My most-recent GTD refresher course with David Allen’s seminar stuff (Getting Things Done Fast) has proven to be just like every other one I’ve been through: It’s resulted in me learning/discovering something new.

This time around, I picked up on something subtle that David said somewhere in Disc One. He’s talking the tools (gear) that you need in order to effectively execute GTD, and from the outset, he notes that the shape, style and high-tech/low-tech nature of your equipment isn’t important. Rather, your ability to quickly and effectively use the equipment is paramount.

As David tends to do in this seminar, he jumps into a shallow rat hole here, and lectures the attendees on the importance of typing speed. Here’s where my revelation starts.

Listening to David, he insists that everyone needs to get themselves to a WPM rate of around 50 in order to be effective in the tech-heavy world that we live in today. 50 WPM? I was typing at 50 WPM when I was 8 (20 years ago, for those of you who are counting). That’s piece of one this pie. Piece two comes in David’s description of his Palm device, which he uses to manage, track, create and execute lists. He says he can create a list on his Palm in no time, but that because it syncs up with his computer, list creation is actually a cinch any time he’s at the machine. Again, this is only possible because he can type 50 WPM.

Here’s the conversation I ended up having with myself:

How fast do you type?
~130 WPM

Do you type faster than you write?
Hell yes.

Why dont’ you manage your lists on the computer?
Because digitally capturing items remotely (like on my iPhone) isn’t fast enough for me.

Did I say anything about capture?
You are me. So, yes.

Why not capture in your Moleskine, or via Jott on the iPhone, and track your lists post-processing in something that’s either online or syncs well with the iPhone?
Why don’t you shut up, Mr. Smarty Pants?

If you accept that when you’re away from your machine you’re primarily capturing, and that you’re primarily processing when you’re near it…where’s the missing loop?
Okay, fine. But what utility is going to let me do the syncing/access thing?

So here’s where I introduce Toodledo, and the new, improved, “Tim Glinatsis GTD Implementation Strategy” (TGGTDIS, proncounced “tugged-dis”).

At the expense of inciting a Turnipville revolt, I’m going to save the details of the implementation for the next post…but I’d encourage you to have a gander at Toodledo, and see if there’s an obvious solution set for you.

Stay tuned…