What I Need in my Organizational Life

The Struggle Never Ends

I've dealt with organizing and re-organizing and I'm sure I'll just continue dealing with it. I've tried so many different ways to stay organized that it's impossible to keep them organized! I've got too many tools that fill various gaps and I'm wondering if I can bring it all together. It's not that I'm not organized. Frankly many people around me seem to consider me to be very organized and to a certain extent I believe that I am. But it's as though I've turned into an on-and-off again collector of organizational systems. I flow in and out of them as I become more or less anxious about the things going on in my life. Analog and digital systems are all fair game when it comes to the various whims I'm feeling.

Now, more than ever, I'm feeling pulled toward creating my own solution. It will likely start with a conglomeration of the various services and solutions that currently exist, but I hope that over time I can venture into a ground up amalgamation of the features I find most beneficial. Let's take a moment to run through some thoughts and practices tangential to all of this.

GTD - Getting Things Done

David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) has been a constant goal post for me. It has a fairly solid place in my work environment but lacks a little bit in my personal life. I first dug really deep into it's application by adopting an email solution that my colleague Regis Hadiaris had been using and about which he had written. Once I saw the impact that this system had in my life, I yearned to move toward a mindset of getting things done and, just as my intro foreshadows, I've been constantly in flux.

GTD in Email - ZERO INBOX

I have done quite a good job over the years of using GTD in email. Eventually I will write a post to go into a bit of detail about it, but it kind of goes like this.

• Have no rules.
  That's right. No rules. At least... no rules that automatically bin emails that you think you don't need to worry about into some folders that you have set aside. Now that I've said that I can tell you that I've broken this rule to a very tiny extent. I have one rule. That rule simply checks the importance of the message (via it's flag) and sends me a text message if the message is of high importance.
• Create the following folders and note the definitions
  • Action
    These are messages upon which you need to take action.
  • Wait for Follow-up
    These are items for which you are awaiting someone to reply or some action in the world to take place.
  • Read and Review
    These are collections of interesting articles or reference materials that you would like to read through when the time allows.
  • Archive?
    Everyone is a hoarder with certain things. I'm no different. Items that I'm done with go here and are really just there for searching if something comes up.
• Follow a method
  • Read/Look at every email
    I said no rules right? So here's the moment to just realize how much you don't need rules. I'm not saying that you have to read each email in depth. If you already now the contents of the email or know that it has nothing to do with you and you're ok with things - then that's cool. But you need to have eyes on each item landing in your inbox.
  • Does the email require your action?
    • Yes
      • Can you perform you action within two minutes right now?
        • Yes
          Do that thing!
          Right Now!
          Do it!
          (then delete or archive)
        • No
          Move the item to the Action folder
    • No
      • Is it something you need to follow up on later?
        • Yes
          Move the item to the Wait for Follow-up folder
        • No -Is it a longer piece you'd like to read up on later? - Yes
          Move the item to the Read and Review folder - No
          DELETE
• Set and use a schedule
  The big trick here is to not think of your job as email management. Your value comes from taking action and delivering results. You need time for that. So set up a schedule where you can review your inbox a few times a day (note that I don't recommend one of those times being first thing in the day). Also set up a larger block once or twice during the week to review items in the Read and Review folder. Finally, set up a few blocks - perhaps this is once a day - to review your Action folder to be sure you're appropriately prioritized and to review your Wait for Follow-up folder to be sure nothing is falling through a crack somewhere.

Utilizing this system, the goal for me that is obtained on the regular is to have an empty inbox. That isn't to say that there isn't any work to do. It simply means that the work is now segmented to allow for better and clearer prioritization.

Tickler Files

The idea here is to have a set of physical folders. Forty-three folders actually. Twelve are labeled with each month of the year and thirty-one are labeled with the numbers 1 through 31 representing the days (potential days) of the month. You rotate the dates into the next month when you're done with them in the current month. The folders contain physical documents representing things that need to get done on that particular date (or month) and so it tickles your mind giving you the right hints when you need them.

I have tried tickler files once in a while but I find that the issue is that there is no really great "beautiful" place to set it up so that I can interact with it and have it be aesthetically pleasing. There is indeed a need for a physical element to organization. But I honestly haven't fully figure out the right one.

Other things I've tried

• Nirvana HQ
  Nirvana has been a good tool for organizing tasks in the GTD principles. I've used it off and on but in retrospect I've really used it more as a quick note taking system. Sometimes I group items and prioritize them, but often times it becomes a little messy and I have to go through and clean things out.
• OmniFocus
  OmniFocus is a great place for lists and contexts of the lists. It does allow for planning to a certain degree. I have found myself using it mainly for grocery shopping as it does a good job maintaining context and even can alert you to consider various contexts with geofences.
• The Brain
  The Brain is an interesting take on note taking that allows me to interconnect my thoughts. It requires a lot of meta management to make the connections. Frankly I've mostly used it as a mind mapping tool at this point and haven't really relied upon it as a notes archive.
• Static site generation
  Github, markdown, pelican - seem to be a great mashup to develop a static site and my friend Nick's method of combining that with a notes section seems really cool. Sometimes when I write I seem to think as if I was going to publish something and so the ease of markdown speaks to me here.
• Neo4j
  Neo4j is an interesting platform for directed graphs. I've not leveraged it en mass for true analytics but as a different method of database schema. The noun, adjective, and verb concepts help me navigate relationships in exactly the same way that I think about them. I just feel like there is something to using graph databases for thought organization which is what interested me in The Brain
• Python
  With Python I am sure that I will be able to create some functions that aggregate and publish appropriate content in the ways that I see fit. It will allow me to roll some of these concepts together and even just the process of trying will likely teach me a lot.

What am I driving for?

• A decent place to take notes
• A decent place to store notes
• A way to connect notes amongst each other
• A way to connect notes to capabilities or completed artifacts
• A place to write my book
• A place to organize my research
• A place to store tasks
• A place to prioritize tasks
• A place to work on tasks

I'm sure that there's more to think about but I am excited to begin focusing. I hope to stand up a project repository soon so that I can plan out the features that I am wanting to develop and perhaps come up with a solution that others might enjoy. Until then... happy organizing!

Regards,
Stuart