GTD and Mindmapping

Explanation - Why the GTD Blog

2009-12-02T04:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it's obvious. You need to create 'To Do' lists and prioritise work to get things done. But being an Operations Geologist means that the well that is drilling has the highest priority and the other activities still need to be working in the background. I see this as spinning plates - and I have had a lot of plates to spin at times. Thus mindmapping and GTD allows me to be organised. 'Simples!'

A great weekly review - clearing the decks!

2009-04-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

It's taken me a big chunk of today to clear my Inbox but now it's done. I have also had my weekly GTD review - I booked a meeting room (instead of doing it at my desk) and then followed the Weekly Review mindmap. So it's Friday and I have clear deliverables and Next Actions for next week.

I also reviewed some of the bottlenecks. A key one is not sticking to the morning checklist - I've therefore printed this out large (see image) and will pin it to the wall. I've also made a note to 'Eat the frog first' - tackle the difficult tasks up front rather than put them off. So, a good result - let's see how that affects next week's GTD planning.

April 09 blog

2009-04-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

Having had a couple of weeks out of the office I'm finding it difficult to get back on track - just too much in the email inbox. I'm still using the mindmap to prioritise but cannot empty the inbox. I have decided not to let this bother me and will wait until I have my weekly review before I 'clear the decks'.

On another note, I found the GTD Virtual Study Group on I-Tunes. They have some quite useful podcasts which I have started to play in the car. We'll see how we get on with those.
http://gtd-vsg.blogspot.com/

Finally, I am still using a very small moleskine notebook to collect ideas and thoughts. This is always in my pocket (with pencil) and allows me never to forget an idea. These are transferred to my mindmap and the detachable pages are removed. This also means I'm not cluttering up a notebook - as there is always a fresh page and notes can be easily found.

2009-03-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here's my Weekly Review. I've scheduled this in my Outlook calendar, approx 2 hours every Thursday or Friday. This seems a long time but I find it time well spent. I wish I could say that it happens every week, but it doesn't.

One month into GTD

2009-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

Just one month into GTD and I'm seeing some great success. I've reduced my email inbox from nearly 2000 items just down to ~50 and I'm also a lot more organised. I had started to use Outlook as my main tool, using the tasks the map out my daily schedule, but I did not get on with this. I have been mindmapping for a few years and have developed my daily mindmap to track my initial brainstorm, check-in on my InBox, review projects, next items and someday/maybe items. I just scroll clockwise around the mindmap and populate my daily actions as I go. I also have a notepad and three filing trays to collect my lists/reminders - but these are transferred to my mindmap intray as soon as practicable. I'm happy the way things are going but look out for better ways of using my mindmap for GTD.