I’ve decided to try to become more organized and productive.
Unlike many who with this aim, I have a profoundly different goal.  I do not want to be more productive and organized.  My productivity I would grade ‘Good’, while my organization I would grade merely ’Adequate’.
My goal is simply to expend less time to get the same results I get today.

Methods
I will not try to use GTD, because it is so difficult to implement.  I am familiar with GTD, I have read the book, and I think it is a good methodology.  Much of what I will do is based on the ideas in GTD.  But I’m not running the microwave division of General Electric, so I don’t need anything with flowcharts.  I need something simpler.

What I Will Do:

• I wil use GMail and Ta Da List.
• I will do the items on Ta Da List.
• I will attempt to answer all of the emails, and do the action items associated with them.
• If an action item is substantial, I will transfer it to the Ta Da list.
• Once an email is answered, I will archive it.
• I will aggressively archive emails that acquire no action.
• I have also created a delegate and a ‘wait on’ tab, but I don’t do either of those very much.

Results So Far
So far, I have gotten to inbox 3 in my work email, inbox 6 in my bmic email, and inbox 4 in my personal email.  (And both of the personal action items involved copy editing manuscript portions.)

My TaDa List has 10 items in each category, and all of them are slowing getting done.  They are what Stephen Covey would call ‘Quadrant II’ items.

So far, it’s going well.

Will it work out long term?  I’ll let you know.

Do you use a productivity system?  How do you stay organized?  Does it work? Leave a comment…