_1_0_M
==============================

regards

[Pascal Venier]

Very smart solution, Stowe!

I would be tempted to suggest a possible improvement.

This would consist in not using the in-box to process incoming emails, but instead to set up a filter which would direct them towards All Mail.

Create a new filter.
If matches To: yourname@gmail.com
Next step: Skip the Inbox (Archive it).

This way the all new emails who land in All Mail where they would be processed and you could keep the In-Box for things you need to remember and messages you would have moved there because you need to act upon them or reply to them.

[Stowe Boyd]

Pascal - But I like the to dos being in my inbox, glaring at me!

Ben - I am no longer writing at Get Real, and comments may have been turned off by Corante, the publisher. The CTC blog from 2005 is also offline -- they transitioned from some older blogging platform to a new one in 2006!

[Laust M. Ladefoged]

With the risk of introducing another Sexy System(TM), this seems like something along the lines of what Mike Hurst has tried to solve with GooToDo.

He basically integrates the To Do into the mail box, giving you the possibility to forward mails to the GooToDo with a "deadline", then you will daily receive a list of the things you have to do that day.