About 5 years ago, I became Director IT & Organization at an SME. I had been leading several teams and a whole software development department before, so I thought I was familiar with a staccato of ever-changing tasks. It turned out that I wasn't familiar with the staggering diversity of my tasks. My system of personal organization was faltering, although the level and frequency of my tasks hadn't changed that much.

As a a matter of fact, I didn't really have a «system of personal organization».

Bookshops are favorite places of mine, but at that time, I was carrying that passion to the extreme. There wasn't probably any time / task / priority / self management guide that I didn't hold at least three times in my hands, skimming the pages for any hints. That's when I stumbled upon Getting Things Done (GTD). It wasn't love at first sight, though. The translation (I read it in German, mind you) was awful: «How I get things well ordered», that's the German title, re-translated - it seems Germans prefer «ordered» over «done»…

Anyway, while skimming GTD for the first time I found several promising hints, so I bought it. An excellent investment. Now, five years later it is time to look back: What did I learn by implementing GTD?

The 7 most important lessons I've learned after 5 years of GTD

1. Setting up filter rules to sort unread email into folders is «cool», but stupid.
   It makes the number of inboxes explode. Even worse, archive folders may suddenly turn into inboxes. I need to decide upon each and every email anyway, so there's no point in increasing the number of mouse clicks until you get to read something.
   Using just one inbox is way better: the less attractive moving email into folders becomes, the more likely email gets deleted. Now, that is really cool.
2. I hardly ever need anything from the archive («reference material»).
   All those mighty important emails and papers, all that stuff that I «need» to archive just vanish. I don't need them at arm's length, and I certainly don't need them hidden in a stack of papers on my desktop.
   Putting a Post-It like «Throw away in Oct 2013» on folders, or creating disk folder structures like projects.done/2007, gives you peace of mind, years in advance.
3. GTD is my friend and autopilot.
   Lists get me through my day when my energy is fading away. Overtime; becoming older and scatterbrained; partying until sunris; deadlines; headache; the loss of loved ones - there are so many reasons why things are forgotten or mistimed. I can endure hard and bitter days much better now - in the worst case, someone handles my lists for me.
4. Top tasks take care of themselves.
   GTD is about trivial tasks. Really! If I «focus» only on what is important and don't even write down the plethora of trivial tasks, the trivial gets back to me like a boomerang and requests - in the end - its due time.
   As long as Venice was taking proper care of the millions of poles upon which it was built, its palaces were flourishing. Since carelessness has taken over, the palaces are rotting. About 30 percent of the housing space in Venice has already been abandoned.
5. Real standards defy all competition.
   What do batteries, loose-leafs and files have in common? Well, there is always a very common, vendor-independent form or shape of them, but also a proprietary, shielded by the respective vendor.
   The former one can be obtained everywhere - and works everywhere; the latter one serves the purpose of customer retention, like handcuffs do for the police. I'm so fed up with loose-leafs that mandate super-exotic punch hole formats. Fed up with electronic gadgets that have built-in rechargeable batteries (or super-exotic ones). And I'm fed up with overpriced «word»-processors I'm urged to buy, just to be able to preserve the layout created by other people. Welcome Letter, AA/AAA and ODF. Goodbye Astray-Timer, iPhony and Buzzword for Windows.
6. I will never again waste time on «time management».
   There is never enough time, and it's always now. There is always a context I'm in (@office, @home, @online, …). Whenever I've got some spare time, I need to know quickly what I could do in my current context. That's why I'll never again buy into planning systems that are essentially based on calendar dates and times of day. Those only serve to hide my tasks from me, in mental drawers I'd never hit on.
7. I can see - always - what I need to do, wait for or monitor.
   Such a great feeling of confidence! GTD helps me to focus on the essential. It helps me to say No when I should. Opposed to what I expected, I was never terrified by my lists. They eased my mind. I can't remember how it feels like to be worried about potentially forgotten tasks. It doesn't mean all tasks get completed as well, but at least I can decide what I'll drop.

That's it for now. I'm very curious what your comments will be on this.