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Somewhat related, I find that if I am feeling stressed, I often write a list of all the things that are cycling through my mind. I find that I often have up to

Somewhat related, I find that if I am feeling stressed, I often write a list of all the things that are cycling through my mind. I find that I often have up to 20-30 items to process and the stress results from not being able to hold them in my head att he same time. Writing them down means the stress dissipates and I can get on with getting things done. So saving information "off-head" clearly makes me more productive, as I can focus on one thing at the time.

mercer 12y ago
The importance and value of getting 'stuff' out of my head was perhaps the most valuable thing I got from reading 'Getting Things Done'. And even after giving up on using the 'full' GTD approach, I've kept the core ideas of 'getting stuff out of your head' and 'making it as actionable as possible' in my system. (I also kept the 2-minute rule: if you can do it in 2 minutes, do it right away.)
- jmnicolas 12y ago
  Yes this is central to GTD : as long as you don't have everything recorded in a trusted system, your brain will spend energy remembering it. Hence the trusted system : if you know that you will not lose or forget the data your brain can relax and focus on the task at hand. Of course I saved this article in Evernote for later reading ;-)
  - mark_l_watson 12y ago
    I was a huge fan, and paying customer, of Evernote for years. I gave it up and have a system that fits my personal tastes/requirements a little bit better. When I worked at Google last year I got used to using Google Drive heavily. The search working inside Google's network basically accesses most of your working environment - really nice. I am (mostly) retired now, and using Google services like GDrive as an external user is not as nice, but getting there: GDrive search indexes all of your documents, documents shared with you, and (I think this may be a recent addition) all of Google+ (surprisingly useful since I mostly have tech people in my circles). My current "memory offload system" uses fine grained folders in Dropbox for different things like business ideas, server notes, ideas for writing, and my leanpub book manuscripts. For everything else I toss everything into GDrive and rely on search. As other people have commented, it really clears the mind to reliably store ideas for future use. Note: earlier this year I tried the 30 day trial of Office 365. I found the OneDrive storage and notes app to be pretty good. The support on my MacBook Air, Android phone, and iPad was surprisingly good. I might convert over to Office 365 someday.
    - jmnicolas 12y ago
      The problem for me is that I didn't find THE trusted system. I use Evernote, OneNote, Google Keep and Simplest Reminder on Android but I'm not satisfied with this motley organization. I think the Apple ecosystem has better tools for GTD (Omnifocus, Things etc) but right now I can't afford to change my systems.
      - bjelkeman-again 12y ago
        Having tried most of those, funnily enough, I am back to bits of paper.
      - mark_l_watson 12y ago
        I also really like the Apple ecosystem, and most of the OmniGroup products are very good (I have used OmniGraffle for figures for many of the books I have written) - I just upgraded my license, BTW. However, OmniGroup does not support Android (which is reasonable). Comparing my Galaxy Note 4 to friends' iPhone 6+ phones, I think it unlikely that Apple will ever have me as a phone customer. Other companies like Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, etc. support all types of devices very well.

mercer 12y ago

The importance and value of getting 'stuff' out of my head was perhaps the most valuable thing I got from reading 'Getting Things Done'. And even after giving up on using the 'full' GTD approach, I've kept the core ideas of 'getting stuff out of your head' and 'making it as actionable as possible' in my system. (I also kept the 2-minute rule: if you can do it in 2 minutes, do it right away.)

jmnicolas 12y ago
Yes this is central to GTD : as long as you don't have everything recorded in a trusted system, your brain will spend energy remembering it. Hence the trusted system : if you know that you will not lose or forget the data your brain can relax and focus on the task at hand. Of course I saved this article in Evernote for later reading ;-)
- mark_l_watson 12y ago
  I was a huge fan, and paying customer, of Evernote for years. I gave it up and have a system that fits my personal tastes/requirements a little bit better. When I worked at Google last year I got used to using Google Drive heavily. The search working inside Google's network basically accesses most of your working environment - really nice. I am (mostly) retired now, and using Google services like GDrive as an external user is not as nice, but getting there: GDrive search indexes all of your documents, documents shared with you, and (I think this may be a recent addition) all of Google+ (surprisingly useful since I mostly have tech people in my circles). My current "memory offload system" uses fine grained folders in Dropbox for different things like business ideas, server notes, ideas for writing, and my leanpub book manuscripts. For everything else I toss everything into GDrive and rely on search. As other people have commented, it really clears the mind to reliably store ideas for future use. Note: earlier this year I tried the 30 day trial of Office 365. I found the OneDrive storage and notes app to be pretty good. The support on my MacBook Air, Android phone, and iPad was surprisingly good. I might convert over to Office 365 someday.
  - jmnicolas 12y ago
    The problem for me is that I didn't find THE trusted system. I use Evernote, OneNote, Google Keep and Simplest Reminder on Android but I'm not satisfied with this motley organization. I think the Apple ecosystem has better tools for GTD (Omnifocus, Things etc) but right now I can't afford to change my systems.
    - bjelkeman-again 12y ago
      Having tried most of those, funnily enough, I am back to bits of paper.
    - mark_l_watson 12y ago
      I also really like the Apple ecosystem, and most of the OmniGroup products are very good (I have used OmniGraffle for figures for many of the books I have written) - I just upgraded my license, BTW. However, OmniGroup does not support Android (which is reasonable). Comparing my Galaxy Note 4 to friends' iPhone 6+ phones, I think it unlikely that Apple will ever have me as a phone customer. Other companies like Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, etc. support all types of devices very well.