What's the next action

5 GTD systems I should be using someday...maybe.

15 01 07 - 23:05 - Bookmark this post

The article from last saturday caught me by surprise I must say. I am not used to receiving that much comments on one article and I must say, I love it. Thank you for your input, your thoughts, ideas and follow up posts on your own blogs. Keep'em coming, because it helps me in finding a more perfect way in my own personal productivity.

In various comments there were mentions of different other systems that should or could do the trick of making me the stressfree productivity zenmaster I long to be. So as a little follow up to the 5 systems I stopped using, here are 5 mentions of systems I or you could be using...

My Life Organized
One of the most mentioned apps the last couple of days is MLO or My Life Organized. And I must say, when you check out the site and the features of the program, very interesting...But when I look at the pricetag I am a little bummed out. I haven't tried it yet, but I read reviews and I might try it someday.

Text
This one is for the textfetish among you. Big textfiles on your Mac or PC, working the way you want. Very simple, very tweakable. Together with apps like ActiveWord, Quicksilver, Getfingertips etc to populate it and live by it. I am not a textperson. Sorry. Tried it in the past for a couple of days but not my cup of tea. There are some excellent resources on making your own textbased system. Check out Lifehacker and GTD Wannabe for starters.

Excel
I found this little pearl of wisdom while browsing some GTD-feeds this weekend. Again, Excel is not my kind of app. I think it's some teenage angst from the nineties or so, I don't know. But Excel is for making spreadsheets, not building your life around it. But check out the article this guy wrote about his use of Excel and perhaps it is something you want to try out.

Moleskine
Ahhh...How could I forget. Ye olde Moleskine! The notebook of the great and glorious! And yep, there is my problem with it. I have 4 Moleskines. And I dare not write notes in them. The problem with Moleskines is the same problem with fresh fallen snow in your yard. It's too pretty to damage. You don't walk into a big field of fresh fallen snow with your boots. Snowboarding through it is another thing, I know from experience...but you admire it, take pictures, look at it. And do nothing. Same with my Moleskines. I hate my handwriting and I don't like the way the notebooks turn out for me. All kinds of scribles, crossed out thoughts, half pages with some words...Nope, the Moleskine is more for special occassions I guess.

ThinkingRock
Several people mentioned ThinkingRock and to be honest, I had it installed already but didn't get around to try it. So yesterday I exported my mindmap and imported it into TR. And I must say, very interesting program! I am not quite used to the terms used in the program like "Thoughts" and "Topics" and turning collected items into projects is somewhat of a hassle, but at first glance, TR looks as something with potential for me. It is easy, small, somewhat configurable and does what it needs to do around the GTD system. I'm gonna try this for a while and see how it goes.

So after 5 systems I stopped using, here are 5 systems I could be using and one of them I am actually using. Thanks everybody for the kind words and tips. If you have some more, please don't hesitate to put them in the comments here or at the other article.

And Pascal, I'm gonna think about your idea you dropped in the comments. I want to give it another spin than the thought you mentioned :-)

Excellent posts on GTD tools! I, too, have been down the same road and have discovered that there isn’t a “perfect” tool — much to my dismay :) I have tried the same software as you, with the exact same results.

ThinkingRock is 99% perfect — my only complaint is that I cannot sync with Outlook in any way (unless there is a method I haven’t seen — how did you IMPORT your MindMap?). When I receive dozens of emails each day it is nice to be able to turn them into TASKS (i.e. Reply emails).

Believe it or not, Franklin-Covey’s Outlook add-in is terrific. It allows the creation of PROJECTS as well as TASK creations from emails. I have combined it with ClearContext — 99.5% great.

Thank you and keep up the terrific posts!

Cheers from Texas.

Jeff H
Jeff H - 16 01 07 - 06:07

I’m a recent convert to all-analog gtd, and I have 3 moleskines as part of my system. If you’re interested, you can read about it here

Cheers!
Brett - 16 01 07 - 06:34

Very curious about your insights with ThinkingRock, please keep us posted. There are many ways to use it, and I think there is a tread on their forums too about “how you use ThinkingRock”. You’ll be surprise how many standpoints can you have by using the same piece of software.
Dragos Roua - 16 01 07 - 09:44

After making several tests, I’ve decided to adopt the following systems:

1) MonkeyGTD as my main system. Next actions, projects, someday/maybe…. Everything is there.

2) I carry a small (3×5”) personal organizer with calendar, appointments, addresses, etc. I usually bind to the organizer, using an elastic, a few 3×5” cards with my errands and work tasks and a coupe blank cards to write down a) any stuff I think I should remender and process when I’m at home and; b) my daily expenses, which I record on my personal accounting software (GNUCash) when I arrive at home.

The most difficult part of that system was to find blank 3×5” cards (they’re not very common here in Brazil), but it was worth the pain. I consider my home system comprehensive enough and my portable system, well, portable enough :)
Cristiano Canguçu - 16 01 07 - 16:20

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have released a new version of Vitalist (an online GTD app) over at http://www.vitalist.com

Some of the new features include: drag-n-drop action priorities, mobile edition, email & sms reminders, ical and xml feeds, ssl support, file attachments, recurring actions, and a new server which should speed things up.
Matt Berg - 16 01 07 - 20:14

Why, Oh why Frank do you keep looking for technical solutions to such relativally simple problems? Maybe any system (with its negative sides) instead of moving all your lists from one system to another would buy you a lot of time to really get things done.
Martijn - 17 01 07 - 22:16

Re: Moleskines. Sure, they were “used by the great and glorious,” as their marketing department is eager to tell us. You’ve got to ask yourself: How were they used by Hemingway and Van Gogh? As final publications? Are there Van Gogh Moleskine pages hanging on museum walls? Heck, no!

These guys used their notebooks the same way I use mine, as catch-all collection buckets if you will, for the quick and hasty capture of ideas, notes, partial sentences etc. So write away. I have three: Two pocked sized notebooks for GTD (one for work and one for home) and a large sized notebook for brainstorming, etc. I use all of them as utilitarian tools, like a hammer or a pickup truck. Don’t be scared off by “Hemingway had one.” I’m sure he spilled plenty of wine on his.
Dave - 21 01 07 - 13:31

Thanks. Found this and your earlier GTD tools post very helpful.
I am now deciding on which “less than perfect” tool to settle with. At present it’s a match between MyLife Organized, Ultra Recall, and do-Organizer. All very good. All missing key features. Hmmm…

Jonathan
Jonathan Evatt - 28 07 07 - 06:45

Hi.
I have both ThinkingRock 2 and MyLife Organized.
I must say that if you’re going to use your moleskine for
both inbox and processing, no need for ThinkingRock.
It’s pretty much an app that helps you process your stuff easier. And you can also build up projects etc etc.

But that would mean that in order to see your next action or check-off something, you would have to be by your computer.

I use MyLife Organized to break down big projects I have here where my computer is available.

For using a Moleskine for inbox / processing / next action / projects, check my blog for an idea on how to set it up.

Theres also lots of good tutorials on the web.

Moleskine GTD tutorial: http://jangeisler.wordpress.com

email me if you got any questions :)

-Good luck
Jan G - 02 05 08 - 02:11