NPR does GTD

I've been a fan of GTD (Getting Things Done) for a while now. NPR has a story on GTD and why it's attractive to geeks. If you feel you're getting overwhelmed with all the stuff you have to do, give it a try.

My favorite GTD tip is how do deal with email. Keep your inbox empty. I have two main folders, Action and Archive. Action is the stuff that I need to deal with. This is where I go when I'm ready to get some stuff done. Archive is anything I feel like keeping but don't need to deal with actively anymore. The idea is to process your inbox to empty anytime you decide to do email. First, if a message takes less than 2 minutes to deal with, do it right then. Don't go to the next email message, don't skip down to that Dilbert cartoon. Either deal with it straight away or file it. File it in your Action folder so you can act on it later, delete it, or file it in the Archive folder in case it contains information you might look at later, probably using your email's search feature.

BTW, the NPR media player works pretty well, even here in remote Vietnam.