Drowning in things to do

The heart of a good 'Getting Things Done' process is to have a Single trusted system where you capture your tasks.

I guess I'm Doing It Wrong :-(. Here's all the places where I distribute my todo list...

• In my current moleskine (pronounce it with me -- Moh-leh-skeen-ah) on pages 9, 12, 31, 57 etc.
• in my phone
• in outlook (at work)
• in my code using //TODO: tags (scattered over numerous projects)
• in my code using NotImplementedExceptions.
• in timesnapper's hosted fogbugz account
• in 'nextaction' on my work pc
• in 'nextaction' on my home pc
• in 'nextaction' on my laptop
• in my gmail account (emails labelled 'todo')
• in my gmail account (emails marked with a star)
• in my gmail account (any emails from me)
• in my other moleskine, beside the bed

Still, I think i'm pretty good because I do actually tend to 'get things done'. But also because i resist keeping lists in all these other places:

• in iGoogle
• in sharepoint (at work)
• in my gmail account (using the Gmail Tasks plugin)
• on pieces of paper on my cubicle wall
• in my other notebooks
• in timesnapper using flags/tasks/notes
• in yet another todo.txt file
• on sticky notes randomly decorating places I inhabit
• in twitter
• in tada list
• in that surprisingly popular codeproject todo list
• in remember the milk
• in a tiddly wiki
• in the iphone i don't have
• in the PDA i don't have
• in chandler
• at trimpath 'next action' web site
• on my blog
• using tattoos (memento style)
• in google calendar

There's no shortage of places to keep your things to do.

I don't worry about having too many systems. A bigger fear is failing to capture a problem as it arises.

You frequently get just one chance to capture an idea, so I capture it anywhere I can.

My book "Choose Your First Product" is available now.

It gives you 4 easy steps to find and validate a humble product idea.

Learn more.