A Slim GTD for Students: Keeping Yourself Organized
Friday, February 1, 2008 by Kelly Sutton Chris recently wrote a post for Lifehacker about Getting Things Done for students. Check it out!
First off, I have never read David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Overhead
Dealing with bureaucracies is never fun. I'm still surprised no one has found out a better solution for managing everything. The most common complains of bureaucracies stem from too much overhead in relation to the work that gets done. Why does replacing a light bulb require 4 different departments?
GTD, to me at least, feels the same way. Why complicate things with a tickler folder, an extensive filing cabinet, and many other fabrications? (There are important lessons to be learned from the concepts, I just don't care for the implementation that David Allen suggests.)
(Dis)organization
David Allen suggests that any GTDer try to minimize the number of inboxes/homebases/HQs. It's tough to get work done if you can't check up on all projects all at once. He's on the right track (and I'm being pretentious). I've widdled the my inboxes down to 2: GMail and a PocketMod. Anything that I ever learn or any responsibility I ever receive goes onto one of those.
The Solution
I don't have no fancy iPhone. Maybe I'm bitter. I still rock my 5-day-battery-life LG VX6100. It's that phone every Verizon Wireless customer had 3 years ago. But honestly, I realize anything more than this would be a waste. Let me tell you why:
Any hard or soft dates that I receive, I punch into phone. Thanks to Google Calendar SMS, I don't have to squint at my screen when I get home while meticulously-removing-my-calendar-information-by-hand-because-Verizon-doesn't-include
a-syncing-program-without-paying-more-than-you-did-for-the-phone. Any meetings or appointments--if I was ever important enough to have them--would be entered into my GCal within seconds. No iPhone-iCal sync (suckas!).
I do keep the GTD mentality close to my heart though. One of the most important things to staying organized (for me) is to write every single G'damn thing down in my PocketMod (or put it in my GCal). One of the key points of GTD is to write everything down. Again, write everything down. One more time: write everything down. Whether it's as trivial as doing laundry or as important as cleaning up a resume, write it down. Hardcore GTDers will tell you to make the task "action oriented." Just write it down. If the tense and wording of a task determines whether or not you will actually do the task, organization is not your biggest problem.
Perfect for Students
Most students are still on their parents' cell phone family plans (don't lie to yourself, I still am). The love-texting back-and-forth from GCal will be a minimal cost, even moreso if your parents never notice. If not, texting plans are ultra cheap these days. I've got 500 or something for $10 a month, which I pay for indirectly through my parents.
If you can't afford a PocketMod, you probably can't afford food. Again, if this is the case, being organized is not your greatest priority right now.
Let us know of your own GTD modifications in the comments!
HackCollege
I was perusing the archives and came across this old gem of a post. While it's not exactly GTD for students, it was a good organizational system that I had going.
Back in the day, I was using PocketMod to jot all of my tasks down and GCal via SMS. The system worked pretty well and--at the very least--was always a conversation piece. Today, more and more people are searching for GTD for students. While Chris has already spelled out the best GTD system for students, I figured I would give an update on the system that I'm currently using.
One System to Rule Them All...
A little while back I switched to Remember the Milk, an online task organization system. After investigating my options, Remember the Milk has been perfect for my needs.
A few selling points for RTM were the slick online interface, the Quicksilver plugin and the native iPhone application. A little about each of those.
Online Interface
RTM has one of the best online interfaces around. It's very fast, can be used offline and has plenty of hotkeys. It's yet to fail me.
Quicksilver Plugin
Quicksilver is a little application made for OS X that makes you look like a ninja. You can do some pretty advanced stuff without your hands ever leaving the keyboard. It's a very cool little app. It also has an RTM plugin, allowing you to quickly add tasks to your inbox. Love it.
Native iPhone Application
Since my time since writing the last post, I have ditched my old LG VX6100 and upgraded to the infamous iPhone. This is working out a lot better for me because I now have my todo list wherever I go. I can also add tasks to my list, even if I don't have a network connection. Ballin'.
Hope this update helped!
If you're not a true blue GTDer, what system do you use to keep yourself organized during the school year?
Reader Comments (8)
For what it's worth I have the same inboxes. A poor man's PocketMod in my pocket (i.e., sheet of paper I stole from the copier), and gmail. The only system I've actually been able to maintain for more than a few months.
Maybe something about it is just cosmically "right" for students.
Now I use the iPhone, (which holds everything now: without paying $10 extra for text messages, without an internet connection or cell phone signal, and without any more trouble than plugging it into my computer to be charged), but for a while, I too used the PocketMod. I bypassed the cell phone all together and wrote everything in it outright, "manually" syncing it with my iCal once a month. That's one less item! Take that!
Part of me misses the PocketMod. It tapped into the origami side of me.
To set the record straight, though: GTD is more extensive because it handles much more than just your calendar information. You keep track of everything from lifelong goals to grocery lists to bank statements -- not just deadlines. Try putting that stuff into your cell phone.
I have read GTD, but I agree that most people don't need all the complications.
I put all appointments, class schedules, and long-term reminders into Outlook (thinking about switching to GCal) and everything else (short term todos, homework & reading assignments) in a single file (either text or Word - right now it's in Word because I can use a table to keep track of classes and due dates more visually that way).
I have a few other text files floating around my desktop with things like books I want to read, really long term todos (e.g., reorganizing all my CDs - something that probably won't get done during the semester). Overall, the system is pretty simple. In the end, whatever is simple and works for you is the "best" system.
I would recommend switching over to GCal as soon as possible. Updating and checking your calendar via SMS is priceless. It's always commitment to switch, but switch sooner rather than later. :)
There's one important (for me) Outlook feature that GCal doesn't support: annual recurring events on a non-Gregorian calendar. Until then, I'm stuck.
I am a happy user of http://www.taskwriter.com :)
It works fine for me.
I developed a unique approach for getting things done on the mac called Ready-Set-Do!. it integrates well with paper-based systems. I'm always looking for more feedback—especially from students.
I also wrote a Speak it On My iPod script that automatically converts text to audio and puts it on your iPod to help students study for exams.
Love my iPhone, not sure how I'd live without it!