One of the leading current thinkers of personal organization theory is David Allen, author of Getting Things Done. We became fascinated with the practical ideas behind the "GTD" after ordering the audio book from Audible.com a few years ago.

...you need a "mind like water"

Allen's premise is pretty simple; you need a "mind like water" -- a philosophy borrowed from karate that is used as a metaphor to describe the position of perfect readiness. If your work space or your mind are cluttered with multitudes of disconnected data, then it's going to be hard to create information. The first thing Allen recommends is collection of all of that data into one unified system.

Software developers provide all kinds of retainers for data collection but very few are used for information synthesis. For instance, Microsoft Outlook pulls together email, scheduling, notes and contact lists but you would be hard pressed to use Outlook -- out of the box -- as a project management or goal setting tool. Outlook is just another kind of repository or database, albeit a pretty popular one. To make database software really sing it needs the addition of a system that can help extract value and meaning from the growing store of data that it collects. In that sense, everyone who has Outlook has a potential development environment that can be extended to focus or reshape the meaning of the data that is contained in their Outlook database file. Not very many people can program for the Outlook environment but many have provided tools that can be obtained for free or for purchase. Netcentrics provides such a tool for sale at their web site.

You can also apply many of the GTD fundamentals on MS Outlook by way of a series of tips available through a now dormant site that was set up by Bill Kratz. Over the next few weeks we're going to re-examine Bill's work in order to determine how helpful it can be. Can you really get GTD functionality "on the cheap"? We'll find out.