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March 31, 2006

Project views in Outlook

Sometimes it can be useful to see everything related to a project in one view. For example, one of my biggest projects lately has been completing the Entourage whitepaper. I've had quite a few moving parts going at one time (meetings, tasks, waiting for's etc.) If you use a keyword when creating any entries related to that project, the Outlook Find feature is a great tool for bringing everything back together in one view. Here's how to do that:

1. Go to Outlook Tasks (Ctrl+4)
2. Launch Find (Alt+i)
3. Enter a keyword to search on.
4. Click on Search In to select advanced search options. Click on Choose Folders.
5. Check off Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Notes.
6. Check off Search subfolders.
7. Click OK
8. Click Find Now

Outlook will start chugging away finding entries on that keyword, looking for the keyword in the subject or body of entries. You could even print this view (Ctrl+P).

Generally, I still prefer to stay in the by context/category view of Tasks. But occasionally, it does help to see my actions by project. And of course, you could always get the GTD Add-in software which links all of your projects to actions together.

If you are a Lotus Notes user, the All Documents view in mail is the best way I've found to do this.

Hope this helps!

Posted by Kelly at 02:54 PM | Comments (3)

March 29, 2006

Defensive emailing

I'm finding that I'm spending more time in GTD seminars covering email management. It's interesting to hear how people are dealing with tons of email, especially on BlackBerry devices.

A participant in my seminar in Boston this week told me he does "defensive emailing." It's those quick replies when you shoot the topic, issue or problem back to the other person -- just to get it out of your Inbox.

Another shared that his group has implemented "Email Free Friday's" to encourage people to have more face-to-face conversations.

Posted by Kelly at 09:13 PM | Comments (2)

GTD and Entourage whitepaper is now available!

I'm happy to say that the GTD and Entourage whitepaper I've been working on for the last few months is done and now available in our online store. Check it out if you are an Entourage user wanting to apply the best practices of GTD.

Special thanks to my great group of beta testers.

-Kelly

Posted by Kelly at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2006

How effective are your meetings?

Too many meetings seems to be a hot topic these days. I often hear people in seminars tell me they don't feel like they can get real work done because their days are filled in back-to-back meetings. Yesterday, in the Santa Monica RoadMap seminar, I heard a classic from David Allen on this:

"Some people are going to meetings just because the cow in front of them is."

Here are some suggestions I've been pulling together for improving meetings:

- Start every meeting with "What's the purpose of this meeting?"
- End every meeting with "What's the next action and who's got it?"
- Send meeting agendas ahead of time (one client told me this one alone has transformed their meetings--they no longer waste time in meetings figuring out what the meeting is about.)
- Send meeting minutes after the meeting while it's still fresh in participant's minds.
- Does everyone who is there really need to be there? Unless someone is directly related to the project or topic, do they really need to attend?
- Do your recurring meetings need to happen as frequently anymore? Maybe a year ago that weekly Wednesday meeting made sense, but maybe it's not needed as often (or at all!). Can it move to biweekly or monthly? Can it be a conference call instead?
- Allow enough time for people to get between meetings. Some clients start 7 minutes after the hour and end 7 minutes prior, just to allow walking/breathing/water break time.
- One client said they give speaker time-limits, so the meeting doesn't drag on and on.
- If you are on shared calendars, block your calendar for your own doing time (including eating lunch), if you find that other people are grabbing whatever open time you've got.

I'd love comments on this. Anything you've done to improve your workflow around meetings?

Posted by Kelly at 10:19 AM | Comments (3)

March 10, 2006

Navigating unread documents in Notes databases

Another Lotus Notes tip I recently discovered:

If you are in your main "Workspace" view of Lotus Notes where you are seeing all of your database tiles, press the TAB key on your keyboard. A little dialog box will appear showing you the first database with unread documents. You can choose to Skip This Database, View First Unread entry or Mark All Read in that database. Very handy for quickly scrolling through new entries.

I've heard that mNotes seems to be the best synching software for Notes to Palm these days.

Posted by Kelly at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2006

GTD and BlackBerry

Are there any GTD users out there who are successfully applying GTD systems on your BlackBerry? I'm really curious how you are processing actionable emails on the BlackBerry.

I'm asking because more and more of our clients are using BlackBerry, and honestly, I have yet to see anyone use one efficiently where they are not handling things more than once--besides the obvious ones to delete. Most users I come across have Inboxes full of stuff they've already read on the BlackBerry, but couldn't do anything about it to properly close the loop on it (e.g. file the email and/or capture a next action so their mind can let go of it). I'd really like to learn from some GTD users about making a BlackBerry an effective tool for applying GTD.

Posted by Kelly at 09:28 AM | Comments (26)

March 03, 2006

Working with All Day Events in Lotus Notes

One of the most powerful uses of the calendar is to remind me of actions that have to be done today, but can be done anytime today. These are not the kind of things I want to assign to a particular time because they really don't have one. They just need to be done sometime today when I can fit it in. Most calendar programs have some type of "All Day Event" entry for this purpose.

One of the things you may have learned if you are using the Lotus Notes calendar, is that "All Day Events" will mark your day as Busy. This means if you are sharing calendars and have created an All Day Event, such as "Remember to call Bill sometime today", then your entire day appears to be Busy when others view your calendar. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the Busy or Free time. You would instead need to enter the item as a different type of entry on your calendar.

Here is what Lotus Notes does with Free and Busy time with each particular type of entry:

Appointments - Busy, and you need to assign a start and end time
Anniversary - Free, and no time is assigned
Reminder - Free, and you need to assign a start time
All Day Event - Busy, and no time is assigned

A workaround I've been suggesting to our clients on Notes who share calendars is to use the "Anniversary" entry for All Day Events. If it's just a one-day event, then uncheck the "Repeats" box. If it does repeat over more than one day, then click on the Repeats box and change the recurrence to Daily. Anniversaries will not block your day as Busy, so those entries will still appear at the top of your your calendar but not affect your group scheduling availability.

If you are on Notes but don't share calendars with others on your team, then in the words of Gilda Radner, "Nevermind."

By the way, another handy Notes shortcut is Ctrl+M for creating a new e-mail message from anywhere in Notes.

Posted by Kelly at 09:31 AM | Comments (1)