It’s not like I can switch between a personal and work brain. With a work/life balance under pressure and our ‘always connected’ industry, I decided not to differentiate between work life and personal life in my system. I decided to set up Getting Things Done (GTD) in Outlook and To-Do after some experimentation. There are excellent guides out there but everyone needs to find a personal way of working and system. I highly recommend his book and there is a ton of information available on the internet.

I really like the fundamental concepts of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD). Getting Things Done (GTD) as the foundation

Maybe this blogpost helps or inspires others and I might even find ways to improve my own system by trying to explain it in this blogpost. Using everything I’ve read and learned along the way, I created an easy to use and fairly simple system for myself in which I basically cherrypicked bits and pieces. I’ve been intrigued by time management and self-management systems and methods, and I tried various over time. My brain can no longer keep track of everything, so I need an external system I can rely on. Above all, I need a system to keep track of all my actions and to-dos. My full schedule requires a routine and way of working to stay on top of things. It’s also pretty long for a single blogpost, but I decided to keep it this way for readability purposes… I put it away and picked it back up a number of times so there might be some inconsistency here and there.

I decided to start writing this non-technical blogpost to get some thoughts in writing. I’ve been out on summer holiday and that gave me some time to reflect and think of ways to better organize my “stuff”. I have recently set up Getting Things Done (GTD) in Outlook and To-Do with Braintoss as my capture tool to help manage my actions and to-dos. In other words, a busy but very enjoyable life :-). I want to get back in shape, so I picked up playing basketball, running and going the gym, and I also have some dormant ambitions in terms of study and education. I picked up teaching as a freelance IT docent at the Novi Hogeschool in Utrecht. My Field CTO role at ITQ is keeping me pretty busy, mostly during office hours. I’ve got a busy family life with a lovely wife and two beautiful daughters. Like for most people, my personal and professional life has become increasingly busy. My personal GTD actions and to-do management system

Using onenote for to do list