GTD: Getting Things Done

When you move, you come to grips with at least one thing:

Good gravy, but do I have a lot of stuff!

I came to that realization, and the last month or so has seen me growing in my attempts to get organized. I've taken several important steps. I'm going to share them. Maybe these will help you.

• I trimmed my email accounts down to a couple.

This was the first big step for me. If you're like me, you've accumulated multiple email accounts over the last few years. Instead of hanging onto them sentimentally, I took my favorite ones and have a purpose for each. In one, I do my personal emails. In the other, I sign up for most of my web services through.

The only email accounts I have now use the IMAP protocol. If you don't know what that means, it's basically an email protocol that keeps all of your emails, folders, etc., in sync no matter where you're checking your email from. iPhone? No problem. Mail.app? It's all in sync. Webmail? I've got it.

Let's face it: Managing one email account is hard enough. Why manage multiple versions of one email account?

BTW, I'm using Gmail and .Mac.

• Inbox Zero

I was inspired several months ago in my post Email Bankruptcy to get a handle on what I needed to email. Little did I know that there was a whole system called Inbox Zero from Merlin Mann has influenced me a tremendous amount. The idea behind this is that every email that comes in carries with it five verbs I can perform on it immediately. I can 1) delete it, 2) delegate it, 3) respond to it, 4) defer it, or 5) do it. It's liberating when you decide that hey, I can handle these as they come in because I'm a responsible human being created in God's image to design and create the reality I will soon find myself in.

Gosh, I could write so much on this one. Alas, you don't have time to read it, so either read the link above or watch the half-hour video (followed by a half hour of questions). Onto the next one!

• Consolidated my online presence

This one was hard. I came to realize that my TIME, like my MONEY, is limited and I needed to budget it on what matters most to me. Right now, that involves a slight presence on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog. Occasional Crossings posts are okay. I won't join your Mob War, your vampire club, your brilliant quiz, or whatever. I just won't.

But man does it feel good to be able to give yourself to what you want! Twitter is perfect for me; it's simple, elegant, and gives me the bottom line very, very quickly. Speaking of...

• News feeds

I'm a junkie for blogs and news and whatever. I realized that I was going to a bunch of websites to check for new information, and I didn't really care for Safari's implementation of RSS. Google Reader solved that for me: I could access my favorite information sites from one source that was accessible to me from any computer or my iPhone and not skip a beat. Instead of wasting one to three minutes just finding out what was new, I now had it all conveniently delivered to my feed reader. And I check it sparingly because I value my time.

More about RSS thanks to Abraham Piper, What Is RSS? A Step-by-Step Guide to Google Reader

• Organized my desktop

I also organized my whole user account on my Mac. I cleared EVERYTHING off of my desktop, every single item including the Macintosh HD, and got into a much better way of organizing. I'm following the principles of Inbox Zero and taking them to heart for my computer. When I download an application, put it into the applications folder and delete the disk image immediately. If I download a PDF, do I want this to stick around archived or should I delete it now? It's all about action.

A coworker (thanks, Dan!) showed off to me some great ways through an article called How to Get Things Done on Your Mac. Oh my has it been

• Getting Things Done

There's a book out there called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Many of the things I've mentioned have been based on the core principles found in this book. I'd highly recommend you consider finding out more about this. The easiest way to whet your appetite is through a Google speech the author did, David Allen: Getting Things Done.

But I needed an application that understood what I was now trying to accomplish. Enter...

• Things.app

This is a super-simplified application to help you get things done. I can't really explain it because I'm still learning all of this, but in the last few days I had been thinking, "Man, I need a way to organize all of this." I can't find anything better than Things.app. I just got it today and have been using the heck out of it already.

There's a start. Perhaps I'll talk more about some of these things in the future. But right now, I've got to get some things done....