GTD | HeyHeyJP's Blog

I am a relative novice at Getting Things Done. No, I don’t mean that I can’t get things done (although lately I have been having procrastinating a bit). Rather, I’ve read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done and have been keeping my inbox at zero, which means I have a bunch of things in my Notes ToDos that are my Next Actions and Waiting Fors. Having them there means they show up on my calendar for the day. I do a weakly review (stole that from Eric Mack of eProductivity). I am not on top of things when it comes to doing the weekly review. I had taken a test drive of the eProductivity template for Lotus Notes that REALLY helps with following the GTD methodology.

I would have bought a full copy of eProductivity, but the price was a little too much for me to justify it for my personal email. Unfortunately, work hasn’t embraced GTD and eProductivity though eProductivity IS being used by some of those that can make the decision to accept it and offer it. A month or so ago, the price for eProductivity was altered by offering 4 software levels, each with varying integration and capabilities. GREAT, I can now afford to buy a copy for home. But I didn’t want the LOWEST version. Hmm, what to do? Procrastinate! ICA just offered a Thanksgiving deal. For $139 (just $10 over the lowest level) I could get the Professional level of eProductivity. SOLD!

So I just downloaded the template, and . . . hmm, where’s Refresh Design on the Linux client? Guess since there’s no Designer, certain options aren’t there. DAMN.

No real problem though, just copy the template over to the Windows desktop machine and refresh there. Works like a charm, replicates up and down and now we’re all on the same page.

Watch here for more on my journey to learn eProductivity and how to Get Things Done.

I downloaded the trial mail database and ran through the preview. AWESOME. If you are a GTDer, then all the terminology is familiar to you. Actions, ticklers, Someday/Maybe – it’s all there. I’ve still only scratched the surface because I tried it at work and can’t apply the template to my real mail file. So I’m going to sign up for the demo template again and apply to my home system. I use Lotus Notes as my mail/calendar system at home and have NOT applied GTD principles to my home life. Sort of stupid, I know. But ever since I got my BlackBerry Bold, I barely get into Notes at home. I keep up on incoming mail on the Bold and very rarely send any mail out. However, I DO keep my Next Actions in . . . well . . . NextAction! for the BlackBerry. A nice handheld solution, it uses the BlackBerry tasks to hold the next actions along with contexts and projects. This syncs with the ToDos in Notes and since the ToDos I believe are used by eProductivity there may be a nice synergy there. I’ll let you know. Maybe I’ll play with all this down in Florida this next week. Since we’re no longer park rats, we have quite a bit of nice relaxing free time.

Oh, and give me a few days to get this site set up. I had a blog running on my server at home, but after switching from Comcast to Verizon, I lost the ability to run a web server from home. ALMOST made me go back to Comcast.