My Get Things Done List » Blog Archive » Do You Need an Organizer [HD BizBlog 1.2]

Do You Need an Organizer [HD BizBlog 1.2]

“Once you know how to process your stuff and what to organize,
you really just need to create and manage lists”

~David Allen, Getting Things Done

Call it an organizer, a day planner, a calendar, a diary, or just a capture notebook; the paper organizer has lasted through two or three generations of productivity systems. In the last few years, digital organizers have become wildly popular as they can synchronize a portable unit with your desktop computers at work and home.

Managing your lists

One of the core practices of Getting Things Done is making a list of your Next Actions, the base unit of your productivity. Whether you are working on a large project or simply running errands you need to know what actions you should take in order to accomplish your goal. As you organize and process your life, you will be creating a series of lists that need to be collected and readily accessible. I submit that an organizer of some sort is the best way to collect these lists, which will consist mainly of your Projects, Next Actions, and a Calendar. (Your calendar is a special kind of list, laid out in a chronological fashion.)

Additionally your organizer can contain lists of longer-term goals, life principles, a “Waiting For” list, and Reference material. All of this information can be contained in anything you like, from a simple, spiral-bound notebook from the dollar store to the ever-popular Moleskine. My personal favorite is a Levenger Circa notebook, 5.5″ x 8.5″, divided into the appropriate sections. I have used a Palm Pilot in the past, but I have found that it just does not have the flexibility or tactile quality of a paper-based system.

Sorting your Contexts

The primary basis for your organizer will be to divide your lists of Next Actions into the appropriate Context for identifying when it should get done. There are a variety of ways to do this, I have settled on just five:

@Work
@Home
@Computer
@Blog
@Read and Review

All of my lists of Next Actions are kept in my organizer, except for the @Home list which is a dry-erase board on the refrigerator. You will likely have a similar list of Contexts, perhaps more or less, depending on your circumstances.

Building the organizer

I have spent the past few weeks creating a brand-new organizer for myself, with a custom-made DIY calendar page and list-keeping sheets. This “beta-test” has allowed me to try different information layouts as well as methods of sorting and capture. Over the next week or so, I will be sharing with you the complete process and the finished organizer (please subscribe to the feed so you do’t miss any!). Here are the basic pieces:

My Planner

Business cards for work contacts
the Index
Inspirational quotes and reading
Calendar - two pages per week
Errata - information capture that may or may not be chronological
Next Actions - one page for each Context
Waiting For - a list of things that are wating for input from another person
Meeting Notes
Blank pages for each section
Blank Project Planning sheets

So there it is, in a nutshell. Upcoming posts will detail the presentation and use of the Calendar and Errata pages, Next Actions, and why the Projects have been taken digital. There are a lot of excellent and useful resources at D*I*Y*Planner, some of which I use in my organizer.

I would appreciate hearing from you on how your planners are organized, leave a Comment.