If you’re new to the world of time and task management then you’re probably overwhelmed by the choices available to you. To help you out Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal has written this article in Barron’s. She tries out and reviews three of the most popular systems around today: Getting Things Done (GTD), The Pomodoro Technique and FranklinCovey’s Focus.

The result is a very useful introduction of the three systems (I especially liked her description of the GTD workflow diagram!). Shellenbarger concludes:

In the end, I expect I will embrace elements of each of these systems—the approach experts recommend for most people. The essence of good time management is sticking to rituals that make you more productive, and rituals are largely a matter of personal preference.

Like many people I’m a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) organisation and productivity system. However it’s not quite perfect for me - fortunately it’s flexible enough to be personalised.

The problem I have is with “Context”, and from what I’ve read I’m not the only one. The idea of the Context is a good one that probably works well in a traditional office. It might be a place you need to be (eg client site or broom cupboard) a person you need to see (eg boss or someone important) or an object you need to have (monthly sales figures, key to stationery cupboard, etc). This model doesn’t work so well for those of us who work at home for ourselves. My main conext for the day is simply “Mac”. I’ve tried splitting this into things like “Mac: research”, “Mac: email”, “Mac: fun” etc but this feels like a fudge.

I could just drop the idea of context completely, however most of the GTD software tools out there support it so it seemed more sensible to try and make some use of it.

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Since you’re visiting this site then you’ve probably already read Getting Things Done by David Allen . If you haven’t then I suggest you take a look.

Unlike some people I’m not a GTD “groupie”, however I do think it’s an excellent book with some great ideas. Just as important than the practical advice is the philosophy of GTD.

GTD is, at heart, about making lists. Lists of actions. I’m a great believer in the power of lists and of taking action, so it fits naturally into my approach to life.

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