Implementing the GTD system - Part I

I started my trials with GTD around in April 2007. It is almost 5 months I am trying different ways to get a leak proof GTD system. I have tested quite many tools in these days trying to figure out the one which suits me the best. Though there are many tools in the net, I found "Thinking Rock" more suitable one.
After using this for more than 5 months; I have come to a conclusion that tools doesn't matter a lot to implement an effective GTD system. You can in your capacity implement GTD in many ways, with or with out any software tools. But I am a software professional, I spend most of my time with the computer.
I started implemented GTD with out reading David Allen's "Getting Things Done" book. I falied miserbly after few weeks of implementing GTD. But my belief on the methodology kept me trying again and again.
I had my first GTD system running few weeks; before it rusted and become obsolete. By that time I got "Getting Things Done" book; and it stresses about the importance of a trusted system. Initially I didn't understand it correctly. But to build a trusted system it is a huge effort. It requires constant maintenance. Even today; I cannot claim I have a trusted system. When I did a Root Cause Anaylsis (RCA) study on why my first implementation failed; I observed that I had a good collection habit but a very poor processing habit. As a reason the thoughts got piled up and with "Thinking Rock" it is FIFO. My immediate tasks had to be processed and due to th e huge pile; I never processed it. The pile simply become obsolete and difficult to maintain. The "trustworthiness" of the system is lost.
Another reason; I could see is failing to define what thoughts are. I thought "thoughts" are todo items. To some extent it is correct. But it doesn't mean that I have to empty all the items in various collection buckets into one and start processing. This has high duplication and bit boring. I got most of my tasks from my email client - 'Outlook'. I started putting things from Outlook into Thinking Rock. In this process I had to sync Outlook with Thinking rock manually. Then start processing to create actions.
So the workflow is something like

1. Collect all the tasks as 'thoughts' into Thinking Rock.
2. Process all the Thoughts from Thinking Rock into Actions & Projects

I could have directly converted things from outlook to action and projects in Thinking Rock. I failed to understand it. My processing took time and effort and finally broke.

Reason 2
The next biggest reason I failed is not defining next action correctly. I may say that I didn't understood the meaning of next action correctly. I never thought next action is next smallest iota of work that can proceed the project to completion. Instead I entered vague title of tasks as next action; which is not clear what to do next. The real task of 'doing things' failed here. I had to think what to do in the next action.

Reason 3
Review. Review was almost missing from my system. Also, here I misunderstood what to be reviewed. It should be "todo" items. I was always reviewing "done" things to make sure there is no action left any more. I didn't reviewed 'todo' items. Daily review or Weekly review was not part of the process.

Reason 4
Failure to update regularly. I was often caught in very important tasks; where it was obvious what the next action is. (Atleast I thought I knew it). For this reason I had lot of overdue actions and obsolete items. It became a burden. I thought of deleting some times. But the fear that I will loose somethings always prevented me from doing it.

There could be few other reasons it might have failed. I can conclude that all the above ones failed from creating a 'trustworthy' system to rely.

I also realized that it is a great effort to have a trustworthy system for a long time. It requires constant attention and effort to keep it updated. Also, this is the foundation of a good GTD system. The problem of this system is; it gets rusted very very soon.

In the coming blogs; I will deal more about the lessons I learned from my first implementatuion. Also; I would also mention how my current system looks like; and what I think of an ideal solution it.