Congratulations to AlaskaTeacher, the winner of the GTDagenda.com giveaway! I’ve sent you an email!
This month I’m been reviewing a variety of planners, calendars and to-do list systems to give you the information you need to choose the one that works for you. Be sure to enter to win a LobotoME weekly planner as well!
If you’ve spent much time reading or researching time management and productivity tips, chances are that you’ve heard of Getting Things Done by David Allen. Although not developed by David Allen himself, the GTDagenda system is an online productivity program that uses many of the GTD principles and can be incorporated with almost any time management system.
Let me start by saying that I can’t see myself using this program for regular home management tasks. It’s over-qualified for simple list-making and calendar tracking. However, as a blogger and consultant, I absolutely love it for managing projects, goals and tasks, and I think it’s a valuable tool for any business person, especially innovators and entrepreneurs. The program itself is robust, and they continue to roll out updates on a regular basis. The occasional time management and productivity tips they send out prove that they truly understand those principles.
Use the GTDagenda system to set up:
:: Goals
Goals are a tool to concentrate your effort and move you in a direction. Set goals in each of your life’s areas, along with the time lines you are commited to acomplish them by.
:: Projects
Action plans that map to one of your goals. Each completed project moves you closer to the completion of your goal.
:: Tasks & Next Actions
Break out each project into specific tasks (actionable items), and decide what the next action is going to be.
:: Contexts
Context is where or how a task is accomplished.
:: Checklists
Use checklists for your repeating/recurring tasks, things that you must handle weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc as well as action items that may be tied to a specific month (e.g. wax car every April and November). You can tie them to your goals. Consistent, daily action makes things happen.
:: Schedules
Schedules are tools for organizing your daily activities, with exact timings. Each activity can be linked to one of your existing projects and tasks.
:: Calendar
Use the included calendar to keep note of and remember your “set-in-stone” activities, that need to be done at certain dates. Set events, appointments, anniversaries, to-do’s and notes.
To be honest, I still don’t think I’ve even scratched the surface of everything you can do with this program, but I’m looking forward to using it more in the New Year. And I’m hoping they’ll develop a collaboration tool that allows me to share projects and tasks with others as well!
This week, one lucky Organizing Your Way reader will win a year-long subscription to GTDagenda!
Every reader has four methods available to enter this contest (for a total of up to four entries):
1. Leave a comment. Which of the GTDagenda features most appeals to you?
2. Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email. You must confirm your email subscription for it to be a valid entry! Leave a separate comment letting me know you have done so. If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’re already subscribed.
3. Tweet the following on Twitter. Be sure to come back and leave a separate comment once you’ve done so!
Increase your productivity and enter to win a one-year subscription to GTDagenda from @mandiehman: http://bit.ly/79kQYC
Prize:
(1) Premium Year-Long Account at GTDagenda.com
This giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, 12/26. I’ll use Random.org to select the winning comment. Winner will be notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well!
