GTD Masters: An Interview with Glen of LifeDev.net

Master Series

This post is part of a series I’ve dubbed the GTD Master Series - a collection of short interviews with well-known GTD bloggers who many consider to be masters of their craft. Enjoy!

In this installment of the GTD Master Series, we’ll be hearing from Glen from LifeDev.net. I’m sure most of you are no stranger to his work (and have probably subscribed to his feed since you started with GTD). I’ve recently been chatting with Glen about this and that and he’s a super cool guy. And he’s been gracious enough to answer some of my questions, so without further ado…

For those who aren’t familiar with you, would you give a brief personal introduction?

Sure thing. First of all, thanks for interviewing me. This is officially the 1st interview I’ve had since I started LifeDev last August. It’s quite an honor!

I’m the owner and writer of LifeDev, a blog dedicated to personal productivity and creativity. I’m also developing a web application for bloggers called Blogfuse, and do other web development projects here and there around the web.

How did you get started with GTD? Was there a particular event/experience that led you to want to be more organized/productive in general?

I found Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders one day and he was giving some tips about Getting Things Done. Intrigued by the concept, I picked up the book on Amazon, and the rest is, well… you know.

I ‘ve been blogging about productivity before that though. I had been reading StevePavlina.com for a while, and really started to get into the whole idea of “being organized”. At the time I had just started working for myself and was amazed at how little I was getting done. I realized that something had to change if I wanted to actually survive as a freelancer, and so I started reading every blog I could find on the subject.

In your opinion, what’s the biggest pitfall of GTD for people just starting out?

Getting used to the system itself. It’s very easy to just take bits and pieces away from GTD, and not apply the whole system. I still have trouble with that. Oh, and sticking with it. It’s kind of tricky to get used to. But it really does help.

What’s the thing you like the least about “canonical” GTD?

Hrm. Probably David Allen’s dependence on paper :) I’m a HUGE fan of web apps, especially ones that can speed up my day. Although I am a fan of paper-based stickies and the hipster PDA.

Which aspect of GTD did you find the most difficult to implement? which was the easiest?

The amount of discipline it requires to start is definitely the hardest. Once you become familiar with the system, it makes for much smoother sailing.

The easiest thing was getting into processing items. It’s such a pleasure being able to take all of the physical/mental items that are clogging up your life and put them in a place where you don’t have to think about. It was a huge stress reliever.

How did you deal with any frustrations when you first started with GTD? Do you have any “inspirational” items that encouraged you to stick with it?

Well, actually I took to the system pretty easily, considering it’s so flexible. I think I like that part best about GTD: you can adapt it to virtually any system you’d like. It gave me the creativity to use the scenario that was best for me, not David Allen.

As far as getting inspiration: I thrive on testing out new applications that might improve my organization or productivity. A lot of the posts at LifeDev deal with new products that might do that. That’s why I recently made the Big List of Online Productivity Tools.

Please briefly describe your current GTD implementation (tools, applications, etc.).

Ahh… the million dollar question.

Well, one of my faults is that I’m a little to eager to completely switch around my GTD setup whenever a “better” one rolls around. I’m working on it, I really am.

That said, I try to stick with what’s worked best for me thus far: 30 Boxes. The majority of my working time I spend online, so I like to store my calendar, my list of general todo’s (not work) inside of 30 Boxes. It’s really a brilliant little calendar, and would recommend it to anyone. Their list management is top-notch, and you can set up tags for contexts. Oh, and they are always adding great features. It’s a fun web app that’s constantly improving.

For the work-side, I like to use all of my project management in Stikkit. I just recently moved this over from Basecamp. I really like Basecamp, but the ability to add contextual text alongside of my list items is crucial. It’s just so simple and powerful at the same time. The product support for Blogfuse is going to be done through Stikkit as well, so everything integrates nicely.

However, when it comes to brainstorming, I still use the old skool pen and paper. You just can’t beat it for total freedom.

When I’m not around the computer, I use a hipster pda to jot down ideas and things to remember, but nothing too fancy.

Any Final Thoughts, etc.?

I guess if I could say one thing about GTD it would be to not get discouraged when trying to implement it in your life. I’ve found that even if I fall off the “wagon” every now and again, I’m still MUCH better off than I was before trying the system. I’m sure it takes even the most “productive” people at least a couple of passes at GTD before it really sticks. David Allen didn’t pick up an inbox one day at Staples and suddenly become a productivity ninja. Just keep that in mind.

Thanks for reading - and please stay tuned for more short chats with some of the masters of GTD!

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February 15, 2007 | Filed Under GTD, GTD Masters 

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2 Responses to “GTD Masters: An Interview with Glen of LifeDev.net”

  1. gtdfrk on February 15th, 2007

    Brett, this is a great idea! I’m looking forward to reading more about the GTD Masters! When are you going to interview yourself? ;)
    -gtdfrk

  2. Jeroen Sangers on February 16th, 2007

    Great interview!
    There is one more thing I would like to hear from Glen: As this series is called ‘GTD masters’, does Glen feel that he really masters GTD? Does he consider himself ‘black belt’? And if not, what is still missing?

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