The Simple Way To Get Work Done – a 3 part system; make a weekly goal list – everything you want to do for the whole week gets listed into this “master” list, then each night make a daily goal list – everything that must get done that day goes into that list, during the day, work on the daily goal list until you are done. That’s pretty much it.
This system wouldn’t work for me, since part of my love for the GTD system is that I write everything down – if I have to try to remember that I want to do something between weekly goal list writing, I’d be a basket case! I do see the value in using the concept as a part of your GTD system, though. The weekly goal list can be done as part of the weekly review and can be just another list that you use in your list-management system in GTD. Same with the daily goal list – which I actually implement now as my “next actions” that are due on a particular day, really. This would give some structure and prioritization to the GTD system that David Allen didn’t put in there and would be a nice way to manage very important tasks. Put them on the list, work until they are done, continue on with the “extra” stuff that always comes up in the course of a work day (or, if you are lucky enough to be evaluated by work done rather than hours spent, go home!).
I’m not sure I’m going to start right up with adding a weekly goal list to my weekly reviews, but it will probably be in the back of my mind as I’m performing that review and may well influence how I decide to “get things done” in the coming weeks! That’s one of the reasons I am so enamored of the GTD system – it’s so easy to mash it up with another system and make them both work for you!
