I knew that 43folders advocated Getting Things Done, the book I’ve been reading, and I figured that 43 was just some random number and folders was… well folders are clearly organizational tools. It didn’t hit me until I got near the end of GTD that 43 is the number of folders required to set up a tickler file system. You can read more about it by clicking the above link.

I’ve been putting some pressure on Sarah to maintain her own HPDA, and so far she’s done it (day 2). It takes some getting used to, since most TODO lists are just lists of objects related to things that need to happen, but not the things that need to happen themselves. An example from GTD:

For example, a client will have something like “tires” on a list. I then ask, “What’s that about?” He responds, “Well, I need new tires on my car.” “So what’s the next action?” At that point the client usually wrinkles up his forehead, ponders for a few moments, and expresses his conclusion: “Well, I need to call a tire store and get some prices.”

That’s the sort of thing I had on my lists at first. Sarah did too. The next problem that I encountered was appropriately grouping my next actions lists. At first I grouped them by relatedness. If an action was to advance a school project, it went on the school list. If it was to advance a personal project, it went on the personal list. This makes sense, but is completely non-functional. It makes more sense, as GTD advocates, to group things by context. Where can I do this action? At the computer? At home? At school? In the car? Anywhere? With my cell phone? Once this became the setup of my lists, it became much easier to get through them because I didn’t have the subconscious barrier to processing my lists caused by an inappropriate organizational system.

This last point brings me to the single greatest thing this book has identified for me: the reason I could never effectively get organized in the past is not me, but the system I used. If an organizational system is less than completely usable in some way, there will be a subconscious barrier to using it that will eventually overcome your desire to be organized. The same is true of exercising regularly and eating healthy. Make the system easy and fun, and you will use it.

Today Sarah and I went shopping for calendars. I tried to keep in mind ease of use and effectiveness when choosing. I eventually settled on one that is quite small (easily fits in my pocket, reducing the barrier to carry it around with me), has perforated corners (easy access to “this week”, reducing the barrier to open it and flip to the current events), and has mini calendars for this and next month on every other page (reducing the time it takes to figure out when something occurs relative to the date I’m looking at and on what day). I plan to keep it with my HPDA and to use the calendar only for date-and-time-specific items and my HPDA for everything else. This will work better than using an index card for a given day because it will reduce the barrier to adding a date-and-time-specific item to my collection system.

I’m endeavoring to put everything down on paper, but it isn’t easy. But it is fun, so I think I’ll stick with it. Here’s to mapping the storm.