I’m blogging about GTD and eProductivity. If you want to join with me in this journey you can follow me by rss feed, by email or through Twitter
I’ve done my weekly review and as always eProductivity powered GTD is making my life both managable and considerably more productive (to which I mean I’m now doing more things that have significant impact) than before.
It is time however to mention a few things that I have some difficulties with. I’m sure these have been addressed elsewhere, so if you could post your ideas and or links I’d very much appreciate it.
Naming of Projects
When you create a new project within eProductivity you’re prompted to name it using the convention that would have the successful outcome as the name. Hence you use a verb (Complete, finalize, submit) as the first word of the name.
This is fine, but when you’ve got quite a few projects on the go and you’re trying to link an email or action to an existing project it can be really quite difficult to find the project you need in an alphabetised list. Would it be more logical to name the project based on its subject first, followed by that verb? An example of this would be: “eProductivity – Fully implement both business and personal life.”
I’m sure these have been addressed elsewhere, so if you could post your ideas and or links I’d very much appreciate it.
Projects Within Projects
With GTD (quite rightly) stating that anything with more than one action is a project, I find I’ve got major projects mixed up with very minor ones. Not really a problem but I have the definite feeling that some of my major projects are really a combination of smaller projects and it would be great if there was an additional field somewhere, separate to contexts, that could tie these smaller projects together in some way.
I suspect I’m missing something obvious here… Maybe I just need additional guidance with GTD!
Context Context Context
When I was at Bible College one of our initial classes was all about Bible interpretation. The teacher was emphatic. The three most important things, in order of importance were context, context and then context.
I’m beginning to understand the importance of context(s) within the GTD system also. I get the feeling I need to add additional ones in to make my life easier. For example, would I be correct in assuming that I should add one (@Raewyn, who is also my co-pastor at The Salvation Army Johnsonville) so that anything I need to discuss with my lovely wife is not forgotten? And if so, how do I add it?
I guess this post shows that I’m really getting into the nitty gritty. I’m certainly learning as I go and that’s the best way to learn. Even at such an early stage of my journey with eProductivity and GTD I’m finding it easy to keep going. I’ve tried GTD in the past, but that’s involved multiple systems to try and keep track of things. That’s too difficult and so I never kept things going for very long at all. eProductivity has quickly become a truly trusted system because of its amazing integration with Lotus Notes. Thanks to Eric Mack for his amazing work on this and thanks to David Allen for GTD!
Please answer my queries by commenting.
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heh, one up for Outlook and http://www.netcentrics.com ‘s GTD add-in which has Projects and Sub-Projects which I’m deploying to resolve exactly that impasse
heh, one up for Outlook, Netcentric’s GTD add-in has both Projects and Sub-Projects which I’m deploying to resolve exactly that impasse!
Gavin Knights last blog post..my daily Tweets
A few quick thoughts:
I recommend using the project verbs but wording your project in the past tense – as if it were already done. This way, it sets up a cognitive dissonance and your brain says “no, it’;s not done, you still need to…” and that’s your next action. Also, when you name your projects this way, it’s easier to sort and find them.
eProductivity supports advanced categorization of projects and subprojects on a context-by context basis. This setup is available under the advanced options of projects and actions in the preferences. I recommend that you contact support and we will walk you through the setup. We want to make sure you get it right so that you have something to show off to GN.
Eric Macks last blog post..Shouldn’t Unanswered E-mail, To Dos, and Calendar Entries Be a Single Application?
Again a recognizable point you bring up here Paul. As Eric already mentioned also eProductivity offers ways to categorize projects. I am trying that out myself right now to get a better view on my projects and will blog about that experience later this week.
Peter Simoonss last blog post..Staying in control in busy times
Suggest adding a next action in an @Agendas list for any topics you need to discuss with your wife. I have agenda next actions for my boss, my employees, mom and my partner…and anyone else who I need. That way I can scan the Agendas context and see who I need to catch up with or before I have a meeting with the individual. I think this suggestion is straight from GTD…
@Gavion Knight
@Eric Mac
@Peter Simoons
Thanks for that guys. Eric has emailed me some details – impressive – and I’ve put a new post up!
@Tara Nofziger Thanks – point taken – I’ll put something similar into effect!
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