New GTD Paper Planner Now Available

While I recommend going fully digital with your planning, some folks might still prefer to be paper-based.

For those of you who work best that way, the first ever paper planner structured for GTD implementation has now been released from the David Allen Company.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

Introducing the first paper planner embedded with GTD intelligence. The GTD Coordinator. Inside you’ll find tabs and pages categorized to fit the GTD methodology, education on the principles and best practices of GTD, calendar pages, and how-to sample pages to assist you in creating the most effective and usable planner to meet your individaul style and needs.

It looks like it has these sections, based on the website description:

That organization should be helpful. However, here are a few things I would change. First, I would not have a section with “miscellaneous” in the title. I don’t believe miscellaneous is a helpful category (just like I don’t believe in junk drawers — there are no junk drawers in our house). The concept of “reference” is fully accurate in itself for the name of this tab.

Second, I would have “projects” and “goals” be different tabs, because projects and goals are different.

Third, I would not have a separate section for project plans. Instead, project plans should be integrated right in with the projects list. In other words, you should put your project plan sheets right after the project list in the “projects” tab. Goal plans should be handled this way as well in the “goals” section.

Fourth, I would consider not having an “agendas” tab, because agendas are really a type of action list, which already has a tab. However, I do see value in having agendas out separately (there is a whole lot more that could be said here), so I don’t lean too strongly in that direction.

Back when I used a paper planner, these are the tabs I created:

The website points out that the GTD Coordinator is still in beta, so if you do purchase it your feedback would probably be appreciated as they create the final version of the product. It looks like it has the potential to be a very useful productivity tool for those that are paper-based.

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December 11, 2008 | Filed Under Productivity | 6 Comments 

Comments

6 Responses to “New GTD Paper Planner Now Available”

  1. Jim U. on December 11th, 2008 7:50 pm

    I’d like to hear more about how and why you think digital planning is better. Currently, I just use a small reporter’s notepad for next actions.

  2. Matt E. on December 12th, 2008 5:40 am

    Is there a particular digital device that you recommend?

  3. Matt on December 12th, 2008 9:51 am

    Jim: I’ll try to blog on that in the future. But I would say that ultimately it comes down to what works for the person. Paper planning can be done very effectively. I recommend digital because it is so much easier to revise/edit quickly and often.

    Matt: The digital device I would recommend is actually the iPhone. I do my major planning on my laptop in OmniFocus, and then use iCal for my calendar. But these sync to my iPhone to give me the portable dimension.

    Before my iPhone I had a Palm Pilot, which worked fine for the time but now I would recommend the iPhone above that.

  4. Mikey Lynch on December 21st, 2008 2:27 pm

    I separate out my action lists across several tabs.

    I have always had a contact list either in phone/computer, never in my planner.

    I have also never kept Reference material in my planner – but maybe I should?

    My back three tabs are: Waiting For/Loans, Projects, Checklists (incl. 20-50Kft Checklists)

  5. Oberon123 on June 13th, 2009 7:32 am

    I’ve bought both the calendar and the coordinator, and I can tell you that these are the most cheaply made products I’ve ever seen. Normally, I’m thrilled to death to find nonleather products because I refuse to use dead animals in any form, but the covers on both are horrible. The inside edge isn’t even cut smoothly, and there’s a rip on the cover of the coordinator. The lining is a really cheap imitation satin. The pages in the coordinator were all mushed, and even the tabs are bent. Just to make it clear, I got one product straight from David Allen Co. and the other from At-A-Glance, not from a used-product place like ebay.
    It’s hard to reconcile the talk about excellence in GTD with the shlock that David Allen Co. is peddling. At the least, and it isn’t saying much, but the product from David Allen Co. was at least packaged well. The coordinator was packed in flimsy cardboard. I got the items primarily for ideas on layout and organization, but I thought that the quality would be better. The planners that Wal-Mart carries are made better.

  6. GTDWorks on June 15th, 2009 12:51 pm

    I have had VERY good luck with both Coordinator planners that my wife and I use. No problem with pages or tabs bent and the interior is perfectly sewn and crafted, too. The covers on both Coordinators are great.

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