Considering giving up on writing about GTD + Evernote
Admittedly, I’m sad. I’ve been experimenting and sharing for months now, happy to have a medium for my GTD related ideas, despite the fact this website was intended to be my design portfolio. I’ve written faithfully about ways to use Evernote for GTD, even though I feel I’m not much of an expert at either.
But now I’m considering giving up on talking about them.
Why? Because people are selling what I’ve been giving away and I no longer see the point.
When Daniel Gold began posting via different channels about his ebook on Evernote/GTD, it took the wind out of my sails. Holy crap. What I’d been doing for fun someone else was now selling and apparently selling well. Good enough in fact that he’s able to post on GTD forums on LinkedIn about it with permission from the GTD folks. He’s got it figured out and has the support of the two products/systems I’ve been raving about like an zombie fanboy. What the hell am I doing?
(to be fair, I’ve not read his ebook. It may be totally awesome, enlightening. I wouldn’t know).
I like GTD because it’s proven and it works. I like Evernote because it’s simple, flexible, and available on iPhone, Android, Mac, and Windows – all environments that my life and job keep me in. But I’m not saying that Evernote is the best tool and definitely not the only tool and in fact for GTD there’s no one solution and we all know it.
But why am I writing? Where is this all going? What better things could I have been doing with all that time? Maybe writing an ebook like I’d considered a year ago but decided against because it seemed wrong to sell a book on something you could use for free. Maybe I’m a fool.
Let me pause to take a breath.
Selling isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you’ve got something great and you can make a few bucks, I’m all for it. Why not get something back for all your effort? It’s not as if DavidCo and Evernote are giving it all away (well, Evernote kind of is) – they are at the end of the day businesses and need to pay their bills like the rest of us. Nothing wrong with that at all. Nothing wrong either with being a fan, but I’ve begun to feel I’m in a one-way relationship and pouring out my heart for no reason.
I’m a musician and designer with dreams that Evernote and GTD might help support, but aren’t emotionally attached to. These things are tools, strategies – not destinations. They may help, but they aren’t finish lines. And they aren’t bringing me happiness.
So now I’m considering closing shop on GTD and Evernote, working outside of those borders on what’s ultimately more important: my life.
We’ll see.
I’ve recently been diagnosed and treated for ADD and your site is proving an excellent way to learn an organization system that is flexible yet structured at the same time to support my new life.
I appreciate all of the efforts you’ve put into this project, and your Evernote + GTD setups are fantastic.
I’d want to see the rest of your latest revision as you seem to have finally found something that works very well
Perhaps to cover both ends of the spectrum, you could for example give away the information you have already, and then sell for $5-10 a video tutorial explaining how to do it all point & click for the more novice users.
Really happy to hear my ideas helped! A video tutorial is a really interesting idea… I’m acutely aware that text is often hard to scan – a video would probably be very helpful.
I do have updates I could post about tweaks to the latest setup, needs refinement though.
Suggestion: Do an ebook (nicely designed, of course), sell it for a reasonable price, _and_ offer the same info for free via your blog posts.
Reasons to by the ebook: (1) The convenience of having all of the info well-presented in one place. (2) It would be a supportive thing to buy it. (3) Buyers of the ebook maybe get free or discounted updates down the road. (4) It’s another item for your portfolio.
Hopefully all of that wouldn’t take up too much time.
Andy – thanks for the encouragement and the ideas. Collecting and sorting all that I’ve posted has crossed my mind a few times. I’ve been able tell from the traffic on my site that people are jumping around to disconnecting posts which is likely very confusing.
Hey Weszt! Please don’t give up writing! I love your work and there’s plenty of room for more than one author on how to get things done in Evernote! You have a great style, with a lot of great thoughts. I took a chance on writing an eBook and with the help of both Evernote and the David Allen Co, I was able to publish it. I’m a huge believer in helping others and found that my eBook was a great way to help people across the globe. I think that some of the comments by A Kaleshnikov and Andy M … and I’m sure that Robert Kok would also agree that you have a great opportunity to differentiate yourself in a big way should you choose to continue writing about Evernote and GTD! In fact, as I’m sure you’ve seen, there’s another company, BrainToniq, who is giving away video tutorials (The Secret Weapon). That company happens to make energy drinks, too. But offering up your knowledge in a “freemium” model for others would be great. I’d buy it for sure!
As a footnote, send me and e-mail if you would, as I’d enjoy continuing this dialogue with you offline.
Cheers,
Daniel
Daniel – I really appreciate you commenting and giving me a boost. Hopefully later I can write this off as Holiday Blues.
If I did write an ebook, I’d be careful to explore ideas that wouldn’t unnecessarily tread on the work you’ve done. Seems like your ebook has been really well received!
I’ll be sending an email over this morning. Looking forward to talking with you more!
Hi Weszt,
I like your posts, as they challenge me how to organize my own stuff. I agree with Dan that there’s plenty of room for more than one author.
The lessons I’ve learned is that you do need to be cautious to share unique information you want publish about. Maybe that’s what you’re disappointed about?
There are enough opportunities to create your own niche market. But as everything moves very fast, timing is crucial.
I’ve plenty of ideas you could consider using for yourself. Send me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to share them with you.
Cheers,
Robert
Robert,
Thanks for the comments.
You’re right that one should be cautious giving away unique information. Feel like my love for writing got ahead of good thinking on occasion.
Been thinking quite a bit about my niche and have a few strong directions I might take.
I’ll shoot you an email after the holidays.
Thanks!
W.
I appreciate your writing and offering your set ups in the way you have. I’m a pastor and anyone could spend a fortune easily buying ebooks on this set up and that set up… Yours is helping me figure out my own and what works for me.
Quick question: I’ve noticed you reference your iPhone; Have you upgraded to the latest iOS and made use of the Reminders app? One thing I’m experimenting with is keeping the bulk of everything in Evernote, and then using Reminders for my Next Actions, organized by Context. It’s working ok for now.
Again, I can understand your frustration, but just wanted to say thanks for what you’ve done.
Dan,
Thank you so much for your nice comments. It’s nice knowing who has been reading my posts and especially to learn that they’ve been beneficial in some way. I, too, have gone down the road of buying this and that to be “more productive”. I can truly relate.
As for the iPhone, much to my disappointment, I’ve recently had to switch to an Android phone and therefore have not had a chance to try the Reminders app. Might be useful.
For me, I set reminders on my calendar for actions that are time related, usually in regards to time I’ve allotted for it/them.
Weszt, man, don’t dare stopping writing about your setups, you’ve given away so much for free already, thousand thanks.
You’re more appreciated than you know, sorry for not letting you know earlier.
I just though (and maybe many others did) “oh God, this gy is great, he does so many things in his life _and_ finds the time to share his GTD stuff..” so I thought I’d just bother you with kudos or whatever, I thought _everybody_ else wrote.
1) We care, thank you kindly for everything you did so far
2) Why don’t you fix that e-book as advised above and the video idea by A Kaleshnikov is cool. I’d pay gladly
3) I highly appreciate both Brett Kelly’s & Daniel Gold’s work and I’m supporting both by buying the e-books and spreading the news:-)
4) Will buy anything you release as well.
Happy New Year!
Dragan – thank you so much, man. I don’t really get many comments but I don’t think the site design is very conducive to it (as previously stated, it was geared to be a portfolio site for the most part).
At this point I’m committed to writing an ebook or two along with further content for the site. With all the feedback from this post, I’ve got a fresher, better perspective on things.
Thank you again!
Thanks for replying and please feel free to include me in any mailing list that you might want to pass out when you update the contents of your site or anything else.
Another thing. You’ve done Tony Michaelides’ website which I’ve never known of if I hadn’t checked your portfolio… that led to ordering his e-book and eventually starting a very good professional contact, maybe even hiring him for a lecture in near future.
Thanks for that as well
Wow… that’s great that you connected with Tony. He’s amazing, personable, energetic, and has a lifetime to knowledge and wisdom he’s anxious to share. Hoping to catch a more official lecture of his myself as soon as possible.
After having tried at least 5 or 6 to do apps including Toodledo and rtm, I found Evernote. But I never would have “gotten it” if it wasn’t for your blog, Dan’s book, and a few other sites. Thank you and keep up the good work.
P.S. I am considering starting a blog or an ebook on using Evernote in my specific business, any thoughts?
Jerry – that’s awesome we were able to help! I’ve resumed writing because of comments and encouragement like yours.
As for starting a blog and/or ebook, I say go for it. Might I ask what business you’re in?
Weszt,
I just came across your site and this posting. And have glanced at another post. I so hope you don’t quit. While I cannot blame you for feeling as you do, I don’t feel that getting paid is always the only or the best way to measure contribution. I’ll bet you’ve had some experiences with someone you didn’t know well that was invaluable yet they didn’t get paid for it — I should said money wasn’t exchanged. In a sense they did in that you derived great benefit from it and that’s a payment of sorts and probably greater than any other payment if you can appreciate it and feel its there even if its so rarely acknowledged. As Seth Godin likes to so often say, what you do should first of all be your gift to others. Ideally you can get well paid for it. Sometimes you may not make a dime. But the satisfaction in giving this gift to others can sometimes be the greatest gift of all to yourself. And no, I’m not going to stop publishing Evernote e-books so stay out of my territory
.
To be honest, I’m not 100% sure why the concept of being paid for writing about Evernote + GTD bothers me so much. I think perhaps it reflected on how one-side my writing was, how I’d come to realize that I wasn’t inspiring interaction.
Perhaps, too, I felt that selling a book on what I’d been writing about for free cheapened things, but it definitely took the wind out of my sails.
I’ve gone back to the lab so hopefully I’ll be back sharing more soon.
Thanks for your thoughts and I’ll try not to step too much into your territory