I'm awash matey!

So in wandering to and fro in the wild and wooly web months and months ago, I happened across a post (slashdot? digg? can't remember which) that referenced the Hipster PDA. Some heretical soul posited that he'd replaced the primary functionality of his electronic PDA with a stack of index cards. What cheek! What chutzpah! (What did he do in long meetings?!)

Lack of tetris notwithstanding, I was intrigued. Enough that I followed the attendant links to a book by David Allen called "Getting Things Done". According to the loyal followers, this book boasts to banish the banality of our bodaciously bad boxitis*. It suffices to say that the suggestions do seem to stick it to the scattered stacks of schtick that most of us are stuck with. And all without annoying alliteration. Amazing.

(you may smack me now)

So I finally (two weeks ago) bought the book. My current position actually has the benefit of not being in the direct path of flame-haired IT folks, (they’re around, they just don’t stop in my cube) so I’ve been able to maintain some sense of control. Even with that blessing I've found doing any sort of project work, keeping track of phone calls, to-do’s, task lists, project status, requirements, changes to requirements, meetings…well, I’m tired of feeling like things are falling through the cracks. And that’s how I am most of the time – panicked that I’ve forgotten SOMEthing. Somewhere. (and that’s not including the home front: kids Christmas presents to be bought, siding to be repaired, trim to caulk, family meetings to plan, wife to romance, “daddy time” to schedule with each kid, finances to steward, shop to tidy, yadda yadda yadda)

Allen addresses this, and more. He’s tool agnostic. (doesn’t push a <koff koff> certain product line) He even admits that what works for you will be different then what works for others..and it will CHANGE over time! Wow. And that there is no “one true system.” And this is all in the introduction. What a guy!

While I admit to finding myself liking the guy almost immediately, the proof as they say, is in the pudding. So I thought I’d journal out my trials, travails, and successes with trying to get myself organized around his principles.

Day 1: Gather your stuff.

Office:
I’ve been where I’m at less than a year, so I haven’t had time to accumulate as much cruft as I’ve had in the past. So this wasn’t too hard. Used a discarded amazon box as my temporary “in” box, and loaded that sucker. Notes, articles, post-it’s, a notebook hard drive that I need to blank, file folders of “good stuff”…all went into “in”.

I went through 1.5 notepads braindumping one “thing” per sheet and piled it in. Scoured the walls of my cubicle for notes and delved into each drawer for "unfinished business". Aside from the 4 week old lasagna in the back of one filing cabinet, it was accomplished without trauma. (and we just tossed the lasagna...plastic and all..)

Coming up: Day 2: Process your “in”…


*boxitis. Having boxes and boxes of stuff. Gimmie a break ~ I needed something to rhyme.