Following on from waldir.leoncio fantastic post on his "Monk To Done" approach to GTD with RTM I thought I'd share my current setup using RTM, which is a conglomeration of various productivity methods I've read and digested over the past few years. I definitely think that whilst GTD has its place, I often found myself trying to manage my system too much and not actually getting things done. I've tried every tool under the sun pretty much, and due to being stuck on ie7 at work, I found RTM was the best fit.

It does seem to be working the best out of everything I've tried for me, and not doing my tasks is generally down to my procrastination more than anything. The thing that made me adapt my workflow was reading Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy as it highlighted the fact I wasn't getting the big jobs that I needed to do done and instead spent days hoovering up the smaller tasks instead of tackling the big ones. The book explains that the things that will move you forward the most (Frogs) are the things you tend to procrastinate on the longest, and these should be the things you tackle first, if you have a list of frogs, and a list of other smaller menial tasks, the biggest frog should be the first thing you tackle that day until it's eaten up, then move onto the smaller tasks. It made perfect sense to me really but took quite a large change in my own self discipline; however I feel it's made me more productive. So here goes, pour yourself a coffee as this could be quite a long one.

I start with my normal lists which is where everything I want to do get's filtered. I currently have the following lists: (but feel free to break them down as best suits you) Personal, Gardening, Decorating, Renovation, Marketing, Business, Clients, Education, Stock Photography, Website, Location Photography, Social Marketing, Books/Films/Music. I'm a photographer, so these lists suit me well but they're really up to you, if you find something is taking up considerable amounts of your time then make a list for it. I've found my decorating list has quietened down recently due to us having recently finished a room in the house, so I could theoretically delete that one. This replaces the method the "Advanced GTD for RTM" post suggests which is making an individual list for each project you have. I found that far too time consuming, and many lists only had one action on and it just became too impractical to manage (it also made the weekly review quite a time consuming task, not to mention that my tabs at the top of RTM were bigger than my actual screenspace!).

Anything that I quickly jot down in my inbox (Download White Stripes Album) can be later or immediately filtered into the list that it fits into (in this case Music/Films/Books).

I use tags for contexts from GTD, so I have the usual of work, home, Mac, laptop, errand, phone, camera, and garden which are the actual contexts as David Allen suggests. At the moment it's looking a lot like GTD, which I guess is my main inspiration for my workflow. So I use one of these tags for each task in my system so it can be brought up later in smart lists. I have a few further contexts to help my smart list filtering further such as buy (things I want to buy), read (things to read), download (things to download) someday (self explanatory), waiting (again, self explanatory)

I also have a tag called projects which is where I store the overall name of each project I may have going, such as "Finalise Facebook Fanpage" "Renovate the loft" etc etc. This is an overall goal that sits in its relevant list. Finalist Facebook Fanpage would sit in the Social Marketing list, and Renovate Loft would sit in the Renovation list etc etc. That way when I come to my weekly review and I click on the Renovation tab I can quickly see if there is a project in there without any actions associated with it (say I completed one step, but hadn't listed the next) I can refocus and put a next action in. Using the priority step below also means that all my projects are automatically filtered to the bottom of my lists so they're all in one place.

Now the crux of my system is using the priority feature of RTM. In Brian Tracy's book he says that tasks can be split into one of three ways A - Must Do, a task that will have serious positive of negative consequences if you do it or fail to do it. B - Should Do - Things that you should do, but only has minor consequences. That someone would be unhappy or inconvenienced if you don't do it. Returning an unimportant phone call or reviewing your email. The rule is you should never do a B tasks if an A task is still left undone. C - Nice to do - No consequences if you do it or not. Having coffee with someone. He also has a D category which is something that you delegate, but I don't really do that in my line of work so I've left it off. However if I had delegated something to someone, I'd assign the waiting for tag to it so I can quickly see anything I'm still waiting on.

So for things like renovating the loft, which aren't immensely important to me at the moment, the majority of the tasks related to that project would be "Nice to dos" and "should dos" however if the roof were leaking in then that'd probably upgrade those tasks to "A - Must do" which would mean above anything else my A task of fixing the roof would take precedence.

So I list everything I have to do, should do, would like to do within their respective list, give them a priority and give them a context. If there are dependable tasks I wouldn't give them a priority at all. That way they won't show up on my tailored smart lists, but will show up when I do my weekly review.

I also have an issue whereby I always forget to do things at the place I'm at. Such as "buy some masking tape" when I'm at the supermarket or "pick up hammer" from my parents house. I've tried having a tag for the place, but then if I forget to check my phone I've missed the chance. This is where I use the locations aspect of RTM. Anything I really need to do somewhere, or that I know I'll need a reminder for, i.e. at my parents house as I'm only there once a week, I'll give it a location. That way my Android phone will buzz when I get near the location and I'll get my phone out and remember what I needed to do. Say I need to remember to put something in my bag when I get home; I set the task with location home. I've also tailored a widget on my HTC Desire HD to show a smart list (Called Current List) that lists due tasks, overdue tasks, phone tasks, and tasks near current location. That way at a glance I have a current and up to date task list of things that must be done tailored to my current location (This is a little iffy sometimes and doesn't always update correctly). I find this works well as a reminder when I'm running errands or need a quick reminder about something I know I'll forget. It could be used to remind you to speak to someone at work, or package up an eBay package at home, or pick something up from a certain shop you go to. So any little tasks that you think you'll forget can be tagged with a location to pop up and remind you! Very useful feature from RTM there!

So onto the smart lists that I use that sort all my tasks into both context and due date. I have a smart list for things at work, things at home, things on Mac, phone, and errands.

Phone and errands are just things tagged with phone or errands, but also that have a priority. If they have no priority they are things I can't do at the moment so I don't want to see them. This little tweak is useful when you want to add something to a list to do that you don't want to forget but know you can't act on it at that time. For instance I have a number of tutorial videos I want to watch but I can obviously only watch them in order so the later ones don't have a priority, the one I need to watch in the series is marked with a 2 priority as I should watch them. It also works for dependable tasks, say "Fit new cupboard" is dependable on "Buy new cupboard" I'd set buy new cupboard as a 2 - Should Do, and "Fit new cupboard" with no priority. That way when I come round to my review, if I've bought the cupboard but not fitted it I can move the project on and set "Fit Cupboard" to 2 - Should Do.

I also have 3 smart lists called *Someday, *Projects, and *Waiting For, the * means that these three lists will always be first on my tabs at the top of RTM and I can easily see what I'm waiting for and projects that I have going on. On my someday list, it's usually projects or ideas that I've thought up but don't want to action just yet. These again will be in their respective lists, but my *Someday Smart list brings them all together in one place. I can look through this list during my weekly review and pick up any I fancy putting into action.

The things at home/work/Mac things are slightly more complicated. For things at home I have the following search (adapted for both Mac/work): tag:home and (dueWithin:"2 weeks of today" or due:"never" or duebefore:"today" or due:today) not priority:none. This shows anything due within the next 2 weeks, anything that is overdue, plus anything without a due date that can be done at home. It doesn't show anything without a priority, so I'm only seeing tasks that can be done should I choose to do that. At the moment I have 2 A tasks on that list "Finish painting at the top of the stairs" and "Sow button back on coat" I think I tend to use the A,B,C method for A - things I really want to get done, B - Things that can wait but I probably should do, C - last on my list, nice to do things. The button one is also tagged with location:home to remind me when I walk through the door that I need to sow the button back on my coat. So if I'm at home, I know the most important things I need to get finished are the decorating (as it's making a mess of our landing area and I want it done) and sowing my button back on my coat, as my sleeve is flapping about everywhere! I know you're thinking "Gee what a high flying individual he must be!" if his biggest priority is a button on his coat. However, I get most of my work done on a computer so the majority of my business tasks are in my work and Mac smart lists. But if I were looking at my task list when I get in, these are what I will concentrate on first, then look at the "B - Should Do" and "C - Nice to do" tasks last.

I'm thinking of adding to these smart lists to also show overdue/due tasks regardless of context just so I'm aware that they are pending wherever and whenever I check (in fact having written this out, I've decided that that is definitely what I'm going to do). I did find in the past with GTD, I was managing to such a finite level that I lost due/overdue tasks within contexts I rarely looked in. It was a real problem and in the end I became too frustrated with the process. Omnifocus only exacerbated the problem! (that felt like managing for managing's sake!) I feel this method above retains the ideologies behind GTD, but simplifies it and yet still provides reminders and priorities. So for instance if I need to upload a clients photos by a certain date, that will come up in each smart list 2 weeks prior to the date regardless of the fact that I can't do it in that context. That way if I'm looking at my home/work list, I'll know I must get on the Mac and upload the photos. I'd also probably tag this task with location:home so I knew as soon as I walked through the door I should do this before anything else.

My main worry with any of these systems is things slipping through the cracks and me forgetting to do things. That is most definitely my main problem with any system, you can make notes/reminders/systems until you're hands fall off, but the practical methods above seemed to have solved many of my frustrations. I've found in the past the things I think I'm missing always get held in my RAM in my head, because I'm not looking at the correct context list to see the task I'm missing. This way I'm always aware of upcoming due dates regardless of context so I don't miss anything (this is more important to me than hiding tasks out of context as I was always worried I was missing something if I were looking at a certain contexts list) But if something doesn't have a due date and isn't urgent I only ever see it in it's correct list/context.

Any suggestions for improvements would be appreciated. Thinking about it, I've probably just listed the exact way RTM was intended, and maybe loads of people are already using it in this exact way. But I often find myself trying to fit it into a system (GTD mainly) that it doesn't quite gel with without thinking about what actually works for me.

Thanks for reading, man that is a long post!