Some people say that admitting that you have a problem is the first step to change. So… I’m admitting that I’m a time management system addict. If you look at my iphone, you’ll see no fewer than 8 different to do list apps… I have tried and failed to master the trendy GTD (and have used OmniFocus, Nozbe, Toodledo, Things and the rest…) I can’t seem to keep any system going.
For being so disorganized – I manage to get most of what I need to do done — but one of my resolutions this year was to be less stressed and all the unorganized floating puzzle pieces of my life isn’t helping.
So, I’ve enrolled in Time Management Boot Camp of a sort. I just signed up for the totally relaxed organizing (TRO) coaching program. The program is an online class with a 21 day homework component. Just from reading through the training – it sounds intense. I especially like how you can get the training customized for your particular set of tools (I am using the Remember the Milk, Gmail & iphone version). Note: I was impressed enough with Priacta to sign up as an affiliate…)
So my first steps were to set up RTM, Gmail and my calendars to play together and to get my office files labeled and organized. Of course, since I really don’t do paper and file in gmail – this was pretty easy.
I’ll check in from time to time and let you know how this project is going…
Hi, Meredith,
I found your video on TRO and this post very helpful. I am a stay at home disabled person, but I still have many home “business” tasks to take care of, as well as tasks related to my medical conditions.
I also come from the Franklin-Covey and GTD background and liked TRO because I thought it sounded nice to get things out of my head and be relaxed.
But I am really struggling with it. Maybe because I am using Outlook, I do not know. I just cannot seem to get the “big picture”. For example, if a Task has a high “life” priority, why can I not place a High Priority on it when I am “Processing” it, and NOT have it appear in my “Do Today” Tasks? I just do not understand that, as well as many other aspects of TRO.
Since I related to your video, I am writing for your advice. The TRO “Training” is VERY corporate. It talks about your meeting agendas, your meetings with certain people, and your “admin”, a term which I think is very demeaning to Administrative Professionals.
Anyway, I would love to hear what you think. I am currently also trying to figure out reQall. Have you tried this? It seems like an awesome way to keep tabs on items you want to remember while on the road…
Best wishes,
Juan Antonio Dominion
Juan,
I’m a virtual assistant and online marketing consultant with some heavy volunteer and “mom” commitments so I get what you are saying.
Yes, the primary audience for TRO might be corporate people — there is big $ for the designers in paying for on-site executive coaching — and if a whole company adopted TRO – it would be very powerful. But… that being said, I am finding it very helpful in my situation. The point of TRO is not to have the whole huge big picture in your head — but to make “containers” for the different parts of your life and then arrange them strategically. The Franklin Covey part of the system lets you decide what is important and budget your time (putting the big rocks in first) and then the GTD-like part of the system helps you sift through the pebbles. I’m finding that by using all the tags in Remember the Milk – I get a lot more done by only looking at the part of the list I”m supposed to be working on. For example, during my new
“work” hours – I just work on the task in my work list. I do home stuff during the time I set aside for that. No guilt and it gets done. My billable hours each day have definately gone up while at the same time my turnaround time for projects has gone down.
As for as prioritizing tasks — if it is super important – TRO allows you to “promote” the task to a big rock and go ahead and schedule it.
Does that make sense?
As for requall – I haven’t played with that much — but I think that the biggest lesson I’ve learned from TRO is that the tool (i.e. Requall, Remember the Milk, Outlook, OmniFocus) doesn’t matter as much as the system. You can try every tool out there (I think I’ve come close) but if you don’t have a system you won’t get very far…