This is the first chapter in a series about the landscape of my digital setup.

Productivity is very important to me; over time I’ve developed a system that fits my needs. Although different people require different methods, I thought I’d share different components of my GTD system and how they work – so I can.

Desktop

I’m a firm believer in keeping a clean, minimalistic desktop, both physically and virtually. The only icons present are hard drive partitions and a link to my Dropbox folder. I do use GeekTool to monitor the ps command, as well as a live feed of /var/log/system.log, but apart from that – nothing. If it’s on the desktop, it hasn’t been dealt with (the same concept as a full inbox). Plus, I find wallpapers to be much more visually appealing without the clutter of icons.

Dock

Across all of my machines, the dock looks exactly the same. More than anything else, this is just a result of my compulsive habits, akin to never having anything in the Trash. Yet there’s a deliberate workflow in the order of applications:

1. Finder & Dashboard. Basic OS X functionality.
2. Safari & NetNewsWire. Information and aggregation. Serves as a base for everything else.
3. Mail.app, iChat, Skype, & Tweetie. Communication. Allows for expansion and distribution of information.
4. Pandora. Music. I almost always have music playing while I’m working. I see Pandora as a buffer between the fundamental apps of information/communication and task management.
5. Things. Task management. Everything else in the dock points to Things.
6. Terminal, Activity Monitor, & System Preferences. Backend and configuration apps; appropriately placed in the back of the dock.
7. Currently running apps. Other applications that don’t permanently reside in the dock.

Obviously the dock has its share of shortcomings. Quicksilver’s a much more effective way to open apps without leaving the keyboard, although I still use the dock to help with the order of open applications.

Spaces

I don’t know what I would do without Spaces. I was disappointed that Windows 7 did not include a native virtual desktop solution, although that makes me appreciate Spaces all the more.

If you scan across the top two spaces, you’ll see windows open in the same order as they appear in the dock (NetNewsWire, Mail.app, iChat, Skype, Tweetie, Pandora, and Things). Regardless of what I’m working on, these apps always stay open and in the same position. The 6 spaces below are temporarily delegated depending on what tasks I have going at the time (this blog post is currently in space A2). Some projects, such as coding, will usually take up multiple spaces (one for SSH/FTP, one for HTML/CSS, one for WebKit, etc.). At the peak of a good workday, I’ll have everything filled up with different tasks. When they’re finished, they get closed out and checked off in Things.

Applications

NetNewsWire

Until a month ago, I was a staunch user of the Google Reader webapp, but NetNewsWire’s switch to exclusively sync with GReader turned me on to a desktop app. I’ve never been against a local feed reader, but the availability of a webapp was more important to me. Now I can have both.

I subscribe to 26 feeds sorted into 6 folders.

1. Tech News
2. ATL Startup
3. Entrepreneurship
4. Web Design
5. Misc
6. Media

The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is catch up on feeds. On average, I get about 200 each day, although I don’t necessarily read every word – just enough to get what’s going on. Due to the distracting, anti-productive nature of RSS, I usually close out of NetNewsWire after the early morning, and don’t open it again until late at night.

Mail.app

Unlike RSS, I handle email as soon as it comes in. Since most of my emails are closely related to productivity (Google Group alerts, Goplan notifications, etc.), it wouldn’t make much sense to block myself from email while working. I’ve even gotten to the point where I’ll be asleep, hear the Mail.app bling, and wake up to check my inbox.

I try to practice inbox zero as much as possible. When an email comes in, I either deal with it immediately if it’s a quick fix/reply, or file it into the appropriate folder and add it to Things. Nobody likes an overflowing inbox.

Tweetie

Classification of Twitter as productivity might be a far stretch; I’ll let it slide with the justification of a networking tool. I’m a former Seesmic Desktop user – I liked the ability to scale it full screen with columns of tweets, @replies, and DMs. After a while, I just got tired of dealing with Adobe AIR’s resource usage, plus, Seesmic’s UI was a bit clunky. There’s not many Twitter clients that don’t run on AIR; two that come to mind immediately are Nambu and Tweetie. I’ve been extremely satisfied with Tweetie on the iPhone, so I figured I’d give it a shot on the desktop. I still don’t hate Seesmic, but every day with Tweetie makes it increasingly difficult to go back.

Things

I can’t stress enough how large of a role Things plays in my GTD system. It’s by far the best task management solution I’ve come across – with a syncing iPhone app to boot. By default, tasks are divided into:

1. Today
2. Next
3. Scheduled
4. Someday
5. Projects

I’ve added a few projects ranging from web design to my grocery list. Projects are simply larger items that consist of many tasks.

Below that, I have 10 “areas of responsibility” that differ slightly from projects. They don’t get checked off – it’s more of a grouping/tagging feature. I classify remaining tasks as:

1. Personal. Not directly related to traditional work – items such as getting a haircut, filling up gas, or going to the store.
2. Entrepreneurship. Career-oriented work, like updating my resume or shooting off an email.
3. Blog Posts. A list of ideas that I’d eventually like to turn into full-fledged blog posts, frequently paired with notes or links.
4. Purchases. A list of stuff I’d like to buy. This is the one category that’s never empty.
5. Social Media. Mostly related to this blog without being straight-up ideas for posts. Includes tweaks ranging from adding plugins to reformatting permalinks.
6. Matt-4. Netbook. (Matt 1-4 are the names of my computers. Usually these categories don’t get clogged up; although if I need to install some software or, as of now, install Snow Leopard, it goes in the appropriate computer’s area of responsibility.)
7. Matt-3. Media Center PC.
8. Matt-2. MacBook.
9. Matt-1. Main machine.
10. General Computing. Anything that doesn’t specifically fall into Matt 1-4. Right now the only task in this area is some troubleshooting that I need to do with my router.

It’s taken a while to get a definite system set in stone, but I’m satisfied with my current workflow. I haven’t felt the need to change anything over the past few months, although I’ll reevaluate everything roughly twice a year to see if there’s a more efficient way to work. Comments and suggestions are welcome ; I’m always looking for ways to increase productivity.