I signed up for 43 Things a few months back, and then I forgot about it… Want to know why I forgot about it? Because I added the 43 Things widget to my iGoogle so that I would see it all the time (releasing my mind from having to think about it). Problem was, it’s lower on the page and not somewhere I actually look, so it wasn’t somewhere that I would see it (although my mind thought it was a good enough place to put it to allow me to forget about it).

So my ranting the past few days has been centered around GTD, and clearly, I haven’t been getting anything done (or at least very little). My biggest problem is that I’m taxing my brain to remember far too much, so I took the time to do a brain dump a few days back, and I actually already feel less stressed about some of the things I need to get done, not because there is a lot of forward movement on any of them yet, but because I know that getting them out of my head was a great step in the right direction.

Today I have to get a few more details for a project wrapped up and I’m utilizing the GTD philosophy to manage the project. I haven’t started using OmniFocus to it’s full potential yet, but in the coming days I hope too, such a great tool (and the iPhone support makes another case for acquiring an iPhone in the near future).

So I nabbed a copy of David Allen’s book, and Audio Set, I swapped out my normal nighttime audio to the Getting Things Done Fast seminar. So far, so good. I also actually fired up my OmniFocus because although I have had it for a while I never actually bothered looking at it too closely. The site has a few short video tutorials that got me moving pretty quick, although I still have this nagging feeling that something is missing from my understanding…

The premise to GTD is pretty simple, Collect your ‘stuff’ (write it down / get it out of your head), Process your stuff into actionable, not actionable, Organize your stuff into projects (anything thats more then a single actionable item), and assign a context to them (where you physically have to be to perform the actionable step). This in itself will reduce the clutter in your brain, all that pointless thinking…

David says that the things your thinking about that cause you distraction are there not because they are unfinished, but because you either don’t know what finished looks like for them, and/or you haven’t determined the next step to move them forward, and/or you have not placed a reminder to do the next action step in a place that your mind believes will help you get it done. So you think about it.

There are some interesting parallels between what David Allen is saying about thoughts and the mind and how Eckhart Tolle expresses the thinking self in ‘The Power of Now’. They are both quite correct in their understanding that NOW is the only time, so I’m having a good time so far listening to David and pounding out lists of things that I need to get done. OmniFocus looks like it was designed specifically for the GTD principals, and meshes perfectly with what David is saying.

I’ll update this line of thinking from time to time, but I highly encourage you to check out GTD. (Thanks Craig for reminding me to look at the resources I have, its been a godsend) … After all, nobody is going to manage my life but me.

Yesterday, Craig asked me if I had any good resources for GTD (Getting Things Done)… Because I’m a LifeHacker whore, naturally I did, so I pointed him towards David Allen’s Site, and the 43 Folders Site…

But that got me thinking… Why am I not utilizing my GTD knowledge to help ME get things done?

That said … off I go on a distraction/rampage that hopefully will help me get things organized and done

Some links to get you started if your interested in the GTD philosophy.

David Allen’s Site (http://www.davidco.com/)
43 Folders (http://www.43folders.com/)
LifeHacker (more of a distraction then a strict GTD site, but a GREAT distraction full of usefulness) … (http://lifehacker.com/)
OmniFocus (if your looking for a good commercial GTD app) … (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/)

I have read a fair amount of GTD stuff in the past, but in all honesty i have NEVER really implemented it.
I guess I should take a few deep breaths and plunge in… back to student mode while I re-learn my habits to get things done.