The Tools David Allen Uses To Get Things Done

Getting things done (GTD) guru David Allen recently spoke in an interview with The Atlantic about all the things that keep him organised and productive. He uses a combination of low-tech tools and digital applications to accomplish what he says is the number one thing people need to do to gain control over their lives: “externalise” all the stuff that’s coming in.

These are the digital tools he uses:

• For calendar and action lists: Lotus Notes (because that’s the enterprise app his company uses) and an e-productivity add-on to Lotus Notes. This syncs to a BlackBerry.
• For brainstorming/capturing ideas and such: The Brain and Mind Manager
• A Mac (with Parallels running Microsoft Office)

But mostly it seems he relies on just paper:

So I use my little note-taker wallet — that’s where most ideas are generated, in strange and weird little places, and so I have a ubiquitous, just-paper-based tool. I take notes, usually paper-based, because it’s just easier to do that. It’s more ubiquitous, and I like the feel of it. I’m still playing around with various kinds of things.

…and his inbox:

My physical in-basket is my saviour. It is my safety net, it is my catchall, it is my “Gee, I don’t want to have to think about any of that stuff yet”. And so you need that parking lot. It’s really critical to have a parking lot like that, because capture is a very different process than decision making and organising. So I have to keep those distinct, so that allows me a placeholder so that then when it’s time, when that stuff starts to pile up, and I go “Okay, it’s starting to stink and there’s mildew in there, I better empty out my in-basket” — so then that frees up my head; that allows me to just place-hold stuff. But mostly it’s just that low-tech stuff I put in there. I probably throw out 80 per cent of my notes.

The whole interview is a good read if you’re a die-hard GTDer or just interested in how to get out of the “busy trap.”

David Allen on How to Fix Your Life [The Atlantic]