Another productivity tool
I was remiss in failing to acknowledge Martin Baker’s Life Shaker utility. Though not a cult-like adherent to GTD like OmniFocus [see 11/26], it is a nifty utility. It’s it got one of the cutest promo videos of all time.
Martin Baker is a former BBC editor who went into the post production facility and software business seven years ago. His was one of the first major facilities to make the jump from Avid to FCP. There’s a good chance that a personal productivity tool with this kind of DNA might work for a lot of my readers.
Sorry, Martin. It won’t happen again.
General purpose productivity tool
I admit I’m a Getting Things Done practitioner. A couple of years ago, while finishing up grad school, trying to get Kingpin back in gear and Xprove off the ground, I picked up David Allen’s book. Juggling all that while finishing up construction on the house and playing the role of Mr. mom as my wife concluded her studies, I was desperate to get more organized. But I didn’t think I wanted to join the GTD cults of 43 folders and Life Hack. Seriously, these people write as though getting organized in an end unto itself instead of a means to a saner existence.
For a guy like me who kept my weekly calendar on Post-Its under the monitor, and not seen the floor of my office beneath the piles of folders, papers, and tapes, GTD is kind of freaky in its adherence to order. There’s a very very fine line between OCD and GTD. Yet I’ve been able to make it work for me. I’ll admit that I don’t always clear my inbox every day, and when something lands in the “Sometime” folder it’s the professional equivalent of “I had a great time. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
After two years, I’ll never go back to the messy, disorganized office. I no longer fret over possibly forgotten tasks.
The only shortcoming of the GTD system for me has been that I’ve never been able to find the right software tool on the Mac to implement Allen’s system. There are a few hacks out there, but nothing simple and intuitive enough for me to choose over Allen’s paper and folder system – until now. OmniGroup has released a public beta of OmniFocus. Give it a try.
