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In GTD and personal kanban, you put all tasks and projects into a backlog/todo column. Where do I put things that I have to 'keep in mind' when performing those tasks? For example: every time I want to take a day off, I need to notify my boss. I sometimes forget this. How would you put this in your todo list?

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Can't you just write it down on a separate paper? – Muz Sep 28 '12 at 1:07
If you can use tags like in Getting Things Gnome use a "@always" tag, together with another tag saying what it applies to. – L01man Sep 28 '12 at 17:33
@Muz: seperate papers get lost really fast, or they have a tendency to pile up, in which case I don't review them anymore. – spaceknarf Sep 28 '12 at 18:02

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It's always a tough one - I use a lot of physical things in my work - so I have to remember to switch off my monitors before I leave the office - so when I plug them in in the morning I thread the plug though the strap on my bag - so I can't leave with out unpluging.

With reguards to the taking the day of - I would have two possibilities - when you put your own day off into your calendar, you either have a note on the calendar saying "and who do you need to tell about this" or you make it part of your weekly review" For my part I have a weekly brain-dump/trigger list before meeting my line-manager to make sure I get everything sorted then.

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A note on my calendar won't work, since I'm using Google Calendar. However, your suggestion of making it part of the weekly review is brilliant. I have now added a column 'keep in mind' to my backlog, which gets reviewed every week. That way it stays in the back of my mind, instead of getting lost completely. – spaceknarf Sep 28 '12 at 18:05
Thank you - although I should mention that I also use google calendar - there are a few places you can hide instructions in the interface (like the tasks panel) - glad to help ;) – Joe Sep 28 '12 at 21:21
The tough aspect of this for me is doing the weekly review. My keep alive list is getting quite long as is my actual todo list and I'm beginning to feel like I simply don't want to look at how much there is to do, so I don't review it at all. – Kyle Hayes Oct 2 '12 at 19:24
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@KyleHayes: if your todo list is growing, then you get more work than you can handle. Apply the 4 D's: for each item on your list: do it, dump it, delegate it, defer it. If you don't make this decision, it will fall off your list anyway (which is equal to 'dump it'). – spaceknarf Oct 4 '12 at 17:33

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