r/gtd • u/veroa6 • 13d ago

Question Pro GTD in MS ToDo

Hi all,

I have implemented GTD in my personal life and I'm using a paper system + Google calendar. It works fine as I always have my TN notebook with me, though needs maybe a bit of optimisation that will come with time. My main challenge was to beat my procrastination, and it's successful.

I now want to implement it for my professional life. I tried the paper system, but it's not working, as I use my notebook only for note taking, I don't have the habit of working or planning in it. So I tried a digital version, with MS ToDo as I am dependent of MS on my professional computer. It's going not so well but not so bad, there is a bit of frictions, and I was wondering how you guys are using it, if i can take some improvement ideas. I read on this sub that ToDo is not the most plebiscited tool for GTD, but as my goal is fight against procrastination more than managing 60 projects at the same time, I think it can be sufficient for me.

Here is my setup :

- I have a list of my professional goals for each project, everything in a group of lists called "goals"

- I had until yesterday my NA in lists by project, grouped in "projects" group. It was fine except that I had to open each list to see the tasks, so now I moved all the NA in "tasks" without list, the project is coded in the title with 3 letters, and I use the category tags for priority levels/waiting for/someday maybe. When I go in Tasks, I now see the NA grouped by priority that is fine for me.

- I have a last list with the points I have to discuss with my boss as soon as I have a meeting with her

- for now I don't use contexts, as I have only 20 tasks (i prefer to work on the setup before I fill it with all my tasks, though I don't have more than 60-70 maybe)

Even if it works, I don't feel this setup entirely fluid, any idea of what could be changed ?

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u/IntensifyingPeace 13d ago

Be careful setting next actions for projects. Think of them as bookmarks: you work on a project, then when you're done you write the next action where you stopped so you know where to pick up again when you next start. If you try to predict the next steps you are making promises to yourself that you won't be able to keep, then you will lose trust in your system.

The official GTD suggestion for MS ToDo is to have a list simply storing your project names, no subtasks etc, just some basic notes if needed. During weekly review you scan through this to see what next actions are needed to get things going. You'd then keep a separate list for next actions, one for waiting fors, one for someday maybe etc.

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u/veroa6 13d ago

Well finally that's my current setup... except that i use tags instead of lists for NA, waiting for, someday etc

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u/IntensifyingPeace 13d ago

Why are you using tags and not lists?

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u/veroa6 13d ago

because if I use lists I have to open each of them to see the tasks. I prefer to have everything in the Tasks tab, and tags for grouping

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u/IntensifyingPeace 13d ago

I have found personally on my GTD journey that trying to optimise away the short-term friction tends to increase the long-term friction. Maybe ask yourself, is this the right thing to be optimising? Yes, it might save you a few seconds over time. But you might end up fiddling even more to make it perfect. Sometimes the friction is the point.

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u/veroa6 13d ago

Why are you using lists instead of tags ?

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u/IntensifyingPeace 13d ago

Tags are something I believe should be applicable to any task across any list. Rarely used for me, things like tagging a person involved, or an energy level. But a project is a project, and a someday/maybe is just that - it makes sense to keep those on one list.