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April 13, 2004
Coaching to 40,000 feet
It was quite inspiring to do workflow coaching for a 37-yr-old CEO last weekend, here in southern California, who had not only already read Gettting Things Done, but had dictated more than two pages of type-written notes of questions and comments about relevant-to-him pieces. Before we even started, he had mind-sweeped half an in-basket of notes, had a Brother labeler all set and ready, so we hit the road running with the coaching. It took about two hours to complete the collection phase, then about eight more hours to process it all, in the meantime getting him set up in Outlook for his action and project lists. He tossed his Blackberry ("Crackberry" as he called it!), agreeing with my recommendation that e-mail should be processed most efficiently for most people from at least a laptop, and he ordered a Palm to distribute his Outlook lists into for portability. (Though there are exceptions, this is usually the best configuration for most people in an Outlook environment). By the afternoon of day two, we had created a 20,000-ft checklist of his key areas of responsibility and focus, with attendant projects created, and were evaluating the two top goals of his life, ensuring we had projects and actions for those. Then we went to a local driving range and hit balls for an hour! My idea of a productive two days....
Posted by David at April 13, 2004 10:41 AM
Comments
Hi!
From my point of view, for a small number of mails the Blackberry is good. But, if your work a lot on the computer, it would be a torture to work on that tiny keyboard.
As a list manager, I think Palm does a better work.
And, ultimately, if one tool works best for you, keep it and enjoy.
Posted by: Jose Caraball at April 19, 2004 09:01 AM
David's recommendation to dump the Blackberry is correct. Important e-mails should be responded to on laptop, however simple responses and deletes can be made on wireless device. Handspring Treo 600 allows users to maintain calendar, tasks, e-mail (real time), contact lists, make phone calls and access the web all on one device. My carrier is Sprint, but other carriers offer Treo 600, though not as well. Phone, crackberry and Palm??? No way! One device does it all and increases my productivity at the same time.
Posted by: Ryan Mullinax at April 22, 2004 02:34 AM
i can't imagine being without my blackberry to deal with the blizzard of email i get, but i've had to trade in my palm to use it (company rules), and the task functionality doesn't work in the blackberry nearly as well as in the palm.
does anyone know how i can get the blackberry to group my tasks by category instead of alphabetically? thanks...
Posted by: graeme at May 11, 2004 02:14 AM
Posted by: Anonymous at April 1, 2005 12:00 PM
I dont think you can group tasks by category in your Blackberry, but you can use the filter to show just tasks the tasks from a given category. bit of a workaround, but it does the trick.
Posted by: roger at June 18, 2005 05:06 PM
