GTD, FIrst Things First, Palm, Psion, PoIC, Hipster PDA, Remember the Milk, Moleskines .. and the like

I have experimented with a few too many time management schemes. I have done Stephen Covey’s “First Things First”. I have tried GTD (of course), and PoIC (“Pile of Index Cards”). Like some of you, I have several Filofaxes, I have used “Remember the Milk”, I have used an implementation of GTD on Gmail, GTD implementation on Moleskines, I have a few Palms, I have even used a Psion (it’s still in perfect working order). None seems to cater perfectly to my lifestyle.

Not that my lifestyle is anything out of the ordinary. I am a company man type who spends an inordinate amount of time on the Internet. I manage people regionally and I find myself constantly traveling between Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. So do most people I meet.

This is what I do now. I keep a Filofax with the latest planner filling from Franklin Covey plus a stack of index cards, hipster-PDA style. With the Filofax, I do my weekly review, where I center myself to the values I hold dear and make sure I work towards the roles that contributes the most to them. I also use my Filofax to track my appointments, events and to act as a reservoir for all my notes. I used my “hipster-PDA” for GTD. This way I have a lightweight and convenient contraption that helps me manage all my tasks – work or personal. Since the Franklin Covey system has little “satellite notebooks” whose pages can be ripped out and filed back into the Filofax, I can now travel with just a notebook and my hipster-PDA. It’s fast and convenient, never runs out of batteries and all I need is to pull out a pen. I can management my bewildering jungle of tasks but yet, I can make sure that I remain centered via the Covey system.

(Afternote : I am trying "I want Sandy" at the moment.)