One question that divides the GTD community is: should I use pen and paper, or should I use a PDA or something? To which the answer is: Yes.

It's a cheeky answer to what is basically the wrong question. Because it is the systematic approach that counts, not the system. Whatever system you select should support that systematic approach.

Consider the following scenario.

The doctor says...

Your doctor told you to go an pick some kind of sport. If you go on like this, pretty soon you’ll be able to enjoy the lawn from the wrong side. Well, you’re not too keen on sports, but hey, anything for a longer life. But what kind of sports should you pick up?

You ask around and get all kinds of answers. The tough guy next door says fitness is the best way to tone up your muscles. Your colleagues say you should join the company basketball team. Your significant other wants you to take up swimming. And the triathlete in your family says fine, but you should also start running and cycling.

But a good trainer would simply ask: what kind of activity do you think you’re willing to keep up? It’s no use starting a training program if you can’t maintain it. A very good (and probably rare) trainer would therefore poke a bit further, and ask questions about whether you like to work in a team, like competition, can or can’t set aside fixed times, and so on.

The trainer says...

Ditto with the great GTD analog-or-digital controversy. Ask any one GTD-er which one’s better and they tend to reply with whatever they like best.

But that doesn’t mean it will work for you.

The question you should ask yourself is: if I’m busy—if I’m very busy, what am I willing to keep doing?

If you’re busy working on the agenda for the meeting you’re supposed to chair in 5 minutes, then in drops a colleague with a long winded but important question: is your system quick and reliable enough, and are you quick enough with that system, to collect that question into your system?

Are you still fiddling with the buttons when the meeting should start? Still rebooting your PDA? Maybe you should consider just writing it down, then throw it in your in basket.

But if you wrote it down, then come back to find the post-it has blown away, or you can’t figure out your handwriting, or you never look in your in tray in the first place because that’s Old Technology, you might just be better off using electronic gear.

Getting personal

That, by the way, is the category I fall in. I’ve been using computers and computer-like things nearly 25 years now and I’ve gotten used to most of their faults, foibles and frustrations. My iPhone with Omnifocus doesn’t slow me down—much. And my handwriting is slow, difficult to read and cumbersome, so for me, digital works. But it’s one of those things you just have to figure out for yourself.

So what do you use? Pen and paper? Gone digital? Recently moved from one to the other? Learned anything in the process?