So I started the Analog Deep Dive experiment using @Home, @Calls, @Waiting For and @Errand contexts. I’ve been reading up on a number of interesting, pure analog implementations to develop a feel for what kind of information I’m going to need so that I can design my page layout to manage each of the context lists. I felt really energized when I put pen to paper to perform a MindSweep of my personal open loops. Got a few Projects and a large number of Next Actions jotted down in no particular order. At first, it felt that the act of putting ink to paper was limiting, confining, less flexible: much harder to tweak, align and order items. But then as I thought more about it, there is a fair amount of wasted effort doing these manipulations digitally - I’ve never been satisfied with any digital list, subconsciously maybe I feel I’m making progress on an NA by bit twiddling. Furthermore, the act of writing encourages an internal dialog before committing pen to paper. Typing on a keyboard is akin to thinking out aloud. You tend to see what is on the screen and then word smith (continuously ) until it sounds right. Once I overcame my hangups around having the list “just so”, I began to focus my energies and attention on the more important parts of deciding outcomes and placing the time-sensitive or date-sensitive NAs on the hard landscape. Completion of a Next Action in the analog domain is more satisfying to me: a checkbox indicates completion and it is there right in front of me as a badge of accomplishment. Juxtapose this with the default behavior of Outlook which transfers the NA into the digital bit bucket in the sky.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be moving my trusted system to a Levenger Circa host: a letter sized Circa Notebook with tab dividers protected by a Circa Leather Jacket and supplemented with a Circa Slideout. Primary writing instrument is a Lamy Vista with a Fine nib and Levenger Cobalt Blue ink. I’ve also got the Waterman Phileas Fine nib. I want to explore an analog GTD implementation this Summer to see how it stacks up to other implementations that I have tried.

In the last two weeks I’ve had to do a GTD “Reset” after a series of unrelated tweaks caused my trusted system to go “Open Loop.” So I went back to first principles and reread the entire book again and bootstrapped the system. The good news is that I was able to keep all my commitments, it was just a little hair-raising “living on the edge” for this short period of time.