Over the past few weeks, I have been diving deeper into the using the "Getting Things Done" or
GTD methodology for becoming more productive and organized. This is the first in an ongoing series of articles in which I discuss how I am implementing the methods described in the book
Getting Things Done by
David Allen.
David Allen's book recommends performing a daily "mind dump," which is essentially the process of writing each task or thing that you have on your mind on its own single sheet of paper. It's a great idea to get tasks and ideas out of your head and into a place where you trust you can retrieve them.
The problem for me is, I am trying to avoid using paper as much as possible. For me, paper seems to pile up endlessly, no matter how much I try to keep things in their proper place. I began the search for an electronic solution to this problem. Ideally, the solution needed to be computer-based and able to sync with my mobile devices for access and input while away from the computer.
I've been using two applications religiously for the last couple of weeks:
Evernote and
OmniFocus. I will describe these applications and how I am using them below.
Evernote
Evernote is an application that is available for Mac, Windows, and many mobile phones that allows you to capture ideas, photos, web clippings and much more. You can easily organize and index the things that you enter into the application. Another nice feature is that you can add tags to notes to aid in searching and grouping certain things.
One of the features I most like about Evernote is its simplicity. As far as keeping track of notes and information that you may want to reference in many places, it is phenomenal. I use evernote on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The program syncs itself to the cloud and keeps all information current across all of my devices.
I frequently use Evernote to store things like configurations and settings needed for computers I may be working on, websites that I hear about and would like to review at some point, and sermon notes at my church. The application is easy to use, and the basic version is absolutely free. There is a premium version available for $5 a month, or $45 a year that offers enhanced security, bigger upload capacity, support for more file types, pdf searching, faster image recognition, and no ads.
OmniFocus
OmniFocus is my favorite productivity tool. It was co-developed my
Merlin Mann of the GTD and productivity oriented website
43folders.com, this application works incredibly well. A friend recommended I try this tool and see how it affected my productivity.
I must say, that I have been more productive since using OmniFocus. It allows you to capture, process, and organize your to-do and project items, as well as sync it across multiple devices. The only caveat I have seen is that you need to purchase the app for mobile devices even if you have purchased the computer-based version.
The feature I really love about OmniFocus is that you can organize items into different "contexts," that allows you to focus on performing certain work tasks at appropriate times. For instance, you can choose the "Phone" context and see all of the phone-based items you need to complete while you have time or access to make phone calls.
This program, from what I have seen, most closely follows the methodology in the
Getting Things Done book, and was designed specifically to adhere to the processes described in the book.
The program is available for Mac, iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. I have the program for my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The application is reasonably priced at $79.95 for Mac, $19.99 for iPhone, and $39.99 for iPad.
This is by far my go-to application for implementing GTD. If you have a Mac or Apple iOS device, give
OmniFocus a try!
Do you use Evernote or OmniFocus? If so, I'd love to hear how you are using it. If you do not use these tools, do you think they could help you keep track of the chaos of organizing things?
