Getting Things Done (GTD)

I have been a big fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done for a couple of years.
(Getting Things Done: The Basics)
Putting the principles into practice has always been the challenge.

Here is my current GTD system:

Workflow Process:

Collect:
My Primary Inbox = my Outlook Inbox

Other Potential Inboxes:
1. Office Voicemail - I eliminate this one by having our Shoretel system email me the VM message.
2. Cell Phone Voicemail Inbox
3. Office Physical Inbox
4. Home Mail Inbox

Process:
My primary inbox is my Outlook email which I will process twice a day at 11 AM and 4 PM. In between these times I go offline with Outlook, so as not to be distracted by the urgency of incoming emails.

I process my email sorted by sender, the benefits being:
1. I can quickly scan through and delete the junk.
2. I can quickly scan through and find the most valuable (clients etc)
3. I can process all emails sent by one person (generally someone I am working with) at one time and schedule a meeting/call if warranted rather than spend more time responding to each one.

Once I have done the preliminary scan, I process each email one at a time in good GTD form:
* If there is no action and no information I delete it
* If there is an action to follow but someone else in my company is better suited to the task, I delegate it by forwarding.
* If the next action is mine and I can do it in less than 2 minutes I do it.
* If the next action is mine and will take me longer than two minutes, I defer it by converting the email to a task using the Clear Context add-in for Outlook. I tag the task with categories that I have set up to organize my actions.
* If there is no action but information that I want to retain, I file it with my Clear Context add-in. (I also use Xobni which has a fantastic search to retrieve emails even when I cannot remember where I filed it).
* Finally if the item requires an action at a particular time, I convert the email to an appointment again using Clear Context.

Organize
My organization phase happens in parallel to processing:

For organization, I rely on Outlook tasks tagged with Categories.
I use a naming convention for the Categories that allows me to group them alphabetically with the highest level of focus at the top, I do this by adding a number of periods in front of the task name:
No period indicates a single task
"." indicates a project (Project in GTD is anything that cannot be done in a single task.
".." indicates a role - I will file individual tasks that are not projects under the appropriate role. In work terms the role my be a job responsibility (eg. "..HR"; "..Finance"), and as I subscribe to the one life theory, the role can also be non-work related ("Father"; "Runner" etc)
"..."indicates major goal - I will break down the next actions for major goals by creating new tasks tagged with the goal category.
"...." indicates life goal.

For context specific items I use the convention of adding @ in front of the grouping (again so that I can sort my tasks by category)
Examples of categories that I use:
@Calls - for items where the next action is a call
@Computer - for items where the next action is to review/work at the computer
@Toronto (or other city) - for items where the next action is a meeting in Toronto (or other city) and it does not merit a special trip. This way I can review these items and plan a trip that maximizes my time by grouping many meetings into one trip>
@Store
@Home

For items that require discussion and review with my members of my team at work, I use the convention of "1:1" in front of the name

As I process my inbox, Clear Context allows me to easily convert them to Tasks which I will tag with the category of project, role and goal (if applicable).

Review:

1. Daily Review:
I do the daily review twice, at 5 PM each day I preview the next day, first reviewing my calendar (including blocked time for key projects), then my task list with due dates. At 7 AM, after my morning run, I again review what the key tasks and appointments are for the day.

2. Weekly review:
Friday afternoon, I block an hour to do a weekly review.
Starting with quarterly goals then moving to current projects, I review and plan next actions and schedule time for these actions. I then review individual outstanding tasks and make plans to complete them.

3. Monthly Review
On the third Friday of the month, I block 3 hours to do a detailed review of my annual and quarterly goals, my current projects, and outstanding tasks. The purpose of this review is to set themes for the coming weeks, including travel plans.

Do:

With the regular reviews, the scheduling of blocks of time for key projects, and the regularly updated context based lists (@Calls etc) I am able to focus on Getting Things Done.