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I’ve been a strict Getting Things Done user for the past couple months and I feel it has really improved my productivity. As I showed in a previous post, my current GTD setup consists of a Hipster PDA (3″x5″ index cards with a clip) and an index card holder.

Although this setup is cheap and convenient, I noticed one flaw with it: on most of my cards, I was only writing a few words describing a task. In other words, I was wasting a lot of space on the card. I didn’t want to write more than one task on a card though because that would remove the modularity required in the GTD system. While I was at Grand & Toy one day (kind of like a small Office Depot for the non-Canadians), I noticed they had packs of 100 blank business cards on clearance for 50 cents each. Seeing this, I remembered reading about a derivative of the Hipster PDA: the Hipster Mini which uses business cards as opposed to index cards.

I bought a couple packs and am now giving it a try. I managed to find an even smaller clip to hold the cards together. The size is perfect for writing down tasks without feeling like I’m wasting a lot of space. If I need more room, I simply turn the card over and write on the back.

As for filing I took a 4-tier business card holder from my work. The 4 sections are: Next Actions, Waiting, Projects and Someday. I felt I didn’t need an Inbox since I preferred to sort everything immediately after I got home. For an explanation of these folders, check out my first GTD post. If you wanted to keep all the GTD sections, you could go with an 8-tier business card holder.

One thing my hipster mini lacks compared to my full size hipster are the pre-printed agenda and to-do lists cards. Fortunately, Avery carries business card paper you can print on and then punch out (or you can save some money and do the measurements yourself). Alternatively, there are many businesses that offer business card printing for a very low price. Simply send in a desired design and expect to pay only a few dollars for a hundred. Either way, make sure the business card paper you are using isn’t glossy or plastic coated because you’ll need to write on it!

I will use this setup for a few weeks and let you know how it goes!

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Efficiency, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.