Best. Software. Ever.
Need to Get Things Done? Go hang out on your Thinking Rock for a bit.
Strategies for promoting and selling online are not the only things that technology can help independent music businesses with. Efficiencies, workflow and time management are often just as critical.
I’ve been using David Allen’s Getting Things Done system for – well – getting things done. I fall off the wagon from time to time, but it’s amazing how well the system works when you actually use it.
But I’ve struggled to find the piece of software or online tool that does the trick for me. Sure, it’s designed as a paper-based system, but it really appeals to my inner geek — who, as it happens, shares a lot of interests with my outer geek. I may actually be geek all the way through.
Cue Thinking Rock – a fabulous bit of open-source software from Australia. Huge thanks to UK DJ & promoter Marc Reck of Mr Elephant Presents for recommending it to me.
In Thinking Rock, you enter thoughts and things-to-do as they occur to you, then process them according to whether to do it, file it, or delegate it. It took me about half an hour of reading the instructions to get up to full speed with it, but it is exactly the right thing, implemented in exactly the right way.
If you delegate something, it’ll prompt you to send an email then and there to get it handled. If you mark something as ‘for information only’, it’ll file it away in a neat and orderly system. If you set something up as a ‘to do’ you can classify it as a single task, or as part of a larger project. You can defer things, and you won’t see them on your list till the appropriate day — and you are encouraged to categorise each task according to the context you’d have to be in in order to do it.
The only thing it could do better for my purposes is to integrate more seamlessly with iCal (I’m on a Mac, but Thinking Rock works across all platforms). Currently, it saves an updated .ics file every 30 seconds or so, which you then open in iCal. Brilliant — but I’m even lazier than that.
Auto-synchronisation would be superb. I already sync my iCal to Google Calendar using Gsync which is wonderful, as I have 3 other people adding things to my Google calendar for various reasons, and my iCal also syncs to the calendar in my phone.
Having this one last piece of the puzzle operate automagically would be superb — but this is the tiniest of quibbles with what has been the most incredible and revolutionary addition to my personal and professional productivity.
You haven’t yet read Getting Things Done? Oh my God.
I’m broadly skeptical of personal development books, because the bad ones are SO so bad. But when you’re as lazy and disorganised as I am, a system really helps. David Allen’s GTD completely transforms your productivity without being a ‘time management’ regime — and it turns geeks like me into evangelists.
Now, I say all this because last time I mentioned tips about time and productivity management, I had a lot of emails from people who run independent music businesses asking me to talk more about this stuff. Apparently, when left to our own devices, we all tend to operate in chaos.
Better organisation equals do more stuff with less effort… equals make more money from music. Suits me.
16 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post
ed horrox
Allen’s GTD is pretty cool. As is inbox – an application developed by midnight beep based on the book. It a mac thing so might impress even more than thinking rock.
eh
Nov 27th, 2007
Martin Blasick
I’m going to try it. I’m overwhelmed all the time and it doesn’t really seem like it should be that way. Being the creative type goes against being organized. I truly beleive successful artists are the ones who most gracefully balance the talent/organization scale.
Nov 27th, 2007
Justin Boland
THANK YOU for the heads up on this. I agree with your sentiments on David Allen, too. I was amazed by the recent profile of him in Wired, his personal history was nothing like what I expected…but in terms of results and effectiveness, I’ve never read anything as useful and applicable to my life as GTD.
Well, the Tao Te Ching…but that’s an exception to most rules.
Nov 27th, 2007
erwin blom
I think artists should use online tools, that way they can adress everything the want where ever they are even if they don’t have their computer with them! So i say use Nozbe or RTM or Backpack or Vitalist or ….
Nov 27th, 2007
D.D. Jackson
Andrew,
We’re strangely on the same wavelength yet again as I was just last night reviewing an audiobook version of GTD and re-conidering my approach digitally to implementing the system. Currently I’ve been using Circus Ponies Notebook program for this task and have been looking at the combination of Omnioutliner Pro and a free AppleScript for it called Kinkless GTD, but will definitely look at this program you recommend. Incidentally, your readers may be interested in a “D.D. Jackson’s Living Jazz Podcast” #20 I devoted to GTD available here (or via Itunes):
http://www.artistshare.com/artist_project_downloads.aspx?salesTypeID=0&artistID=61&ProjectID=96&selection=5
(scroll down).
Best!
- D.D. Jackson
http://ddjackson.com
Nov 27th, 2007
Marc Reck
Thanks for the linkage mate!
So glad you finding T.R useful 
Feels nice to share something back after you introduced me to gtd (and so much other stuff!) GTD really has been the ONLY thing that works for me, after literally years of trying different methods!
The online versions didnt really work for me, as i found the time to connect the net/app was sometimes just a bit too long, and for me having it on somewhere that i could access wherever i had my laptop, meant i used it more.
Thinking rock implements it (almost)perfectly for my needs, as long as i visit it reguarly, though with both methods, I still keep the trusty old pad and pencil with me, so i can quickly write down anything that comes into my head as soon it comes. The big difference with gtd, is now i’ve got somewhere dependable (and flexible!) for it all to go.
All the best. Marc
Nov 28th, 2007
Benjamin
Hello Andrew!
Make be there is something about music and thinkingrock? I use it too – mostly because it works on both Mac and PC. IT isn’t perfect, but it definitely beats running life on postit notes! There’s a few post on ThinkingRock on my blog for those that are interested in knowing more.
Nov 30th, 2007
Bernie
HI Andrew,
I myself am also getting into GTD. The software I am using is OmniFocus by the legendary Omnigroup. You can download a free trial of Omnifocus and watch a tutorial video at their website.
Great site by the way – just found it via the piece you did with last.fm
Dec 11th, 2007
Andrew Potterton
Thanks Andrew, I am looking at GTD also this week. Freemind is a mind mapping tool, also very good.
I enjoyed the talk with AIM in Manchester last month, got me thinking.
I also know Marc Reck well, I love what he is up to, and we helped him whilst he was on New Deal for Musicians. I am an adviser with Armstrong Learning, teaching music industry stuff.
http://www.armstronglearning.co.uk
Mar 13th, 2008
Chris Cowan
Another great open source GTD package is GTDInbox. It’s a Firefox extension that integrates straight into gmail.
I had tried thinkingrock a few years back (will have to look at it again), but after finding GTDInbox, I’ve never looked back.
If only someone would do an Web 2.0 version of Freemind. (I envision an interface similar to Geni.com)
Apr 3rd, 2008
Bije
Haven’t tried it yet, but it sounds cool.
Thanks for posting.
Apr 12th, 2008
Mark Crowley
Has anyone here ever tried http://www.bubbl.us? I kind of like it, but maybe I should try some of these others. Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Mark
http://www.myspace.com/lowofthelow
Apr 21st, 2008
J. Greyson
A topic I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, and gone through a lot of implementation/self-sabotage/reimplementation (rinse and repeat). My most recent conclusion about GTD is that it has the danger of causing you to focus on small, menial tasks, and while it does imbue you with the sense of “getting things done,” after awhile, some more valuable but less task-oriented activites fall to the wayside.
When I have my GTD system in place, every little project that has popped into my head and which I have dutifully recorded, inboxed, processed, and context-sensitive-to-do-listed keeps me moving and “getting things done” all day long, often at the expense of more important “projects” which defy the laws of to-do lists.
In some ways it’s great to have an airtight system that prevents you from forgetting anything, but I find that some things are better forgotten. At the end of the day, I may have remembered to get extra dental floss on my way home, but I miss the days when I forgot I needed it and spontaneously drove out to the lake to watch the sun set. The bit of broccoli between my teeth makes it no less awe-inspiring.
Jun 14th, 2008
podcast directory
I wholeheartedly 100% agree. I could not have said it any better
Sep 24th, 2008
Marc Reck
For me its all about the balance of making room for the sunsets. I’ve never had an air tight system, but i guess if you let things slip too far either way then that balance can become too rigid or it can become too loose.
Gtd is the only thing thats ever touched the sides of riding the wealth of ideas and opportunities that creativity and life can present.
That said I guess im still learning which are worth riding and which need to be left til the future.
Sep 25th, 2008
Kris Laptop Repair
i would like to know some more info about http://www.bubbl.us.
I never used it.
Mar 6th, 2009
So... What do YOU think?