Getting Things Done

For some time now, I've been applying some of the organizational principles found in "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I moved the system into Excel using ideas from Dave Pollard, and then I moved the system into Outlook using ideas from both Allen's own GTD and Outlook whitepaper and The Zen of Zero Mail.

Anyway, my personal system has all its own quirks and, well, personalizations, so I decided to reread "GTD" to see how far I've strayed from the path. Pretty far, as it turns out, so I'm refining my system yet again.

But in the meantime, I found this quote. You know how you feel like you have way too much to do for the time you have to do it in? Maybe this is why.

[Your current action items make up] the accumulated list of all the actions you need to take—all the phone calls you have make, the e-mails you have to respond to, the errands you've got to run, and the agendas you want to communicate to your boss and your spouse. You'd probably have three hundred to five hundred hours' worth of these things to do if you stopped the world right now and got no more input from yourself or anyone else.

And most of us keep all those things in our head! No wonder we feel stressed out!