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...