Well, Summer is over, even though the weather here in the UK is actually much better than the shocking Summer we had. The UK summer was the wettest Summer on record. With floods and an endless supply of rain. At least we avoided the usual Summer hosepipe ban!

I have been rather lacking in my posts. This is due to me being away on holiday twice, and also busy launching and settling into my new business and new premises for the business.

I am back now and the regular updating of this site will resume.

A little bit about my summer first. Spent two weeks in an absolutely fantastic place called Union Lido, in Northern Italy.

This is one of the best camping villages in the whole of Europe. Spend two great weeks enjoying the sunshine and the local food and drink. Next is was off to Chapel Stile in the English Lake District for a week. Enjoyed lot’s of walking and the weather was fantastic for the English Lakes.

So, over three weeks of the six spent away from my usual GTD system! How did I cope!

Summer Holidays are a great time for me to take time out of my usual busy schedule, and to relax. I always find that I have some great inspirational thoughts whilst I am on holiday. I think the absence of technology puts me in a position where my thoughts flow freely. Often, I will have ideas, and thoughts of actions that I need to do. Now, being GTD’ers, we know the importance of collecting these ideas in our trusted system so that we do not suffer the “now what was that I thought of?” syndrome. As this is the longest I have been away from my GTD system since I started with GTD, I was curious to see how I would fair. I must admit that I was tempted to take my laptop. I have a 17″ MacBook Pro and although it is a powerhouse, it is not the most portable of devices and the thought of taking it to the campsite, full of sand did not really appeal. So, I decided upon a more manual method.

Well, the trusty Moleskine came to the rescue. I decided that I would utilize my pocket ruled Moleskine to collect the tasks which I thought of and ideas I had whilst away. I know this is just a notebook, but I have found the constant carrying of this little notebook a revelation since I begrudgingly started carrying it around 4 months ago. I am never far from a Moleskine. The pocket book goes with me when I can and the Moleskine Cahier when I cannot fit the pocket notebook into what I am wearing.

I kept the Moleskine and assortment of pens handy. Whenever a thought popped into my head, it went straight into the Moleskine, in my newly created “Ideas and Thoughts” section. The art of taking notes is not new, however, when lying in the sun, relaxing, it does take willpower to prise yourself off the sunbed and into your room to record the note in the notebook. At the end of the day, GTD is about Getting Things Done, and we all have our own systems. I have found in this instance that it is more the implementation of the system that matters, rather than the system itself. I could have had any method of collecting my thoughts, but unless I stuck to them, they are pointless. This is pretty much true of life. You have to, as Nike would say, “Just Do It”. Too many times we don’t, and we forget or procrastinate.

Anyway, work is calling, till next time…..