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    Business Matters

    The Smart List

    "Getting Things Done" by David Allen is helping millions of people to:

    • Reduce Stress

    • Increase Productivity

    • Manage Day-to-Day tasks without letting things fall through the cracks


    It has been one of my favorite tools for several years now and naturally became the very first app.

    In tandem with Franklin Covey's leadership and time management philosophies (see 4 Disiplices of Execution and 7 Habits of highly effective people), a modernized GTD methodology provides a sound foundation to cover the basics and handle day-to-day tasks effectively.

    Like with all Yamanu apps: anything can be easily adjusted and connected to make it work perfectly for you or your team @work or @home.

    "GTD-Tasks" is one of the simplest yet most effective tools.

    A single list to quickly track and manage thoughts, notes, ideas, tasks. For developers perhaps new features, bugs, requirements. Managers may may be happy with high/low, minutes/hours, phone/email variations.

    Simplicity allows for speed and accuracy

    Inbox

    Here is a thought for you:

    • How come that we can easily drive 130 km/h with a car, which produces 3000 images per Minute that need to be processed by our brain, but we may need a whole minute to write down 1 piece of information and get it to the right place or act accordingly?

    How fast would we be driving, if we would have to stop and think about every single thing we see? Buildings. Trees. Animals. Signs.

    It's all about timing. The inbox allows us to capture ALL information at one time and process it at another. It also allows us to collect all information in one place.

    Today, Next, Tomorrow

    The first one, GTD-Today, seems obvious, however: how many "lists" did you have over the past 12 months that had tasks written for a day and could not get done? Several ABC lists perhaps? Calendars on desk, phone or wall?

    GTD-Today means what it says: ONLY add a task if you have to or want to get this done today. Scheduled items will show up here. Consider your calendar and GTD-Today sacret ground - in short: it gives you room to re-negotiate everything else at any given moment, especially GTD-Tomorrow and GTD-Next.

    GTD-Next: can't go without it. Me anyways. Piles of lists that became overdue clogged progressive thinking and necessary actions. Not all thoughts are actionable, and not all actions can be given an exact date or time beforehand.

    Removing the target-date provides freedom to pick and choose what to do next, except of course for the tasks that have to get done by you today.

     

    Today's Tasks in a pretty format.

     
     
     

    See all items

    GTD inside

    When you hover over a record, you can quickly route the item:

    • Today
    • Next
    • Tomorrow
    • Scheduled
    • Someday
    • Confirm
    • Done

    "Next" is a very powerful concept. It doesn't set a fixed time, but rather keeps the list open to pick items you can actually work on based on your energy level, time available and any other situational context you deem necessary.

    "Confirm" in this particular list replaces "Waiting for". While using the list in live meetings for requirement tracking I found it more useful to set a task, note, bug or idea to "confirm", review with the client and set it to done only after approval. Or add notes and continue with a status "in progress".