Hacking GTD Equipment (Things + iCal + Anxiety = Win)

I’ll note I haven’t read the actual Getting Things Done book that has been the rage of lifehackers on the internet, but I’m not interested in adopting a complex system someone else invented, either. For me, if my system takes more than two pages to explain, it’s too complicated.

I stumbled upon a link over at ZenHabits comparing a couple Mac Getting Things Done (GTD)-type software, as well as Leo’s personal method. I haven’t seen my particular combination on a website before, so here’s what I use to track things as efficiently as possible.

All links are at the bottom.



Pen and Paper

I’ve rejected the use of pen and paper for tasking: the system isn’t indefinitely expandable and can quickly get clunky. The limitless power of paper makes it too easy to overcomplicate the system. This is different from notetaking or planning, where I do make use of pen and paper, which Tim Ferriss explains in far better terms than I can. But for hard tasks with few notes, I stick to technology.

Software

For a good comparison of other programs, check out the ZenHabits link at the bottom. Understanding your own habits and how much structure you need to accomplish things goes a long way in deciding what system to use. Personally, I want light structuring: any less and it’s hard to organize, any more and it takes too much time.

I’ve chosen to use Things for Mac. Why? Because I find it aesthetically pleasing, and it’s easier to adopt a system that’s easier on the eyes. I prefer the more casual styling, and appreciate the creators’ goal of keeping things as simple as possible. It helps that Things also has an iPhone/iPod Touch application, and I can use a keyboard shortcut to add entries to my inbox from anywhere on the computer.

In any case, I’ll do a full review of Things at a later date. I will admit it’s more expensive than I was looking for in a system, but after using it for awhile I found it was my favorite solution, and cheaper than the OmniFocus that some people swear by.

Now this by itself is enough of a system for most people, but there are a couple of workarounds for the common problems people have – some of which, in my opinion, actually improve upon the functionality of Things. Many will argue that you shouldn’t have to deal with workarounds, and hey, I agree – but I’m not going to switch to a program I like less if I can make the one I like more just as, if not more, functional.

Workarounds – PC

The first problem most people may have is, “I have a PC”. For this, I have no answer that a PC user hasn’t heard from Apple commercials. Sorry.

Workarounds – Syncing

The second problem most run in to is that Things isn’t initially designed to sync between computers, just between the iPhone/iPod Touch and the desktop version. For this, I’d use Dropbox. Dropbox is a huge blessing in disguise; once you have it set up, simply create a new Things library in your Dropbox (hold option when opening Things). From there, on every other computer using Things, hold option and open the existing Things library.

Now you have all your computers linked to the same GTD library. Awesome, right? Well, the problem most people run into is that if you leave multiple copies of Things open on different computers, they’ll all try to update and cause some corruption issues with your library. Yeah, kinda sucks. But leaving Things closed on your computer is counterproductive if you, like me, want that little reminder of what you have to do today.

Workarounds – Always Present

Some notes: this workaround only really works if you don’t use iCal for your tasks.

There’s a sweet workaround for this too – load up Things (on one computer), and tell it to sync your Today library with iCal. This is pretty easy to set up overall. You can put the whole Next library in iCal, but I find this to be too much clutter.

Next, download Anxiety, which will make a small window of your iCal tasks that floats on your desktop. Whenever you add or checkoff a task, Things will sync with iCal, allowing you to leave Things closed and still see your important tasks for the day. Every time you open your Things, it’ll have both the old database from a previous computer, and, if you use MobileMe, any recent changes to your iCal tasks, meaning all of your computers are completely synced without any risk of database corruption.

But why not just use Anxiety and iCal, and skip Things altogether?

I use Things to organize projects, particularly larger ones (like book writing), as well as to input future plans and reminders to myself. While you could do all of this with Anxiety, I find it works best when there’s a maximum of about 8 tasks present, so as to avoid clutter.

Let me know any suggestions you all have in the comments!

Links:

• zenhabits: 5 Amazing Mac Apps for Getting Things Done (Plus a Custom-Rigged Setup), by Leo Babauta
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen
• How to Take Notes Like an Alpha-Geek, by Tim Ferriss
• Things Mac, by CulturedCode
• OmniFocus, by the OmniGroup
• Dropbox
• Anxiety

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