OmniFocus

I spent yesterday looking at the new OmniFocus demo video.

I've tried a few products on both the PC and my new MacBook Pro to record my GTD needs. Kinkless is the product that I've had the best results with and it is very closely related to OmniFocus.

I come across a couple of "wouldn't it be nice" moments when using kinkless, but after watching the video yesterday they all seem to have been addressed and some. The new features look REALLY good.

I've joined the mailing list for the product and I'm hoping that the posts regarding a public beta in the next few weeks are true. Can't wait to get stuck in.

Paper based or Electronic?

Its a question that everyone that looked at GTD will have asked. Do I use paper and pen of do I store things electronically?

Fear not the answer is here!! Why not hack a moleskine to be a hard-drive case!

[Building a moleskine hard-drive cover via 43Folders]

Change of Plan - Journalling

Following my previous post on journalling, I have (in a quite typical fashion) completely changed my mind!! I don't think this is a bad thing though and I think that systems and tools should be constantly reviewed to see if they are still the best option. Granted, this is a pretty quick change, even by my faddy standards!!

I was trying out iGTD at the same time as Scrivener and it was proving to be quite a useful tool, the interface was good and I invested some time in getting all of my inbox transferred into it. Something happened though and it appeared to reverted to a set of data that was a few days older and I had lost a considerable amount of tasks and thoughts.

I turned then to the trusty Merlin Mann at 43Folders and looked for a similar product and decided to try kinkless GTD (I like the look of OmniFocus but that isn't available yet). From what I can see OmniFocus and kinkless GTD are similar and the developers appear to be friendly by reading the blog posts. I'm guessing that as kinkless uses OmniOutliner as its engine, that there may be a path of upgrade.

The long and the short of it is that I figured I could also use OmniOutliner to record my weekly journal, so I've held back on the purchase of Scrivener for that reason. It is a good tool, but it didn't quite feel right in the end.

As an extention to this post I also took the GTD book back off the shelf and have started reading it again, just to polish the edges on technique!

Easy To-do

Following on from yesterdays post I spotted this on the DIY Planner blog. It speaks of a little piece of software which ticked some boxes for me. It allows me to create recurring tasks (a feature I'm fond of in Remember the Milk) but it has all the information offline. I've downloaded it for a trial, but seems to offer a lot of configurability and could fit nicely with my system.

[GTD@Work: My Quest Ends from DIY Planner]

[Easy To-Do from Xanadu Tools]

My Building Blocks

I read "Getting Things Done" over a year ago now and since then have read other books and posts on GTD and other productivity matters ("The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (/Families), 43 Folders etc). I have developed my own set of tools which I use regularly to help me stay on top of things. This system is not fixed and I make regular tweaks and test new products all the time - some get adopted, sometimes I revert to my original method.

Inbox
I have several email accounts (personal, my company, current assignment etc) and I clear all of them down daily. By clear down I mean deal with, so I use the 2 minute mantra, that if it can be done in 2 minutes, why wait?... do it now. This mainly involves just reading them and filing them. I also have a paper inbox for post - I don't get as much of that, so this is easily managed. Mainly its bills that need paying or invoices to be filed.

Capture
I have 2 moleskines. A pocket moleskine that I carry with me at all times in my bag (more later) and an A5 moleskine which I use in meetings etc to jot down notes. I use a Fisher Space Pen to take notes (also kept in my bag).

Day Book
I used to fill in a day book (journal) at work - which has proved to be very useful when recalling information in the past. I have recently switched over to using Microsoft OneNote as a test replacement for a paper day book. I like the idea of having it electronically, searchable etc. Is there a similar product that could be used on the mac though? Any suggestions?

Calendar
I use GCal as my calendar application - the only disadvantage being that an internet connection is required. For assignment related dated items I use Lotus Notes, which links all employees calendars together and allows meetings to be scheduled etc. I've used Lotus Notes for about 6 months now and I really don't like it very much. It just seems really old fashioned. When I get the mac I shall be using iCal.

Contact Management
As I've mentioned in past posts, my contact management is a mess. I'm looking forward to getting the mac (for many reasons), but one is that it will be a catalyst to shake things up and get realigned - particularly with contacts. I have so many places that store information at the moment that its really not managable.

ToDo
Lists are critical areas of GTD, so its important that I have this right. Unfortunately, this is the area that I tweak most, which suggests that I'm not completely happy with the solution, maybe the mac will provide me that? At the moment I use Remember the Milk as my task manager - which is good. I'm obviously not completely happy with it though as I have a nagging doubt all the time. Again is based online (which can sometimes be a disadvantage). Merlin & Co have given many tips for applications for the mac, so I'm bound to find something that I like.

Tickler File
I have a 43 folders tickler file as per the GTD groupings of days and months. I use this to store documents that need action on certain dates, bills, holiday itineries etc This has permanent residence in the home office and gets reviewed weekly.

Review
Again I'm always tweaking my review, I used to think Fridays was a good time, but now do it on Monday mornings. I look at the week ahead on my calendars, check through my projects and next actions lists, clear out inboxes and perform weekly admin tasks (raising invoices etc)

Other Tools
I've recently starting using quite a few of David Seah's Printable CEO forms - they suit my current assignment quite well. Its also got me thinking about what I would like in my own form if I made one. Some more online tools I use on a daily basis to help organise things are del.icio.us and Google Reader, which I use to tag articles to read and store for future reference. I use Microsoft excel and Money to record my finances.

Hardware
At present I'm exclusively PC. I have a reasonably meaty desktop towers at the home office, which is home to all the business software and files (and gets regularly backed up). I have an old laptop which I use just to write these posts and record my day and a work laptop (which I think might be even older) supplied to me by my client, which has the necessary access to Lotus Notes etc. I'd like my mac to have VMWare installed so that I can switch to other images if required (I have already got an archive of several images)

Bags
I like bags! I usually always have a bag of some sort with me. I have a small bag which goes most places for essential gear, notebook, wallet, phone, TomTom etc. I also highly recommend a TimBuk2, which I use when I need to take more stuff around.

So, I hope that my new mac is going to bring together all my loose ends and make me more productive. On that note I've decided to get the mac in March no-matter what. If I have to upgrade to Leopard later so be it - I can't wait!

Good news, Bad news week

This blog experiment (which I'm just picking up again after a fantastic break away with the family) has always been based on the idea that as I finished by planned build up posts, Apple would release Leopard and I'd go and get my first mac. My posts would them continue with the trials I have getting into the mac groove.

I heard a rumour that end of March would be the date of release, but listening to my podcasts this week, it appears that it might be as late as June.

On the flip side, GTD guru Merlin Mann of 43Folders is releasing a new video podcast from Monday. Looking forward to watching him some more.

Keeping track of contacts

I have a system, based on a hacked GTD model that works quite well for me. It needs refining, and I'm holding off on spending too much time on that process, until I get the mac book purchased and learn new tools and applications.

One area that I seem to be the most disorganised in (and it stands out like a sore thumb), is contact management. I don't have a single "master" list of contact information, its spread about. Its not even spread about in similar formats, I've got an A5 filofax, Microsoft Outlook Contacts, GMail contacts, Locknote files and my mobile phone address book. Add to that the Lotus Notes address book of the company that I'm working at too.

Its not even that I know I have to look in the filofax for personal contacts, its really just every where!

So, when the mac arrives, I hope to consolidate all my contact information into a mac based application. The plan is to put all my contact information into Address Book.

What I need to know is - is this the best application to use? Does it allow contacts to have sensitive information protected? Thats what I use my locknote files for.

What do you use?

The Dream

So I'd put myself back at square one. If I was going to start over, what tools & methods would I use in my system - knowing what I've picked up along the way? How would I integrate these things? I started by imagining what the perfect set up would be. To have a creative, photography art based career, using a host of mac equipment. I'd work form a very well lit, open plan area with a studio (a little like this one from Flayfemouse). Probably in an old warehouse that I'd bought, had restored and was getting a second stream of income from the like minded individuals who rented space from me (as well as the large Costa Coffee franchise I installed on the bottom floor, next to the deli). There would obviously be free WiFi coverage in the whole building so that work could be done anywhere. I wouldn't have to spend as long in the car (normally 1 hour each way per day formy current contract), that would free up more time with the family. I'd know exactly what to do with my time from my well designed "runs itself" system (based on knowledge from 7 habits, GTD, the money tree etc) Now coming back into my world, this is not happening any time soon (if ever) - but keeping that ubermaclife in mind I am setting out to replicate it as best I can. In the coming weeks I will be adding more chapters in the start of this journey, including

• my exposure to macs and why I think they'd suit me
• my financial planning
• starting my own business
• my existing GTD system
• my existing computer and the applications I use
• why do I need to switch at all?

After all that I'm going to buy my first mac - the posts will come thick and fast at this stage as I learn about mac OSX and aquiring the tools I think I'll need to run my ubermaclife.

Remember the Milk

My next big post is going to be about the tools that I am currently using in my system. I was drawn, however to this post about using Remember the milk. I use remember the milk to record a number of lists, mainly @calls & @PC lists from my GTD system.

The reason I chose these lists inparticular is that if I'm looking for things to do on the PC, I'll likely be online so I can check items on RTM. Since the integration of RTM in GoogleCalendar I've also set up some repeat lists (mainly to jog my memory to pay bills etc for the new business). I also have a wishlist for products, books, movies, music that I need to have.

I feel that I'm not utilising RTM fully. One of the tips from the original post (below) suggest using tags to the items as the GTD identifier @calls etc - I can see that working as RTM enables you to view a single tag.

Any other great ideas, please let me know.

GTD with RTM [via lifehack.org]