8 ms·

I too find GTD unsuitable for creative work, mostly because it doesn't handle open-ended, non-tickboxy tasks well, though I can't say that I was using GTD prope

I too find GTD unsuitable for creative work, mostly because it doesn't handle open-ended, non-tickboxy tasks well, though I can't say that I was using GTD properly -- for example, I couldn't bring myself to do weekly reviews. Overall, GTD felt like it requires too much willpower to run. Have you tried Mark Forster's Autofocus or Final Version Perfected systems? If not, you owe yourself a try. The systems, at their core, are very simple: 1. You have a long list of tasks (the same 'ubiquitous capture' principle as in GTD and other systems) 2. You scan the list for tasks that 'stand out' for you as 'ripe' to be done / worked on. This means that you're mentally ready to do these tasks. 3. Work these tasks for as long as you feel like. It's not necessary to finish these tasks. 4. After you've dont with a task, you either cross it off the list, or re-append it to the end of the list. I found his systems much more tolerant of creative work, and much less willpower hungry. A downside of these systems is that they're not capable of handling tasks with start / due dates. Also, regarding de-cluttering todo lists, I firmly believe that: 1. ALL your tasks and actionable thoughts must be captured in your system. 2. Your current todo list must only show items that you are ready to do right now, at the moment. For example, your todo list shouldn't show the task 'Vacuum the floor' if you're not at home. Therefore, there must be ways of de-cluttering your todo list that allow you to defer the tasks until your external (or internal!) conditions are more conducive to working on these tasks. (I got fed up with the inability of most todo apps to do the above, so I'm working on my own todo app).

grahamburger 11y ago
This is more or less how I've been handling my work as well. Didn't know there were systems describing it. I use Asana, it's not perfect but it works.
- VladimirGolovin 11y ago
  I haven't tried Asana yet, but I guess I have to. As I understand it at the moment, Asana is mostly team-oriented. Mentally, I put Asana in the same conceptual bin as Trello, which is my primary teamwork tool. What I was looking for, and couldn't find, is a personal productivity tool in the same category as Wunderlist, Todoist, Swipes, Things and countless others, but with much stronger todo de-cluttering abilities.
  - visakanv 11y ago
    I've tried all of the above in different configurations. What works best for me is to use Workflowy to think and plan the overall picture, and to use Trello to manage active tasks.
    - VladimirGolovin 11y ago
      I use Workflowy daily, as an idea capturing / brainstorming / work logging tool, but it is unsuitable as a todo app because it doesn't support items with dates, let alone recurring tasks. And Trello is my favorite app for teamwork and personal bookmarking, but I haven't tried it as a todo app - again because it doesn't support recurring tasks.
      - Scarblac 11y ago
        I've never had the need, but it should be really easy to write a small script that reads descriptions of recurring tasks and adds them to Trello usings its API, from a cron job. If that's the only thing...
  - Terretta 11y ago
    OmniFocus for iPhone auto filters through geofencing. I've tried every one you mentioned. For me, only OmniFocus handles all the essentials.
    - VladimirGolovin 11y ago
      I wonder why geofencing doesn't spread through other todo apps like wildfire. As much as I'd like to try it out, I haven't had the opportunity yet. Among the apps I tried, only Remember the Milk implemented it, but I couldn't get it to work -- probably my fault, as I don't use RTM as a daily driver. Also, I think that a proper todo app, in addition to geofencing, should include timefencing, people-proximity-fencing, external-condition-fencing and maybe even mood-fencing / energy-fencing. Though I guess some of these can be implemented via contexts.
- desireco42 11y ago
  I wish you all would explain why Asana, I really need some awesome tool as I have 10+ projects I am trying to organize. Asana is super annoying with blank tasks that show everywhere, you can't easily transfer task from one project to another. What I really like is ability to break list in what I call 'milestones'. Also adding from email is surprisingly useful. In the end, I just can't use it, because I need to shuffle things around and Asana doesn't seem to support that.
  - grahamburger 11y ago
    I'm not necessarily an Asana fanboy, it just works for me and so I haven't made an effort to research other platforms. But, since you asked, this is a basic overview of how I use it: -It's just me (Asana is meant to be used with a team. That's not how I use it.) -I don't split up projects in to Asana 'Projects.' I make one Asana Project for each client that I work for and a separate one for 'Personal'. I split up real life projects in to Headings with subtasks in the same Asana project. (All projects for Client A go in the Client A project.) This way I'm never trying to move tasks between projects. -As tasks come up that I want to remember, I forward them to the email address for the correct Project (client). I usually change the subject line to be more descriptive of the task. This puts them at the top of the list for that client. -In between tasks (usually every few hours while I'm working) I read over the list and categorize anything new that I've emailed in under the right heading. I also set the due-date to be the next time I want to work on that particular task. -As I get started for the day on a certain client, I'll look at the list for that client sorted by due date and try to cross off or reschedule everything for that day. -Sometimes I'll tag tasks with a name of the person I need to talk to or the location that something needs to be done. That way the next time I run in to JohnDoe I just say 'oh hang on I had a few things to talk to you about' then tap tap tap to the JohnDoe tag in Asana.
    - desireco42 11y ago
      Thank you. That explains, it seems I use it in a way they didn't plan for or something. :)
kirab 11y ago
You could try IQTell, it does have an amazing amount of customizability and filtering options with which you can easily create those current todo lists by context or area for example. It was created for GTD but due to the customizability I can still recommend a look
techdragon 11y ago
You might want to check out taskwarrior, it's got a lot of tag and filtering capability that can just murder clutter
- VladimirGolovin 11y ago
  Alas, Taskwarrior is not for me, because I need a proper, fully-functional mobile app.
sametmax 11y ago
This is actually a perfect application of GTD. Most people don't realize how flexible GTD is, and feel like everythin must be well define, and have a time frame. It doesn't. You have the reviews for that. You have the "projects" list for that. You have "waiting for" for that. "Spending time on 'creative job x'" is actually a perfectly good task name to add to your "project" list. In your daily review, you scan the one you want to work and and you add the ones you feel like to your "next" list. GTS itself must NEVER be applied as-is, and should be adapted to your line of work, rythm, life style and personnalité. And it's very good at it.
- VladimirGolovin 11y ago
  I guess I couldn't stomach the idea that GTD mandates dedicated review stages, while in Autofocus / FVP and in my own system review is a continuous process. Ideally, I'd like to have the ability to do 'makeshift reviews' per-task, and on different timescales. For example, if I don't feel like doing Task X today, I'd defer it for 5 days, so its next review will happen in 5 days. But if there's another task I'll probably want to do tomorrow, I'd defer it to tomorrow, so I'll review it tomorrow. On the other hand, I do seem to have a de-facto review stage. In the morning I usually go through my task list in Wunderlist (which I hate but use daily) and mark items I'd like to do today. But this is probably because Wunderlist doesn't offer a proper Defer / Hide Until ability that doesn't screw with tasks' due date. (And I have a recurring task 'Review all items', a relic from a bygone era when I attempted to do GTD properly.)
- zwischenzug 11y ago
  This is exactly what I do - I have vague goals which I work towards with creative steps, eg 'take a couple of hours to think about what next with my open source project' and let my mind wander within that. GTD deals explicitly with the creative process and how it helps by clearing your mind in an early chapter. John Cleese talks about the importance of clearing your head before being creative here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qby0ed4aVpo&t=15m24s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qby0ed4aVpo&t=15m24s
croce 11y ago
Based on your needs here, I'll suggest "Swift To-Do List." It's not free.
- VladimirGolovin 11y ago
  It's only compatible with Windows. They offer no mobile app, which is a hard requirement for me. EDIT: They do offer them, the app links are buried in their Features section. The both iOS and Android apps look nice, I'll take a look.
mercer 11y ago
Ha, I'm currently using FVP and started at around AutoFocus 2. It's not enough for all of what I do, but perfect for the crucial stuff. I've also been thinking about building my own tool that implements this. Let me know if you have something!
- VladimirGolovin 11y ago
  The app I'm working on is not a strict to-the-letter implementation of Autofocus / FVP, but it will certainly lend itself very well to similar systems. I'll let you know when I have an MVP to test.
stephen 11y ago
I read the FVP post [1]...I'm slightly incredulous: it's just a list. That you scan and pick things from. I'm not sure if I should be impressed or underwhelmed at the simplicity. There are no categories, no contexts, no markers, no due dates... I'm not sure what makes this is a "system". What's odd is that the author seems to have had previous incarnations/systems, that were actually more complex, e.g. had separate lists with review periods, curation, etc., but he seems to have evolved (which I really appreciate continual improvement) to "fuck it, just use one list". I know I'm committing an error of logic, but his FVP stats seem to indicate he's basically retired/in a low stress environment [2], so perhaps all the regalia of GTD (which fwiw I don't practice) are more applicable in the corporate environments that spawned it. However, if it works for you, that's great. It's been awhile since I've poked around in the "productivity system" space. Interesting stuff. [1]: http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/21/the-final-version-perfected-fvp.html http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/21/the-final-... [2]: http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/27/a-day-with-fvp.html http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/27/a-day-with...
- VladimirGolovin 11y ago
  What makes FVP a system, and what makes it stand out in comparison with GTD, is its emphasis on psychological readiness. Here's a quote from [1]: There are three main requirements which have to be kept in balance. These are urgency, importance and psychological readiness. Traditional time management systems have tended to concentrate on the first two of these. The neglect of psychological readiness is probably the reason that most people don’t find time management systems particularly effective or congenial. The most distinctive feature of FVP is the way that its algorithm is primarily based on psychological readiness - this then opens the way to keeping urgency and importance in the best achievable balance. In GTD, at least how I understand it, prioritization is rational and conscious. In Autofocus / FVP, prioritization is based on your 'gut feeling' towards the task at the moment when you look at it. This was a crucial difference in my case. (As for due dates, the author explicitly states that his systems are incapable of handling dateful tasks).

grahamburger 11y ago

This is more or less how I've been handling my work as well. Didn't know there were systems describing it. I use Asana, it's not perfect but it works.

VladimirGolovin 11y ago
I haven't tried Asana yet, but I guess I have to. As I understand it at the moment, Asana is mostly team-oriented. Mentally, I put Asana in the same conceptual bin as Trello, which is my primary teamwork tool. What I was looking for, and couldn't find, is a personal productivity tool in the same category as Wunderlist, Todoist, Swipes, Things and countless others, but with much stronger todo de-cluttering abilities.
- visakanv 11y ago
  I've tried all of the above in different configurations. What works best for me is to use Workflowy to think and plan the overall picture, and to use Trello to manage active tasks.
  - VladimirGolovin 11y ago
    I use Workflowy daily, as an idea capturing / brainstorming / work logging tool, but it is unsuitable as a todo app because it doesn't support items with dates, let alone recurring tasks. And Trello is my favorite app for teamwork and personal bookmarking, but I haven't tried it as a todo app - again because it doesn't support recurring tasks.
    - Scarblac 11y ago
      I've never had the need, but it should be really easy to write a small script that reads descriptions of recurring tasks and adds them to Trello usings its API, from a cron job. If that's the only thing...
- Terretta 11y ago
  OmniFocus for iPhone auto filters through geofencing. I've tried every one you mentioned. For me, only OmniFocus handles all the essentials.
  - VladimirGolovin 11y ago
    I wonder why geofencing doesn't spread through other todo apps like wildfire. As much as I'd like to try it out, I haven't had the opportunity yet. Among the apps I tried, only Remember the Milk implemented it, but I couldn't get it to work -- probably my fault, as I don't use RTM as a daily driver. Also, I think that a proper todo app, in addition to geofencing, should include timefencing, people-proximity-fencing, external-condition-fencing and maybe even mood-fencing / energy-fencing. Though I guess some of these can be implemented via contexts.
desireco42 11y ago
I wish you all would explain why Asana, I really need some awesome tool as I have 10+ projects I am trying to organize. Asana is super annoying with blank tasks that show everywhere, you can't easily transfer task from one project to another. What I really like is ability to break list in what I call 'milestones'. Also adding from email is surprisingly useful. In the end, I just can't use it, because I need to shuffle things around and Asana doesn't seem to support that.
- grahamburger 11y ago
  I'm not necessarily an Asana fanboy, it just works for me and so I haven't made an effort to research other platforms. But, since you asked, this is a basic overview of how I use it: -It's just me (Asana is meant to be used with a team. That's not how I use it.) -I don't split up projects in to Asana 'Projects.' I make one Asana Project for each client that I work for and a separate one for 'Personal'. I split up real life projects in to Headings with subtasks in the same Asana project. (All projects for Client A go in the Client A project.) This way I'm never trying to move tasks between projects. -As tasks come up that I want to remember, I forward them to the email address for the correct Project (client). I usually change the subject line to be more descriptive of the task. This puts them at the top of the list for that client. -In between tasks (usually every few hours while I'm working) I read over the list and categorize anything new that I've emailed in under the right heading. I also set the due-date to be the next time I want to work on that particular task. -As I get started for the day on a certain client, I'll look at the list for that client sorted by due date and try to cross off or reschedule everything for that day. -Sometimes I'll tag tasks with a name of the person I need to talk to or the location that something needs to be done. That way the next time I run in to JohnDoe I just say 'oh hang on I had a few things to talk to you about' then tap tap tap to the JohnDoe tag in Asana.
  - desireco42 11y ago
    Thank you. That explains, it seems I use it in a way they didn't plan for or something. :)

kirab 11y ago

You could try IQTell, it does have an amazing amount of customizability and filtering options with which you can easily create those current todo lists by context or area for example. It was created for GTD but due to the customizability I can still recommend a look

techdragon 11y ago

You might want to check out taskwarrior, it's got a lot of tag and filtering capability that can just murder clutter

VladimirGolovin 11y ago
Alas, Taskwarrior is not for me, because I need a proper, fully-functional mobile app.

sametmax 11y ago

This is actually a perfect application of GTD. Most people don't realize how flexible GTD is, and feel like everythin must be well define, and have a time frame. It doesn't. You have the reviews for that. You have the "projects" list for that. You have "waiting for" for that. "Spending time on 'creative job x'" is actually a perfectly good task name to add to your "project" list. In your daily review, you scan the one you want to work and and you add the ones you feel like to your "next" list. GTS itself must NEVER be applied as-is, and should be adapted to your line of work, rythm, life style and personnalité. And it's very good at it.

VladimirGolovin 11y ago
I guess I couldn't stomach the idea that GTD mandates dedicated review stages, while in Autofocus / FVP and in my own system review is a continuous process. Ideally, I'd like to have the ability to do 'makeshift reviews' per-task, and on different timescales. For example, if I don't feel like doing Task X today, I'd defer it for 5 days, so its next review will happen in 5 days. But if there's another task I'll probably want to do tomorrow, I'd defer it to tomorrow, so I'll review it tomorrow. On the other hand, I do seem to have a de-facto review stage. In the morning I usually go through my task list in Wunderlist (which I hate but use daily) and mark items I'd like to do today. But this is probably because Wunderlist doesn't offer a proper Defer / Hide Until ability that doesn't screw with tasks' due date. (And I have a recurring task 'Review all items', a relic from a bygone era when I attempted to do GTD properly.)
zwischenzug 11y ago
This is exactly what I do - I have vague goals which I work towards with creative steps, eg 'take a couple of hours to think about what next with my open source project' and let my mind wander within that. GTD deals explicitly with the creative process and how it helps by clearing your mind in an early chapter. John Cleese talks about the importance of clearing your head before being creative here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qby0ed4aVpo&t=15m24s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qby0ed4aVpo&t=15m24s

croce 11y ago

Based on your needs here, I'll suggest "Swift To-Do List." It's not free.

VladimirGolovin 11y ago
It's only compatible with Windows. They offer no mobile app, which is a hard requirement for me. EDIT: They do offer them, the app links are buried in their Features section. The both iOS and Android apps look nice, I'll take a look.

mercer 11y ago

Ha, I'm currently using FVP and started at around AutoFocus 2. It's not enough for all of what I do, but perfect for the crucial stuff. I've also been thinking about building my own tool that implements this. Let me know if you have something!

VladimirGolovin 11y ago
The app I'm working on is not a strict to-the-letter implementation of Autofocus / FVP, but it will certainly lend itself very well to similar systems. I'll let you know when I have an MVP to test.

stephen 11y ago

I read the FVP post [1]...I'm slightly incredulous: it's just a list. That you scan and pick things from. I'm not sure if I should be impressed or underwhelmed at the simplicity. There are no categories, no contexts, no markers, no due dates... I'm not sure what makes this is a "system". What's odd is that the author seems to have had previous incarnations/systems, that were actually more complex, e.g. had separate lists with review periods, curation, etc., but he seems to have evolved (which I really appreciate continual improvement) to "fuck it, just use one list". I know I'm committing an error of logic, but his FVP stats seem to indicate he's basically retired/in a low stress environment [2], so perhaps all the regalia of GTD (which fwiw I don't practice) are more applicable in the corporate environments that spawned it. However, if it works for you, that's great. It's been awhile since I've poked around in the "productivity system" space. Interesting stuff. [1]: http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/21/the-final-version-perfected-fvp.html http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/21/the-final-... [2]: http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/27/a-day-with-fvp.html http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2015/5/27/a-day-with...

VladimirGolovin 11y ago
What makes FVP a system, and what makes it stand out in comparison with GTD, is its emphasis on psychological readiness. Here's a quote from [1]: There are three main requirements which have to be kept in balance. These are urgency, importance and psychological readiness. Traditional time management systems have tended to concentrate on the first two of these. The neglect of psychological readiness is probably the reason that most people don’t find time management systems particularly effective or congenial. The most distinctive feature of FVP is the way that its algorithm is primarily based on psychological readiness - this then opens the way to keeping urgency and importance in the best achievable balance. In GTD, at least how I understand it, prioritization is rational and conscious. In Autofocus / FVP, prioritization is based on your 'gut feeling' towards the task at the moment when you look at it. This was a crucial difference in my case. (As for due dates, the author explicitly states that his systems are incapable of handling dateful tasks).