My Moleskine GTD System Mike Shea, 1 October 2009
I'm pressing on nearly three and a half years using Getting Things Done to help me track projects, assign next actions, and generally get the chaos of life under control. I'm not going to talk about GTD itself except to say that it's made me a happier and more productive person. My life is easier, I get more done, and I do the things I want to do while eliminating much of the things I don't want to do.
I've used at least half a dozen different physical systems for GTD and more recently began to simplify it further and further. At this point I have it down to an entire GTD system contained only in my Moleskine pocket notebook. Today I'm going to describe this system throgh the component parts of GTD: inbox, projects, next actions, calendar, and someday/maybe. I'll also talk about some additional sections of mine and how this fits with my weekly review.
My goal was to get my GTD system down to a single unmodified Moleskine notebook. I've used everything from Levenger Pocket Briefcases to Franklin Covey planners but my Moleskine has been my constant companion throughout. I love my Moleskine and I don't want to use anything else. I want to run my entire life out of a small black pocket notebook. So that's what I've done.
Before I discuss each section and how it is used, I wanted to describe the actual physical layout of these sections within my Moleskine.
My inbox, calendar, and next actions all reside together in the main bulk of the notebook. Between each weekly calendar, a number of pages are filled with inbox notes and action lists. I average about eight to ten pages used each week. Mixing them up lets the notebook grow naturally without having too many reserved pages wasted if I don't end up using them.
In the back of the notebook I have a small sticky tab to mark off Project pages. I have one page, front and back, for each of my major project areas (right now that's about five, including Home) and one more for "Someday Maybe" items. When I start a new Moleskine, I count out how many project pages I'm likely to need and mark them with the project section names.
In the pocket of the notebook, I have a tiny phone listing insert that comes with the Moleskine daily planners. It fits very well and can be transferred from Moleskine to Moleskine as you switch them out. In the pocket itself I have a couple of business cards and a small string of emergency dental floss.
On the top spine of the Moleskine, I write the starting month and year. When I've finished it, I write the end month. This way its easy for me to stack up and organize my growing pile of Moleskines.
Now lets take a look at each section.
The concept of an Inbox - a holder for unprocessed stuff - is critical to the GTD system. A Moleskine works perfectly for this. Anything that jumps into your life can be quickly jotted down in the Moleskine and processed when you have a moment. I process incoming action items with a small check mark. This way I can easily see what inbox items have been and haven't been processed. When an entire page has been processed, I put a check in the corner. I also date each page or major section so I can easily see when things came in.
There's also quite a few drawings and sketches mixed in. I don't worry too much about crudding up my notebook with random stuff - that's what it is for.
In the back of the book, I have projects broken out. I'm still toying with categories for these projects but my job is currently broken out into five major work areas so it's pretty easy for me to use those as the projects. Each project is simply listed by its name. Sometimes I'll add a due date and a point of contact if its something I'm tracking that someone else is doing. My projects section also includes all my projects for Home as well. This is where all my personal and home projects go.
This section also has my "Someday / Maybe" list which is very similar to a projects list exept that it doesn't often result in any actions.
Mixed in with my weekly calendar spread and my inbox pages are my next action pages. I'll use a whole page for each location, currently broken out into @work and @home. If an action page gets too many items on it, it usually means I have too much to do and its time to triage to get rid of some of them. I usually rewrite my @work action page three times in a week. My @home usually lasts the whole week.
I keep my current week's calendar on a two-page spread that I hand-write. On this spread I also have my daily life checklist which has my ten life goals and the days of the week above it so I can check my progress on these things. Below that begins my work week, Monday and tuesday on one page and Wednesday - Friday on the other. Saturday and Sunday, my least busy days, share the bottom of the second page.
Each week at my Friday afternoon Weekly Review, I re-write my life checklist and write out next week's calendar using my Outlook calendar at work. My Outlook work calendar is my primary calendar. I will email myself new appointments even for mundain home tasks to my work calendar.
Another benefit of these weekly calendar page spreads is that it clearly segments the Moleskine into one-week chunks. If I knew something happened in a particular week, I can go back to that section and see all of my inbox items, next actions, and appointments.
I do my weekly reviews on Friday afternoon. I start by writing out my next life checklist which helps me reinforce the need to focus on the important things in my life. I then write out next week's calendar based on my Outlook calendar for next week. Next I will copy over any next actions into new action lists for the following week. I'll also check last week's calendar and review last week's inbox to ensure I'm not missing any actions that I should have down. Next I go to my project lists and walk down every one to ensure that it is either handled, deferred temporarily, or requires a next action. If it does, that gets added to my action lists. I don't always have next actions on my projects (a GTD no-no) but reviewing it every week ensures that I'm at least aware of this fact. I'll also review my Someday Maybe list to see if anything there needs to either move to a project, get removed, or continue to sit there. Finally, I sit back and just think hard about anything else that might need to fall into the system anywhere. This is a pretty thereputic process when you realize that everything you need to get done is recored and marked in the right spots.
Why would someone spend so much time pontificating such a thing? To make my life simpler, to make my life easier, and to help me focus my limited time, attention, and resources to the things that are most important to me every moment I can. Getting my system streamlined down to a single pocket notebook has made my life significantly easier and because of this, I am a happier person.
This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. Please send comments or questions to mike@mikeshea.net.