Mixed.
Problems with HD System 3 and Two Alternative Evernote/GTD Setups
After weeks of experimentation with HD System 3 for Evernote/GTD I’ve decided to move on. Here are a few reasons why:
- Stacks. These are not available on the iPhone.
- Too much commitment. The hold-your-hand approach worked extremely well, but failed the does-it-work-when-I’m-ill test. Too much to think about.
- Hard to learn. If you already know GTD, then HD3 might be beneficial. If not, I fully expect a “say whaaaaaat?”
- Routines. While I’ve been very successful at pushing beyond GTD with Evernote, many of these extensions and experiments needed to be more a part of my calendar, less within my Evernote setup. I’ll try to elaborate on this in the future.
Now my experiments have led me back to a note-equals-list approach with a renewed use of tags, something I know will work on all phones.
Additionally I’m focusing on setups that are reproducible and exportable; in other words, could this setup work also as desktop text files/folders or as paper?
Alternative Evernote/GTD Setup #1
This setup uses very few notebooks, one note per project (excluding references), and one note per context. Tags are used a little bit for sorting.
Notebooks:
- !nbox
- 00. Today
- @@today. Must be done today (not very GTD)
- @agendas. Listed by name of person
- @calls
- @computer. Sometimes divided into searches, social networks, or whatever (e.g. @computer-search)
- @errands
- @home
- @office
- @waiting for… List by name of person
- 01. Projects
- 02. Someday/Maybe
- 03. References
- Lists
Tags:
- *Areas
- Personal
- Work
- Lists
- Checklists
- Copy and Paste
- Ideas
- Shortcuts
- Projects. Subtags for client names or other filters
- References. Many subtags
Alternative Evernote/GTD Setup #2
This structure is mostly based on a screenshot posted to GTD Times by Kelly Forrister of DavidCo. Straightforward and simple, this setup is the focus of my latest experimentation.
Unlike #1, alternative setup #2 uses one note per task which is nice because it makes it easy to collect and process. However it requires many more notebooks, most specific to a context. Tags come in handy here for filtering.
Notebooks:
- !nbox
- 00. Today
- 01. Projects – Personal
- 02. Projects – Work
- Agendas
- Anywhere
- Calls
- Computer – Personal
- Computer – Work
- Errands
- Goals
- Home
- Library
- Lists
- Office
- Read/Review
- Reference
- Routines. Checklists I run through at specific times and days. Many are daily and weekly, but some are more specific like “Monthly – 01″ for things I always do on the first of the month.
- Someday – Personal
- Someday – Work
- Study
- Waiting for…
- When… Love this. Lists of actions for when I’m next in particular cities or circumstances. E.g. After I have iPhone
Tags:
- *Areas
- Personal
- Work
- Anywhere
- Brainstorming
- Decide
- Computer
- Calendar
- Online
- Search
- Shopping
- Lists
- Checklists
- Copy and paste
- Ideas
- People. Subtags are names of people.
- Reference. Subtags are numerous but include GTD, UX, CSS, etc.
- Routines
- Daily
- Monthly
- Weekly
- Yearly
Summary
I do apologize for the extensive bullet points; I’m sure screenshots would have been more concise, but my experiments have kept my setup too much in flux recently. However with the start of a new job in a new city, I’ll need to be sticking with the tried-and-true for a while so perhaps an update with screenshots won’t be too far away.
I’m anxious to hear your feedback.
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