How Do We Get Things Done?

[00:00:00] Tyler: Steve, what are your thoughts about Halloween? Did you like it as a kid? Do you like it now?

[00:00:08] Steve: Uh, kind of indifferent about Halloween. I, I liked the trick or treating as a kid, and my mom always came up with like creative costumes for us, so that was fun, but I, I don't have strong feelings one way or the other.

[00:00:26] Tyler: That's almost identical to how I feel, actually. Like, when I was really little, my mom came up and made, actually, some really cool costumes. I was Pinocchio one year. I don't know why. Maybe she was trying to teach me something. Like that movie has some pretty heavy lessons to learn for kids in it or something.

But it's weird to dress up as Pinocchio and then run around door to door getting candy. It sounds a lot like Pleasure Island, but be that as it may, I also have developed a pretty much ambivalent attitude towards Halloween. I'm not against it. Like some people get... Uncomfortable about it. Not me. Like, I don't care.

But it's not really my cup of tea. I don't like getting dressed up as an adult. I don't care about costumes, etc. But something happened this Halloween. That changed that for me.

[00:01:13] Steve: Okay.

[00:01:13] Tyler: So I got invited to a costume party and I was kind of like, not excited per, you know, what I just explained. I'm not, you know, it's like, Oh great.

Now I have to come up with a costume. I'm the kind of person who typically is like, I don't know. I'll wrap a bedsheet around myself and be like, Ooh, I'm a ghost or something. But then I remembered that my neighbor friend across the street actually does costumes professionally for film and television.

And I

asked her, yeah, yeah. I was like, Hey, I got invited to this costume party. I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, could you help me? And she totally agreed. So now I'm like super stoked. Like she's going to take me to this giant costume warehouse and like measure me and like find all the right pieces to put on me for, it's just a simple like Dracula situation, but still.

In theory, it's going to be good. And she's going to hook me up with like a makeup artist. I mean, this is so far out of my comfort zone, but the reason I'm bringing it up is because it reminds me of our outsourcing discussion a few episodes ago. Cause I'm not good at this, but I found someone who is. And now I'm excited about it.

[00:02:19] Steve: There you go. Costuming, not a core competency for Tyler.

[00:02:24] Tyler: far from it.

[00:02:27] Steve: Okay. Well, that sounds, that sounds way more intense than I was expecting.

[00:02:33] Tyler: Yeah, me too.

[00:02:34] Steve: but yeah,

[00:02:35] Tyler: I'm kind of nervous

[00:02:36] Steve: should be fun. And makeup too, everything. So what, Dracula,

[00:02:41] Tyler: yeah.

[00:02:42] Steve: that kind of a character?

[00:02:43] Tyler: Transylvania slash Dracula party. So that's, that's kind of the theme, I guess. So

[00:02:47] Steve: Oh, there you go.

[00:02:50] Tyler: happy upcoming Halloween, everybody.

[00:02:52] Steve: Hello there, dear listener. I am Steve.

[00:03:00] Tyler: And I'm Tyler, and this is It's Not About The Money, where we discuss a wide range of topics related to creating and running small businesses.

[00:03:10] Steve: Tyler and I both run small businesses ourselves, and the two of us are just trying to make sense of the world one podcast at a time.

[00:03:19] Tyler: That's right.

What is Steve's process?
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[00:03:19] Tyler: And today we are going to be talking about how we get things done.

[00:03:25] Steve: It's kind of important as a, as a human, generally in Western society. I dunno how broad we want to paint with this brush, but, like, most people need to get things done in their lives.

[00:03:36] Tyler: I mean, it's, that's true. Yes. To survive, you got to feed yourself, at least shelter yourself. Hopefully, you know, uh, do things that other people require of you, like your boss, your family, whatever. Um, so I kind of just wanted to open this up. With a question that kind of illustrates what I, what, what I mean by getting things done when I, when I think about this.

So basically it's, I think everybody already has a process for doing this, whether they're conscious of it or not. And so I kind of want to ask you about your process, um, for getting things done. And what I mean by that is what does your process look like, Steve, from uh, taking some kind of to do item, some kind of action, from initially having the idea or receiving an input all the way through to completing that task or action. do you have any systems in place for that? Do you track it somehow? Do you just rely on your brain? Uh, and I know this is like a really, really personal question and it's very different for everyone.

So I'm very curious to get your take on this.

[00:04:38] Steve: Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. Uh, I do have some systems. Yes. And some of the things don't ever make it out of my brain into the system. And so it's a little bit haphazard depending on the subject matter, I suppose. But let's see. Uh, probably the place where most of the stuff goes is into Todoist, which is a, uh, an app for Managing to dos, and it has lists and, um, and actually a whole bunch of features that I haven't really used yet, uh, that, that are very cool that I want to dip my toes into, but I'm not making full use of them yet.

Filters and contexts and things like that. Uh, I think it's at least some of the features are, um, inspired by the Getting Things Done methodology. Uh, which intrigues me, but I haven't yet dived into that whole hog, but, uh, anyway,

so

[00:05:39] Tyler: could dive into that later in this conversation because I'm a, I'm a, I'm a big fan of that. But mostly I want to hear about what your system is. Yeah, yeah.

[00:05:45] Steve: Right, right, right. Uh. So generally I would add something there to the inbox, and then I may or may not assign a date to it.

If I don't assign a date to it, it will probably sit in the inbox for, uh, potentially forever. Because a part of the system where if you have an inbox, you ought to also have like a weekly review or like some, some, uh, set frequency at which you go through the inbox to see what is there to plan it out.

And I don't really have that part of the system yet. But so typically what I'll do is put a date on it, either today or like next week or something, and then. That will remind me to do it. Uh, and then when the day rolls around, uh, I may or may not do it on that day. So I typically have a large list of things that are like due on a particular day and, uh, well, due in gigantic air quotes.

And, uh, much of the list will continue rolling over from day to day, which is, is kind of irritating. And then, you know, one, one day I will just sit down and burn through the whole list and get it all down to zero and, and feel really great about it.

[00:06:58] Tyler: Like actually complete all the items in the list.

[00:07:01] Steve: Yeah, well, yes, either that or postpone them, uh, to future, like assign, purposely assign dates in the future instead of just letting them roll over.

[00:07:10] Tyler: Right. So it sounds like what you're describing here at the beginning at least is kind of like a, a backlog system of sorts where you just have a place, a designated place. So whenever you get stuff, as you called it, I guess, and that's like an action item, whether that's just something you think of that you need to do or any other input, and you're putting it all in one place. Then you're reviewing that giant, well, I don't know if it's giant. You're reviewing that list of inputs that you have periodically, and then assigning a date to do those actions based on your schedule and whatever other responsibilities that you have.

[00:07:48] Steve: Uh huh. And it is broken up into some broad categories. So I have, you know, like things for the day job. I have things for the tax business. I have, uh, projects that need to get done around the house. Like financial stuff or like, don't forget to cancel this subscription on X date.

[00:08:08] Tyler: Ooh, that's a common one for me too. The subscription cancellation reminder. What a to alive!

[00:08:14] Steve: Uh, uh, right. Uh, so yeah, so there are some like categories in there, uh, which is useful when I'm like, okay, I'm in, I'm in day job work mode. What are the things in that list? Because I don't need to worry about anything else. Right now, I'm just focused on those, that kind of thing. Or like, uh, I have one for tax clients where I need to, like, September 1st, send a reminder to these, these clients, uh, to don't forget to pay your estimated taxes this month.

That kind of thing,

uh, that just recurs every, every three

[00:08:50] Tyler: That sounds important. Actually, you gotta remember that.

[00:08:54] Steve: Mm hmm.

[00:08:58] Tyler: Okay, great. So, uh, that sounds quite organized, I would say, actually. Uh, how is that how is it working for you? Like, do you feel like it's enough to you know, relieve any stress you might have related to these items? And kind of help you get things done on time and not let anything fall through the cracks?

[00:09:21] Steve: Uh, I would say, yes, the things that make it in, it is useful, uh, as far as taking it out of my brain and putting it into a system, so I don't have to keep thinking about it until it needs to be done. Uh, but it's not quite robust enough that everything that passes through my brain that needs to eventually get done makes it into the system, and so there is still kind of this, uh, background thread that's always running in my head of, you know, stuff that...

I've maybe forgotten to write down anywhere that will eventually bubble up again, be like, Oh yeah, remember that the, the paint on the stairway upstairs needs to be touched up. Don't, don't forget about that.

[00:10:03] Tyler: And that's just a thought that you have, right? It pops into your

[00:10:05] Steve: that's where it just pops in. Oh yeah, I'm going up the stairs. Oh yeah, I remember this, this paint here needs to be touched up.

And then eventually I will punch it into the home projects list and I can stop thinking about it so that when I'm in the mood to go. around the house and, do things, then I can be like, oh yeah, the, I need to do some touch up paint and I need to re caulk the sink and, oh, you know, whatever it is.

[00:10:30] Tyler: Yeah, yeah.

[00:10:32] Steve: Oil the garage door.

[00:10:34] Tyler: I actually did that recently. My garage door, speaking of Halloween, sounded like a screaming banshee for so long. I finally took care of it. I lubricated the chain and the little joints and contact points. And you know what? It actually worked. I was skeptical. Because it was so, you know, terrifying, but anyway, you should do that.

[00:10:58] Steve: I

[00:10:58] Tyler: Highly recommend.

[00:10:59] Steve: I bought the, whatever it is, lithium grease or whatever, a long time ago, in the little spray can, uh, because I was like, I need to oil the garage door, grease the, grease the stuff. I just haven't done it yet. But it is very squeaky, so.

[00:11:16] Tyler: yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. So that's great.

David Allen's Getting Things Done
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[00:11:20] Tyler: I mean, we've talked before and I was vaguely aware that you used the app Todoist and, you know, you kind of kept track of things in there and, but it's, it's cool to hear kind of your whole system. And it sounds like it's serving you well. Like, yeah, maybe there's still a few things you're not capturing in there, but you know, again, it's different for everyone.

Like some people in this space really are adamant about capturing every possible input, putting in a system, so it's out of your brain, so you have like no background noise in your brain. I guess the, the quote that everyone likes to talk about from a guy named David Allen who wrote a book about this is that something like brains are meant for having ideas, not for storing them.

probably, that's a paraphrase. I don't have it right in front of me, but, but yeah, so that's interesting. But, yeah. Anything, if you, have you thought about like, how often do you review your system and maybe like change the way you do things or upgrade it or adjust things if ever?

[00:12:22] Steve: Uh, not very often, and I think that's one of the pieces that's lacking right now is I don't have a periodic review of either the tasks or the system itself, which is one reason that I am interested in reading the David Allen book and kind of just going through the whole system and seeing if it would make sense for me to do, because, uh, it's got like all of those pieces are part of it.

And I, it sounds intriguing to me.

[00:12:52] Tyler: as someone who's read the book a few times, I would say that it's, it's, it's got principles in it that, again, you can apply it to kind of your individual situation. Like one of the principles being, you know, get things out of your head, capture them into some kind of system. Could be a notebook, could be an app.

I don't know, uh, who wouldn't use an app these days, but you know, it doesn't matter as long as it's not in your head and you can find it again. So that's like a principle.

[00:13:18] Steve: I do like using notebooks for, uh, like a lot of the, uh, the day job stuff I have when we're at the point in a project where we're like near the end, trying to wrap up a, a big report or something, I'll just have a running list of like, don't forget to do these things before we finalize it. And that's all in a notebook, uh, just cause that's easier for me to work with, I guess.

So it doesn't all go into Todoist.

[00:13:45] Tyler: Cool. Very cool. Yeah. It's nice that you've got something deliberately, like I said, everyone, everyone does have a process for getting things done, whether they're conscious of it or not. So, uh. It sounds like your system at this point is actually pretty deliberate and functioning well.

That's awesome.

Tyler's process
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[00:14:03] Steve: Yeah. Do you want to tell me about yours? What is your process? I know you, we've, we've talked about Getting Things Done and it sounds like that is a Is a piece of it for you at least.

[00:14:14] Tyler: it is. It's, I'm heavily inspired by David Allen and his book and the Getting Things Done methodology. And actually, just recently, I kind of re skimmed the book because the system that I was using was kind of devolving, I guess you could say. I kept tacking things onto it that were not part of the Getting Things Done methodology.

And look, like, there's more than one way to skin this cat. I just happen to like the Getting Things Done methodology, so I'm not... I'm not going to push it on anyone, but for me, it works. And I find that, uh, I, you know, like skim the book, I'll be like, Oh yeah, this is actually much simpler than I've been making it for the past few months.

And then I'll kind of like simplify it back down to the basic GTD framework. And that works for me really, really well. And then I'll just kind of like experiment with it. And I'll, you know, one of the interesting things about, uh, GTD is that it differentiates between things that are time bound. David Allen calls like your calendar, the hard landscape of the day, right? So there's certain things that are tied to times, like a meeting or a deadline or for a project or a deliverable for a client. You can't really mess around with those due dates usually, but there's this whole other category of items that are, uh, not time bound that you can just do whenever.

And he talks about doing them when you're in the right context for doing them, which you kind of alluded to that a little bit in your system by breaking things down into categories, right? But I have experimented with all kinds of things. I guess that wasn't the question. Now, the question is, what do I do right now?

And since I just reskimmed the book, I basically just do pure GTD. Uh, so I also have an inbox where I capture all my inputs, you know, I review it periodically and assign contexts to each of the actions. And then when I'm in those contexts, I just try to burn through my list as fast as possible. And that I think is the essence of GTD.

I also use Todoist. I don't know if I just mentioned that, but Todoist, I'm a huge fan. It's, you know, again, lots of lists and to do apps out there. This just happens to be the one I was attracted to many years ago and have stuck with it ever since.

[00:16:23] Steve: I, I think I, uh, got it, uh, after your, uh, extensive evangelizing. So I have you to thank for that one. But, oh, I was going to back up and ask you, what is, uh, what is a context,

[00:16:37] Tyler: Yeah, that's a great question.

[00:16:39] Steve: who aren't familiar with GTD?

[00:16:40] Tyler: So a context is something, so David Allen, a big part of the GTD methodology is helping you figure out the best way to answer the question of what you should be doing in any given moment. And there's a few different frameworks David Allen has for this, but one of them is called the four criteria model.

If you're falling asleep right now, I'm sorry. Basically, uh, it's the idea that in any given context, like whether you're at work, at home, maybe driving, running errands, maybe making phone calls, maybe working on your email, these are different contexts that you're in. So it's like the environment or the mode of work that you're in.

Uh, the idea is that, uh, if you were at your office at work, you shouldn't even bother your mind with a list of things that you need to do at home, because you're not at home. You're in a totally different context.

[00:17:33] Steve: Yeah.

[00:17:34] Tyler: And so GTD gives you a way to filter out your lists, and so you can see only the items on your lists that match the context that you're in.

And so, uh, basically let's say you have a context that's called email because, uh, you know, you've collected a list of to do's that are like replying to emails or something. So when you're in email mode, you just pull up your to do list for email and you can quickly punch out 10 emails or however many it is.

And you're just kind of in that mode. And so it's like easy to be productive and not switch contexts. And, you know, switching context is distracting. It takes a while to readjust your new context and kind of enter that new mode of working. So anyway, that's, that's the idea behind a context. And, uh, it's, it's the first criteria for choosing what you can do at any given time.

Like if you're driving around running errands, again, you don't wanna see your work to-do list, you don't wanna see your home to-do list or your email to-do list. You wanna see the to-do list that has to do with running errands and then work from that.

[00:18:36] Steve: All right. And it seems like, uh, an important component of this would be that, uh, everything on that list is actionable, like right away, if you're in that context, like you have all of the. Necessary prerequisites assembled for sending whatever email that is. Like, all the information has been collected already.

You're ready to sit down and write it.

[00:18:58] Tyler: Yeah, that's right. And so, uh, you know, and a lot of, a lot of to-dos aren't necessarily that complicated. Some of them are, and the way I I approach that personally is in Todoist, uh, like many to-do apps, there's a section on each item for notes or attachments. So I can just attach, you know, the thing I need to reply to or any information about that, that I will need in that moment when I'm working on it.

That's pretty nice.

[00:19:25] Steve: Okay, cool.

[00:19:26] Tyler: So that's what a context is. I hope, I hope that made sense. That's what a context is in the context of GTD.

[00:19:35] Steve: GTD. Okay, did we get through all of the,

[00:19:41] Tyler: The, the, the four

[00:19:42] Steve: thing that you were gonna, yeah, the four, whatever they

[00:19:44] Tyler: Uh, the four criteria for deciding what to do in any given moment. No, no. Uh, context is the first one that I think we explained why that one's important. Uh, the second criteria is how much time do you have available? Right? So if you've got five minutes before your next meeting starts, you don't want to pull up a to do that's going to take you an hour, obviously you just wouldn't, wouldn't be the right time to work on that.

[00:20:07] Steve: Yep.

[00:20:07] Tyler: third one is energy available. So some tasks are like mindless, like, uh, I just want to turn on a TV show in the background and tick off these mindless tasks that I have to do, but you know, they don't require a lot of my attention versus like writing a report or doing some research at work, which is going to require deep work, full focus, and that can help you decide what to work on at any given moment.

And then the last and honestly, least important, according to David Allen is the concept of priority. Because it kind of doesn't matter how priority something is if you're in the wrong context or you don't have the energy or the time to do it. But all of those other three things being equal, there could still be a level of priority involved.

And at that point, he kind of advocates for kind of using your intuition on that and like not going overboard, like tagging stuff or like categorizing things. Just like, look at your list, pick the most, the highest priority thing and do it.

[00:21:06] Steve: Oh, interesting. Okay.

[00:21:09] Tyler: So what's interesting about context is I got really confused, when I started working from home, remotely, Because suddenly all contexts were kind of the same. So if you want, I can sure,

[00:21:21] Steve: have a physical location separating them

[00:21:24] Tyler: right. Like before it was pretty obvious, like there were certain things I can only do in the office, whether it's like meet with someone, it's just kind of funny now, things have changed so much with virtual meetings and, and things.

So yeah, that was a shock to my system. That took me a while to come up with contexts that work for me in this new world. I guess I don't have too much else to say about context. Would you like to know what mine are that I use? Is that interesting to you at all?

[00:21:48] Steve: I am curious to

[00:21:49] Tyler: Okay. So,

uh,

[00:21:51] Steve: as inspiration for my own when I start to, because this is a piece that I don't quite have. Like, I have different lists, sort of, but they're not

[00:22:00] Tyler: yeah,

[00:22:01] Steve: they're not broken down this way.

[00:22:03] Tyler: this is, uh, before I tell you what context I use, I will say, this is always the first thing to go for me. Like I always get rid of context first when my, my system entropy happens. And the reason is usually because I devolve to a state where like I'm now, deadline focused. And so I start getting more

temporal or whatever. Like, you know, I started doing things more based on time. Uh, and there are reasons for that, but we don't have to get into that right now. But, uh, the crazy thing about context is when you're doing them, when you're using them in this way, for me again, huge caveat, this does not work for some people, that's fine.

But for me, it's like pure magic. Like, like one of my contexts right now is, errands. And this one is just so magical to me because whenever I, I typically run my errands on Mondays and whenever I go out, I just pull up my errands list. And there's a bunch of stuff that I absolutely have forgotten that I need to do.

Like pick up the dry cleaning, grocery shopping, get like a screw from the Home Depot, whatever it is. Like this is stuff that I absolutely. I have forgotten since the time I entered it in my system, but because I'm in the context of being in my car, running from store to store or whatever, like I just pull this up every time and stuff gets done that I otherwise would totally forget.

It's like super magical.

[00:23:20] Steve: Amazing.

[00:23:21] Tyler: context that I have, this one's kind of like the most obvious one for my current working situation. It's just called computer. Sitting at a desk in front of my computer.

[00:23:30] Steve: Okay.

[00:23:31] Tyler: And I went back and forth on having this as a context or not, because like, there's very little, uh, that I can do on my computer technically that I couldn't do on like my smartphone or like an iPad or like on a web browser in the library, you know, just cause everything's online these days for, for my work.

Um, but I found that there really are some things. Um, things that are easier to do on a computer, right? Spreadsheets being a great example, anything involving working on a spreadsheet,

[00:23:58] Steve: Mm hmm.

[00:23:59] Tyler: um, things that are going to be like copying and pasting, plug your ears, I know it's inefficient, but whatever, it happens sometimes in my job, uh, a lot of like writing, cause I like to write at a keyboard instead of like pecking it out on my phone

[00:24:14] Steve: Mm

[00:24:15] Tyler: Um, so stuff like that.

And so what's crazy is like, if I ever get into one of my deep work modes, I just click on my computer context. And like right now, for example, there's 12 things in my computer list and I can just, I don't know, you can just like this cool flow state and you just do them, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, start at the top, go to the bottom.

So I'm, I don't know, it's always the first thing to go, but I don't, in my opinion, it's actually like the actual magic of GTD and without it, I don't Like it's almost, there's almost no point doing GTD. It's all about context.

[00:24:44] Steve: Right. That's cool. How do you, uh, actually implement the context in Todoist? Is it a project or is it, uh, is it a different thing altogether?

[00:24:57] Tyler: how, um, I can answer this. It may not mean much to people who've not used Todoist, but I'll, I'll be quick. Basically, I've tried many things. I've tried this, you know, cause Todoist is a blank slate. It's not actually built to, uh, help anybody do any particular productivity methodology, including GTD.

It's just basically a list app. It allows you to make lists. And then each item in the list can be, can have attributes like tags. And so basically the two dimensions that you're working with are, uh, lists and tags. So you, uh, an item can exist within a list and then you can apply any number of tags to it.

And so basically I work, uh, from, for my action items. I have, this is all GTD. I have a list called actions, which are just single actions. They're not part of a project. They're just thing one off items that have to be done. So that's one list. And so everything on that list, uh, will have a tag on it of a context.

My contexts are: anywhere, calls, computer, email, errands, home, and that's it. Oh, and waiting, waiting for. And then I have one other list called projects, and that is just a list of projects, a project in this case being defined as any outcome that requires more than one action. And then I use subtasks in Todoist.

So the project list is a list of projects, and then the multiple steps of each project is just a subtask under each project. And then, you know, each of those tasks could have a different context, so I'll just put the appropriate context on the subtask, and that's it.

[00:26:38] Steve: That is very interesting.

hehehe

[00:26:40] Tyler: This might be better as video podcast where I actually, like, show this, but, but yeah, it's very, like I said, the actual GTD methodology is super simple and I always ruin it by making it more complicated. And so right now I'm in a good state. Like I said, I just reread the book. So I'm kind of like in this beautiful, pure state, but we'll see how long it lasts before I get some crazy harebrained ideas again.

There are a couple other elements, uh, to my system, which literally is just a copy of David Allen's system that I think are pretty cool. I'll just mention those really quick, uh, there's, uh, they're lists and so I've got a list for agendas, which is just stuff I want to talk about with certain people next time I see them. So I guess being with a person could be considered another context. And then I've got a list, uh, that for some reason David Allen calls a tickler list. I've never understood the word, but it's just a reminder list. So it's like, uh, things that, Um, you don't need to do right now or at a certain time and that you don't want to do right now, but you want to be, it's basically reminders.

Right? So, remind me to think about this thing again on such and such a date. then the last one is the infamous, uh, GTD list called Someday /Maybe. So as you're doing your reviews and you come across, you know, you're, you're gonna go, we all have way more to do than we could ever get done. And so there is some kind of point at which you're making a call, right?

And it's like, this is, I do not need to do this right now, but someday. I might want to do it. So I'll just throw it in this other list and review it once in a while. So that's where all like the fun stuff goes that I'll probably never do. Like all the vacations I want to take, uh, you know, uh, some just like, I've got this project that I'm obsessed with mentally.

I don't know if I'll ever do it, but my dream is to make a Christmas cookie box for all my neighbors. Where like I make a bunch of different fancy Christmas cookies, like a variety of them, you know, and like package them up in a box and like, I think that would be so cool, but I don't know if I'll ever do it, but it's been in my someday maybe list for a long time.

[00:28:52] Steve: Uh huh. Okay. And then you go through that every once in a while and say, yeah, and either leave it there or promote it to, this is the thing that should get done soon.

[00:29:04] Tyler: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[00:29:05] Steve: Okay.

[00:29:08] Tyler: by capturing those things, it's like, you really will never forget anything, right? Even if it's just languishing in a list forever, that doesn't require your attention. So it's, it's kind of cool that way.

[00:29:19] Steve: Mm hmm. Okay. The, the tickler list sounds very interesting because I have a bunch of tasks that are like, go check the water softener salt level to see if I need to go

[00:29:30] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:29:31] Steve: thing. And that's, that recurs every, I don't know, month or something. And then if it's low enough, then I'll add another task to the errands list to say, next time I'm at Home Depot, grab a bag of water softener salt.

[00:29:43] Tyler: Yeah, exactly.

[00:29:44] Steve: So that would be a kind of thing that goes on the tickler list. That's the first one. I mean,

[00:29:48] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:29:49] Steve: I'm just like a recurring reminder.

[00:29:54] Tyler: It's yeah, it could be a reminder. That's my primary use of the tickler list is just reminders. Uh, also one off single action tasks that I, that I don't want to do soon. Right. So let's see if I can find, oh yeah. So I have to do a quarterly report at work. Like that's an actual item with a deadline that I have to do every single quarter, but I don't want to think about it until it's time to think about it. But I also want to be secure in the fact that I won't forget about it. So I have a tickler item. That's such a funny word. I don't know. I guess it tickles your brain. It reminds you. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not even going to try. But, uh, so like once a quarter, uh, this tickler item will pop up and be like, Hey, it's time to prepare the slides for your, for your Quarterly report and like, oh yeah.

And then I'll like move that into like an actual action item.

[00:30:42] Steve: nice. Okay. I need to go read this book because all of these things sound very interesting to me. I want to use at least some of

[00:30:49] Tyler: I will, I will, I have kind of a, a, a strong opinion about the actual book Getting Things Done by David

Allen, and it's kind of twofold and, uh, so I heard about it many, many years ago. through like social media and blog posts and YouTube videos. And so I had like been exposed to other people's implementation of the system and tried to build mine based on like that third party or like, you know, one through like hearsay basically.

Right. It's like, I read the book and here's how I understood the book. And here's the system

I

[00:31:22] Steve: I think that's where I

[00:31:23] Tyler: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it just like was never working for me. I'd get frustrated. I wouldn't understand a concept or a term related to it. And so one day, I think this was in like 2016 timeframe. I was like, you know, I should just read the book.

Why wouldn't I just read the book and like figure this out? And I read the book and part of the book is like, if you're going to do this, you should do this. So like take Days off of work and just read this book and it's like a step by step guide. It's like here's how to set up GTD for you and just like, and I, I did that.

So I took some days off, a few days off of work. I went to the office supply store and got the office supplies that he recommended and I got up and running. I was like, Oh, I should've just read the book like three years ago. Like, this is actually amazing. And I'm not saying you have to do that, but like it, you know, it is, it is a guidebook.

So as such, it's really for me. Here's my kind of strong opinion about this. It's not a great read. Like, uh, I think it's pretty, pretty tough to get through, um, outside of that implementation kind of mode. If you want to do that, I still highly recommend reading it because the concepts and the principles are amazing, but I don't find it to be the most.

Like, ironically, I don't find it to be the most, like, well organized, flowing type book, and so that's why I usually, I treat it nowadays as a reference manual, if that makes sense.

[00:32:43] Steve: Sure,

[00:32:44] Tyler: So, I don't know, I don't know if anyone else out there shares that opinion who's read the book, but it's, like, weird, because it's kind of, like, a negative opinion about it, but I love it so much at the same time.

very confusing.

[00:32:56] Steve: Yeah, okay. Well, uh, you can send all your hot takes, you listeners, send all your hot takes to Tyler. hello@notaboutmoney.Com.

Okay. Cool. Well, I think I will read it. I'll go get it.

[00:33:09] Tyler: Yeah, let me, let me know what you think.

[00:33:11] Steve: Plow through it. Maybe we'll have a follow up, episode later.

[00:33:18] Tyler: I think we should, let's hold you accountable to this, actually. I'm into this idea. So we'll read it, find

out if it like, if it resonates with you. Right. Cause like, I know there are different people with different mindsets and like approaches to this. Like I'm very organizationally focused. And so this is like my dream come true.

Right. Some people are more intuitive, I suppose you could say, and how they approach these things and like, maybe not for them. So curious to get your take on it. And then if you do decide to implement it, I'd love to hear how it goes.

[00:33:49] Steve: Okay. Let's do it. I'm excited.

[00:33:54] Tyler: good. Thanks. Thanks for listening to my GTD speech.

[00:34:00] Steve: Cool. Well, did we answer the question that we set out to answer?

[00:34:04] Tyler: do we get

things done?

[00:34:05] Steve: done? It was always kind of like a, just a little exploration.

[00:34:09] Tyler: yeah, it was,

[00:34:09] Steve: talk about something

[00:34:10] Tyler: yeah, definitely. So, I mean, I don't know what else to say.

[00:34:15] Steve: I'd say that's a yes.

[00:34:16] Tyler: Okay.

[00:34:17] Steve: Well thanks everybody for listening to us ramble on. Hope you got something out of it. Uh, hold me accountable. We'll come back

[00:34:24] Tyler: That's right.

[00:34:25] Steve: I don't know, probably a couple months, record another episode here. See what I think.

[00:34:31] Tyler: Sounds good.

[00:34:33] Steve: Okay. That's it for today. You can email us at hello@notaboutmoney.Com. And, we'll see you again on another episode of It's Not About The Money.