86. Designing The Ideal GTD Workplace

Transcript

Automatically transcribed and lightly edited. Timestamps omitted for readability.

Morten: Hi and welcome to another episode of the Getting Things Done podcast from Vital Learning. I am, as always, Morten Dreveg, and I am, as always, here with my good friend and colleague Lars Rothschild Henriksen. Privet, Lars. Privet, Mr.

Lars: Morten. Happy to be here with you and with all of our listeners and viewers. We always start off with a quick reminder of the purpose of this podcast, which is to help you learn GTD or become even better GTDers. If you are new to GTD, we always recommend you go back and listen to episodes 1 through 6 to get an introduction to the basics of GTD, the 5 steps. Today's episode number is 86, and today's episode is titled Designing the Ideal GTD Workspace.

Morten: Indeed, it's going to be an interesting episode, I think, because we will try and lay out the basics of what we think is the best practices of setting up and help you think about how you can set up your workspace in an optimal way. But before we get there, I would like to ask you to subscribe and like us. If you subscribe and like, we will get more likes and more people will find us. So if you're on your podcast player, please do that. And suggest, if you can, if you want, you can give us a rating. Maybe 5 is a good number. I'm joking just a little, but yes. Enough? Is it enough? I think.

Lars: I will migrate us back towards today's topic.

Morten: Today's topic.

Lars: Which is to give you just a quick background on how this topic came up. Actually, this came from a coaching client, on a more serious note, came from a coaching client who was impacted by a hurricane and now rebuilding their house. And, you know, came back to me with a question of what to keep in mind when designing this new office. So taking the positive perspective on that event, what possibilities, what opportunities might there be now to take a fresh start? So this is a space we've designated for the office. How do we set everything up optimally to make sure that they work best for us, for where this couple shared, two people sharing an office, both GTDers? And how to actually design this. So, we've been emailing a bit about that, and I thought, well, maybe we could actually make that into an episode. So, that's really the background for today's talk.

Morten: And one of the things that we discussed briefly in the pre-show, or that I said, is that I think that to become or to be intentional about your workspace is If you want to be a good GTDer, that's, I think, one of the keys. And I will give you a keyword for that, is that, you know, design your workspace intentionally to remove friction. Does that make sense to you?

Lars: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Make sure that it's so easy. I was just looking through some old notes. So just a slight detour. I have a I have a section in my digital reference system where I throw stuff in that I'm not sure where to put, but I don't want to lose it. So it's— I think it started out as quotes, and now it's fun facts, tips, tricks, quotes, and something else. It's really a mix of all different kinds of things with just, you know, fun, interesting tidbits that I came across over the years. And yeah, ran across that one and It was just, just fun to see these, these older, older thoughts and also how they related in today's topic.

Morten: Yes. So we need to also discuss the functionality of, or of an office. How should it function? And one of the things that I've been thinking about that we also discussed in the pre-show was that you have to— for many people now, it's a reality that you have a home office and an office office and maybe a road office, and these three need to play well together. And David would recommend you to set up, you know, your home office as you set up your, your work office. But if you are in an open landscape with free seating and you can't arrange your clean desk and free seating, then you can't arrange the desk to become yours. So it must be kind of a hybrid of the road warrior setup, I would guess. And one reflection that I've been doing now is that a lot of the people that I meet and talk to has actually a better setup in their home office than what they have in their office office. And I think you have seen the same, Loris?

Lars: Yeah, especially that free seating thing. This is really a challenge when you are dependent on so many different components that you want to have at hand or as part of your workspace when you sit down as a GTDer to do your work. There are some things I would like to have here, and obviously with free seating, I come across that pretty frequently that people really, you know, miss that, being able to both set up their systems and make sure that everything is the way that they want it to be, have their in-tray, have the GTD workflow map hanging on the wall next to them, right?

Morten: Put your dagger in. This is my space.

Lars: Yeah. And that seems to be the case also in some companies, at least that, you know, there are some, it's free seating, but not really free. There's like, if you take that one, then John is going to gonna stand there next to you when he shows up and look at you until you leave. Yeah. So, but yeah, it is certainly a challenge. And that obviously then sets up some different requirements for the people using it at making it a more portable office. So perhaps back in the day, even for David with all of his travels that he did for so many years, he would have a very flexible system that he could set up really anywhere. And that's perhaps what it's come to for at least for the people that are in offices with that free seating.

Morten: Yeah, and, and, um, so I think that the key to, to have a functional, um, you know, free seating, um, clean desk setup is to have the setup with you. So you need to have something that could be your capture tool, um, and, you know, if you look at the capture tool It's probably one of the most important things to have either, you know, wherever you are as a GTDer, just to get things out of your head when they pop up or show up. And then that should be going with you. So I've gone fancy. I'm using now. Yes. Well, I'm just going to show you. This is Atoma. And for those of you who are not on video, you can't see this, but I'm showing an Atoma notebook and my trusted fountain pen. And when I'm— it gives me the feeling of being exclusive when I'm out and about. And if not, I'm using my, my reMarkable where I have my notes set up. But for as a freeform capture tool, I do enjoy the Otoma when I'm, for instance, at a cafe or at working, or when I'm in, you know, waiting for a client to arrive. I sit in a lobby or, you know, in a meeting room waiting, then this is my preferred way of capturing. I have those two that's when I sit down to work. So what do you use, Lars, as your road warrior setup for capture?

Lars: Well, I think when it comes to capturing, I still most of the time will capture to my watch. For the most part, I switched back to start using BrainTask once again. Heard from many of you that the instability issues that I came across when I was using it a few years ago, those have been ironed out. And that seems to be the case. So I tend to use I tend to use that a lot. When it comes to paper and writing things down, I have my trusted GTD wallet still. That still goes with me. And I'll tend to use that a lot in just in settings where it doesn't make sense to speak to your watch or it doesn't make sense to bring out your phone, sending the wrong signals that you might be doing something else. And if I'm sitting down or if in coaching and I really want to sort of enjoy the capture process, somewhat similar to what you said with having a really nice pen that I got from a client. I have this— I'm going to butcher the name, so apologies both to the German listeners and really anyone else listening. Leuchtturm, I think, is the name of it.

Morten: I have no idea.

Lars: They make some— no, they're so nice. And it was really, you know, way too expensive. I think I paid, what, like €30, €40 maybe for one small book. That I'm then using as very nice yellowish paper. It's glued, so I'm not, you know, feeling too bad when I rip out a page. The paper is nice and crisp. And yeah, so when I really want to be fancy, fancy Lars, then I'll bring that one out. But you know, the other side of that is that I might sometimes have a tendency not to use it because it was pretty expensive to me. And is this idea good enough to be— is it worth that expensive sheet of paper? Or, you know, that kind of thing.

Morten: Thing.

Lars: But I've, you know, gotten over that hump when I started using it more.

Morten: Yeah. And it is the feeling of, I have people saying to me, oh, I have to buy something and it costs so much. And I said, how much is your ideas worth? How much is your feeling relaxed and calm and present? How much is that worth? And how much worth is it to you to have something you love, touch and feel?

Lars: Exactly.

Morten: So I'm just saying that don't let that— you can get really— when it comes to fountain pens, you can pay like a million dollars for a fountain pen, literally. That may not, that may be a little exaggerated.

Lars: But how much is your ideas worth, Morten? Yeah.

Morten: Well, not $1 million.

Lars: Okay.

Morten: Well, maybe, maybe I don't know that yet, but I've, I'm not coming across a $1 million idea that I've, well, I might have lost one before. But to have, you know, what we are alluding to now, what we call the basic GTT setup in a workspace, if it is portable or, you know, office or home office, then a capture tool is necessary. And the only reason I didn't mention my Capture Wallet is because we closed our webshop capturewallet.com and then people are, oh, where is, where can I buy it? You get an email. A week about this, and I'm sorry, but we did that, and I'm not going to, you know, show— give a show candy to a hungry kid. So we will not talk about that anymore. You did. So hate mail can be relayed to Lars@vitallearning.dk if you want to punish him. No, but To have a capture tool is necessary. It could be a wallet, it can be, you know, a piece of paper, it can be a notebook, it can be a reMarkable, it can be anything really, a tablet of any sort that you can take notes. And the idea is that this is where you capture your ideas and thoughts of what you need to get done. And another thing that I recommend people to have and that I also have in my bag is a capture not, not a capture, but a travel in-tray, which is actually a travel— I will show it on camera now because I have an extra one lying here. It's just a, you know, a plain folder that's red and it says Inbox, and you can capture things inside it. And if you've been to one of our courses before, you, you will have gotten one. So that, that is handy. It's just a manila folder with just It has colors, it's not in Malina color, that's the only difference. And it has a way where you can throw your notes when you're ready with them, or your piece of paper inside, and then you will either empty it from that capturing— sorry, where you clarify and organize them from there, or if you're on the road, or when you get back to the office or home office, if you have an in-tray, that should also be something you have. And what do you have for in-tray or an inbox when you travel?

Lars: Yeah, same, same for me. Same. Have the, the, the good old one that, you know, was used globally as well, the red in-folder. So I have that still. It's pretty worn. I don't think it says in anymore as it used to. But it still works, still fine. And in my bag, I also carry a couple of the old system folders that we used to have, one for support material and one for stuff that I need to bring from the office to my home.

Morten: Yes. And for those, and I've seen some really fancy in-trays, and one I really like that I I wish I remember because I didn't capture that, of course, dummy me. But I've seen an A4 size or, you know, letter size ink tray in leather. That's so it's flat when you have it in your bag. But when you take it out, you can just flip the corners and it kind of raises up and it becomes a travel ink tray. That's kind of like the feeling of exclusivity. You should never underestimate the feeling of something make you feel good. You want to use it. So, good one.

Lars: Good one. I'm sure someone out there will know which one that is.

Morten: Podcast at, sorry, podcast@vitallearning.dk. Please inform us. Yeah.

Lars: Yeah.

Morten: Send us if you know what I'm talking about. But it's a rather thin leather, like a sheet when it's folded out, and then just flip it up. It's kind of some metal that helps it stand up. I don't know how that works, but it looks magic. Looked juicy, and I want that. Thank you. So the basic setup on the go.

Lars: I would normally, you know, in many cases, so what I was thinking of, so what do I actually do when I travel? I get to the get to the hotel, get to my room, you know, I'll plug in the different chargers, I'll set up my iPad Pro, and most of the time that'll be my capture tool. I don't use a lot of paper when I'm on the go. So many times I will capture just simply directly into my system and use that as my workspace as well.

Morten: Now I'm also capturing digitally when I'm on the go. And, but it is, it is, I, and as you, I use my, my Apple Watch and I use my iPhone. And as those of you who follow the podcast will remember, maybe, is that I've switched now recently to Apple Reminders. I'm still there, it still works good and I like it. And especially I like the, the Siri integration where I can just talk to my, my watch or my phone and telling, hey lady, remind me of something and it will go into my inbox.

Lars: Do you use it in Norwegian or in English?

Morten: Norwegian.

Lars: And that works okay?

Morten: Yeah, it does. She's a little stupid when it comes to like foreign names and, you know, some of the things I would like her to, you know, understand without telling her, but it is, I will understand it after when I get to the office, I will remember what it is. So, but she sometimes misspells something, but that's not important. Just, I just need to understand what I just said. So when I clarify and organize that, I will just have to understand it then. And that's, it is enough. And one of the things that I really love is that When I'm in a call and I call up, hang up, I can tell even, I think I never tried that. Maybe I should try that. No, maybe not. It's not going to work. But after I call, I can say, remind me of this. And she will remind me of that call. Or remind when I'm in a text, remind me of this. Or if I'm in Apple Mail, remind me of this. And then that email will be attached to, so I can just get quickly back to that, whatever it is I was doing. And I truly enjoy that. But it is, of course, you have to be somewhere where you actually can talk to yourself or to your watch. It's kind of like, yeah. But if you are in a, you know, in a space where you can't, and I still like physical capturing. I don't know why that is, but it is helpful for me. So anything else that you have in your Road Warrior setup that might be—.

Lars: No, not in the Road Warrior version. But obviously, I have some things set up on my physical office desk where we are recording this right now that would differ from that. I don't know if we want to go that route as well, or do you want to wrap up the Road Warrior version of the Office first?

Morten: Yeah, I was thinking that because it is the Road Warrior and the open, clear, open Office, clean desk environment, that's going to be the same. So your Road Warrior will be also what you need there. So it might be, I call it Road Warrior because it's functional for both the OpenOffice and the Road Warrior setup. So, no, I'm— the only thing that I can think of that I have with me is an action support folder. So if I have something I need to get done, like if I know that I will swing by the local hardware store to exchange you know, to buy something new where I have a receipt, then I will, or, you know, exchange some goods in a hardware store. That's not very often I do, but you need a receipt and that will be in my action support material folder. And that's the only thing in addition to what we just said that's with me. And you don't have anything else in your bag that's.

Lars: GTD-related? No, that really is it. The inbox, my iPad support folder, and to home. That's really all there is, and something to write with, and of course, the Capture One that we should not mention.

Morten: And one of the things that I've been thinking about, we talked about be intentional and be intentional to remove friction. I'm sure that you are intentional with the bag you use. Maybe people would like to know what that is.

Lars: Yeah. And that would help if you explain yours first, because then I can look what mine is called.

Morten: Okay. I will, I will get it.

Lars: And then they both left.

Morten: We both left the stage. No, I, I, I am using a slim backpack. And it's from a company called Mark Ryden. And it's just a standard slim backpack. It's very light. And it has just one big room where I can have my MacBook inside and whatever I need to take of charges and such, and then an outer room for, pens and, you know, whatever else I need to carry. It's fairly small. It's not very big, but it is very functional. It's easy, easy to carry and it's, it's black and it's like, look, businessy enough that I feel I can get away with a backpack.

Lars: Yeah. Mine actually, I think, I think I asked about this actually on the internal forums that we have in Visio Learning. I think Jukka Backman from Finland recommended this one. It's from Tuscany Leather, so it's actually sort of a brown over-the-shoulder bag like this.

Morten: Yes.

Lars: And it's, yeah, works really well, ages nicely. Had it for, I guess, a year now, and it's, yeah, looks basically as it did when it was brand new. Has my last name engraved at the bottom as well. Won't get lost should anyone else have it. So, yeah, no, really, really enjoyed this one. So that's certainly a recommendation from my end.

Morten: Yeah, it is. We are now talking about, and I understand we have a kind of what we call a pattern here, is that we both use things we like. That gives us, I think that you, it was an intentional buy because I'm not going to ask you how much that costs because I'm sure that is not exactly cheap what you have, but it is, but it fills you with joy, doesn't it?

Lars: Yeah. And actually, I think pricing-wise, I think, so we both had the same bag earlier because that's what I stole that idea from you, the old, the Evernote one, the gray one. Yeah. I think it was about the same price actually. Yeah. That was a nice one. I still use that actually to, for one of the laptops that I might bring to a seminar. So if I'm doing a Windows-specific setup, I have my Windows Surface, and it's actually in that bag. So still use that one as well.

Morten: Yeah, and that is the Triangle Commuter Bag, I think it's called, Evernote. And I'm sad they stopped selling that because mine got worn a little out. It wasn't— it isn't as beautiful as it once was, but I wish somebody would take up that design again because it was It's perfect for if you want to have a, what do you call it, cross bag? No.

Lars: Yeah, just over the shoulder.

Morten: Over the shoulder. Yeah. And it is because it was fairly comfortable to carry. And it was the functionality of the bag made it into a very functional little office. You open the bag, you just open the flap. The flap, and suddenly everything was available to you.

Lars: And it could stand on its own. I think I still miss that, that ability. And, you know, your in-tray was right there. And yeah, it was very nice.

Morten: Yes, yes, it was. Yeah, you missed that. So if somebody knows who makes— if there's somebody start making them, because I, I remember a couple of years ago I started looking for that again, and I found that nowhere in the world where I looked at it I could find the same. It's made in originally in Japan. I think it is a Japanese brand. Very high quality. I love that bag. So again, podcast@gtd— and sorry, I still ended— I'm still in the GTD Nordic days, but it is Vital Learning. So podcast@vitallearning.dk if you know where you can buy those. And I can, you know, you can find it secondhand in eBay and such, but I would like to prefer to buy it new. And maybe if they made a leather one or Think about that.

Lars: Oh, wow. Wow.

Morten: Now we are talking.

Lars: Now we're talking. Now how much would you pay?

Morten: Yeah, exactly. So, um, we are going to be the expensive show this for people. Yeah. Let's get back to intentional, um, uh, designing of your office. So, so now let's go to if you have a, um, the possibility to design your own office. And your, or your own home office space. How would you go about doing that? How would you plan that, Loris?

Lars: Well, I'm just, you know, as we were preparing, I just quickly, you know, brainstormed the different components that I have in my office. We just talked about capture tools. I have the old one. I think we mentioned that in the tool setup episodes as well, the Exacompta the French one, which I still enjoy very much. As for a pen, I still haven't graduated to the, you know, really appreciating my pen level. Yeah, you're showing the one that I have as well. So I just have one of the old, again, GTD Nordic pens that I use for this. Just, you know, an in-tray setup, a picture of my family, nice screen setup, you know, good, good big desk. I think that actually made a difference. For me, I had a temporary workspace at one point and really having everything set up and accessible and room to actually work when I need that space, it's just so valuable. So a nice big desk that I can lower and raise when I want to stand, that's been really helpful for me.

Morten: Yeah. And I have the same. The same idea. I have a different desk than you. I don't have a, you know, what do you call it, sit-and-stand desk, but it is a— I have a, how would you say that, a computer workspace where I can, that I can hydraulically lift very fast and easy. And I also have an in-tray, not that it is very often in use anymore because the world isn't as physical as it was.. And when I'm out and about, that's probably in the receipt system what I have the most that I need to take care of. Now that lives in my read-in folder in my bag. Yeah, and we are specifically, you know, both of us, I don't know if I also have a photo of my family. I have a photo, sorry, I also have a place where I can put things I want to memorize. I don't know if you use that, but that's a trick I learned, or I understood was good for me many years ago. But it is, I have a felt divider wall in the office where I can pin pieces of paper on. And now I'm trying to remember, because I used to, and I want to be still the abbreviation guy, So, for instance, yeah, you know, what's the, what does GIF in GIF or GIF stand for?

Lars: Graphics Interchange Format.

Morten: Next question. Okay. Okay. Okay. Now, now, now I will ask you, what does in ChatGPT, what does the GPT stand for?

Lars: Oh, that I don't know.

Morten: No. Generative Pre-trained Transformer. So there you go. No, but it is— I don't— these are some little things I want to remember or memorize. Like, I want to make— I have another note, how to make a line shift in Google Sheet inside a cell, and that is Ctrl+Alt+Enter. So, okay, I will— if I don't remember, I will look there. Ah, and then after a while it will be committed long-term memory, or it will be in my muscle memory, and then I can just toss it away. So, yeah, that's been a valuable part of my GTD setup because I don't want to have cluttered a cluttered desk with old pieces of paper of things I need to remember or want to make into my long-term memory. But when you come into a GTDer's office, because I walk into GTDer's office all the time when we do the coaching, pre-COVID a lot, now not as often in physical, but still, I'm looking at, are they intentional with their office? Does everything have a space? Thus everything has a function. And the function can be decor. As long as you're intentional on what's in your work environment, if you're intentional, then you have, you will not have anything in your workspace that pulls on your attention. Stacks of ha, which is what we probably don't like. And for those of you who don't know what a stack of ha is, that's a stack of paper where you can look at each one of them and say, huh, what is this? And by some maybe idea at the time, you take, I maybe I need to take, I need to save this, maybe I will need it later, or maybe I will move on this later, and then it becomes a stack of stacks of Huh. But I, one of the most, I don't know if you do this ever, but sometimes my desk gets a little cluttered, a little too many things there. And one of the things I really enjoy is cleaning up, just putting things away and make it clean and then step away, go to the toilet or something, come back and just see my pristine workspace. Then.

Lars: I'm— I like to do that, especially on Fridays, making sure that everything is just so I know when I show up Monday morning, morning, that'll just be nice and ready. That works really well for me. Speaking of acronyms, I think REDS was the one that we— I don't know if we still use it— Reference Equipment, Decoration, and Supplies, right? Those were the 4 categories that we would be looking for. And really, you know, much in line with what you're saying, what I would be looking for is things that should not be there, getting rid of things. So, if you were to come to my office, you would see very little, I would say, just the bare minimum of what I actually need on a daily basis. So there'll be some things like I have a wall full of drawings from the boys over here, not really necessarily a productivity enhancement, but I like it.

Morten: But really much of what is— that motivates.

Lars: Yes, that's right.

Morten: Yeah, I have kids.

Lars: Yeah. No, so what I'll typically look— be looking for is probably, you know, things like support material, things like support material that they have a space to be in. And again, you've probably seen this over the years as well, that this can really take so many different shapes and forms and making sure that you have the setup at the office that you need to support this. So, you know, I had one guy who made these prototypes of machines. He would get bent pieces of metal back to his inbox. So, his her support material was, you know, steel shelves in the basement. Had an HR business partner, supported 5 different teams in the organization. She wanted to bring some materials with her all the time when she went to meetings with those different teams. So we set up a hanging file for her just to grab the correct corresponding folder when she left the office, brought that with her. So making sure that you have a good, nice place for, you know, support material, perhaps an outbox if you need it. Obviously a trash can. I have a whiteboard as well that I use sometimes for getting an overview of things. I like to play with that as well. So things like that are really valuable to me.

Morten: Yes. And I also do have some, you know, hanging folders or it is, you know, my project archive system. So when something is finished, if there's any physical material, it goes into my archive system. And then that brings us a little back to— you mentioned initially that we got an email, or you— sorry, you, you worked with some people and they had physical archiving, and they had— since they were going to set up a new space, how do they do that? And Yes, how do they do that?

Lars: Yeah, that is indeed the question. Again, so your reference setup needs will of course vary, and that depends on what you need to have room for. So like you, I have a hanging file folder system behind me, just out of the camera shot, and it works well for me. I have not put much new stuff in there. I mean, that's like once a month, I think now, because I have so much of what I need. I definitely still need it because I need to, you know, place the— I have some vouchers that I need to have accessible. I have some trainer materials, guides for different webinars, things like that. So for most of my needs today, it's really just going over there, picking the one I need, and then when I'm done with it, putting it back. But in this specific scenario, there were sort of two characteristics that I think we can share, one being that there was at least a larger volume than, than than in my needs. The other one was that there were two people using the reference system setup. So that's also part of the reason why I wanted to bring this up, because I was curious to hear your thoughts on how that might work, any experience in how to, to set that up. Because obviously we are all different people, different needs, different ways of organizing. When we share them, how does that work? What would you recommend?

Morten: No, first I would, I think it makes sense that if they have material that both need to reference, then they should have one system. That's my first thinking. And the second thing, or maybe three systems, but then it gets complicated because then you will have some place where they would put their, you know, their their common or what they have to the reference system that they have to work on together, and then two separate ones for two personal ones. But my, well, it depends, but from what you say, I would say just one system if they need to share, or two systems if that's not necessary to share information. And then I would put on the top of the Order of the day, get into alignment and agreement on how you would name your folders. How do you structure your information so that especially if you are sharing your, your, your system, if there's a shared system at some point, get very clear on how you name things and how you make it accessible. How do you sort them? So, and I've been using all the time, and I'm still using that, the A to Z folders where you have a system for. And this is where it gets a little tricky. So if they are doing clients, it might be the client name on the folder, or it's the project within that client. So it might start with the client and then the project name for the folders and just and archive them from A to Z. That would be my first take on that. What would your take be, Lars?

Lars: No, exactly. And then that's also what I recommend, you know, thinking a bit about how you then organize it. Then by, yeah, it could be like a client, it could be by, you know, areas of focus. It could, yeah, depends on really the content. And I think, I guess my best reference, so the archive that we have here at the office, that's really my setup. I'm the only one using it, so it's pretty straightforward. At home, we have a shared archive setup, and I think it's just never really been a challenge, perhaps because the complexity of what we put in there is pretty low. So I think that's probably why it has not shown up as a challenge, because what we put in there is passports. Well, that's going to go under P. We don't really have to, you know, think of, you know, too many different ways of organizing those. For our very simple needs there, it really hasn't come up as an issue. But it's like you said, I can only echo what you said, that, you know, being clear on how you label things so you know how to find them, and that's a good starting point. Perhaps also reflect on whether it needs to be a shared archive or whether it could be, really could be separate archives.

Morten: If you don't need to see each other's stuff, then have two separate.

Lars: Yeah. Yeah. That might also be an approach. And I do see this with, you know, I have a coaching client comes to mind where they had this, they had a shared drive space working in sales, sales manager in a few countries. Other countries were using the same structure, but not diligently. So there was a lot of cleanup to be done when they migrated from one backup platform to another. But really, you know, being clear on that, it's tedious, it's time-consuming, but it's so helpful in the end when you actually need to find things and you can just quickly find them.

Morten: Yeah, I'm reminded of, we got an email from a listener who suggested a book and a podcast for us where it's a lot about how do you structure your stuff so you can find it. So you don't put t-shirts in your socks drawer because that's not where you expect to find them. This idea got me thinking. I got inspired and I'm now experimenting with the potential of a folderless filing system. Digital documents.

Lars: Yes. So it's just a stack.

Morten: No, it's just, just, yeah, it's a stack of huh, but it makes, makes, but it is, well, it's not a stack of huh, because you're trying to.

Lars: I almost got you.

Morten: No, you didn't, because it is, it is intentional that it's in there. The stack of huh is an unintentional stack of things you haven't decided on. But if something— and let's be clear, people, that what we are talking about now is a reference system, is materials, digital or physical, that you need to see again maybe later for reference. If there is any action connected to it, that need— actions need to be extracted and put in the next action system, and then maybe with a link or some kind of reference to where you will find it later. I think that is so important. But if you have reference material, like I have a contract with a client, I have a receipt when I do something with the company, I have personal receipts I need to find, you know, and there's tons of documents. And for those of you, I think at some point not far from Well, how many episodes is that? I don't remember. But you remember I talked about my filing system, my nomenclature for naming files? And I'm using that now where I used the year, the dash, month, dash, date, and then what is it, what's the status. And go back and revisit that. What I've done is I've created— now we are getting onto it. In a rabbit hole here for 2 seconds, but bear with us because it's exciting. No, but I'm using a text expander to name the files. So if I have a file I need to, you know, make a reference of, what I do is that I change the name of the file using the text expander snippet that helps me to remember my nomenclature. So I'm asked all the questions, I just fill in the blanks and then click Save, and then it changes the name. And when it's changed from my inbox, it automatically gets filed using Automator. I built Automator scripts that will— from the Mac Automator— that will then look at the folder and will set— if it's— if it is a— if it has the name receipt, then move it to this folder. And it could actually go— and what I'm trying to do, I'm not sure if I will ever get there,. But I am also looking for the folder-less, where I will just have one place which is called my reference, and then I will use smart folders. Smart folders is search folders where you can search on different criteria. So it's if it is within 2022, it's a receipt, and it is from, you know, regarding lunch, then that will be one folder. If I wanted to to slice and dice it like this. But that is— I'm trying to do it right now, and I'm excited of what I'm seeing. As long as you set up the necessary folders, it could be the folderless archiving system. I'm excited. So I don't know, what do you think about this? You want to.

Lars: Try this? No, I think that's, you know, one of the areas where we differ the most in the different needs that we have. You have a much more advanced archiving system. I mean, I would just search for that. Why would you have a smart folder? It's just searching it.

Morten: So again, we differ. But instead of having a folder, create a folder somewhere that you might or might not remember you have about contracts from clients, then why not just create that smart folder and just be good at, be intentional at your file naming and it would automatically.

Lars: Show up. But then I could forget the name of the smart folder.

Morten: That's the same applies to interfaces. No, no. Smart Folder will be in the sidebar of.

Lars: Your Finder. Which a normal folder could also be. I'm sorry, I may be missing something.

Morten: Could be, could be. Yeah, but it is as long as you're intentional with— I'm just saying that I want to create one folder and wherever I put things like this folder here, I have to— I mean, for instance, I have work receipts and I have personal receipts. Receipts, sometimes I don't remember where I put it because sometimes I buy things for the office that I use also personally and in my spare time, and I don't remember which folder I put them. So instead of looking for it— of course I can then, because I'm very intentional about my— I can search for that, but also if I had then just two folders, one for personal and one for professional receipts, that will be very easy to find. No matter where I put them, I can, I can archive them and I can be really, really tired one day and archive it under a different folder, but I will still find it. Okay.

Lars: You're not excited. No. Okay. I am not. Well, it's just because I don't have that need. I don't archive all those receipts. If they have to go into, if I need them for bookkeeping, they go into the bookkeeping software. If I need them personally, they go into the receipts pocket. That I have at the home office, and that's it. I don't have any other needs, but I know you're not alone. I mean, we see that in the emails that we get that people, I really like modern systems, so I'm not, I just don't have that need. So I don't need to have that kind of advanced events.

Morten: No, no. But what I think that you need as a bare minimum though, is to have a naming convention. If, or at least an intentional file naming. So if it is not just scan3254-6.pdf and then you can't find it again, and then just rename it to something that makes sense to you so it is easy to make a search at least, no matter where it goes. Agreed? Sure. That's, that's a.

Lars: Bare-Bones system. Let's agree to agree on that one.

Morten: Okay, good, good, good. Anything we've forgotten to mention here about—.

Lars: I think just, you know, as we take a step back and overall setup, you know, have a good computer that works well, you know, a nice— yeah, exactly, nice keyboard, nice mouse, a nice printer, a nice list manager, whatever works for you. Again, another place that we differ. I have two screens here at the office, as we spoke about last time. I cannot live with just one screen. I've actually, you know, as we've spoken about before, I bought the iPad Pro, and I was sort of not sure whether that was really in the end the right thing for me to purchase. And I'm still not sure about that, but part of the main reason that I that I feel less productive using it is that I only have one screen. So that's part of a reflection I came across recently where, you know, when I'm here at the office, I'll have my, you know, at different times during the day, I'll open different pieces of software. I'll want, you know, my one email that I got on one side and then my response on the other side so I can respond to each of the sections that were in that email, for example. I know I can set that up and I've started to do that on the iPad, but that's really what it comes back to, that I need that kind of screen space. So for me, definitely two screens to work from.

Morten: Yeah, I also have two screens, but the second screen is my, you know, I use my MacBook Air as my main driver and that also goes on the big 27-inch. 27-inch isn't big anymore, but it is big-ish. But then I have a 13-something, I think, inches MacBook Air screen as well. So I keep the calendar there just to keep an overview.

Lars: Where am I?

Morten: Where am I? Oh yeah, nice. Just to have that as a reference. So when I move through my day and I get deep dive into something, I lost the feeling of time and space, I can just glance up and see, oh, am I getting close to something? I need to get out of.

Lars: My bubble. Otherwise, I think, you know, it really comes back to what you said originally, which is that friction-free. So depending on your needs, I mean, I have my drawers next to me with all the different things that I might need to have at hand, you know, for different things. Having that available, you know, swivel distance from my chair, that works really well. I think that's pretty much the setup that I have. Printer nearby. Yeah.

Morten: All good. I just want to go back to just for just one second or half a minute to go back to the intentional setting up to remove friction and just go into computers and to especially mobile phones. I meet people who are And this is one of my pet peeves. And I think I mentioned this before on the podcast that I meet people who are in this well-paid, well-paid part of a company and they are supposed to deliver on their deliverables. They have KPIs and they have demands on them and they're using suboptimal tools like an old piece that is bogged down, you know, it takes 4 or 5 minutes to start when you restart it and that your phone is old and it's not very functional, you need a bigger screen or it's, you know, it's not working properly. And then this is just the same as giving a butcher a dull knife. You never do that because the job takes longer time and you can cut yourself. With adult life. So don't do that and be intentional on your— and if you have your, you know, have a PC that's all not working well, consider, you know, get a new one if possible. And don't be a Scrooge with yourself for that. It's saving on the wrong things. There's a lot of other things you can save money on, but not on that, not equipment. Equipment, a tool for a knowledge worker needs to be sharp. It needs to.

Lars: Be friction-free. Yeah, no, agree. And one last thing, very important for my productivity, a good coffee machine. That also helps in an optimal GTD space for me. Good coffee, that works well.

Morten: Did you see my coffee mug? Yeah.

Lars: Do you know what it is?

Morten: Very spacey. Yeah. Well, it's, this is my, as you know, Lars, tomorrow is my 60th birthday. So I'm getting older and old. I will not be in my 50s anymore. I will be in my 60s as people around me keep telling me. But this is an Ember mug. And it's just a thermos mug with a battery and a heater built in, and it keeps my coffee hot because when I drink coffee, I get the first part is hot and then I forget it and then I drink it and it gets cold. And I have two options, either to just, you know, swivel it down or go tossing the coffee in the sink. And pour me a new one. But this keeps it warm for an hour and a half on the battery. And I can also set it down on my, my, my stand here, a little coaster, and it charges it automatically. It takes about an hour to charge for full. And it is, I just had it for a couple of days, but that makes big sense. I also have a good coffee maker here. So, yeah, take good care of it.

Lars: That was an important tip as well. Make sure you have the right, right.

Morten: Things that you need. Yeah. Okay. Loris, will you take us out, please?

Lars: Happy to do that. And we always do that with a quick reminder to head on over to vitallearning.eu, have a look around at the website there. You'll find more information about the different offerings that we have in Vital Learning within GTD, but also with Crucial Conversations, for example. So over there, have a look around, or navigate to the different country websites to learn more in those local languages. For those of you outside the Nordics, head on over to cruciallearning.com. They will direct you to the local partners. We also like to mention that there is something called the GTD Summer Camp. It takes place in 2023 as well as it has in the past few years. This year is June 17th to 18th. But it might be the case that we actually don't have any more tickets by the time you listen to this. So as we are recording this, there are 3 tickets left, and both Morten and I know of people that will still sign up. If you're still thinking about it, don't think anymore. gcdsummercamp.com. Go there, read more about it, and sign up. Yes, and I think we might make a waiting list as well for those of you who might not make it in time. Time, see what we can do if we, if we are able to find some, some more spaces, for example. But yes, to be sure to, to reserve your seat, be sure to, to book right away.

Morten: Go, go, go! And how many, when we are fully booked with the 3 that we are like, how many?

Lars: I will be 40 this year. I think that, that's the starting point that we, we've set up, and that's, I think, a good, good number of 40, 45 maybe. That we'll find at KubixCon, where we are having.

Morten: The event. But if the people, if you run out of spaces, will you not be able to book a ticket?

Lars: No, that's right. So we'll certainly look into the possibility, but I doubt there will be much more room because we were, I think, 35, 34 last year. And I thought that was pretty suitable for the room. And we might fit in 5 more people without any issues, maybe 5 more than that. But yeah, I think that's probably the maximum amount of people that will be this year. So be sure to sign up quickly. Morten will be there. I will be there. Both of our wives will be there as well.

Morten: So yeah, come and meet us and a lot of the trainers in the Nordic region. The people are coming from all over the world, so you are most welcome. Yes. And, and, uh, don't forget to click like and subscribe. Give us a rating wherever you listen to us. It's highly appreciated. And if you have a comment or something you would like to tell us, please let us know by sending us an email at podcast@ggd— ah, there I go again. Old habits die hard, that's for sure.

Lars: Did you have that on your wall so you remembered it?

Morten: I will try and put it on my little, my felt wall. So my felt divider wall. So podcast@vitallearning.dk is the correct address. So please send us an email. Anything else we need to say before we wrap up?

Lars: I think that's about it. Hope this was helpful as always. And, you know, reflecting on, you might not be designing a new office, but just reflecting on the workspace that you have, perhaps on the go, perhaps as a, you know, at a hotel, wherever it might be, just reflecting on that you have the right tools, removing friction, like you said, Morten. I think that's a good way to wrap it up.

Morten: And until next time. As always, stay safe and stay productive. And remember, podcast at Vital Learning DK. Please let us know by sending us an email at podcast@gg— ah, there I go again. Old habits die hard, that's for sure.