GTD: Focusing on Tasks

First off I would like to apologize for the lack of recent posts on the blog.  The current cold bug hit the eLearning department pretty hard last week, but we are all back and almost at 100%!

I am a bit of a Getting Things Done (GTD) geek.  I like to make sure I am on track for completing projects and getting general work done in a timely manner.  There are always so many tasks to work on that it can be a bit overwhelming.  I have used a variety of task management apps (Remember the Milk, Things and The Hit List) to keep myself organized.  I currently use Apple's Reminders because of the iCloud synchronization.  They are all good apps but for me they have one major flaw.  It is much too easy to just change the due date on the task and forget about.  Before I know it I have tasks that are months old because it was too easy to put them off.

Recently I stumbled across something that completely changed task management for me.  I was surfing the web for productivity tools and found a site by David Seah.  On his site he had a variety of paper-based task management and project management solutions.  I had always avoided paper-based tools because I just always felt the digital tools were superior.  The one solution on David's site that really impressed me is his Emergent Task Planner.  It is a great task management tool and the best part is you can't just change the due date and put the task off, especially if you use a pen! :)

So, a little bit about how I use the tool.  I usually get to work around 7:30am and that is the time I start to organize my day.  The first thing I do is grab a new sheet of the ETP and fill out the date and the times, from 8am to 5pm.  

Then I look at my digital task list and pick three tasks that I have to complete by the end of the day.  

As I work through the day I list all the other activities that work on in addition to my tasks. 

As I work on items I list them on the left-hand side (see first image) and mark off the amount of time I spend on them.  If I am able to complete the initial three tasks then I reward myself by adding three more to the list.  This process has been very helpful.  With this system I have been able to stay on task and also identify things that tend to distract me from GTD, like email.