Getting things done. This time management method created by David Allen became really popular lately; you can hear about it from everywhere, especially when you work in IT sector. Few months ago I came to the point, that I've lost track of my tasks, and things I needed to do. So I decided to follow many of my friends, who have been using this method.

The mess

Let me briefly describe, how I was doing things before knowing about GTD. At work, I used a project management tool, where I had tasks from my PM. I was working on them during my workday, and when I got an idea or found something out I needed to do later, I usually scribbled a sticky note and slammed it to my monitor. Pretty fine to this point. I was also freelancing in the meantime. During the day I was communicating with my clients via e-mail, what was also the place to keep track of the tasks, and client's requirements. I was starring the most important mails, and keeping an unread mark on the less important ones. Then in the evening at home I was working on these tasks, and cleared the e-mails. It used to happen, that when I worked out a solution at home, I could have used a part of it at work, but oops, the sticky note was back there on my monitor. I usually solved this by sending an e-mail to my work mail, with the note. The same happened when I got an idea at work, that I needed for my freelance projects.

Up on that all, there was my personal “to do” list (containing things to buy, to do at home, etc.) mostly in my mind. I also used to take notes of highest priority things on my cellphone, and keep them visible in stand-by mode. This once came to the point that I had 30 lines of notes on the wallpaper in my cellphone, and I barely knew when to do anything of that, and even forgot what few of the notes meant.

Won't forget the milk anymore

Human brain has limited capacity of remembering things. Even it is capable of prioritizing, it's not as reliable as needed. Getting Things Done method gives advice to take any ideas you have in mind out to an external place as soon as possible, so the brain can actually focus on the most important thing – performing the tasks. When talking to my friends about how are they using this method, I did a small research in the field of technological solutions. From many of them I picked Remember The Milk to be my software helping me getting my things done. I liked the simplicity of the user interface, and also it's availability on mobile platforms (either via the web-app, or as a paid application). My first step with this app was collecting my notes from all over the place, and sorting them into categories. I've got a few basic lists dividing my task list to work tasks, personal tasks, and study/self-development tasks. Then I use tagging for grouping the tasks into smaller sub-categories. E. g. work tasks for the same project have the same tag, or in personal tasks, things I need to buy have their tag. Remember The Milk also offers smart searches based on various criteria, so you can easily create necessary views of the tasks. Based on GTD, I always try to drop any new ideas into the Inbox feature of the application immediately. It can really hit me anywhere – in a bus, on a meeting, on the toilet :) Dropping a new task to Inbox list is literally as simple as sending an email to your personal Inbox address. Another option is to access the app with your cellphone and drop it there. Then anytime later you can get to it, and move it to the proper category, tag it with tags, set a due date, take notes, etc. and start doing the tasks immediately.

Got Time to Dance

To conclude what I've written so far, one sentence is enough – the number of things I actually get done has grown by 100% since I started using this method. Everything now seems more organized, and I always know what I've got to do, and when I finish, what to do next. This of course still needs to remain in a healthy width of span, you certainly don't want to turn into a pre-programmed robot completing orders on a list. But using this method can really help you in your work, and also in your personal life – thus getting you also more free time for relaxing.