Digital Professor Series: Part 1-Guiding Principles

For the longest time I've wanted to put down in writing and chronicle my journey toward a more efficient, productive, and stress/free life. A lot of this centers on my adoption of the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology developed by David Allan. It's not an overnight conversion. There is no magic system, tool, or piece of software that if duplicated and followed to the letter will produce mystical feats of productivity. On the contrary, my system has been slowing changing, stalling, restarting, and evolving some more over the past year or so.

Guiding principles:
1. The system has to be simple. If it's too clunky I won't use it.
2. It has to be modeled after how I generally work already. My workflows have generally come about without much thought. Over the past 6 years, stuff comes in and I need to do something with it. A lot of my tasks and projects fall into general categories and often repeat over time. I have lectures to prepare, stuff to grade, funds and resources to procure and manage, meetings to attend which produce tasks, etc. Since I've generally kept up with this stuff using the systems I've thrown together on the fly, why reinvent the wheel when I can simply refine it.
3. Use as few software programs as needed, but don't force myself to use aspects of a program if they don't work for me. For example, I could probable stuff most of my GTD system into Yojimbo, but I don't think that works best for everything.
4. The system has to work seamlessly and flawlessly across my digital universe. Whether I'm at work, home, or on a mobile device, I have to be able to get my stuff, and it has to stay in sync.
5. My system can't go down. Will a corrupt database file, a dead hard drive, or prolonged Internet outage throw me into a tailspin?
6. Does my system promote endless tinkering, or will it just exist in the background so I can get things done. Many bloggers and sites seem to focus all of their time on the next great piece of software that will change your life. You can spend hours browsing, downloading, and playing with program upon program, while forgetting about the work your supposed to be doing. People have coined a term called "productivity porn" to describe this unhealthy and unproductive behavior. I just want the system to work.