Recently, an executive at a large global consulting firm with over 100K Lotus Notes users called me to ask for help getting up to speed with GTD and Notes. He told me that he was feeling overwhelmed at work with a growing number of projects and responsibilities and in his pursuit of a solution he had found and read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. He was also aware that while Lotus Notes is an excellent tool for messaging, collaboration, and information management, it wasn’t supporting him in the way that he needed. He was calling to get eProductivity for Lotus Notes and some coaching to help him set up Notes to be more productive. After a fruitful conversation, and my promise to help him, he asked me, “How can I ramp up quickly with GTD & Lotus Notes?” (I get asked this question a lot, so I decided to write a short e-mail that would be very helpful and something that I could reuse again the next time the question arose.) I promised to send him an email that night with some lessons I had learned and some tips for getting things done with Lotus Notes.

Well, my e-mail turned into an 6-part essay of my lessons learned and recommendations from the past 15 years of using Notes and the GTD methodology.

Over the next several days, I will take a look at the methodology (GTD) and the Technology parts of the equation… and share my experience and response to this person’s question of how to ramp up quickly with GTD & Lotus Notes.

I invite you to follow-along and join me in conversation about this topic.

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Several of us recently got together at David Allen’s house for a casual get-together. For some of us, me at least, it was the first time to see David since he surfaced from writing his soon-to-be-bestseller GTD book #3, Making it All Work

David’s been submerged in the details of the book writing for some time and, with the current draft off to the publisher, it was time to hang out.

David and I got a few minutes to geek out with the new Nokia E90 Executive Communicator and talk about Notes 8. (We kept the geek talk to a minimum.)

Then, we visited with several of the David Allen Company team in David and Kathryn’s way cool “outdoor living room”.

Next time, I’m bringing marshmallows, chocolate, and gram crackers!

Left to right: Eric, Pat, Natalie, Kelly, David and Ellen. Foreground: Molly, the chief of security and public relations.

We had a wonderful time. On the way out of town, Paul Garth invited us for a tour of the new world headquarters of The David Allen Company:
The all-glass conference room is equipped with the emperor’s new conference table and chairs. (Only GTD black-belts can see it.)

Paul prepares to demonstrate the office fountain to Amy, Emily, and Kelly. “See, I just dropped a pebble in David’s new fountain… How does the water respond? Right, It does “pebble.”

Paul and I wondered what would happen if we dropped in a rock (just to test David’s theory, of course)…

Yup, the water responded appropriately, and Paul and I got to mop up the

lobby.

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With the recent posts on GTD for Kids and GTD for Families, I thought I would share this one…

Last year, my daughter, Wendy, recently made a post in the GTD Connect forum about how our family is learning about GTD at the breakfast table. [If you're a GTD Connect subscriber, you can read the posts and respond there.] I thought I would take a moment to share my own thoughts and experience here, too.

Over the years, I’ve often ask my children to help me test new software and programs. I find that they approach software from a totally different perspective and I always learn new insights as a result of their efforts. (Even Microsoft found benefit in this approach; they distributed Amy & Wendy’s podcast on OneNote Shared Sessions to the OneNote design team.) Anyway, back to the GTD breakfast club…

In December, I decided to ask my wife and children to test some prototype features for my productivity software for using Lotus Notes with the GTD methodology. (Little things, like linking projects to actions, switching contexts, and a tickler to calendar system.) In order for them to be effective helpers, however, I knew that they would have to distinguish between the methodology and technology of the productivity equation. I decided that this would be a good time for me to set up more formal GTD instruction for my family.
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Many of you probably already know the name Eric Mack. He’s a long standing and highly respected member of the GTD community and he’s been authoring multiple blogs related to productivity and Getting Things Done for some time: : EricMackOnline and NotesOnProductivity .  For the past 15 years, Eric has served David Allen in a number of roles, as his personal technologist, chief technology advisor, and director of technology

Eric has been a technologist since his early teens. He built his first computer system at age 15, and quickly branched into software development when, at 16, he designed and developed flight-planning software for a Lear Jet charter company. At 18, Eric launched his first consulting firm to help organizations deploy microcomputer technology in a pre-IBM PC era.

Over the next two decades, Eric lent his technological expertise to numerous businesses and organizations, including the U.S. Air Force, which asked him to help establish its first microcomputer system. Through his software company, Peloria Technology Corporation (founded in 1992), Eric developed wireless messaging and server-based agent technology for messaging applications. His MailScout software sold more than 500,000 licenses.

Today, through his new company, ICA.COM, Inc., Eric promotes his ICA consulting model for eProductivity. His eProductivity suite of software for Lotus Notes (launched in 2007) implements the Getting Things Done methodology espoused by Eric’s friend David Allen.

Eric and his wife, Kathy, live in a tiny resort community in the mountains of Southern California, where they home educate their four daughters. Eric holds a degree in Organizational Management and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Information and Knowledge Management.

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