rewrite the whole site

Signed-off-by: Lars Wirzenius <liw@liw.fi>
Sponsored-by: author

1 files changed, 598 insertions, 23 deletions

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-GTD For Hackers
-===============
-
-* [[!traillink Introduction]]
-* [[!traillink quickie-overview text="Quickie overview of the GTD system"]]
-* [[!traillink inboxes text="Inputs and inboxes"]]
-* [[!traillink projects-next-actions text="Projects and next actions"]]
-* [[!traillink doing text="Doing things"]]
-* [[!traillink calendars text="Calendars and reminders"]]
-* [[!traillink journalling 
-    text="Journalling and other ways of keeping track of things that have  
-          happened"]]
-* [[!traillink files text="Keeping track of files"]]
-* [[!traillink someday-maybe text="Stuff you maybe want to do someday"]]
-* [[!traillink waiting-for text="Waiting for things to happen"]]
-* [[!traillink daily-routine text="The daily routine"]]
-* [[!traillink review text="The weekly review"]]
-* [[!traillink read-and-review text="Read and review folders"]]
-* [[!traillink automation text="Automation and checklists"]]
-* [[!traillink getting-started text="Getting started"]]
-* [[!traillink ungood text="Things that did not work for me"]]
-* [[!traillink Conclusion]]
-* [[!traillink References]]
+[Bullet journal]: https://bulletjournal.com/
+[GTD]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
+[Inbox Zero]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_Mann#Writing
+[Zettelkasten]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten
+[ikiwiki]: http://ikiwiki.info/
+
+
+# Introduction
+
+Getting Things Done, or [GTD][], is a personal productivity system
+originally developed by David Allen, and now maintained by the company
+he founded. In 2001 Allen published a book, also called "Getting
+Things Done", to describe the system, and it was an Internet
+sensation, enough to be called a cult.
+
+This document is a description of my personal implementation of GTD,
+based on the books by Allen, and tons of online discussions. If it
+helps the reader, great, but I primarily write this so to clarify my
+own thinking.
+
+The GTD system is one of many. Other well known ones include the
+[Bullet journal][], [Inbox Zero][] ("GTD, but for email only"), and
+[Zettelkasten][] (good for researchers). It doesn't matter what system
+you use, or that you any system. The only thing that matters is that
+you're happy. For me, GTD helps.
+
+I started using GTD in the summer of 2006, while I was working as an
+independent consultant, and found it hard to keep the commitments I'd
+made to others, and do all the things I needed to do to run my
+business. I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night in
+panic, wondering if I'd paid this bill or done that thing a customer
+had requested. I felt that I was juggling too many eggs, and that the
+floor was getting messy.
+
+After doing some research online, I happened to find out about GTD. I
+read more, including the first edition of the book. I hesitated a
+little, it seemed like a lot of work, but I took the plunge and
+started implementing it for my life. It has been worth it.
+
+To be honest, applying GTD to your life is indeed quite a bit of work.
+Less than I feared, but it does require an effort to get started, and
+to keep it up, but it has helped me get my life under control. I
+haven't woken up in panic thinking I'd forgotten to do something
+important any more.
+
+Will GTD make your life better? Maybe. It might not. You know yourself
+and your life better than I do, and it's your decision to make. You
+won't lose much if you try, though.
+
+
+# On productivity
+
+Productivity is whatever you say it is. GTD is a personal system,
+after all. You decide.
+
+For me, to be productive means that I feel I do all the things I need
+to do to to feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled, and either achieve
+my personal and professional goals. That's very wishy-washy, but let
+me break it down in concrete statements:
+
+* I have written down some personal values and goals. I feel I live
+  according to my values, and either reach my goals, or feel that I
+  make progress on reaching them.
+  - I am in a loving, caring, fulfilling, mutually supportive
+    relationship with my wife.
+  - I have a list of software projects that I develop and maintain as
+    a hobby. I implement new features, fix bugs, publish new releases,
+    etc.
+  - I do things that improve the world in my opinion.
+* Professionally, I make a comfortable living, and my employer or
+  client is happy with what I do for them.
+  - I do work that I feel is ethical, worthwhile, and meaningful.
+  - I meet the goals agreed to with my employer or client.
+  - I learn new things and become better at what I do, professionally.
+  - I help others become better, too.
+
+That's my list. Yours might be different. You might not care about
+productivity at work. You might measure everything using money. Your
+decision. Whatever you decide is OK.
+
+To me, being productive is important because it helps me be happy. For
+me, work is a big part of my life, and so "being productive at work"
+is important to me. Again, you might be different, and that's OK.
+
+An important measure of being productive, for me, and being in control
+of my life and commitments, is how easy it is for me to not do things,
+and feel OK about that. Can I drop everything and go for a walk? Can I
+go have lunch or dinner or watch a movie with my wife? I can do those
+things when I know what I've committed to and what I need in the near
+future. If I'm very tired during the day, I take a nap, because it
+helps me be more awake later, but I sleep better if I worry less.
+
+I feel most productive when I can just do the things. In online
+discussions, this is sometimes described as "cranking the widget". I
+know what I need to do, and I know how to do it, and I merely need to
+do it. It might be writing a code module, writing a section in an
+outline for a document, or filling the dishwasher.
+
+I find that one of the things I get from GTD is the idea of separating
+the planning from the doing. First I plan: "I need to write this
+program, what does it need to do exactly? What's the next concrete
+thing I can do to make that happen?" Later, when I'm ready to actually
+start doing, I do the concrete thing, whatever it happens to be. By
+separating the planning and the doing I can concentrate on one thing
+at a time. I don't need to think about, or worry, about all the other
+things I could be doing. This helps me concentrate, and if I can
+concentrate on only the one thing at hand, I get it done faster, with
+less total effort, and with fewer errors.
+
+If I feel like watching a movie, instead, I know what I need to get
+done in the near future, and if there's nothing urgent, I can immerse
+myself in the movie. That, too, is easier if I don't need to worry
+about other things.
+
+
+# A terse summary of GTD
+
+This is the shortest summary of GTD I have come up with:
+
+* Messages, notifications, communications, physical things,
+  interruptions, etc, that come to you, are either dealt with
+  immediately, if necessary, or go into one of a defined set of
+  inboxes.
+* When you have time and desire, you process one or all items in one
+  or all inboxes. When you process an item, you remove it from the
+  inbox.
+* Processing means you decide to do something about the item, discard
+  it, delegate it to someone else, or defer it until later.
+  * Do: whatever the item requires you to do, if it's quick, do it at
+    once. I limit this to things that take at most a couple of
+    minutes.
+  * Defer: make a note to do whatever needs doing, somewhere you will
+    check later.
+  * Delegate: ask someone or something else to do it.
+  * Discard: delete the email, recycle the paper, whatever is
+    appropriate to remove it from your life.
+* Occasionally, possibly regularly, review your entire GTD system and
+  make sure everything is in good shape. This means processing
+  everything in all inboxes, checking on delegated things, and
+  checking your notes on deferred tasks.
+
+Of these, the review is probably the most important part. It's what
+keeps the system together. I certainly am not diligent and disciplined
+enough to get every detail right every time. Things fall through
+cracks, and a review (I do it about weekly) helps me find things, and
+also to patch up cracks that things fall into often.
+
+# GTD in more words
+
+In this chapter I describe the basics of the GTD system in enough
+detail that if you want to implement it for yourself, you can start
+doing that.
+
+The core elements of GTD are:
+
+* one or more inboxes
+* several lists
+* a calendar
+* a filing system
+* a waste basket, trash can, or recycling bin
+
+I won't go into detail on how to discard things, as I'm certain you
+know about that already. From a GTD point of view, the only important
+aspect is that you actually remove from your life things that you
+don't need or want to store.
+
+The core lists in GTD are:
+
+* next actions
+* active projects
+* what you're waiting for to happen or for someone else to do
+* what you may want to do some day, but not now
+
+You can implement the lists in whatever way you like. I use text files
+in git. Actually they're markdown, so that [ikiwiki][] can render a
+web site from them, but that's not actually important. You can use pen
+and paper, a generic list management application, a GTD application
+specifically, a ticketing system, a whiteboard. Whatever works for you
+is fine.
+
+## Inboxes
+
+An inbox is where incoming things land. An email mailbox where new
+mail arrives automatically is a prime example. You can also have a
+physical box where you dump snail mail, or anything someone hands you,
+or post-its you write to remember to do something.
+
+Not everything has to go into an inbox. Sometimes things are urgent,
+or you have the time and energy to deal with them immediately, and you
+can just deal with them as they arrive. If there's a fire in the
+kitchen, you deal with that immediately. If someone asks you what time
+it is, you answer at once. If you get offered a cup of tea, you either
+drink it then, or refuse it. There's no point in a putting a cup of
+tea in an inbox to be processed a few days later.
+
+I process items in an inbox several times a day (email), once a day
+(snail mail), or when I do my GTD review (most things). I sometimes
+process just one or two items, when that's all I have time for.
+
+In online discussions, some people are quite strict about inbox
+processing. They may say that you have to always process everything in
+an inbox, and you must do it every day. I have not found it necessary,
+or useful, to be that strict. Whatever works for you is fine.
+
+I have a bunch of inboxes.
+
+* a markdown file called `inbox.mdwn`
+* a note taking application on my phone
+* a couple of email accounts
+* several chat systems
+* notifications on social media or phone apps
+* several ticketing systems
+* the desk in my home office (for snail mail)
+* the couch in my home office (for clean laundry to fold and put away)
+
+The exact list is not important here, but I do need to make sure I
+remember to check all of them. It's OK to have many inboxes, as
+long as you know what they are.
+
+I treat ticketing systems as inboxes. I check all open tickets from
+time to time, to see if there have been any changes, and I treat each
+change as being in an inbox. This is, of course, easier for systems
+that send me email, but it's workable for any ticketing system.
+
+Sometimes an open ticket not having changed is something I need to do
+something about. That's usually obvious when I review the ticket, and
+then I add the thing I need to do to `inbox.mdwn`, to be processed later. Or
+I add a reference to the ticket to the inbox, if I need to think about
+what to do. I capture the need to do something in my system.
+
+From a life management point of view, it's important to realize that
+an inbox is not permission for others to tell you what to do. If it's
+your employer, or your spouse, they may have that power, but in
+general, anything that lands in your inbox is best treated as a
+suggestion that you consider if something needs to be done.
+
+Even that can be too much. If you, say, have an open source project
+with many users, they each separately feel like they have a right to
+ask you do consider something. If that happens rarely, that's fine. If
+you get many such requests a day, the cumulative load on you is
+excessive. It's OK to filter what gets into your inbox, in whatever
+way works for you. Maybe an email filter, or a trusted party. Your
+time and your attention are yours, and you should decide how you
+spend them. Arrange things so that you are in control.
+
+## Next actions
+
+When I've decided that I will do something, but can't do it at once,
+because it takes too long, I add it to the list of next actions. Later,
+when I'm actually doing things, I pick a item from the list, and do
+that.
+
+For this to work well, I describe the action in sufficient detail that
+I remember everything relevant, possibly days later. I find it helps
+to write the next action for a future me who has just returned from a
+short, but extremely exciting adventure, and needs a little help to
+remember the mundane aspects of my life. I don't need to write an
+essay, but I do include enough context to trigger my brain to remember
+the rest.
+
+I also find it helps me do things if I write a sentence that starts
+with a verb representing a concrete physical action, but also only
+describes how to start doing, rather than describing a complete,
+polished, perfect end result. Perfection is scary and de-motivating.
+
+Good examples:
+
+* Draft an outline for a rewrite of "Getting Things Done for Hackers".
+  - note "draft" rather than "write": a draft can be incomplete, and
+    may need further work
+* Write a list of at least three ideas of birthday presents for my
+  wife.
+  - note how three is a small number, but it's enough to get me
+    started, and once I'm going, I can go on
+  - also note how this is about collecting ideas, not choosing a
+    present
+
+I find that an action needs to be possible to complete in one sitting.
+Thus, "write a novel" is way too big, but "draft a list of five ideas
+for names for characters in a novel" is fine.
+
+It's also necessary for me that a next action is ready to be
+done. It can't depend on something else that needs to happen
+first. I can't format a new hard drive until I've bought it, and I
+can't buy it until I've researched current hard drive reliability
+statistics. The first action is to find those statistics.
+
+I use the following check list to make sure my next actions are well
+formed:
+
+  * a _physical_ action ("write", not "think about")
+    * thinking is part of planning!
+    * but "draft outline of a plan for..." is an action
+  * it's clear what I need to do (which widget to crank)
+  * duration at most 15 minutes, preferably, or at least less than 60,
+    definitely
+  * I'm committed to doing it
+  * does not depend on anything, can be done immediately
+  * it's clear when it's done
+  * it's clear which projects the action belongs to, if any
+
+A list of next actions can be as short or long as you like. I find it
+works best for me if it's long enough to have at least one item for
+each active project, but short enough that it's easy to pick something
+to do. By the time I need to use regexps to search for something, I've
+gone overboard.
+
+In practice, less than one hundred items works for me, but less than
+twenty is better. A list longer than about ten is long enough that I tend
+to want break it into sub-lists, to make it easier to navigate. In GTD
+parlance this means assigning next actions into contexts. The original
+David Allen GTD book has contexts such as "at phone" and "at
+computer", which make no sense to me. That was a simpler time.
+
+You can use whatever contexts you like, and you can vary them as
+needed. Some of the contexts I use include "working", "hobby time",
+"out and about, running errands", "home alone", and "zombie". The
+"home alone" context is for doing things to our home network, or home
+servers, when my wife's work isn't disturbed by me, say, reinstalling
+the home router. The zombie context is for when I don't need to be
+particularly awake or alert or able to think clearly, but need to do
+things like taking out the trash, doing dishes or laundry, or checking
+my spam folder for legitimate mails.
+
+One extra context I have is "started" for things that take a long
+time. As an example, "run the automated test suite 1000 times in a
+row" might take all day, but not require my attention except to
+occasionally check the test suite is still running.
+
+
+## Projects
+
+In GTD, a project is anything that requires more than one action to
+achieve, but is very likely possible to finish in less than 12 months.
+This is a simple, clear definition, and usually meshes well with other
+contexts.
+
+I find it useful to describe a project goal by starting it with "when
+this is done" and describing the world after the project has ended. I
+have learned, from others and from my own experience, that this aligns
+my brain to think about the project end goal, rather than the process
+of getting there.
+
+I further find it useful to describe acceptance criteria for deciding
+that the project is finished. This is the difference between "stay at
+my mother-in-law's overnight" and "drive north for six hours, then
+take a left, and knock on the door". By concentrating on "what", it's
+easier to re-think the "how" when something doesn't go as planned.
+
+Example:
+
+> _When this is done:_ I have written a novel, and at least three of
+> my close friends have read it and not suggested character or plot
+> changes.
+
+When planning what to actually do to advance a project, to choose next
+actions, I find it useful to think about the next few steps only.
+These are usually fairly obvious, but that depends on the project. A
+project to buy a new hard drive is easy; a project to construct a new
+Zeppelin is not. The harder a project is, the more things it contains
+that you've never done before, the more careful planning of each
+action, and the route to the end, needs to be.
+
+For projects requiring specialist knowledge, consult specialists.
+
+Also remember that when you set a goal for yourself, you get to adjust
+it as you like along the way. Maybe a goal to write a novel turns into
+a producing a play. That's allowed.
+
+## Waiting for
+
+I add an item to my "waiting for" list when I ask someone else to do
+something. I also add to the list when I'm expecting something to happen.
+I have two "waiting for" lists: one is a markdown file, the other is
+an email folder. When I order something online, to be delivered, I move
+the order confirmation email in my "waiting for" folder. This makes it
+easy to check that it actually arrives.
+
+Effectively delegating tasks to others requires keeping track of what,
+to whom, and checking that they do them. Even the most competent
+people can misunderstand what is requested, or make mistakes, take
+longer than intended, fall ill, or suffer from the loss of a loved
+one. Checking on progress helps everyone collaborate better: if the
+task turns out to be too big, help can be recruited; if someone is
+ill, a substitute can be arranged.
+
+This turns out to be particularly effective when you delegate upward
+in a hierarchy, by asking your manager to do something. Managers, too,
+appreciate help in remembering their commitments, as long as it's done
+politely.
+
+## Some day, maybe
+
+I have many things I may want to do, but not right now. So many
+things. For example, I might want to learn French some day, or write a
+novel, or visit
+[Guédelon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%A9delon_Castle). Some
+of these are so desirable to me that I'm unlikely to ever forget, but
+for most things, it helps to write them in their own list, the
+"someday/maybe" list.
+
+The "someday/maybe" list can be just a wish list. It can also contain
+things others have asked you to do, when you have time. It can contain
+things that someone has hinted they'd really like to get as a gift.
+Mine also has ideas for programs I might want to write, or features to
+add to existing programs.
+
+This list runs the risk of growing too large. At its largest mine grew
+to over 7000 items. (grep is useful.) That's too large to be useful.
+("Learn French" was there three times.) I find it helpful to trim it
+down if it grows too large. Trimming is helpful not just to make it
+easier to find anything, or to get rid of duplicates, but also because
+the longer the list is, the heavier a psychological weight it is.
+After all, learning every language and visiting every castle in France
+is quite a long list, and not likely to ever shorten much. It might be
+freeing to have just one language and one castle.
+
+
+## Calendar
+
+Things that should happen on a particular day, or at a particular time
+on that day, go into a calendar. Calendars are a magnificent invention
+to help ensure you don't commit to doing two things at the same time.
+(Calendar software is a manifestation of an elder evil who sucks your
+soul dry.)
+
+You can use calendar software, or a paper calendar, a handwritten
+list, or whatever works for you.
+
+I used to live a very simple life, with few time based commitments. I
+kept everything in my head, except birthdays. This ended when I
+started having meetings or other interactions at work. I cannot
+recommend ending up in a situation where you have to explain that you
+forgot a meeting, or remembered its time wrong.
+
+## Filing system
+
+Inevitably, I need to keep, and retrieve, documents for a long time:
+receipts, invoices, contracts, pay slips, manuals, etc. Some of these
+have an expiry date, but it might be far in the future. Anything tax
+related I need to keep for about a decade. A manual I need only as
+long as I have the hardware.
+
+Filing systems are traditionally an area where many geeks who start
+using GTD go overboard. Hanging folders? Manila folders? What size?
+Filing cabinets? Archival document boxes? Label makers? Alphabetical
+or date order, or some classification system? The possibilities are
+endless.
+
+I keep my paper filing system simple. I have a few archival boxes that
+I label with the kind of document they contain. I use a label maker,
+because my handwriting is illegible. For digital files, I have a
+folder `Archive2` where each file is named with an ISO 8601 date, and
+some keywords to hint at the contents. (It's `Archive2`, because the
+original, `Archive`, turned out to be hard to organize. It had an
+intricate sub-folder structure.)
+
+Once again, whatever works for you is fine. Start simple, and when your
+GTD system is working otherwise, if you feel like it, spend the
+necessary effort to implement the perfect filing system. Make Miss
+Lemon proud.
+
+## Pending and support
+
+It's awkward and tiresome to fetch documents from the main filing
+system, and return them, for things you need often because they're
+relevant to your active projects. I have a separate stash for such
+documents, which I call "pending and support". I have an email folder
+with that name, and I use my work desk surface for physical documents,
+and my home directory for digital files. It's messy, but it works for
+me.
+
+## The review
+
+For me, clearly the most important, the most energizing, the most
+meta-productive part of using GTD is the review. I try do one every
+week, but that varies. If I skip the review for a month I get angst,
+and have difficulty concentrating. My brain loses all confidence that
+I can support it by keeping track of things externally and tries to
+remember everything without help.
+
+The purpose of the review is to make sure I haven't forgotten to
+process any inbox items, that I've made progress on all projects, and
+that I have a clear set of things I can do in the near future. In
+short, that everything is in order, and nothing is neglected. The
+review is also a time of contemplation, thinking, planning, and
+envisioning a bright future.
+
+Doing a review tends to calm my subconscious, and make me feel
+energetic. If I do my review in the morning, I am often in my most
+productive mode the rest of that day. This is why I avoid doing it on,
+say, a Friday evening, as the temporary energy boost would be lost while I
+sleep.
+
+My review sometimes take hours, but I tend to take breaks to have tea
+on the balcony with my wife, and other important things. If I'm
+feeling it is urgent, I can usually do a reasonably thorough review in a
+couple of hours if it's not been more than a couple of weeks since the
+previous one.
+
+My checklist for conducting a GTD review is ("iteration" is the
+interval between reviews):
+
+  * Write a journal entry summarising the past iteration.
+  * Review, and dump any thoughts into an inbox:
+    - journal entries for the past iteration
+    - calendar for the past iteration
+    - calendar for the next month
+    - waiting-for:
+      - in GTD files
+      - personal email
+      - work email
+    - pending-and-support:
+      - personal email
+      - work email
+    - review someday/maybe
+    - empty head of things: any pressing thoughts or worries that
+      haven't yet been captured into the GTD system
+  * Process all inboxes: do, delete, delegate, defer, discard.
+  * Review projects. Make sure each has at least one next action.
+  * Review next actions list. Are they all of good quality?
+  * Re-process all inboxes: do, delete, delegate, defer, discard.
+    - new things keep arriving
+
+This isn't the perfect review process, but it works well enough for
+me.
+
+
+# Higher level GTD
+
+The full GTD system described by David Allen covers life management at
+higher levels than the mundane "do these things to achieve these
+goals". I'm not describing the higher levels in detail, but in short:
+
+* what's your purpose in life? what are your principles?
+  - why do you exist?
+  - who are you?
+* what is your vision for the medium to long term future?
+  - what does success look like for you, in the long term?
+* what areas of your life are you particularly focused on?
+  - what parts of your life do you need to maintain, or improve, or
+    pay attention to?
+* what are you goals for the next year or two?
+  - these generate projects, which are shorter
+
+These make sense to review annually. However, you should probably not
+worry about these until your everyday is under control.
+
+The second edition of Allen's GTD book describes these better than the
+first one.
+
+# Advice
+
+Here I give some advice about implementing a GTD system.
+
+* Don't use software, or write your own software, as part of your GTD
+  implementation, until after you've been doing it manually for a
+  while, and have a deep understanding how you want your system to
+  work.
+  - I did not write two outline applications, or a ticketing system,
+    or a thing to nag me about things. You can't prove I did.
+  - software is usually inflexible, and a GTD system will have corner
+    cases, edge cases, and special cases that require flexibility
+  - start with pen and paper
+  - after various other software approaches I have ended up with
+    markdown files in git, edited with Emacs; this seems to be
+    convenient and low-tech for me
+  - git helps me keep my GTD system in sync between work and personal
+    laptops, and helps guard against catastrophic editing mistakes
+* It can, however, be helpful to automate aspects of your life or GTD
+  system. Having recurring calendar entries is helpful. Having a
+  monitoring system to remind you about inboxes you've not touched may
+  be overkill.
+* Use checklists for things you need to remember, or do repeatedly, or
+  that you may need to do in a hurry under great stress.
+* Consider building a [personal knowledge
+  base](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_knowledge_base), or at
+  least keep a journal.
+* You can start big, or small. You can start applying GTD to only part
+  of you life, and expand that as you get comfortable with the system.
+  Or you can pile all your incomplete stuff onto a desk and let GTD
+  take over your life.
+
+
+Finally, productivity hacking your life, and improving your GTD
+system, is a fun hobby. It does not seem to be a way to be
+significantly more productive, and it can prevent you from having tea
+on the balcony. I recommend only hacking your life for increased
+productivity when it improves your life.
+
+Below is an image of my first inbox, when I first started implementing
+a GTD system for myself.
+
+![My first inbox: my kitchen table](first-inbox.jpg)\ 
+
+# Acknowledgments {.unnumbered}
+
+Thank you to Greg Grossmeier and Heiko Schäfer for feedback on this document.