Getting Things Done

For the past several years I have been challenging myself to pack light, so I can go fast. No waiting for checked baggage on arrival when traveling by air, no returns to the car to unload tons of stuff at the hotel when traveling by auto. With less stuff, I’m more mobile, less worried about losing things, and I learn to live with only what I really need.

For my last three-day trip to Georgia, USA, I packed pretty light (almost ultra light) and I thought it’d be worth sharing here. Something I did a bit different this time was to go the two-bag route.

Instead of the traditional large-carry-on+large-personal-item combo, though, I took a small 13 backpack and a super-little satchel.

The packs

My main pack was my trusty Osprey Daylite (link is to the latest updated version). This 13 liter daypack has been with me all over the US, from the trail to the city and has never let me down. Osprey packs are made in the US and are covered by an amazing, almighty guarantee. Lightweight, durable, inexpensive, and smartly designed, I love my Osprey Daylite for carrying just about anything, as long as it’s not too wide. It’s not going to do well with large binders or laptops, but for everything else it’s fantastic. The Daylite was the perfect choice for this trip.

For my secondary pack, I picked up the Victoriatourist V5006 Vertical Messenger Bag from Amazon. I was amazed by the quality of this little pack. Helpful inner pockets, beefy water-resistant exterior fabric, solid and reliable zippers all combine in a pleasantly nondescript bag that was perfect for carrying small items. And it was only $10!

Everything I put in here could have fit in my main pack, but it would have been less accessible. I wanted to be able to throw my main pack in the overhead if necessary and have my tablet, keyboard, wallet, etc. readily available.

What I brought

Wearing

The internet is full of advice about what to wear while traveling, and lots of it is super anti-cotton and anti-jeans, since cotton doesn’t tend to dry very quickly and can be heavy. That said, I often travel wearing a simple cotton t-shirt because they’re comfortable, and although they don’t dry super quick if you’re doing laundry in the sink, they’re usually ready overnight, so I’m willing to take the hit for comfort and price. Again, conventional jeans are comfortable, look good and don’t need to be washed often anyways.

This was my second trip with some inexpensive cross-trainers, and they did amazingly well. Basic, lightweight sneakers are comfortable and versatile shoes, perfect for running, walking long distances, light hikes, and just hanging out. I was impressed with how quickly my pair dried when I got caught in the rain.

I like to bring a hat when I travel; a lightweight ball cap is my go-to in the summer. I also wear a rosary and a fitness tracker. In my pockets, the usual: wallet and phone.

In the backpack

• Stuff sacks
  • 3 sets of underwear + socks
  • 1 cotton t
  • 1 tech t
  • 1 polo shirt
  • 1 athletic shorts
  • 1 hybrid shorts
• Toiletry bag
  • Notable stuff
    • Travel toiletry containers
    • High-quality disposable razor
  • The usual, toothbrush, deodorant, etc
• Pocket Organizer
  • Over the counter medications
  • First aid kit
• Lightning cable/charger
• Sunglasses
• Battery pack
• Compact umbrella
• Collapsible water bottle 
• Glasses
• Lightweight cardigan 
• Bluetooth earbuds

In the messenger bag

• Travel documents
• Collapsible headphones
• Notebook
• Pens
• Tablet with case
• Bluetooth keyboard
• Headphone spliter + lightning adapter
• Chapstick + Dramamine
• Mints

• Capturing
  • On the go: Emailing my Trello inbox via my iPhone
  • In meetings: Pen & paper
  • On the web: Trello extension for Chrome
• Clarifying 
  • GTD workflow
• Organizing ideas and next actions in a useful way
  • Trello
  • OneNote
  • Google Calendar
  • Microsoft OneDrive (current/work files)
  • Google Drive (Personal archive)
  • Physical file cabinets at home and office
• Reflecting
  • Weekly review checklists

Previous tools and techniques

• Capture: Field Notes + Pilot G2 Mechanical Pencil (full write up)
• List management: Trello (full write up)
• Calendar: Google Calendar
• Email: Archive + Trello
• Physical Tickler
• Files: Dropbox (church), Google Drive (personal), OneNote (research), Physical file cabinet (1 personal +  1 work)

 

 

Field Notes are the clever, collectible (and thus, a bit addictive), design-focused notebooks that all the bloggers rave about. They really are fun, fairly affordable, and quite useful.

I use my Field Notes as my pocket notebook. It goes where I go to capture thoughts and ideas while out-and-about. I also use them to plan out my day.

When I’m disciplined, it goes like this:

• At night, I’ll prepare the page for the next day by writing the day of the week, month, date, and liturgical feast if applicable at the top of the page.
• Right below that I will write down the readings for Morning and Evening Prayer for the Daily Office.
• On the left side of the page, I will list the most important things I’d like to get done for the day (no more than six usually). As the day goes on I just capture item below that to make a running list.
• On the right side of the page I’ve started making a simple daily agenda from 9-5 with any hard commitments I’ve made so I can see my day at a glance and add to it as necessary.

I’ve used Patrick Rhone’s Dash/Plus system (similar to Bullet Journal) as a quick way to indicate meta info on each list item.

I use a Pilot G2 .07 mechanical pencil to write in my FN, which I love, because the metal tip retracts when not in use, making this a pocket-friendly pencil.

If you want, you can get tons of nice covers for your Field Notes, but they’re fine without, as long as you are okay with your notebook developing some character. I like having a bit of extra protection for my notes, so I had a cover custom made from this Etsy shop.

For context, you’ll want to read Say hello to Trello, a new tool to organize your life and ministry

I have a “team” in Trello called Trusted System. Within that team I have six boards:

• Next
• Projects
• Tickler
• Someday/Maybe
• Reference Lists
• Horizons & Areas of Focus

Next

My Next board has four lists of cards:

• Inbox – for throwing stuff in as go throughout my day
• Waiting for  – anything that needs to get done ASAP but I’m still waiting on someone else’s action (reply to an email, etc)
• Next – Stand alone physical next actions ( for example “move bookshelf from living room to hall nook”)
• Agendas – One card containing a list of things to talk about, per person need. There’s always agenda cards for my wife, bishop, associate pastor, administrative assistant, plus a few others as needed.

I use Trello color-coded “labels” for contexts. My contexts are:

• Home
• DMAC (the church I pastor)
• Read
• Phone
• Errands
• Anywhere
• Laptop

Projects

My Projects board contains anything that that requires more than one physical next action. As I review this board every week, I add physical next actions to my next board. I have two lists on this one:

• Current – Projects that are active
• Pending/Delegated – Similar to “Waiting for” on my Next board.

Reference Lists

This is a pretty flexible board that just contains any lists I need on regular basis for reference. Mostly just packing lists as this point.

Someday Maybe

My Someday Maybe board has six boards, each with stuff I’d like to do eventually, but are not at all pressing. As I review this I move these things to the appropriate places on my Projects or Next boards. My lists are:

• Personal Projects
• DMAC (the church I pastor)
• Writing
• Stuff to buy
• Home & Family

Tickler

This functions as a complement to my physical tickler file and my digital calendar. It is made of four lists:

• January – March
• April – June
• July – September
• October – December

As I go through the year I drag the current quarter to the left so it’s always the first one I see. I use this to put date-specific reminders, files/confirmation numbers I’ll need etc.  This is for stuff that needs to happen around a certain date/month, but is not set in stone. So “schedule eye exam – January” I’ll just throw in January-March. When I review this board, I’ll move stuff to the appropriate place as needed: Projects, Next, or my calendar.

Horizons & Areas of Focus

This board is made up five lists. The first list is Mission and Core Values. The first card contains my personal mission statement:

“Help others discover and grow in the great love of God.”

Below that I have a card for each of my core values:

• Spirituality
• Family
• Fellowship
• Fun
• Service
• Stewardship
• Creativity
• Rest

In each of those cards I have a list of core habits I try to cultivate. So in the “Stewardship” card I have:

• Spend less than I make
• Exercise at least 3 times per week
• Review calendar weekly

The other lists are “areas of focus” or “spheres of life.”

• Husband
• Father
• Parish Priest
• Musician

Each of those lists has four cards:

• Desires – Specific ideas of what I want to be like in these areas
• Actions – Concrete ways to move toward the vision (no more than 3 at a time)
• Challenges – Thinking ahead to possible obstacles
• Vision – A description of  the big-picture “end result” in each of these areas

Capture & Organize

Simple tasks
For the capturing and organizing simple tasks, I use the Any.do app.

Any.do lets me add tasks quickly and organize them efficiently into sublists like “home,” “work,” and “someday/maybe.” You can even add recurring tasks for action items that you do every day, week, month and so on.

Multi-step projects
If I need to plan a multi-step project, I’ll make an Any.do todo item like, “plan such and such event.” When I execute on that task I will actually plan the event by breaking it down into smaller tasks. I use Trello for this. During meetings I used pen-and-paper to capture and transfer action items (todos) to Any.do as soon as possible.

Time-sensitive items
Items that have to be done at a certain time go immediately on my calendar (a Google Calendar/Outlook combo). If something needs to be done on certain day I’ll add a due date to the item in Any.do so I’ll be reminded on that day.

Paper items
I have inboxes for paper items that need to be processed and put on my task list. To be honest, this is the weakest point of my system…mainly because I haven’t been disciplined in my review process for these at home. At work, I quickly scan and email most paper items to myself. Which brings me to my email system.

Email
Everyday I get my inbox at work to zero. To do this I use a simple (but effective) three-folder system:

• #1 Follow up
• #2 Hold
• #3 Archive

My “Follow up” folder is for any email that needs an action from me (including a reply) that I can’t do right now.

The “Hold” folder is for any email that needs further action from someone else. So anything that I’m waiting for a reply on or that someone else needs to act on before I can “close the loop.” It’s also a handy place for anything I might need for next couple of days for reference.

Everything else goes into “Archive.”

Review
I schedule a weekly review on Friday to go over all of task lists. I’ve learned this step is crucial, and really the key to making GTD work. Without a disciplined review, all your nicely captured tasks stay in your nicely organized system…but may never be acted on. I look through my Any.do list, making sure things are are in the appropriate folders, adding anything that comes to mind, and transferring items to the calender if needed. I do the same thing with my projects in Trello.

Taking action
My favorite feature in Any.do is how the app will guide you through planning the tasks you’d like to accomplish that day, complete with some motivational feedback when you finish your session. I do this every morning almost without fail so I can make sure to keep reviewing my list and making progress every day.

Of course, I’m not there yet. I don’t always have a mind like water. But I’m getting there one next action at a time.