Category sprawl and GTD

I’m in the process of doing a “reset” on my GTD system.  Basically, I ripped out all of my categories, printed out all my list and deleted them, and am starting from scratch.

Why? I found that I let my lists turn into “junk drawers” which meant that I was a) afraid to open some of them, and b) couldn’t find anything useful when I did force myself to open them.

One of the culprits was what I call “category sprawl,” which meant that I created so many granular categories for my tasks, and so many goofy ‘contexts’ that my lists really weren’t all that useful any more.

Basically, I acted like I was “special” and made a bunch of changes to the recommended GTD method.  It was fun for a while but turned out to be not such a great idea.  And now I’m paying the price.

Preventing the sprawl – my strategy

I’ve taken a number of steps to try to get back into a clean place with GTD:

1. I have reverted to the recommended, default contexts as recommended by David Allen (those shown in the screen grab at right). [Note:  I am about to add one additional category called @ONLINE but will try not to add any more].
2. I turned of automatic categorization in ClearContext so that I have to manually assign categories to tasks.  (This wasn’t an issue for the GTD Outlook Add-In)
3. I am “forcing” all of my next actions to fit into one of these categories.

There are (obviously) a lot of other tweaks I’m doing to my process, like getting back into the discipline of truly identifying physical next actions, moving all projects I’m not actively working on to SOMEDAY/MAYBE, and more.

If you’re a GTD person and you find yourself with category sprawl, this kind of a clean-slate approach might help.  Let me know if this resonates with you, or if you’ve got any best practices for a GTD reset.

Comments

[Matthew Cornell]

Regarding task list categories, I'd error on the side of too few, rather than too many. I might even suggest skipping Allen's starter list, depending on how many actions you have. Some people really like looking at 100 actions in the "actions" category, and just split out a few others, such as calls. Waiting For is a separate category, of course, as is projects and s/m.

[Mike Wilson]

I wish I could get in to GTD. I just get mental paralysis with that level of structure. It just seems so NEAT though :-)

[Derek Newman]

Dwayne, Since purchasing my new iPhone I have drastically changed the way I operate and function with GTD. I transitioned all of my lists over to ToodleDo and most all of my calendars to Google Calendar. Both of these sync up with my iPhone now. I also found an add in which syncs up my Outlook with ToodleDo which basically covers synchronization across all of my life (personal and professional). It seems rather complex on the outside, but I have found it rather simplistic once you have all the different tools talking with one another. I installed Pocket Informant on my iPhone now and with the beauty and ease of the iPhone I have found that as the heart of my system. My iPhone is with me 24 x 7 (most of the time that is) so when a GTD moment strikes, I enter that in Pocket Informant and it syncs up to my calendar, ToodleDo, and my Outlook system at work. More than categories, my problem is sticking with a system and set of tools. There is so much out there you always wonder if you have the "perfect" system. The thing I have found and need to realize is there is no "perfect" system. Love the post! Keep up your curiousity!

Derek

[Dwayne Melancon]

@Matt - thanks for the advice - I definitely want to stick to a smaller number of buckets, each with a small number of things in it. My Someday/Maybe list is large, but the others have a handful of next actions on them now - that's a big difference from a few weeks ago, when all of my lists were long.

[Dwayne Melancon]

GTD is less structured than you might think, but it does fall apart quickly if you don't stick with it. I wish there were a simple "get organized and productive" vitamin I could take.

[Dwayne Melancon]

Derek, thanks for the data on what you're doing. I also have an iPhone (as you know!) and wanted to avoid a multi-part solution so I am using an app called "iMExchange" on the iPhone. It syncs directly with the Exchange Server.

I'm using iMExchange only for tasks (it support categories very well). It also lets you:* sync Notes directly from the Exchange server (though it doesn't put them into the iPhone's Notes)* view and edit your Out of the Office message* browse and search for contacts in the Exchange Global Address book

I sometimes use iMExchange to edit my OOTO message, but I use the native iPhone apps for message addressing and Notes.