Now to go into the longer explanation. I have found that when people are looking for a new way to do something they will read about different systems and incorporate all but ‘this one thing because I don’t like it for XXXX reason’. Well what you have been doing isn’t working because you are looking for a new solution. GTD may not be the solution that ultimatly works for you but whatever method you chose give it a fair shot. Take the principles and apply them in their entirety for the first two months. Don’t toss out something because it is not the way you work. It was realizing this idea that I gave GTD a fair shot and after I saw it working for me I molded things to me a bit and that is just in a workflow type of thing.

Now to address some of your issues in your post.

Simplicity. Any method of organization is going to involve bookkeeping at some level. Getting started is always going to add friction to your life in learning the new process. Get beyond the starting point and see how much of the friction goes away as the rough edges are smoothed and you start gliding.

Feedback. Review is, as others here have pointed out, a core belief in the GTD methodology and actually relies on it to work. Review and prep takes time at the beginning. Now a few minutes at the beginning and/or end of the day (goes to workflow) to review and about 30 minutes to prepare the week and month ahead and I’m good.

Technology. That can actually get in the way at first. Looking for the program that someone else has written that works best for you in a methodology that you’re learning at the moment. Even if you have the skills to write the code for yourself you don’t know the method enough to do it. That being said I’ve found MonkeyGTD to be the most useful technologically oriented tool to work the GTD ideas. I do keep a little notebook with me for when I’m in an electronically technological deprived situation. I’ve also got a friend that uses the HipsterPDA with some preprinted cards from templates. Most people I know who employ GTD do so with a paper planner and physical file folders. Its a workflow thing.

Bottom line is what works for some will not work for you. However when I hear a majority of my friends (or commentors) saying something might help I’ll look into it. And from my experience most everyone that discovers GTD and incorporates all (or most) of the principles wind up with a much more productive and less stressed life.

Most of my lists have to do with a particular person, project, etc. which serves as a trigger point. When I have my next periodic meeting with that person or project, I can refer to the list.

It’s things which don’t fit into a bucket which I tend to “lose” as described in this anecdote. Getting into a daily habit of reviewing the “unclassified” bucket might help.

The model is even self-describing. The following WOIM list shows the legal structure and syntax of a WOIM list:

WOIM-list
[1+] WOIM-item; OPTIONS:
Identifier (numbered: x.y.z…)
Multi-line indicator (an asterisk)
State/Transition (S:/T:)
Operator: (in capitals, ending in a colon)
OR: NOT, AND, OR, XOR, IMPLIES, OPTIONS, TWO OF THESE etc.
Count & condition
* Format = [x,y ?condition]
(from/to = [x,y], x or more = [x+], less than x = [<x],
from x to y while z=0 = [x,y?z=0], list of items to be
applied = [A,B,C,D], etc. [?] is short form for optional item)
Tag (ends in a colon)
* Attribute(=value): (any specifics such as
Time=YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS:,
Responsible=Someone:, Location=Somewhere:, etc.)
Title/Description
Reference (prefixed with # (#REF))
* To an item in the same list (to jump to another item
or to make the list recursive), to another WOIM list
or item in another list. Use the key words (in capitals)
SKIP to end the parent WOIM item, END to terminate the list
Comment (in parenthesis)
Item separator (semicolon) (adds another #WOIM-item on same line)
Line break
[?] indent (to add a child item)
#WOIM-item (the child)

More? See this site: http://www.isene.com/artweb.cgi?article=012-woim.txt

It even has a VIM plugin: http://vim.sourceforge.net/scripts/script.php?script_id=2518

I also suggest establishing a routine, including a healthy sleep schedule. Speaking of which, good night!

Organizing your life better will of course help a lot, but it doesn’t take away the main problem, which is that you’re way overbooking yourself. Even if the number of commitments doesn’t change, the nature of things is to gradually demand more and more time – time which you finally do not have.

What I did was to consciously cut the number of commitments and the amount of time I was willing to spend on each. Yes, that meant deliberately and openly limit the number of hours I spend with work (still work more hours than my contract calls for) and be open about it to my employers – all of whom turned out to be perfectly fine with it. It also meant I gave up translation work for Gnome. It was fun, but in the end some things had to go, and that was one of those things.

For work, the easiest way to limit yourself is to keep a strict schedule: be at work at the same time each day, and leave at the same time. Aim to catch the same train (or bus or whatever) each and every day. If you have to scramble to finish something before your daily deadline that’s fine, but don’t get tempted to stay around for a while longer just to finish up – there’s -always- more things to finish and soon you’re staying an hour extra every day, then two hours, then… If you need to hit a specific external – and nonregular – deadline then crunch time is fine of course, but make it -real- 24/7 crunch time, and immediately go back to your regular schedule once that emergency is past.

And really, we tend to fill our available time with the work we have. I’ve noticed that I actually don’t get any less done at work by keeping a self-limiting schedule; I simply tend to work at a pace that gets me where I need to be at the end of each day. I think this is especially true for intellectual work, where a fair amount of the time is really spent thinking things over rather than doing stuff. Which does make me wonder just how much I could cut my workday and still get exactly the same end results…

It provides priority, long descriptions, checking stuff off as done, etc.
It can also generate reports of things. I haven’t played with some of the advanced features, but I use it as a simple to do list.

It works well with nested things, storing the database in the local directory, or looking up the tree for it, etc. Which means you can keep various separate ones in a directory tree that makes sense for you (and then put stuff in the directories as well).

Oh, and its all terminal based. I’m unaware of any front ends for it, but not being pretty doesn’t bother me.

Hopefully that helps!

Getting the ideas out of your head helps alot. Unfortunately, I have not been able to create an organizational system that I’m happy with. I currently use tomboy/thunderbird/sunbird, but find that I want more integration, and am frustrated that I do not have a synchronization system nor a mobile device that is capable of any note-taking. Hope you find a system that works for you.

Feedback: Reviewing and reflecting upon your activities is an important part of GTD, and using specialized software can make it easier.

Technology: Take a look at Tracks and todo.txt.

My feeling is that you’ll find value in studying GTD even if you end up not using it.