Community Contribution from Eric Mack, partner of the David Allen Company

As many of you know, David Allen has used Lotus Notes for his personal GTD system for many years.  As such, David and I will be co-hosting two upcoming webinars on GTD & Lotus Notes.

Exclusively for IBM employees:
On April 8th from 10am – 11:30am PST, we’ll be doing a webinar exclusively for IBM employees on applying GTD to Lotus Notes. Many IBMers are fans of GTD already, and this will give more insight into David’s master tips, tricks & strategies. We’ll also look at eProductivity – the only software tool for Lotus Notes that’s earned the distinctive “GTD Enabled” certification.

If you’re an IBM employee, sign up now.

Open to the public;
David and I will be doing another webinar on GTD & Lotus Notes on April 28th that is open to the public.  Sign-up now. Space is limited.

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One of the most common tools we get asked about is the iPhone–specifically, our recommendations for syncing Tasks to an iPhone.  Here’s some helpful information around that:

What does the David Allen Company recommend for implementing GTD® Task lists on the iPhone?

The iPhone was not built with a Tasks application, so you will need to find an App that will support the GTD best practices for a list manager (e.g. sort by category/context, allow but not force due dates, allows related notes to be attached to the Task, etc.)  What you choose for the iPhone would depend primarily on what do you need to sync it to.  The corresponding application you want to sync it to (Mac, PC or Web) would narrow down the best application for you to install on the iPhone for Tasks. The end result is that you would have a Tasks application on the iPhone–>syncing through a service–>that then shares that information with a corresponding application on the web or desktop. [Read more →]

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As many of you know, we are a Lotus Notes shop.  Have been for years.  Even Lotus is also catching on to the value of GTD (with the GTD tool eProductivity) for adding value to Notes :

If you’re still searching for the best tools for your GTD implementation, be sure to check out our latest Productive Living newsletter.

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If you’re not doing a Weekly Review, then you’re always trying to do a Weekly Review, but never really doing it. The real reason to do it is so that 6.9 days of the week you don’t have to.  -David Allen

Looking for motivation and coaching on the GTD Weekly Review?  Get the CD set. Includes Coach Meg Edwards walking you through a Guided Weekly Review.

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08/17/2010 – We now have a GTD & BlackBerry Setup Guide! Visit the David Allen Company store to get your copy. It’s loaded with tips, tricks and expert coaching advice of applying GTD to your BlackBerry.

A pretty common question we get from BlackBerry users is how to integrate Outlook Tasks with their BlackBerry.  For the most part, there is a good one-to-one sync between Outlook Tasks and a BlackBerry device–if your service and server allows it (check with your carrier and/or IT dept. to find out if this is or can be enabled for you.)

If you setup Outlook like our GTD & Outlook Setup Guide describes, you should be able to have that carry over to Tasks on the BlackBerry.  The trick for seeing your Task categories is to “Filter” them.

Several of our staff use BlackBerry devices, including presenter + coach Wayne Pepper.  Listen to Wayne’s podcast on how he uses a BlackBerry for GTD (16 min). He also wrote about an app he uses on his BlackBerry for quick capture.

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A Community Contribution from Ryan Oakley

Whether you’re a proficient OneNote user or just started using it after reading my GTD and OneNote article posted on GTD Times it doesn’t take long to populate the software with a tonne of pages and a tonne of information (yes, I am Canadian).

First, some definitions:

MS Office OneNote 2007 is a digital notebook that provides people one place to gather their notes and information, powerful search to find what they are looking for quickly, and easy-to-use shared notebooks so that they can manage information overload and work together more effectively.

ActiveWords is a Windows application that relates words and actions, giving you instant access to what you want, making you more productive, and improving the quality of your work.  (Editors note: ActiveWords was also featured in a podcast by David Allen.) [Read more →]

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For those of you looking for the best ways to implement GTD with Lotus Notes®, join the next Webinar class on GTD Connect, our subscription-based online learning center.  It will be held February 4th at 12pm Pacific Time.  If you can’t make the live event, the replay will be posted to the GTD Connect Media Library (screenshot shows all of the replays currently available.)

GTD Connect is a great way to get practical & tactical coaching advice on implementing GTD.   Webinars are held about twice a month on a wide range of topics for GTD’ers.  If you’re not a GTD Connect member, check out the free trial (which will also allow you to take a Webinar class during your trial membership.)  If you decide to join beyond your trial, it’s only $48 a month and you can cancel anytime.  The free trial is a great way to see if GTD Connect is for you.  Trial members can access to the full site except for podcasts and downloads.

I’m a retired teacher who now has a tiny gem or a business called ‘Life in the Flow Lane.’  I read Getting Things Done a couple of years ago and implemented some things.  I am a GTD Connect newbie.  The Webinars are simply invaluable.  You have given me a much greater understanding of the whole GTD process.  For example, I really get that I need to have a list that attracts rather than repels me!  It seems obvious, but you show how to make that happen.  All the resources on Connect work well together.  I think the mix you have put together is simply outstanding. – Sharry Teague

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Many of you enjoyed the GTD & OneNote article contributed by community member Ryan Oakley.  Here’s another shout out for using Outlook & OneNote, from Ivar in Norway.

I am writing to you to tell you how brilliant I think it is to use Microsoft Office OneNote in my GTD system.  I’m from Norway and am employed in the public sector as a project manager for various ICT projects.

I read David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” two years ago. Since then I have spent much time trying to find a good solution to the lists and project lists that fit my needs. I feel now I’ve got this to work, providing very much in terms of both time and money.  The ultimate solution for me has been using Outlook with Microsoft OneNote.  In Outlook, I have action lists that are categorized by place of execution, in good GTD tradition. [Read more →]

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Whenever I’m on a plane and we fly through a cloud, I can’t help but think “Oh man, I hope this isn’t the one that has all my data in it…” Tony_D on Twitter.

Eric Mack recently interviewed David Allen on his use of Lotus Notes, eProductivity and cloud computing.  Hear what David thinks of working in the cloud and where he’d love to see things go…

For more of these videos, stay tuned to the Notes on Productivity blog.  We’ll also post some of them here too.

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This is a community contribution by Ryan Oakley.

For me, GTD has always worked extremely well for those small(er) tasks and projects.  You know – those little things that used to fall through the cracks but, with the help of GTD, are now easily tracked and moved on until completed.

These smaller projects don’t need much in the way of “project support material” (PSM) — maybe just 4 or 5 lines of information to keep close at hand to help finish the project.  For me, I have mostly used the “notes” section of a project task item in outlook for a good and easy place to put this type of PSM.

But…what about those larger projects?  Like a 2 week vacation to Europe (travel books, emails, reservations, tickets, list of things you want to do and see, things to pack, addresses of family to visit, etc.) or maybe that multi-million dollar project at work that has 8 months worth of project plans and 5 milestones, 247 emails, 156 page reports, bi-weekly meetings, and 7 team members (complete with collaboration).  Ahh!

My GTD system breaks down with that kind of complexity.  [Read more →]

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