Ilium Software Blog

The GTD ListPro template that I made has turned out to be quite popular. As in, it’s been in the top 3 most-downloaded List Exchange files list pretty much since I posted it almost 1 year ago. It’s even been #1 quite a few times.

In that time, I’ve had an on-and-off relationship with David Allen’s Getting Things Done. Starting up with GTD is like trying to get a new habit. When you don’t want a new habit, it’s very easy. When you want one, it’s very hard. I’ve had almost 26 years to get in the habit of brushing my teeth when I wake up, and that’s not a very complicated task. Organizing myself using GTD is about 100x more ‘things to do’, and it’s a lot more difficult.

In any case, I’d planned on posting a differently-organized ListPro template for GTD that was much simpler and put everything in one place. Then, new versions of our software happened. Luckily, an intrepid ListPro user beat me to the punch, and he really beat me. He wrote a great blog post about how to use ListPro to manage your GTD actions, and sent us the associated template. The template is so simple, it makes mine look like “War and Peace”. As a result, it’s probably a lot easier to stick with!

So go get the template, read the article, and get something done!

(P.S: Why do I feel like Matt Foley, the motivational speaker played by Chris Farley on “Saturday Night Live”, when I make so many links in a short blog post? You know, like when you “bunny ear” things you’re “talking about” with “other people”.)

Are people being tripped up by the extra security questions the banks, credit cards and insurance companies seem to be adding lately? I was.

I’ll admit it was my own fault – I didn’t read their page very carefully, and just assumed that I’d have to answer the questions to convince someone on the phone to reset a password I’d lost. And since I never lose passwords, I didn’t bother keeping track of the answers I gave.

So when it turned out that I had to answer a question once every 20 or so logins, of course I didn’t remember exactly what I’d answered (and close doesn’t count), and had a little trouble getting into my account.

So I’ve learned to record exactly what I answer to any of these new extra security questions. Fortunately, the Notes field in eWallet works great for these; I’d hate to have to find another program.

And I’ve also learned that it’s probably worth reading – or at least skimming – the documentation.