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Since GTD is considered the geeks way to personal productivity, it is common sense the system and it’s details are discussed on online mailinglists. Since I am a member of two of the large mailinglists, 43Folders and GTD@Yahoo (and still lurking the lists), I feel it’s nice to discuss a bit the similarities and differences of the two so you can decide for yourself which one suits you best. h4. 43Folders This mailinglist is closely related to the blogfather of Personal productivity: Merlin Mann and his weblog 43folders.com. Sort of topics The list topics vary wildly and GTD is discussed not all of the time. Topics range from the use of specific software for tasks and filing to the use of pens and why you shouldn’t keep them in your pocket. When GTD is discussed it is not the system itself but more how to use it, what sort of software is best or how people have made their own scripts and software for their own needs. I feel it is a perfect companion of the 43Folders Wiki as far the range of topics discussed Traffic With 3664 members, the traffic is very high. The number of discussions per thread can run up to 20+ easily! It is recommended to make your own filing-rule in you emailclient. I have a filter in Gmail that checks the subject for [43F Group] and archives the mail automatically with their own label. The big advantage with Gmail is that discussionthreads are sorted automagically so I can quickly scan the subjects and just read what interests me. Remember, you don’t have to read everything there is… Tone of voice I feel the members of the mailinglist know each other very well and I think some of them meet eachother in real life as well. The overall tone of voice is very friendly, kid-safe and helpfull towards eachother. Sometimes the discussion can get a bit technical when members start to talk about different kind of scripts. Where to find You can subscribe for free and find the archive at Googlegroups?. You can also find a wide range of webfeeds for this group. You will need a Google-account to subscribe. If you need a Gmail-account, feel free to contact me and I will give you one. h4. GTD@Yahoo I was recently pointed to this group by Daly de Gagne (thanks again!). As they say for themselves: This group is for members to share their experiences, insights, suggestions and wisdom using David Allen’s Getting Things Done system. Topics I am a member of the group since a week and find the discussions very usefull. Topics are about GTD and implementation. The theory is discussed more than on 43Folders and practical implementation is referred to the book instead of the DIY-vibe that hangs in the 43Folders-group. One of the hot topics on this group is the exchange of the GTD…Fast Audio CD’s in MP3 format. Traffic The traffic is not as high as 43Folders. I find this one group I can follow very well. There are 2963 members at the time of this writing. Also, the number of discussions per thread is not that high. Sometimes it has 10+ mails on one thread but most of them are 4-6 mails per discussion. I also made a label and filter in Gmail for this group for easy retrieval and filing. Tone of voice This is very similar to 43Folders. Very friendly and easy going. Not as technical as 43Folders but more personal to me. I have read more personal stories and successes on GTD implementation on this group than on any other group or weblog. Very stimulating and inspirational Where to find You can find all the information on GTD@Yahoo and you can subscribe directly with this emailadress. Also check out the file-section of the group for interesting reading material. You will need a Yahoo-login to become a member of the group.

An hilarious parody on meetings most of us once have visited. Everybody is talking is this weird projectmanagement-stylee mumbo jumbo and no action is really taken. I can give you some true examples with my clients, but I will restrain myself :-) Take a look at this excellent comic and order the poster. Rumour has even 43Folders-guru Merlin Mann has one….

I would like to tell you all very briefly some of the plans I have on this site. Since it’s almost a year old and I haven’t paid much attention to it visually, I have some plans to redesign the whole blog. But wait! There’s more! Redesign One thing I would like to do is to let it look less like a blog and more as an information hub on GTD and personal productivity. One thing I rarely do is talk about other articles I read and blogs I visit. That is going to change. For starters, I have added a little linkbox to my del.icio.us GTD-list of articles, sites, hacks and tips. Maybe not everything there is (Well, definitely not all there is) but it gives you some sense on my take on GTD, what interests me. Old blog There is more on this server than just this weblog. I started in 2000 a personal dutch weblog. Basically a linkdump. I stopped this summer with it but the archives remain. I would like to make that archive better searchable and perhaps do something with these 5 years of blogposts. Some sort of random post of the day kind of thing… Thesis in a wiki Furthermore, I am working on putting my thesis online. I wrote it back in 1995 and it’s topic is scenemarketing. Much of it’s theory is still applied today and blogs, webfeeds and consumer generated media fit perfectly in this theory. The thesis is all dutch. I have the plan to put it in a (semi-)controlled Wiki so everyone can benefit from it. Resume Than, last but not least, I get more questions to write articles and hold presentations on blogging and the new web. I will collect and publish these also on my server. So you see, this blog is just a part of my online world. I have the ambition to have it all done by the end of the year. And now some GTD-relation: It was on my Someday-list for a long time. Now, whenever I have some spare time, I just fiddle and tweak with some designs, try out different feels of the site, try new stylesheets. There is no grand plan, just some progress notes and next actions on a little note near my monitor. There is actually nothing holding me back than to just crawl behind my monitor and start working. So the really next physical action is: Work! Do it! But, as always, I do have a question which doesn’t stall me, but I am just curious: Does anyone know of a good reference site to alter some stylesheets in MediaWiki? I am looking for a more slender, centered design for my wiki if possible. I already found out the basic HTML of MediaWiki isn’t that portable, but if anyone has some pointers, please let me know! I know of the skin-directory, but I haven’t found anything usefull there

MyTicklerfile.com is a new webbased tool for creating appointments and recurring tasks. As they say for themselves it can be used to implement Getting Things Done in your own way. But I have my doubts. First off, thanks to the buzzword-friendly Web 2.0 features of Ajax and tags it has some real desktop-like, rich experience to it. This really enhances the way to work with it. But what bothers me is the underlying principle. This is just for ticklers, reminders. You can use your emailclient to send reminders to your Myticklerfile-account and you can get ticklers through email. But I think to myself: Why have an online application for it? And it’s just one piece of the puzzle. What about your Next Actions? What about filing your information? It really brings back memories of my Nine Inboxes problem, where all the information was scattered over mailprograms, websites, offline folders and desktop apps. When you use MTF, I get the feeling you have another website you have to keep track off, manage, update etc. I keep coming back to using some sort of dashboard-mechanism where I can get an horizontal overview of my daily to-do’s, appointments, tasks etc. MS Outlook so far can give me that overview. In combination with the GTD Outlook Addin I feel I am really getting things done already. Still not there yet (black belt? Forget it… ) but at least I am taking little steps instead of standing still. Conclusion: If you just need some tool to keep track of your reminders and appointments, Myticklerfile.com can be the webtool for you. But if you are serious about your GTD, I feel it is too light.

Oh man….just when I was trying to get comfortable with all the software I have, a new version of Omea Pro drops in my Inbox. I once tried Omea Pro in beta and was very impressed by its features. It is simply described as a dashboard for your information from Outlook, browser, filesystem and webfeeds. All integrated in one environment with lots of features to aggregate, organize and find the information.
You can have multiple “dashboard” based on your context like “Work”, “Home” with different email, webfeeds and files at your fingertips. I stopped using the beta because of the heavy load on my laptop. Hmmm…what is that anyway? OnFolio had the same problem… Now, in the new version they totally hook on the GTD-lingo. Check out this marketing-tidbit from the website “Omea Pro helps you to efficiently handle different types of incoming information, whether you decide to: * Respond & act right away, * Delegate a task to someone else, or * Defer & track items for attention later.” Ooooh…..makes me want to download the program and start fiddling away with it….But I will not! Yet…. Anyone has some more information on Omea Pro and perhaps has a little review of it? I would be glad to read it.

The GTD Road Map is full on. Already there are some reviews popping up like on Buzz Bruggeman’s site and this one. There is also a presentation in slides and audio. Looks like some nice readingmaterial for a couple of moonlight-hours….Anyone else has some interesting reviews from the Roadmaps?