• iPhone app? No
• Stunning user interface? No
• Ten million options? No
• Auto-sync with PC or Mac? No
• Does exactly what I want from a GTD tool right now? Yes

But first, in case you’re new, haven’t heard of GTD, a quick refresh I think…

Quick GTD refresh

In an article I published back in April 2009, imaginatively entitled GTD For Web Project Management, I explained the very basics of David Allen’s amazing productivity methodology / cult called Getting Things Done, or as followers call it, GTD.

If you haven’t read that article yet, or heard of GTD, I suggest you do so, so that this one makes a little sense.

But if you can’t be bothered, essentially I just talked about the parts of the GTD I personally use to help me manage my workload, web projects and digital account management tasks:

• Next Actions
• Waiting For
• Someday
• Inbox Zero

Next Actions, Waiting For and Someday are simply categories, or ‘contexts’ as per GTD terminology, that I arrange all my workload tasks in so that I have absolutely everything I need to do in one central place.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a small internal task my MD asked me to do, a critical decision I’m waiting for from a client or a project schedule I need to put together – everything is immediately captured in the To Do list and the right context.

As I complete a task I will mark it as Completed and then perhaps add a Waiting For, for example, if I send a first version functional specification to Client Y, after hitting send I’ll create a Waiting For item called “Get feedback on first version of Functional Specification from Client Y”.

Many people are good at keeping To Do lists, but few keep track of things they’re waiting for. Instead they keep this information in their head, which means their mind is always working when it could be resting.

Inbox Zero simply means processing all e-mails in your Inbox so that you’ve deleted, stored or captured any actions you need to in order to have that magical number of zero e-mails in your Inbox.

A surreal take on Inbox Zero

Aside from the psychological benefits this brings, achieving Inbox Zero also means you have succeeded in getting your whole task list into one centralised place and can now process any new e-mails that arrive very quickly.

In essence, GTD is all about giving you a productive way to work that puts focus on getting all your tasks captured in one place, a system to get through those tasks and all while keeping you as stress free as possible by having nothing inside your head – a natural state for Jeremy Kyle addicts.

As I always state, I only use a very small portion of the full on GTD system, but it works for me.

However, last time I wrote about GTD I was using 37Signal’s excellent Backpack tool to implement GTD. It was awesome at some things; list ordering and ease and speed of use, but didn’t have a few things I felt were important in a GTD tool (not that it ever claimed to be a GTD tool)

Well, my search could be over.

My weapon of choice – Tracks & GTDify

Introduced to me by Branden Faulls of Clockwork Robot, I initially got a colleague to setup a version of Tracks, an open-source Ruby on Rails tool, on my VPS and began to use it – it was perfect, except for one thing, it kept crashing my VPS – my heart was broken.

But then suddenly, in a last act of desperation I Googled and found a free hosted Tracks solution called GTDify – my heart was mended and for the last six months I’ve been happily using GTDify – I’m so happy with it I thought it was worth sharing.

So why do I love GTDify and Tracks so much?

Tracks makes me happy

I love GTDify simply because it allows me to have a free hosted version of Tracks that never falls over on a n00b (me) VPS.

I love Tracks because it seems to cater for all the things my version of GTD requires:

1. It’s free
2. Web-based solution
3. Add projects
4. Add contexts
5. Add tasks
6. Set due dates for tasks
7. Auto-sort priorities
8. Very quick and easy to add and edit tasks
9. Intuitive user interface

Reading that list I’m sure many of you are thinking of tools you know of that satisfy all these requirements, but I’d bet you a million squids that I’ve not only heard of them all, but tested each and every one. Please leave the names of tools you thought of in the comments!

They all seemed to do 70% of what I wanted, but never everything, and if they did most of what I wanted, the user experience was poor and managing tasks became a chore rather than the effortless exercise it should be.

It’s quite difficult to explain why I love using Tracks so much, but perhaps by showing you a few features it’ll become clear.

Getting started without vomiting

Unless you’re a Ruby freak and can download, install and configure a copy of Tracks on a server, get yourself over to GTDify and sign-up for a free account.

Once you’ve got your account and logged into your hosted version of Tracks, start by avoiding the temptation to vomit and the laugh at me for having the nerve to suggest a tool to you that looks so basic – don’t be fooled!

The user interface isn’t stunning or glossy, but as you’ll learn if you give it a chance, it’s highly functional and intuitive, to the point where you don’t have to think when using it – perfect.

Tracks setup

In this section I’ll go through my typical Tracks / GTDify setup steps so you can get a feel for the app.

Preferences

Not the nicest preferences screen you’ll interact with, but it has the options I need and is generally a ‘visit once only’ part of Tracks and GTDify so screw it.

The GTDify Preferences screen, a mere blip.

Create Contexts

Next create the Contexts you want. Personally I go for only three.

Three Contexts that encapsulate my whole working life

GTD purists will probably use a more Contexts than me, including ones that allow them to process work by, well, ummm context, for example @E-mail, @Phone and @Office etc.

If it works for you, go for it.

Create Projects

Tracks and GTDify allows you to create Projects in two ways; using the Projects tab, or defining a new project when creating a Task – happy days.

The Rebels used GTD

Tracks has a lovely interface for managing your projects

So that’s it, a quick setup and you’re ready to start adding tasks.

Screenshot it! Your To Do list will never look this empty again

Adding tasks

To me, adding tasks, more importantly how quick and easy it is to add tasks is a critical success factor of any GTD tool; if it takes longer than a few seconds or requires any more than a couple of brain cells then chances are the tool won’t work.

Never buy droids from Pikeys or Jawas

As you can see from the screenshot, Tracks provides you with an intuitive live suggestion or UI element for each field, thus making adding a task a breeze.

Date pickers were all the rage on Tatooine

And that’s it, Next Action added.

An action you should keep secret from Uncle Own and Aunt Beru

Once you’ve added all your tasks you’ll begin to use Tracks as it was intended and the dashboard will be your new favourite screen.

Run web projects and bring down the Empire with GTD, easy

Other useful features

As well as the basic features you’d expect, Tracks also has a couple of other useful features, for example:

• In-line task editing
• Repeating To Do items (like Inbox Zero for weekdays)
• View tasks by Context or Project
• Subscribe using RSS, Plain Text Feed and / or iCal

Tracks and the iPhone

If there’s one thing, other than a little UI polish, that would make Tracks the ultimate solution in my opinion, it’s an iPhone App.

GTDify iPhone stylesheets are currently a little lame

Currently there is a mobile stylesheet, but as with most, it’s not great. It does allow you to review and manage your task list on the go, but its slow going and not something I use very often.

Tracks Reporting

Tracks also comes with a reporting system that is collecting data from the minute you start using it. Although I haven’t found much use for it, boy does it look cool!

I literally shit statistics with Tracks reporting

Hopefully, if like me you’re just looking for a nice web based GTD tool that does the simple things well, this review will encourage you to try Tracks and GTDify.

It works amazingly well for me and just maybe it will for you too. But I’m curious, what’s your To Do list tool of choice?

Related links:

• GTD for Web Project Management
• Tracks
• GTDify

You arrive at the office at 9am with your day mapped out; you finish your coffee, catch up on a few RSS feeds and prepare to start your scheduled work feeling at one with the world. It’s now 9.16am. If you’ve received ten e-mails, two client phone calls, a good new business lead and have before you a design and development team that need briefing in order to start work – all that demand immediate attention that supersede your scheduled work…

Chances are you’re a Web Project Manager and it’s a normal day at the office.

Why didn’t I take the blue pill?

Right about now you wonder why you ever made the switch from web developer to project manager…

Moving from web development to web project management is a long and difficult journey. One of the biggest challenges along the way is learning how to deal with approximately one trillion things each day, very approximately.

No two web agencies are the same and no two projects the same, but somehow you have to find a way to stay on top of things before you fall down in a crumpled heap begging for mercy. Getting Things Done, or GTD as it’s known to fellow cult members, is what personally saved me, and can save you, from becoming this broken down sorry excuse for a web project manager.

Getting Things Done (GTD)

Founded by David Allen and introduced to me by a good friend, and web guru, Branden Faulls, GTD is a system that is accompanied by the tagline “The Art of Stress Free Productivity” and while I can’t proclaim to now be stress free, I am certainly less stressed, a lot more organised and am able to deal with a great deal more than I could before adopting this system.

I won’t attempt to describe in detail what GTD is as it’s a huge topic, if you want to read more your best bet is to buy the book from Amazon or download the audio book from Audible, my personal preference. What I want to discuss here is the parts of GTD I use on a daily basis that enable me to do my day-to-day web project management job.

Next actions, waiting for and Inbox Zero

The primary concepts I use from GTD are ‘Next Actions’ and ‘Waiting For’ items. By using just these two GTD principles, of which there are many more, I am able to make sure I never forget to complete a task no matter how many other actions I have, how long it has been since it last entered my head or how small it is when compared to the larger issues at hand. Best of all it results in regularly achieving, on a daily basis, having no e-mails in my inbox, known in GTD circles as ‘Inbox Zero’ – this alone is guaranteed to reduce your stress levels! To learn more about Inbox Zero check out Merlin Mann’s excellent talk at Google in 2007.

So, how exactly to apply these principles to my working day, it’s pretty simple really, however don’t let the simplicity lure you into thinking this happened overnight without many different attempts and approaches to implement it. It really is about trial and error, what took months to devise and get working for me at my last company completely fell over when I joined my current company Rawnet, but the overriding principles are always the same.

Using the very real scenario in the opening paragraph let me explain how GTD enables me to capture and action everything…

Processing e-mail to Inbox Zero

I will quickly scan all ten e-mails, looking to identify if any of them require me to do something or not, or if it was a piece of information I was waiting for:

• If it contains something I have to do, I will open up my Backpack list and under the Next Actions list I will prefix the ‘to do’ with a project identifier and add the action (you’d be surprised how often a huge e-mail can be digested with and result in a one line action item). I’ll then drag this e-mail to the project folder in my e-mail client and move onto the next
• If an e-mail contains no next action and no waiting for I will simply digest and drag to the project’s folder
• If an e-mail contains something I was waiting for from someone, I will locate this in my Waiting For list in Backpack and edit the item specifying the Next Action that I can now complete having got the information I needed and drag the item from the Waiting For list into the Next Actions list
• If a Waiting For item means I can quickly send off another e-mail in response that will move the project forward in two minutes, I will do so, regardless of the other high-priority things I need to do. If you can move a project forward with one quick e-mail that will no doubt take someone a while to reply to, just do it rather than capture the fact you need to! Once sent, I’ll add a new Waiting For that will remind me that I need an answer in order to progress the project
• If the Waiting For signals the end of a task and requires no Next Action I will just tick the item forever banishing it to the completed list

The end result is all e-mails are moved out of my inbox and to the relevant project folder with all Next Actions and Waiting For items captured in my centralised master Backpack list – I then await the inevitable wave of euphoria at seeing the “No messages in your inbox” message, ahhhhh.

But wait, a client’s on the phone wanting to talk about their project, now what!?

Unexpected client phone calls

Out of nowhere, and before you know it, the handset is pressed to your ear and you await the unknown that is the unexpected client phone call. With baited breath you await the first question, is it a huge content delay, a 180° shift in design brief or a new piece of functionality needed? Hoorah, it’s not a big one, the client is simply asking you what dimensions the hero banner will be on the homepage and if you could possibly give their technical lead a call to discuss the required hosting configuration.

What the client doesn’t know however is that the minute the phone rang, I had clicked my magic Backpack shortcut and opened my master list – while the client talks I am immediately adding Next Actions to my list, but wait, why not take advantage of this unexpected call to close off some vital issues needed to move the project forward! With a quick scan of all Waiting For items I spot three things I need from this client in order to move other phases forward, I proceed to enquire after all three and manage to get answers on two, perfect! I tick them off or change them to Next Actions and hey presto, project moved forward.

This technique, and world-class Backpack quick draw speeds, allows me to:

• Fully concentrate on the call and the client (a client knows and doesn’t like when you’re distant or sound unsure of all of your Next Actions or Waiting For items for their project)
• Instantly and digitally capture all that the client wants without having to scribble notes I realise later I can’t read before deciphering and re-typing into a digital format, taking twice the time
• Close off outstanding issues on the spot without having to flip through a notebook looking for more illegible notes I made three weeks ago

Being able to quickly and accurately, take client requests on board, get key information from them at the drop of the hat while being able to recite all of the Next Actions you have planned for their project makes you a more efficient web project manager and the client feel confident that you are on top of their project which equals client love, and let’s face it, that’s the love we crave isn’t it!?

Although all of this sounds like a complete pain to implement, after a few days it really becomes second nature and takes just a few minutes out of your day, but boy are they minutes well spent.

However, the ideal solution eludes me

Although my personal GTD inspired processes have helped me a great deal, they are by no means perfect. For instance Backpack has no way of allowing you to add deadline dates to Next Actions or Waiting For items, you can’t prioritise items in any more a sophisticated way than order by most important, not ideal.

EDIT: In the sequel to this article, GTD for Web Project Management Revisted – Tracks and GTDify, I take you through my current GTD weapon of choice that is far better than Backpack and has kept me in GTD heaven for the last few months; Tracks and GTDify!

Free GTD Tools I recommend

Trust me I’ve tried most of them! The following tools are the ones that stand out as having a good balance of portability and ease of use when trying to implement the GTD basics:

• GTD For Web Project Managament – Revisited: The sequel to this article
• Things: Mac/iPhone only, but very highly regarded
• Tracks: Ruby and web-based tool, initial testing is very positive indeed!
• Backpack: 37Signals web-based tool, excellent for more than just basic GTD
• GTD Gmail: Great tool for those who process work e-mail using Gmail

Develop your own GTD-based processes

As anyone who knows about GTD will tell you, the processes I use only make up about 5% of the entire GTD blueprint and even then don’t really follow the teachings to the letter, but they work for me at this time and at this company. I would urge all of you to try and develop your own processes based on the Next Actions and Waiting For items principles and see for yourself how organised you suddenly feel.

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