GTD, wikis and you

Like I said in yesterday's post, I'm finding that TiddlyWiki it is a great tool for creating and storing reference information -- one half of any good GTD system. What about the action part of the GTD system?

I have to admit my bias upfront here, as I develop and sell a GTD product, MasterList Professional for Windows, but GTD is a methodology: the best way to implement that methodology varies from person to person.

So if you're thinking about using a wiki for the backbone of your GTD system, here are three quick recommendations on what to take a look at:

• GTDTiddlyWiki - GTDTiddlyWiki is a Getting Things Done adaptation by Nathan Bowers of Jeremy Ruston's Open Source TiddlyWiki. If you're looking for a GTD populated version of TiddlyWiki, look no further.  GTD TiddlyWiki already has built into it contexts, a project list, and printing to 3 x 5 cards.
• d³a "kinkless" GTD system -d³ is based on the very popular Kinkless GTD system for Macs (http://www.kinkless.com). This free app features Projects and Actions, which are dynamically populated lists showing active projects and action contexts, respectively. Both menu items use a slider interface to show/hide the lists, and they simply list all tiddlers that are tagged as project or context.
• MonkeyGTD - this one is my favorite GTD implementation of the TiddlyWiki -- but it goes far beyond the original.  MonkeyGTD features a dynamic dashboard that shows next actions, things are waiting for, projects, reminders, a calendar and more. It is very cool.

Now for the really good part

Finally, if you're looking for a no fuss, no muss way of implementing any of these GTD wikis, or the original TiddlyWiki, Clint pointed out to me yesterday TiddlySpot, a free hosting service where you can set up any of the above and make them public or private. TiddlySpot is the creation of two Australians, Daniel and Simon Baird, and while at some point if they're successful they will be adding Google ads to their hosted wikis, TiddlySpot is absolutely the easiest way to get started with any of these wikis. As of today, they host 5,000 Tiddlywikis of one sort or another.

Comments

[Paul Klipp]

I've tried ALL the GTD tools that are available on the web and for the mac, but I find paper the most maintainable. The exception is lists. I keep my lists in a wiki, but put next actions on index cards (cut in half and hold-punched) and file them in a 43 folders system. I'll sort the week's next actions each morning and decide which I must do, should do, could do, and won't do today and then go. However, I keep my lists in a wiki. I like text files, but I need portability. I found a wiki that I can use from my iPod Touch and Blackberry so I'm never without it. I liked it so much, I set up www.picowiki.com so others could use it, too. I just find maintaining a tool like GTDTiddlyWiki too time-consuming and too easy to let slip.

[Kent Allen]

Good point about the importance of the "action part of the GTD system." I have been using Accomplice (www.accomplice.com) to organize the company's product launch and customer push.

I'm a big organizer-type and it's key to have "built-in execution tools". Without them, you can find yourself collecting and organizing, but getting behind on the "getting things done" front.

I'll check out MasterList and MonkeyGTD.

Cheers,

Kent

[Sam]

Have just taken to using MonkeyGTD. Am using one personally to manage my time and another one dedicated to planning my upcoming wedding. It is excellent, allows enough freestyle to adapt to personal thinking patters but still structured enough to produce a result.
I've become a Tiddly fanatic recently, and am using other Monkey plugins on my information Tiddly which I use to take research notes. It's like Heroin to the MicroContent lover. Love it.

[Jonathan Danylko]

Bob,

Nice post!

Annnndd...if you have Firefox, there is an extension you can use that plugs into GMail to accomplish the same methodology.

I reviewed the GTDGMail Firefox extension a while back.

Here's the link: http://www.dcs-media.com/technology/Detail.aspx?ArticleId=470

Thought I'd throw in my $.02 :-)

JD