Evernote
isn't your setup.
Don’t Waste Time with GTD Setups
For the last couple months I’ve been away from blogging, focusing on my new job, writing music, and getting used to life in Los Angeles. I’ve also been fiddling with the idea of a book about GTD and in so doing I’ve had a little time to reflect on all I’ve learned and one lesson is now abundantly clear:
GTD setups are a waste of time!
Getting Things Done is ultimately about doing and no tool, no one setup will ever make you productive. Stop jumping from one to the other. Reclaim your time and tackle the things you need to do. Scale back – hell throw out everything on your lists and start fresh.
All you ultimately need is a pen and a sheet of paper to get things done. No, you really don’t need to have everything synced between your calendar and note apps. No, you don’t need a way to create tasks directly from your email app. You want these things, but you’re probably going a long way to avoid work. I declare this tool-based procrastination!
Stop it.
Stop looking for an answer on the outside. Look at the inside. That’s where you are, the one who is doing the doing.
Evernote, Things, Outlook with OneNote, Springpad, Nozbe, SimpleGTD, Toodledo, Remember the Milk? Fine, whatever, doesn’t matter. Use any tool you want but focus on getting those tasks out of your way, not putting them into pretty boxes. Focus on doing, not having things done for you (I’m looking at you 4 Hour Work Week). Or maybe not? Maybe you’re doing too much as it is.
But what do I know? I’m the guy who used to write ceaselessly about GTD setups using Evernote.
Related Posts:
0Considering 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.
Related Posts:
18Evernote setup
so far.
[Updated] GTD/Evernote System Inspired by Kelly Forrister, 40Tech, Zen Habits, and Experimentation (Part 1)
Update: Commenting has been restored after a problem with a new plugin. Thanks for letting me know, everybody!
At the beginning of 2011, GTD Times posted an interesting article called “Waiting For” Advice. Within that post was a screenshot of the GTD setup that Kelly Forrister (GTD coach at DavdCo) uses via eProductivity. Instantly I could see a killer Evernote notebook structure that would work great without the need for stacks (read: works great on all mobile operating systems).
Here’s the notebook structure:
This setup is stupid simple and has been fairly bullet proof for several weeks now. Every action is within easy reach, whether I’m on the web or viewing my notes on a mobile phone. Routines, a Kelly Forrister recommendation, is a notebook of checklists, marked as daily, weekly, monthly etc. When… is a list of actions I intend or need to take once something has happened or I’m in a particular place in the future (such as “When I’ve moved into the new apartment”).
Zen Habits also inspired me to add an M.I.T. notebook that reminds me of the most important tasks of the day.
But there were several things missing from Kelly’s setup I thought could be added to the Evernote setup:
- Project support files
- Ticklers
- References
Project support files
As recommended by David Allen, we should have a list of our active projects. I accomplish this with notebooks, one for personal projects, the other for work. These notebooks DO NOT contain support materials, since that would clutter the view.
Instead I create tags that match the name of the project, assign the tags to the proper support notes, and store the notes in 04. Support (projects). Because Evernote allows linking between notes, I can even filter by tag then copy and paste the note links into the parent project note. Works like a charm.
Ticklers
For a solid Evernote based tickler system, I’ve turned to the setup that 40Tech.com posted about a while ago. Requires tags for Days (1-31) and Months (January – December). I have a notebook called Ticklers so anything can technically be thrown in there, but assigning tags makes filtering (and obviously reviewing by day/month) a breeze.
References
For me, References are old files I want to keep. Based again on a recommendation by David Allen, I’ve created A-Z tags with the occasional subtags for further filtering. Everything is tagged alphabetically.
Obviously I haven’t tagged every note quite yet.
Other GTD needs
So far this seems to be the most straightforward and easiest to maintain GTD setup I’ve ever used in Evernote. Granted I’ve not yet covered all our needs; Areas, Goals, Calendar, and other topics still need to be adressed.
As always, feedback is welcome and I hope my ideas are helping!
Related Posts:
11Mixed.
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.
Related Posts:
1GTD Context List Ideas for November 2011
It’s probably sad that I enjoy creating and managing context lists, reveals some weakness underlying my rock and roll foundation. Still things need to get done and I don’t see any harm in having a bit of fun.
Maybe you find context lists fun, too?
As you probably already know, I keep my context lists in Evernote and here are those I’m using or experimenting with in November 2011:
- @agendas
- @brainstorm - things I need to contemplate, mind map
- @calls
- @car
- @computer - my busiest list. I’ve spun off a few subcategories to their own lists for fun and ease.
- @computer-facebook
- @computer-itunes
- @computer-search
- @computer-shopping
- @computer-twitter
- @decide - decisions I need to make
- @eat the frog – projects I need to chip away at (thanks GTD Group on LinkedIn!) [experimental]
- @errands
- @home
- @library
- @low-energy [experimental]
- @mining [experimental]
- @quit - usually bad habits to work on [experimental]
- @read
- @start - good habits I want to adopt [experimental]
- @waiting for…
- @when – ashen mix is finished - tasks that can’t be done till my new CD is ready
- @when – have new iPhone - apps and settings for when I switch back to iOS from Android
- @when – have new home – things that can’t be done until we’ve got a new place to live
- @when in (new city) - things I can’t do till I’m where I’m moving to
- @when in – orlando - things to do when I’m in my hometown
The “when” lists have proven to be the most useful addition to my arsenal in a long time. Granted these lists often contain tasks that may be moved to other lists later (errands, calls, etc), but till then they keep things nice and separate.
What context lists can you not live without?
Related Posts:
4few searches
[Updated] Evernote GTD Setups and Related Posts on Hanami Design
I’ve almost made a hobby out of writing about different ways to configure Evernote for David Allen’s Getting Things Done, enough so that I’ve begun to forget all the ways I’ve explored. Thought it might be time for a recap.
New! Fourth system
Third system
- How I’m Pushing Beyond Unimaginative Evernote GTD Setups with HD System 3
- Problems with HD System 3 and Two Alternative Evernote/GTD Setups
Second system
- New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 1: Structure & Agendas
- New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 2: Revised Structure and “Next” Notebook
- New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 3: Removing the Waste (Muri, Muda, Mura)
- New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 4: Context Lists
- New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 5: Workflows
First system
GTD related
- My Complete GTD System for March 2011: Things, Evernote, BusyCal, iPhone, and More!
- Electronic GTD Tickler File System with Google Calendar and Evernote
- Four Ways to Sync Gmail with Evernote
- Using Tags for GTD Areas of Focus in Evernote
- Simple Evernote GTD Projects with Next Action Preview
- Results: Experiments with Using an Evernote Stack for Projects and Areas of Focus
- Shared Evernote Project Form for GTD
Miscellaneous
- How I Use Evernote for Songwriting
- Finally! Linking Things or Anything to Evernote
- Evernote as a Copy-and-Paste Power Tool
- Evernote Resource Roundup: GTD, gMail/gCal, Time Management, Projects, and More!
Related Posts:
6for GTD?
anywhere and flexible
enough to suit my
imagination.
[Updated] How I’m Pushing Beyond Unimaginative Evernote GTD Setups with HD System 3
Update: More screenshots have been added as a gallery at the end of the post.
Inspiration has struck once again. Took boredom, dissatisfaction, and a little betrayal, but I found it.
I found it by thinking about how all the GTD setups I’ve seen and created didn’t really help me do much of anything. They were unimaginative, lifeless, boring, and quite often facsimiles of GTD apps. Beyond the cyclical urge to fresh things up, where was the motivation?
So I was inspired to create a better way, an approach within the ever customizable Evernote ecosystem that would coach and inspire every step of the way. Hanami Design System 3 has the promise to be that system.
Some basic GTD stuff
Since many people who visit my website are interested in Evernote GTD setups, here are a few highlights:
Basic Evernote notebook setup for GTD
An interactive daily review
The new Daily Review stack is arranged to be interactive, not passive. You actively move through the notebooks, one by one, in order, moving notes/projects in and out based on the action required at that step.
Tools such as checklists and filters are kept within the appropriate notebooks. Scan Ticklers holds my tickler notes; Filter Projects gives helps me determine whether a project is worth doing now or even keeping.
- Clear emails. Deal with emails and send what’s needed to Evernote.
- Clear notes. Create new notes from what I’ve been jotting down on paper. Drag actions to the appropriate context notebook (under Next Actions), create new projects, etc.
- Scan ticklers.
- Review calendar. Last week, this week. Create actions (new notes) and drag them to the appropriate context notebook.
- Filter projects. Drag all active projects here and filter them. Move the first to the next notebook.
- Create next actions. Review projects and create next actions (by creating new notes). Move notes to the appropriate context notebook. Move project to Schedule today (next notebook).
- Schedule today. Block out time for the project on my calendar (if possible). Move project note back to Active (under Projects). Go back to filter projects until all have been reviewed.
This arrangement forces me to do something at every step. I sort, I filter, I review, and I’m less likely to skip. Next actions are created within each notebook and quickly dragged to where they’ll be attended to next.
Two Minutes
If I spot something in my inbox (or anywhere) that can be done in two minutes or less, I drag it into the Two Minutes notebook and then do that something immediately.
Since a GTD enthusiast already knows he/she should be doing two-minute items right away anyway, this might seem superfluous, but the reminder and the satisfaction of seeing a two-minute item killed instantly has made this notebook worthwhile for me.
Beyond GTD
As mentioned at the start, my playground wasn’t limited to just David Allen’s Getting Things Done. From the Five S’s, I’ve taken steps to put tools (such as checklists) where they’re most needed. From Scrum, I’ve begun putting active projects I can’t yet schedule into the Backlog. Someday/Maybe items are in the Icebox.
Methodologies and concepts such as Lean/Six Sigma; Muri, Muda, and Mura; and kaizen (among others) are also influencing Hanami System 3, but their contributions are outside the scope of this post.
In development
Obviously I’ve not covered everything this system does and unfortunately further updates will have to wait for me to return from a two week break from writing. Rest assured that I’ve very far along with fresh ideas on how Evernote can be leveraged for a task and life management system and I’ll be anxious to get your feedback.
Take action and take care.
Related Posts:
11productivity method.
Electronic GTD Tickler File System with Google Calendar and Evernote
If you have ever reached the “obsession phase” of GTD adoption as I have, you probably found yourself searching at least once for an electronic method for tickler files. I’m happy to say you don’t really need anything that complicated.
My way is fairly simple: creating “all day” events in Google Calendar and/or (yes, there’s an ‘or’) putting items on my Tickler file in Evernote.
For those who may not be familiar with a tickler system, here’s what the 43FoldersWiki has to say:
In the parlance of Getting Things Done, a Tickler File consists of a series of 43 file folders: 12 monthly and 31 daily folders. Items are filed in a folder corresponding to when the item will need to be handled, thus reminding or “tickling” the user about it. These items might be action reminders, bills, receipts, reports, letters, or any number of other things.
I’ve tried recreating the 43 folders approach digitally (several times), but that’s ultimately unnecessary. The purpose of a tickler system is to make sure you have what you need for a particular action on a particular day and you act on it. Since we aren’t likely to moving digital project files around very much (and we can often simply link to them), what we really need is a dependable reminder system.
Google Calendar all day events
All-day events are an easy way to create ticklers that are day – but not necessarily time – specific. You can do this with most any calendar app, but since I’m married to Gmail, Gcal is an obvious choice. Using a calendar app that can send you reminders (pop ups, email, etc) is required.
As you see above, I’ve got two things to do this Saturday: buy crickets for Rupert (my fire belly toad) and clean the garage.
Ticklers by Email
In Calendar Settings > Calendars > Notifications (of a specific calendar), there is an option for Daily Agendas.
I turn this on for all my calendars so I receive ticklers by email every morning. This ensures I don’t forget my ticklers even when I forget to check my calendar.
(in case you’re wondering, “clean garage” didn’t get added until after the email was sent)
Evernote: ticklers without dates and other miscellanea
Not all ticker items have dates. Sometimes, too, you just don’t want to forget about something. These kinds of items often find their way onto my Tickler file in Evernote.
I use a single file for my Evernote ticklers and as you see above, I keep Ticklers next to my Today list so I conveniently review both. Because I frequently check my Today list and Ticklers is always with it, I rarely miss checking my ticklers. This strategic placement, in it’s own way, is a reminder.
When there are items I no longer feel I can do today, I will add it to my Evernote tickler marked by the day I feel best to do them. Quite often, my Ticklers file in Evernote will hold reminders of fun things to do like “Stimulus Tuesdays” at the local movie theatre or “fish and chips”.
A bit of overlap
I suppose some tickler items could be added to Google Calendar instead of Evernote or vice versa, removing the need for both. This is the ‘or’ I referred to earlier. Frankly I’m not concerned if the functions of Gcal and my Evernote tickler file overlap; the goal is to get things done and as long as I’m productive and not being redundant, I’d say I’m doing things right enough.
Related Posts:
8Simpler Evernote GTD
New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 5: Workflows
So far in this series, we’ve examined the structure and principles of my Evernote based GTD system. Now we’ll explore a bit of the workflow.
My tasks and projects come in from one of four inboxes: Evernote on my computer, Evernote on my phone, Gmail, and my notebook(s). If I can do something quickly, I try to do it immediately; otherwise, I have to make some decisions. As always, if something doesn’t fit in my Horizons, I throw it out.
Collection of GTD flow charts
For easy reference, here are few flow charts that help illustrate how I’m getting things done. Includes daily review, weekly review, and processing.
Related Posts:
4Simpler Evernote GTD
New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 4: Context Lists
In the course of this series, I’ve gone wavered on having a separate notebook for my context lists or combining it with my Next notebook. This week context lists have their own.
Here are my current context lists:
- @agendas – People with whom I need to speak. Each line begins with their name followed by a dash and the subject, such as “Mary – package arrived”.
- @computer – Only items that can be done on the computer. Since most of my work is here, this list can be long, but I usually only put items in this list that are not project specific. Those tasks go in the next actions section of my project notes.
- @decide – Things I need to make my mind up about.
- @email – Well… email.
- @errands - Groceries, appointments, etc.
- @home - Items that are specific to where I live and not online or on the phone.
- @office - Things I can only do at work.
- @phone - Calls I need to make.
- @planning - Things I’ll most likely be brainstorming, mind mapping about. Problems and obstacles, mostly, and attack plans for various things. Also includes things I need to read and review.
- @recording - Tasks for when I’m working on my new CD. Requires being in the home studio, working on songs.
- @waiting for - Things I’m waiting to hear back on from other people. Written just like @agendas items (and usually copied and pasted that way).
- @writing - Might be at the computer, might be long hand, but I’ll be writing, just the same.
Related Posts:
4GTD system.
Four Ways to Sync Gmail with Evernote
If Evernote is your note management tool and Gmail is what you use for email, inevitably you will need to get information from one place to another. For me, that means sycning Gmail with Evernote (more or less) and I do that three ways:
Forward emails to your Evernote inbox
When you create an Evernote account, you’re given an email address which you can send things to. If I need to keep an entire email, I’ll forward it to this address.
Paste Gmail web addresses to Evernote
If you want quick access to an email, you can link to it by viewing the open email and copy and pasting the web address from Gmail into Evernote. If you’re using the new split screen lab option, however, this won’t be possible.
Clip to Evernote tool
Evernote has a collection of add-ons and installs that put clipping tools into all the major browsers. I typically use Chrome, so I’m using the Chrome extension. With this I can select some email text I wish to keep (or the full web page) and press the clip button. The clip will then appear in my Evernote inbox.
Third party tools
A quick search revealed that there are some third party syncing tools floating around, but I’ve been reluctant to try them. Have experience and thoughts on any of these? Tell us in the comments!
Related Posts:
0muri, and kaizen.
Simpler Evernote GTD
[Updated] New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 3: Removing the Waste (Muri, Muda, Mura)
For Part 3 of this series, I intended to focus on the notebooks in my Evernote GTD system. However after reading a bit about muri, muda, and mura, I decided to take a fresh look to see how wasteful my system might be.
This led to all kinds of questions: how much value is there in anything I do? How wasteful is a design? A user experience? A conversation? A song?
Muri, muda, and mura are three traditional Japanese terms for wasteful activities. If you’re a Lean practitioner or familiar with Toyota’s praised just-in-time methodology, you’ve probably heard these terms before. For the sake of brevity, I recommend reading the summaries that Bob Hubbard has collected from Wikipedia on his blog.
For our purposes, muri, muda, and mura are things that are slowing productivity.
Muri, muda, and mura in my Evernote GTD system and beyond
The following are questions I asked myself as I worked at simplifying my system and analyzed how I’d been trying to get things done:
Muda of overproduction
Am I producing too much? I’d never considered that. I always want to do more. But how much value is there in my completed projects? Is doing so much getting me closer to reaching goals or just giving me short-term satisfaction? Perhaps a fresh 80/20 analysis is necessary.
Muda of waiting
Are my projects moving along smoothly or do they stop and start? Maybe I’m not processing things correctly or thoroughly enough? Is overproduction causing more important things to wait? Is simple procrastination a cause?
Muda of transportation
How far does an email have to travel before it’s in my system? How far do I have to reach to act on it? Could I reduce the distance between inbox and system, agenda and person, etc?
Muda of processing
Am I processing too much? For instance, how much of my daily or weekly reviews are needed, valuable? Am I over-organizing? With my project template for Evernote, I believe I was.
Muda of inventory
This concept was a little difficult to apply, but it got me thinking again about how much value there was in what I am producing. How is what I’m doing now – even this blog post – propelling my life and goals forward?
Muda of motion
How far am I having to move things within my system? How many moving parts are there? Could grouping differently be more efficient? Do I have to have notebooks that read like a how-to from a David Allen book in order to be applying GTD correctly?
My conclusion: what works, works. I don’t see much value in rethinking David Allen’s many years of trial and error so I stick with the principles, but I can name my notebooks anything and group my lists any way I choose.
Muda of rework
Bigger considerations here: how much quality is there in what I do? Am I rushing, cutting corners? Am I doing the same work several times instead of touching once?
Muri – overburdened
How difficult is my GTD system to maintain? Is there redundancy? (the answer was ‘yes’) Can we do more with less? (again the answer was ‘yes’)
Mura – unevenness
This exercise truly blew my mind. How much external need is there for my internal efforts? Am I meeting a demand that doesn’t exist? Where is the pull?
For instance with this blog, is there really such a demand for all these posts? Could a slow, more calculated pace produce better content, content that people are actually searching for? Should I be listening more and responding in kind?
While I’ve already taken steps to simplify my current Evernote + GTD system (see part 2), this is a matter of kaizen, “continuous improvement”. Small, calculated changes will give us the biggest results without slowing down the production line.
As I clear the way to put only those things I need along my path, I’m sure there will be further discoveries.
Further reading
- Mura, Muri, Muda
- What is Muda?
- Bob’s Lean Learning
- Practice your personal Kaizen (refers to GTD)
- Kaizen and Pareto working together with GTD
Updates
I’ve added some graphics to help make skimming the post easier. Too much text, not enough guideposts. I’ve also rewritten parts since my excitement to share was faster than clear writing.
Related Posts:
7Simpler Evernote GTD
New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 2: Revised Structure and “Next” Notebook
For a few weeks now, I’ve been using Evernote as the main tool in my Getting Things Done system. Since my last post, I’ve simplified my system even further, so much so that I think I’ve got a final notebook arrangement. We’ll see by part 3.
The new notebook structure:
- Inbox – incoming items
- Next – Today, context lists, agendas
- Projects: Active - only those I’m truly working on right now
- Projects: Someday – maybe’s, too.
- Lists – checklists, ideas, etc.
- Horizons – goals, vision, etc.
- Motivation – personal inspiration
- Public – notes I’m sharing with everybody
- Reference – archived notes
If you compare this with the last arrangement, you can see that I’ve combined a few notebooks. Routines, Lists, and Ideas are all under Lists. The Next notebook holds my agenda for the day, plans for the week/month/year, context lists, and Agendas/Waiting for lists (named for individual people).
So far this is working great. With fewer notebooks to review, my scanning is more thorough and I have much less redundancy. I’m optimistic that this is an arrangement I can live with for a while.
In Part 3, I will give you a closer look at each of my notebooks and I how use them.
Related Posts:
4Simpler Evernote GTD
New, Simpler Evernote GTD System, Part 1: Structure & Agendas
Lots of activity on Hanami lately about my efforts with GTD, specifically with using Evernote. Been working on that and this is Part 1 of a short series on my revised Evernote GTD system (August 2011). Let’s jump right in with the basic structure and the Agendas notebook.
Please note: I lean heavily on my email inboxes and Google Calendar, but this series focuses just on the Evernote aspects of my personal Getting Things Done system.
Structure
Unlike previous arrangements that focused on making the notebooks look very GTD-like, I now arrange by frequency of use and convenience.
- Agendas. Today, @agendas, and related (more below).
- Projects. Active only.
- Lists. Context lists and more.
- Ideas. Just my thoughts, man.
- Someday/Maybe. Projects inactive and incubating.
- Horizons. Notes on why I’m doing and who I want to be.
- Routines. Checklists for things I do somewhat frequently (might eventually become part of Lists).
- Reviews. Weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly review lists.
- Motivation. Pictures and quotes for inspiration, self-encouragement.
- Public. Evernotes I’m sharing with you fine folks.
- Reference. My archives.
- Tags. Take a look at this post for my approach to Areas.
Agendas Notebook
Things that I regularly reach for on a daily basis and notes that frame what I’m doing now in terms of short-term goals. I don’t want to reach far for anything so whatever I need to do today should go here.
- 00. Today. In order, my tasks of the day. I often group these by @context.
- 01. Ticklers – Days/Months. Used mostly for tasks I need off my list today and into the future. Most ticklers go into my calendar.
- 02. Ticklers – No date. Things that are still more or less on my personal radar but aren’t date associated.
- 03. Scrum. Notes for the morning meetings at work. Split between two work areas, further divided by Today and Yesterday.
- 04. Daily Review. My daily GTD checklist I use this everyday.
- 05. Copy & Paste. Not everything I copy and paste frequently, just the daily stuff.
- 06. This Week. Helps to have my plan for the week with my plan for the day. Makes reviews easier.
- 07. This Month. Plan and goals for the month.
- 08. This Year. Plan and goals for the year.
- @Agendas. Unlike the above which are numbered, my @agendas are notes named for people I need to talk to and/or am waiting for. No need for a separate notebook when I’m likely talking to them about something I’m working on today or this week.
Plain Text
One other significant change I’ve made lately is to avoid formatting my notes in Evernote wherever possible. I’ve come to realize that I’ve been spending an exorbitant amount of time prettying up instead of actually doing something.
So now I try to keep things super freaking simple.
A bonus of that is I can better manage my notes on the Evernote on the iPhone, which doesn’t currently support rich text editing.
Next Posts
I’ll be going down the list as outlined above so next up should be Projects. Happy tasking!
Related Posts:
5Responsibility?
Not sure if
they are all
the same.
Using Tags for GTD Areas of Focus in Evernote
A few weeks ago I posted about an experiment that used a stack and a collection of notebooks in Evernote to organize my Areas of Focus (or Responsibility). I abandoned that approach for several reasons, mostly due to a recent urge to reduce the number of notebooks I was trying to juggle.
I went back to using a hierarchy of tags and simple set of rules.
Rules for Areas of Focus/Evernote tags
- Tags are used only for Areas.
- All notes must be tagged.
- If a note doesn’t fit in an area, throw it out.
To make things a little easier to quick sort, I place my areas into three super groups: Career, Personal, and Work. Arguably I could get by on just these, but I’ve found it helps me keep a clearer picture of who I am and want to be by having a second level to my hierarchy.
Related Posts:
6Simple Evernote GTD Projects with Next Action Preview
This quick change makes it easy to keep your project list ordered by due date, sortable by area of responsibility, and ready for scanning next actions:
- Create a notebook called Projects
- Title each project note using this pattern: Year + Month + Day + Verb + Title
- Make sure Evernote is ordering Notes by Title
- Create tags for your areas of responsibility and apply them to your notes
- Put your next actions first in your project notes
- Activate snippet view
Evernote should now look something like this:
Just by going to your Projects notebook you can see:
- Which projects are due
- When the projects were started (day the note was created)
- What areas the projects fall under
- Which actions are next
Leave a comment or send one to me on Twitter.
Related Posts:
6Hanami Design
Weeks 30-31 Results & Experiments
Lean and mean is the theme for Week 31.
- Evernote as comprehensive organization and life tool [Inconclusive]
While Evernote could very well be the killer app for organizing one’s entire life, I’ve come to realize that I’ve been spending too much time organizing and not enough time doing. On hold, for now. - Evernote project template [Failure]
So much effort with so little reward. How many tasks could I have completed if I’d not have bothered? - Daily battle plan [Success]
One page plan for the day. Tasks are in a flexible order for when I think it’s best to do them. Makes keep on track so much easier and batch processing a cinch. - Date-first project note titles [Success]
For example: “2011-08-01 Write: Week 30-31 Results & Experiments”. Even if the dates are arbitrary, my project folder now prioritizes itself so what I need to be working on is always at the top. - Streamline my GTD system [In progress]
Taking a hard look at the waste in my system. What good is being organized if I’ve not saved myself time?
Have a productive week, everybody!
Related Posts:
5Hanami Design
Experiments and Results for Weeks 28, 29, and 30
Due to a few curveballs that life threw me recently, I’ve not had much of a chance to write. Therefore I’m summing up three week’s worth of experiments here, including those I’ve slated for this week, week #30.
- Evernote: Stacks for Areas [Success]
This was a silly little experiment that had me creating a notebook for each of my areas of focus and piling them into a stack. Wow. Deep thinking there. However seeing everything so nicely arranged like my areas in Things, I got thinking about how, with some discipline, I might be able to ween myself off of using two tools for basic task/project management and revisit using just Evernote. That led me to… - Evernote as comprehensive organization and life tool [In progress]
With my work now spanning several internet devices, I need tools that are available anywhere. All my email is online, why not my tasks? So I took the weekend to move all my projects and related actions into Evernote and I’ll soon post the results. So far, so good. - Evernote project template [In progress]
I posted a bit about this last week, but the experiment continues. I expect to tie updates about this along with my experiment on using Evernote as an all-in-one tool. - Working in more pushups and crunches into my day [Failure]
Not convenient to do push-ups just anywhere, so I’m considering this a failure. For now. - Add options for inline measurement unit switcher jQuery plugin [Success]
Things are shaping up – see for yourself! - Enhancing iTunes smart playlist like form [Pending]
Nothing new on this front. - Stealth usability feedback gathering [Abandoned]
Instead of stealth, we’ll be using surveys. Not really sure why I even included this one. - Writing my immediate next task – and only that task – on an index card [Success]
I keep this by my desk at work to remind me of what it is I’m supposed to be working on. Easy to jump away and this helps me get back in focus.
- Replace beer with white wine spritzers [Success]
I live in the Pacific Northwest where we love our beer hoppy and sometimes strong enough to make you stupid. However beer was overstaying its welcome around my mid section. While I still allow myself a pint or two when I’m out, I’ve replaced beer at home with white wine spritzers and the difference is noticeable: I’ve dropped a significant percentage of my belly fat in just a few weeks. This could be a permanent lifestyle change. - A daily battle plan [In progress]
Writing a to do list no longer seems enough. I’m now listing what I need to do in the order I feel is most optimal. Worked well over the weekend, but the real test is a work week.
Hopefully this week is more conducive to writing – we’ll see.
Related Posts:
0Results: Experiments with Using an Evernote Stack for Projects and Areas of Focus
The goal of this experiment was to see if using a stack of notebooks dedicated to my GTD Areas of Focus would work better than my hierarchy of tags. Each notebook would house my projects. My hope was that a set of notebooks would work better than tags because dragging and dropping would also mean sorting.
Admittedly not the most demanding thing I’ve ever tried productivity-wise, but I’m dedicated to weekly experiments and this was one I allotted for last week. Almost seemed too trivial to write about.
But in short, yes, this approach worked just fine – at least until I synced with the iPhone app. Stacks are not yet available there. I have read they are on the way so it might be worth sticking it out.
So I’ll keep toying with this for a while and will post an update if it the results warrant it.
Related Posts:
1Things to notes
in Evernote!
[Updated] Finally! Linking Things or Anything to Evernote
Thank you to David Torné for pointing me towards this holy grail moment: it is now possible to link Things (or probably any other productivity application) directly to notes in Evernote, desktop and iPhone.
In Evernote, right click over a note in the list view. Click Copy Note Link.
Open the Things Quick Entry window or go to Things and start a new task. Paste the link into the Notes area.
That’s it!
Naturally you can link just about any program to notes. Curious as to how this will work online… I suspect notes could probably have a unique URL already, which would likely make this pretty easy for programs like Toodledo, possibly Outlook.
At least now we can bring two amazing productivity tools together for the first time.
Update
Though it worked initially, later in the day copying the links only pasted text. To make sure they work, sometimes you have to paste the link into a note then copy the link you just pasted. Weird, but it works.
