Productivity for writers 
Keeping track of your tasks can be difficult. There are a number of ways in which to do it, and one of the most popular is Getting Things Done (GTD). A while back, I tried to get into the GTD flow but found it to be a bit too complex and involved for my needs. And this article points out something I’ve been saying for a while: some people get too caught up in the processes and the tools to get anything done.
I believe in simplicity. Complex systems succumb to entropy and require a lot of effort and energy to maintain. But simple can be useful. How?
My preferred tools are Google Calendar and Remember the Milk . The former is, obviously, a Web-based calendar. I enter my deadlines in Google Calendar and get a reminder either as an email or as a text message on my mobile phone. The latter is an online to-do list. I just add my tasks, categorize them, assign a deadline, and get to work. The great thing about Remember the Milk is that it can integrate with Google Calendar — I have everything in one spot.
When I don’t have access to the Web — say, when I’m working at a client site that blocks some Web applications — I have a very low-tech way of getting around that, too. I use a text file, which I discussed in detail here.
There is no need to fiddle with souped-up notebooks, with index cards or file folders, jargon, or anything like that.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Thanks for this! I’ll be sharing some of these among others with my readers in an upcoming newsletter and will link back here…we lovers of books, words and publishing need all the help we can get to stay on top of the work. Gail Richards / http://www.authorsmart.com