Thanks to those of you who responded to our poll about Outlook for Mac. Now for those of you who use Outlook on a PC – please cast your vote about which version of Outlook you are currently using.
This is helpful for us in our long-term planning for GTD Setup Guides.
We appreciate your help!
David Allen Company Education Team
If you’re an Outlook user, have a look at these Setting Up for Success videos. They describe the best practices for using the Getting Things Done® Outlook® Add-In. Meg Edwards, the Director of Coaching Services at David Allen Company, created the videos with Dean Hering, Chief Innovator at NetCentrics, the developer of the Add-In. There are seven videos, which cover the best practices for using the Outlook Add-In with your calendar, tasks, emails, and notes. There are also detailed video tours that show how the Add-In works with different versions of Outlook.
If you’d rather use Outlook just as it is out of the box, you’ll get value from our downloadable GTD and Outlook Setup Guides, written by David Allen and the Coaches. There are guides for Outlook 2003 and 2007. A guide for Outlook 2010 is on the way this year. GTD Times readers will be among the first to know when the release date is announced.
We’d love to know how many of you are using or plan to use Outlook for Mac. Please vote:
This is helpful for us in our long-term planning for GTD Setup Guides.
Thanks!
David Allen Company Education Team
For those of you who use Microsoft Outlook® for your GTD system, we hope you’ll tune in to our next webinar on GTD Connect. Senior Coach Kelly Forrister will walk you through the essentials of optimizing your productivity with Outlook. You’ll see examples of how to set up the Task lists for projects and actions, best practices for the calendar, email, and much more. Outlook 2007 will be shown, but most of what will be demonstrated will be universal to all Outlook versions, and applicable to all Outlook users.
Join us on Thursday, January 27th from 10am-11am Pacific Time.
Free for all GTD Connect guest pass, monthly and annual members. To register for the webinar, log in to GTD Connect and follow the link on the home page.
Rev. Chip Granthan sent this letter along to the facilitator who led the GTD Public Seminar he attended in Atlanta. Chip was happy to have this shared with our GTD Times readers too.
I’d been trying to find the tool to bring clarity to my situation and had stumbled upon the GTD Coordinator® that Staples sells back in November. I’d liked the layout, and had followed up by getting a copy of David’s book.
I’d read Getting Things Done 3 or 4 months ago. I’d tried to absorb it and get my arms around it. I picked it up about 6 weeks ago and read it again. I’d gone online to DAC’s website, and had seen the information on the Atlanta seminar. I’d downloaded the free materials and had purchased the GTD and OUTLOOK 2003 guide. I’d signed up for the seminar, and in the interim I started actually processing my email the GTD way. What a difference! I started looking at the changes I needed to make in my office. I am a stacker and a packrat. I’ve always known what was where in what stack, [Read more →]
A GTDer asked: I am using the GTD Outlook Add-In software. Should I create subprojects?
Coach Kelly: I personally don’t use the subproject feature of software. For me, everything is just a Project. But if you do decide to use it, it can be a nice way to sort major components of a large project. For example, let’s say you are getting married. You could have “Get married” as the project that you track, however, there would be many, many
steps that would fall under that. Some people would choose to create subprojects for each of the major components, such as:
Project =
Get Married
Subprojects =
Rehearsal Dinner
Ceremony
Reception
Honeymoon
I’d say it’s an optional feature in the Add-In, not required. Only use it if it helps you. Don’t use that feature if it seems confusing or more complicated than you need. [Addendum: this is my universal feedback for people on creating your system. Use as many features as you need, but as few as you can get by with.]
Question: How did you organize your tasks? Am I suppose to have a main Projects category and corresponding action tasks categorized @home, @work, etc?
David Allen: Yes, for me “Projects” is a category, just like the action lists of “Calls”, “At Computer” etc. They are simply flat lists, tied together with your review of the whole system.
Question: If there are 5 (or likely more for me) separate sections in a folder to track everything, how do you pull everything in a project back together rather than having it all scattered? [Read more →]
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.
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 →]
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 →]
