Hitting the limitations of NoteBook

So I have had a few months of day-to-day experience with my NoteBook configuration for GTD. And this is where I run into problems, because of the limitations of the software.

To get a list of relevant actions in a particular context, I need to go to SuperFind, and do a query on Incomplete items for the keyword that corresponds to the context. Fair enough, but I can't save this query as a "smart folder" or "Smart index page", so every time I switch context, I need to do this again. Although it doesn't take more than a few minutes, that is still too much.

When I get the result list, I see the actions , but I can't check them off: I need to go to their project page and do it there, and then go back to the SuperFind result.

I want to be able to switch between the context view and project view of an action in one click (see Tracks ), and be able to check it off in any of these views.

Since I work with a team, and am dependent on a lot of other people to get things done for me, I need to have an efficient way of dealing with "Waiting for" items.

For the moment, the only mechanism I have for this is Keywords, the vehicle I use for Contexts. And I run into the same limitations, obviously...

I guess, until NoteBook allows me to save the SuperFind criteria in a "smart" Index page, it will never be suitable for GTD...

One Project per page doesn't work

After a few months I have decided to refactor my notebook. Having a page per project makes it a bit clumsy to do the weekly review. Worse, it still requires too much overhead when I need to create a new project. Personal productivity is all about tricks and making small but often repeated tasks very efficient.

So I have now moved all my projects onto a single outlining page, sorted by Due Date, with the top-level items being the projects, and their children the Actions. I have added another abbreviation in TypeIt4Me (pr=> Project) and normally keep the whole page "collapsed". Behold the Project List...

Creating a new project is now as simple as pressing Return, pr and typing the name of the project. That beats creating a new page any time.

Also, I have changed my settings for outlines such that the checking off of "children" of an item doesn't automatically check off the parent, and that the due date of a parent is the latest due date of the children. For any project, I create a subordinate item to set the target completion date. Let's see how that works over the next few months...

Alternatively, I could set the project due date to be the earliest due date of the actions. That would present the project list sorted by the urgency of the need to take an action. Not sure what is best...

So that's what I will be trying in the medium term.

more later...

Keeping Next Actions organized

For every Project, I have set up a "Next Actions" section whose children are the actions that constitute the project.

To keep these somewhat in check, I use 2 tricks:

Using TypeIt4Me, I make sure that every action for myself starts with "Action:" (I just typed "ac" to put this in this post, and every delegated action with "Waiting for:... " ("wa")

Then, I apply an Automatic Sort with the following keys:

1. Status Checkbox:

• ... moves the actions automatically to the bottom of the page as soon as they have been ticked off.

2. Due Date:

• ... sorts them by urgency

3. Text:

• ... sorts them alphabetically, so the Actions and Waiting for-s are grouped separately

The page format is such that it shows the Due Date, Keywords and stickers.

more to follow...

GTD basics in Circus Ponies Notebook

Here are the basic setup choices I have made for GTD using Notebook...


Contexts
For every Context, you create a Keyword. This makes sense because every page or entry can be tagged with a Keyword. Creating a Keyword is something you can't do in a few clicks, but that doesn't matter.

Projects
I ruled out using a separate file for every Project, but that simply doesn't work for me: Projects get created all the time, and I didn't want the overhead of copying a template every time, filling in the title etc..

The GTD concept of a project is very simple (anything that requires more than one action), so I find myself having about twenty GTD projects within what I call one of my projects ( I manage a number software development projects).

The next level down for a project could be a divider, but that gives me almost the same overhead when I want to set up a new one.

Initially, I chose to use a 1-page-per-project approach: For every new project, I created a new outlining page (from the contents table is the quickest way). Then comes the first bit where I use TypeIt4Me. I have set up a number of abbreviations that help me very quickly to create headers for "Purpose" ,"Vision of Success" etc., and then of course one for "Next Actions".

Next Actions
The Next Actions entry was given "child entries", which are the Actions required to move the project forward. These include my own , as well as delegated actions (waiting for...).

More about how this is organized in my next post (have to attend to my paternal duties now...)

In the next few weeks, I will be taking you through the process of setting up GTD using 2 great pieces of software, running on what is obviously the greatest platform: Mac OS X.

The heart of the system is CircusPonies NoteBook (www.circusponies.com), arguably the best note-taking and outlining application on te market.

I will set up a NoteBook template and a process that allows a highly efficient an manageable implementation of GTD.

The NoteBook is then super-charged by using a nifty (sorry, this must be so "eighties" ...) utility called TypeIt4me (www.typeit4me.com) . Watch this space.

I started this blog to share my experience of implementing David Allen's Getting Things Done.
I know, there must be already dozens of websites, blogs, forum entries out there... So why would anyone be interested in mine?

Don't know. Let's see...