Category — GTD and Productivity

After 30 days, I decided to update y’all. I gave Outlook 2003 a good try and will keep it installed, but the hassle of moving my email archives, plus adding in things to hook into other services I use was way too much of a hassle. So I went back to Thunderbird and added Essential PIM. I won’t use it for contacts.

I went back to Essential PIM Pro (got a code during their Halloween giveaway in 2005) and rediscovered that they had hierarchal notes and to-dos, which are dead useful for GTD and its projects and contexts plus having more categories makes things easier for me. I do have a bit more fiddling to get my tasks (schedule) fixed to my needs, but its usable.

Now that Thunderbird is updated to 2.0, I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. You are not limited to five labels anymore and there is a neat feature to show all folders, unread folders or favorite folders. After a bit of fiddling I found the new buttons to navigate to unread messages, and am anxiously awaiting updated themes and extensions.

I’ve written before about how I’ve been trying to implement GTD, and outlined my programs/workflow. I recently purchased Getting Things Done, and decided to take the plunge back into Outlook.

I’m using Outlook 2003 and adding in ClearContext, Lookout, and one other item as well as using Intellisync for Yahoo! to sync to my Yahoo! Calendar, which is basically a backup. Rules are set for moving emails to subject folders, as I can’t stand to have a lot of mail in my in-box. The only things that show up in there are things not previously under any rules.

I’ll keep Tbird around for Usenet, as using Outlook for that is NOT FUN.

My reasoning is that I will be running Outlook from the AM till PM, and I much rather have one place for my calendar and email, as I’ve had reminders for due dates as well as neat things to try and before I didn’t want to run two programs for that. So off to Outlook. Had a fun time converting emails to EML format, copying it into Outlook Express, then importing to Outlook. A bit time-consuming, what with 8,000+ emails, but worth it. Some minor tweaking of rules, and use of folders, and I am in business, getting caught up on my reading.

Also, I have gathered up all my papers and cards from my last attempts at collection and plan on doing that soonish. I may take the papers and go find a quiet place where I can do my work in peace. Way too many people wanting me for something and then getting mad when I want to do something for myself.

Also Outlook has my task list and I really don’t want to depend on ‘Net access for managing my tasklist, even though I’m trying out Remember The Milk, which I’m liking so far, what with using email to import my lists of tasks. I even made the GTD Mastery 100 checklist into a tasklist in Outlook, using the CSV import function and Excel. I found that out when I had test drove ThinkingRock, and had a CSV export of my tasks, which imported flawlessly into Outlook.

Another point in favor for Outlook is that my phone, a Razr V3, will import calendar/email addresses/phone numbers from Outlook. Handy that as I carry my phone and would like a quick glance of major events and also a way to get a hold of people.

So basically this is what my workflow looks like:
Morning after getting up and dressed, and taking wee one to school, I load up Outlook, download mail, load up RSS reader, get it downloading, then I check my Netvibes page, and my friends list on LJ. Read and comment/post as needed, then load up the current writing project and make a dent in my wordcount (which is dreadfully backlogged). I would so love it if I could get my Friends list to show up on netvibes without bothering with RSS feeds.

I’ve gone back to using Outlook to manage my contacts, email, newsgroups, RSS, calendar, notes and tasks. I was using EssentialPIM for calendar, tasks and notes, Thunderbird for email, contacts and newsgroups and GreatNews for RSS, so three programs that didn’t even talk to each other made for forgetting to load one or two programs consistently.

I just want one place for my stuff. This time around I’m using Office 2003 Professional and have adjusted rather quickly. Perhaps I could quit fiddling around with the system and actually use it.
Now I have to figure out how to get my e-mail archive into Outlook from Thunderbird, since I can’t download the archived emails from Gmail anymore as I’ve been deleting them from the server.

Used the steps and program recommended at Export Thunderbird to Outlook, which has worked very well so far, well with a few minor things like some emails lack a subject line and is pretty much a plaintext version of HTML formatted email. Much fun is ensuing and once I get everything loaded in OE, I can remove duplicates in the address book and then set up filters so they could be imported into Outlook. Bah on filters not exporting easily.

I like Thunderbird, but the calendar/Lightning tie-in isn’t what I want and well the RSS function needs some work. It will only import a certain kind of feeds apparently and wont import folders. Sage works well in Firefox, but it makes my bookmark file HUGE. GreatNews works well, and I love the duplicate remover function and the ability to sync with Bloglines, but it takes a while to load up when all I want to do is add a feed.

I’m using Attensa 2.0 for Outlook for RSS and I really like it. It automatically populates iTunes with podcasts-both audio and video plus making a playlist. Rather nice. I’m editing my feed list so I don’t get too many duplicates/posts saying essentially the same thing. As soon as DemocracyTV gets OPML import/export capability, I’ll move my podcasts over.

I’m also trying out MAPILab’s NNTP for Outlook so I won’t have to use OE for Usenet.

I’m looking for a way to get Attensa to publish posts to my WP.com blog if I want to blog on something in my feeds. Right now I have w.bloggar set up and I’m chasing down a plug-in I used last year. I may have the file on back-up CD’s. Located the file on the second disk I popped in. The site where I got it went down and it was the only place to get it. w.bloggar has issues with Unicode and made me lose my spacing and commas. So bah on w.bloggar. It was only useful for one thing-reporting what I was listening too, but the plugin will only report one song and won’t update it when the song changes. So a bit of a dead end.
I went and gathered up all my to-dos/goals/on my mind lists and dumped them into a single file, and I still had stuff handwritten on the back, so that counts as the brain dump.

I did feel a lot better having that stuff all in one place and how much of it was duplication/had already been done.

[Listening to: Sanctuary - Utada Hikaru - Kingdom Hearts 2 OST (4:16)]

GTD Primer

43F Series: “Back to GTD”

Was checking through my del.icio.us inbox and had some lovely GTD links pop up. I’ve sort of fallen off the wagon so to speak so I’m going to try to hop back on. What with a daughter beginning school, the possibility of a new job and some writing projects, I find that I definitely need to follow the GTD philosophy and actually use it rather than merely talking about it.

I've been messing around trying to get my stuff together so that I have no distractions so I can settle down and get stuff done. Previously I've written about setting up a Control Journal a la FlyLady and various bits I've been trying to get my stuff in order and to keep myself from contanstly thinking of what I have to do when I would rather do the stuff and spend my brainpower on being a better mother, wife, daughter and writer. So I've decided to write down my toolkit that I've settled into.

• Control Journal
  • Routines-Morning, Afternoon, Late Afternoon, Evening, Before Bed and Weekly
  • Menus and Master Pantry, Household and Grocery Shopping Lists
  • Household Information: Passwords/User Names, Insurance Information, Phone List, Medical Information and Doctor's numbers.
• EssentialPIM Pro-calendar, to-dos, basic notes and contacts-in the middle of adding family address information to EPIM
• Evernote-notes, quotes, clippings, recipes from the 'Net
• GMail
• FireFox with 43 Extensions/6 Themes
  • Adblock 0.5.3.042
  • Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.0.4
  • Always Remember Password 0.4
  • BBCode 0.4.1.3
  • Blogger Web Comments 1.3
  • Bookmark Backup 0.4.1
  • Bookmark Duplicate Detector 0.5.0
  • Bookmarks LinkChecker 0.6.8.2
  • BugMeNot 1.3
  • Colorful Tabs 1.4
  • Context Search 0.2.1
  • Copy Plain Text 0.3.2
  • CustomizeGoogle 0.49
  • CuteMenus 2 1.0
  • del.icio.us 1.1
  • Disable Targets For Downloads 1.0.1
  • DOM Inspector 1.8.0.4
  • Download Manager Tweak 0.7.1
  • DownThemAll! 0.9.9.5.1
  • EverNote Web Clipper 1.0.0.42
  • Fasterfox 1.0.3
  • File Title 1.1
  • Forecastfox 0.9.2
  • FoxyTunes 1.2.5
  • Google Notebook 1.0.0.5
  • Google Toolbar for Firefox 2.0.20060606W
  • Greasemonkey 0.6.4
  • IE View 1.2.7
  • Image Toolbar 0.6.3
  • Linky 2.7.1
  • LiveLines 0.4.5
  • MediaPlayerConnectivity 0.6.3
  • MR Tech Local Install 5.0.4
  • Performancing 1.2
  • Sage 1.3.6
  • ScrapBook 1.0.6
  • SecurePassword Generator 0.5.3
  • Tabbrowser Preferences 1.2.8.9
  • Talkback 1.5.0.4
  • TimeTracker 1.1.2
  • undoclosetab 20051204
  • UnPlug 1.3.1
  • WebmailCompose 0.6.6
  • Abstract PC 1.0
  • AquaFox 1.1.01
  • Aquatint 1.6.6
  • BlackJapan 1.15
  • Firefox (default)
  • iCandy Junior 2.0.5
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 Update 7
  • Microsoft® DRM
  • Mozilla Default Plug-in
  • QuickTime Plug-in 7.1
  • RealPlayer Version Plugin
  • RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)
  • Shockwave Flash
  • VLC multimedia plugin
  • Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
• Del.icio.us/Furl/Simpy for bookmarking and saving copies
• Bloglines-in the middle of cleaning up feeds and will mirror Omea
• Omea Reader-RSS/Bookmarks/Usenet-very handy especially with a Wordpress blog posting plugin-it was very slow on my computer and took FOREVER to close-now using Sage and Performancing.
• iTunes-Music
• Picasa-Photo Organizing and basic editing
• Media Player Classic-plays pretty much any video/music format when installed with K-Lite Codec Pack
• VLC Client-catches whatever MPC doesn't play
• Trillian Basic 3-IM-pretty much all my services except AIM which I haven't used since 2000
• Money 2006 Deluxe-right now using a trial version, will pick up full version soon

I've been trying out Onfolio 2.0 for the past week or so and so far I really like it. I've been collecting files and webpages for afew years now on various things I'm interested in. So I've been copying files and links into Onfolio to have as a knowledge base/electronic brain. I especially like the fact that I'm not dependent on other program's file structure like how Firefox keeps the bookmarks in one folder and files in My documents with pictures, music and videos in the appropriate folders. For instance, I have a folder in My Documents labeled InuYasha, one of my favorite anime shows(how does one pluralize anime as in meaning one of many shows?). In it I have some archived fanfics I like and want to be able to read offline. In My Pictures I have two folders related to InuYasha images, one is Fanart which covers the small images from official and fanartists I like and another one is Wallpapers. In My Videos I have around 15-16 amv's (anime music videos-clips from a show or game set to music) In Firefox I have links to fanfics, fansites, the official site, links to AMV's I want to download, etc. In Onfolio I have have copies of the files and links all in one folder. I'm not dependent on desktop search to help me find all my things, although I'm going to keep using Copernic Desktop search as sometimes I'm not exactly sure where I saw something.
I'm also using Onfolio to read my feeds which is really nice. I can have nested folders and read a newspaper style view of all the feeds in a given subject area. I can also decide when to update and how long to keep things. All in all a very nicely done piece of software, one which I will definitely use for a while to come. I think it is useful in a GTD context as well, as it allows me to have electronic reference files to get reference stuff out of my head and where I can use it. I've been working on typing up my paper notes and filing them and will be adding them to Onfolio as I finish typing them. I plan on archiving the files on CD-R to save space on my HD and of course will keep Onfolio's collection file backed up in a safe place.
I got it as a promo version from O'Reilly and it was very nice. I had a problem with the capture of items though and Onfolio gave me great support and a fix for the problem in a matter of a day or so of emailing logs and detailing the problem.

del.icio.us Tags: GTD Onfolio

Tags: GTD Onfolio

Evernote updated their beta program today and I like it. Icons for categories, the ability to export my data and even back it up plus a bunch of bug fixes. It even lets me create new categories on the fly and add multiple categories (which they had in the previous version but less usable). Very nice indeed. I'm using it to collect clippings like recipes, pertinent paragraphs, essay, etc. I get a lot of email and sometimes I only need a paragraph and I don't want to wade through a large email with lots of replies to find the specific thing I want. I can copy and paste into Evernote and use its search feature to find it. It is one of my top tools. I could have used it a few years ago.

Technorati Tags: Evernote GTD tools

I've been working steadily on my quest to organize my life so I can get things done with a minimum of stress and anxiety. I've tried a few toys like Rojo for my RSS(speed issues, but I like the tagging idea and the collation of all my feeds into one list to read), EssentialPIM to see how it compared to Outlook(Not favorably as I wanted categorized to-dos)and GTDTiddlyWiki(Ugghh. Not fun to use in my opinion). Trumba is nice but I messed up so I'm waiting for a way to clear my primary calendar in a few clicks. I have a Moving page set up in Backpack which is nice to have one page with notes, & to-dos for one subject all together.

Outlook is about 50% set up-the basics are in and now I'm adding tasks and reminders when needed.

I read all my mail in GMail now, having moved from Thunderbird when I thought I was going to move and now have less mail in my box becasue I've turned the majority of my email lists in Yahoo Groups to no-mail.

Since I have GDS installed, I'm moving from a rigid hiearchy of folders to having text in My Documents, pictures in My Pictures, and videos in My Videos, archived downloaded program files in one folder regardless of type, and a Downloads folder that serves as a digital inbox for files I get and create.

My physical inbox has receipts for the week to be entered into Money and PearBudget with this week's processing as well. I decided since I had so many things to process I would process one folder or file section a week till done.

I have a bag I'm carrying arouynd now with my writing materials and a few important things and I'll be adding a USB flash drive that will carry digital files I will need everywhere.

I think that's pretty much it for this little update.

Technorati Tags: GTD organization lifehacks

I've been busy the past week working on setting up a GTD system. I've been reading the blogosphere and webpages about setting it up and making it work. I have the book waiting to order from Amazon, but I decided I'll get started.

I've made a rather pleasant discovery that what I have to process-my inbox so to speak isn't really all that much. I was apprehensive since I've read of people needing laundry baskets for their inboxes. I have a accordion folder of notes I've already organized and a single plastic letter tray with a stack of papers to process. Outlook has been set up and I'll be getting the whitepaper to double check. I've been a follower of FlyLady since 2002 off and on and it shows. I have a rudimentary routine set up already, just gotta do it so to speak. I've gotten some things setup in Outlook already like birthdays, anniversaries, and family events. Financial papers like bills, statements, and receipts are in a 13 pocket accordion check file and each week I add receipts to Money and to PearBudget which tracks my cash expenditures. I also download updated statements from my bank to Money and check to see what bills need to be paid. My books have been cataloged so I have a good idea of what I have so I won't buy duplicates unless the book in question is falling apart like some of my David Eddings books. I do have to move my addresses from my analog address book but that's not essential since the book in question is easy to find. I'll be using a second 3-ring binder to make my own planner with preprinted address pages and printouts from Outlook of my daily, weekly and monthly calendars along with tasks and plenty of paper for notes.

My system so far is as follows:

• Outlook XP: For calendar, project management and to-do list and a contacts list

• Thunderbird: Email and newsgroups since I've had issues with Outlook and its email threading

• FireFox: For browsing and with Sage installed RSS feeds

• White letter size legal pads for notes

• A 2" 3-ring binder for my Control Journal

• EverNote: I'm using it for notes and webclippings and I could have used this a long time ago.

Edit: Added link to David Allen's page explaining GTD

Technorati Tags: GTD, Organization

I've been busy trying to get myself better organized. I've started work on my control journal and card file. I've also been messing around on my computer, getting it the way I want. Le sigh. I recently had trouble in Media Player-it would play songs, but no sound. Royally sucked. I installed a bunch of codecs, uninstalled iTunes, etc. I have no idea what I did, but it started working again. I had burned all my itunes music to CD and ripped them in Media Player as MP3s @ 320Kbps which makes them sound really nice. I also listed CDs we own so I can replace them as a lot of them are scratched up.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and I'm planning out some things I can do with this blog in particular, which ties into my organizational push-I want my basics in a routine so I can concentrate on my novel writing, my self-education, my daughter and my husband without worrying about the state of my house.

(control journal-see FlyLady)
(card file- see Cardfile Central)

[Listening to: Creep - TLC - CrazySexyCool (04:26)]