I don't use a Blackberry. E-mail waits until I'm sitting at my desk to deal with it effectively. I sync my e-mail to my PDA when I'm at my desk, just so I can deal with the Reading Material folder when I'm waiting for meetings to start. That's all.

I don't see how you can possibly deal with e-mail effectively with just a Blackberry. Now, if you have a Moleskine as well.....

I use the GTD tool inside Outlook; I also use a Blackberry.

I am so spoiled by the GTD functionality within Outlook that I process all my emails there. My BB simply allows me outside the office access to important items - and I can respond quickly so when I return to the office I can quickly delete the items I know I have already handled.

The BB does have the ability to display Task Items by context, which I use when away from the office.

I just got my BB and have been doing GTD for about 4 years. I use the BB to "scan" my e-mail and make quick responses where I have to. It saves time because although I have to look at e-mails twice, it's more like one and a half times because I know whic ones I have read and dealt with and can delete. It's not perfect, but in this day were e-mail has become more of a phone than even a phone, I need the immediate and always-on connectivity. In fact, my work demands it.

Sometimes, in life you have to make compromises. Yes, with a BB you have to touch emails twice. For those of you without a Blackberry, there isn't really any way file emails. Emails come in, and the only way to deal with them right then and get them out of your head/inbox is to delete them.

Sometimes, in life you have to make compromises. The compromise, here, is that the Blackberry doesn't further your GTD-way-of-life.

Say, is there a way to assign an email address to an Outlook folder? Something like that would help.

I use GTD and also have a Blackberry. A few weeks ago our tech team but the BB system through some kind of upgrade and now the tasks are reconciled wirelessly, just like email. I have found this to be incredibly powerful for helping me keep things out of my head and into the system. It takes 30 seconds to enter a new task and categorize it and the next time I open outlook - it's in there - under the right category and everything. Since my BB is also my cell phone I pretty much have it with me all the time, so if a new action pops into my head while I am pumping gas or something, I pull the BB out of my pocket, type it in, and let the system remember it.

Thanks for your responses. Can you create email folders on a BlackBerry?

Kelly, I've been using GTD for many years and am a huge fan. It's definitely changed my life. Thank you just doesn't seem adequate! Our company switched from Palm to Blackberry about a year ago. While the BB can be cumbersome and not as easy to use as the Palm, I like the immediate availability aspect of it all. I haven't found a way to "create" email folders on the BB. For me, I have to create them in Outlook and then they are available to me to file email into them. Also, it seems that if I moved the emails to the folder from Outlook, it doesn't seem to be available in the folders on the BB. I must move the emails from the BB inbox to the BB folders for them to be accessible on both the BB and Outlook.
Hope that helps some!

Email management is not too big an issue, I scan on BB and can remember to delete on Notes.

However, my big problem is syncing tasks to the BB. Everytime I try to sync Notes tasks with the BB, Notes crashes. Tech dept can't help. Is anyone else having this problem?

John

Take at look at this (link is to the 4th and last post in the series):

http://garyslinger.com/blog/2006/01/12/implementing-getting-things-done-while-using-a-blackberry-part-four/

Coming a little late to this (I put all my blog reading on hold for a week to catch up on some other things), can I "plug" a series of posts I wrote recently about using Blackberry's with GTD, and the necessary process compromises I made?

There are five parts - the first part can be found here:

http://garyslinger.com/blog/2006/01/02/implementing-getting-things-done-while-using-a-blackberry/

Gary

Sure Gary, you can post the link here of your experience of using GTD with Blackberry. On a quick glance, it looks very useful. Thanks. Kelly

Here is what I use the Blackberry for. I don't know if this is permitted according to GTD, but it definitively helps me to be more productive:

1. Mail
I read mails while commuting and put all the mails I don't delete on the Blackberry either into a subfolder called "BB done" (for mails I want to keep but don't need to act upon or which I answer immediately) or "BB next action (mails I need to do something I can't do while commuting). This reduces the stuff I need to deal with to approximately 1/3 and also keeps my inbox empty. This hepls me enormously to feel relaxed and the duplicate reading is greatly reduced.

2. Tasks
My blackberry syncs wirelessly and allows my to capture any task and put in the appropriate category.

3. Notes
I have several checklists and reference lists as notes in outlook and I can access them anywhere. Also useful for jotting down any ideas as they occur.

hi, i've had some success with using a BB with Backpackit (www.backpackit.com)

backpackit is an online project manager type thing that you can email lists to, etc.

So what I do is as I think of things to do, I type out a list in a regular email and email to Backpack, which posts my list in the "Inbox" a la GTD. This is my main collection area.

The other thing I can do is just forward an email to the Backpackit. So when I have an email I want to deal with later (because I'm not at the desk) I will have an easy reminder on my backpackit page and can deal with it appropriately later.

it's not perfect, but it's pretty good for keeping things simple and at least getting stuff processed.

bhavesh

I use Lotus Notes and Blackberry. I set up an email folder in notes called "-Delete". When I review items on my BB that I no longer need, I use the File menu command on the BB and drop the item into the "-Delete" folder. BB reconciles these items automatically and moves them out of my desktop In folder. I simply delete them all when I get back to my desk.

Using the BB has had a great impact on our business too. It means that when i am seeing clients i can still answer orders from outside the office. However, i have had one issue with the BB "Notes" feature. When i use notes on the BB it syncs with outlook (the desktop) but when i create a note on my desktop it doesnt appear on my BB. Has anyone got a solution to this?
Thanks! Christopher

I am a big "add-in" fan, and in fact, our company specializes in work-flow and data integration Outlook add-ins. My opinion though is that the current GTD Outlook add-in has a few issues that don't work for me and I have a free alternative.

First, the current design doesn't synchronize the desktop "@folders" to handhelds wirelessly / over-the-air. I have a BlackBerry and a Treo and I do not synchronize via an attached cable. If you think about it, it is waste of time to attach a handheld to your desktop since these devices are primarily designed to un-tether you from the desktop, right? ;) So those “@folders” are only useful on the desktop.

Second, while the add-in is well written, the input steps of the add-in doesn't deliver the simplicity and convey the spirit of the GTD methods as I understand them.

So I took a simpler route. Just like David's book said - I could have used 4 sheets of paper to represent "Projects", "Next Actions", "Waiting For", "Someday/Maybe" and of course my calendar for appointments.

Therefore, I followed his simple method that works wirelessly with Outlook and Outlook Web Access and any handheld software including my Blackberry. That is, I recreated those 4 categories using the basic Notes feature of Outlook which will synchronizes with any handheld device. The "Notes" are quick to open, edit and review. Because they are free-form, they aren't restricted to size, length etc... Lastly, I use the calendar for scheduled appointments only - not "tickler" task reminders which cause havoc in the past as David clearly states in his book.

Because the notes are integrated with Outlook and Handhelds - they can easily reference the corresponding email or contact info that is on the desktop or device. I review these notes (think of them as free-form tasks) and act upon them based upon time, opportunity, availability, energy etc. All my "next steps" are in one place and any last minute edits are simplified. Naturally, Scheduled items are placed in my calendar. For me, I have about 2000 emails per month but no matter what the number, I could care less that my email contains 1 months worth of email because:

a) I only read unread email - everything else has been documented and handled in the next step (b);

b) Any email that needs follow-up etc... is already referenced in my notes or calendar;

c) I have Outlook archive anything older than a month which can be retrieved if necessary.

I can understand if the simple nature of using Outlook Notes makes others uneasy. The add-in does have a “structured” feel. It is just that for me, the notes structure works well for the voluminous, dynamic tasks that I have to accomplish.

I am grateful to David for his book and for helping me to keep it simple...

Thanks for the great article and comments. I have just started using NextAction! for BlackBerry which is a direct implementation of GTD for the BlackBerry. I am quite satisfied and can suggest it to anyone who wants GTD on the BB. I found NextAction through the article:

Implementing Getting Things Done with your Blackberry: http://www.blackberryinsight.com/2006/05/13/implementing-getting-things-done-with-your-blackberry/

However, the product page is: http://www.next-action.com/

I've got to say that I have found Next-Action to be cumbersome. I will be looking for a replacement.

Martin Tibbitts

I would be very interested in everyone's opinion if a new BB app that we are developing is qualified as GTD ready and for interested parties to try it and provide their feedback.

Talk-Now is a presence application that enables you to see and share personalized availability information with others and it also allows you to get promptly notified when someone you want to talk to is available for a conversation.

SHARE your availability, SEE who is currently
available to talk with you, BE NOTIFIED when someone you're trying to get in touch with becomes available.

Refer to www.iotum.com for full details.

Thanks, Steve

I have been looking at this application as a possible supplement to my GTD methodolgy but will need some type of sync ability to Outlook.
http://www.rexwireless.com/support/REXwireless-faq-gtd-v2.pdf

I just bought a BlackBerry curve, and I wonder if a web-based GTD solution would work well with this. I believe it has "full web" capability (with wireless access and cell access). Does that mean that I might be able to use one of the Wiki-type solutions (ie monkeyGTD, vitals.com, etc.)? Has anyone tried?

For the past few months I have been using the Mentat client for my blackberry. It works extremely well with this sort problem that other GTD software has. When a task is completed it is instantly dropped and deleted from the list. As a result, my agendas are kept organized and clean. I don't have confusion to what I need to do or when I need to do it. You should definitely check it out, the software speaks for itself.

More information on Mentat can be found at http://brainmurmurs.com/

Well, there are some different methods that you can use to not have to read the same emails more than once. I actually use IMAP as a solution, maybe that can help you.

The way I use GTD on the standard BB Task app is near perfect for me. It associates a task to multiple contexts and to a Project all from just the title/subject line. No fancy tricks needed.

Its just so easy and fast that I don't even bother using a desktop Task program.

http://www.isaacbowman.com/2008-jan-gtd-your-blackberry

I would definitely suggest the Mentat BlackBerry client. You can see all your tasks, organize them by priority and contextual projects, and even coordinate with teams for group GTD. It's very easy to use.

The Mentat web service is a free GTD tool if you want to check it out: http://gomentat.com and the BlackBerry client is not expensive.

Another nice thing is if you(or a team member) change something on the site, it gets updated on the BlackBerry client too, so there are no double bookings or duplicates like there would be with email.

I have recently been looking into this as well. For now it looks like I'll be settling on NextAction! (http://www.s4bb.com/software/nextaction/) While it doesn't have all of the power I'd like, it should suffice for a while. REX Wireless' todoMatrix looks like the ultimate solution but there is one "feature" of it that makes it a complete no-no for me: it backs up to and restores from a network storage system that REX Wireless (or some contractor) hosts. They say it's encrypted but you're also able to access the data through a website (i.e. it's not encrypted so that only your device can read it), so it's not really all that encrypted.

I don't want my personal information anywhere but in my device, in the corporate Exchange server or on my laptop, all of which are heavily secured. I'm quite sure that my company doesn't want me putting GTD information related to it in my device and then having that data replicated on some external server, either. How many times have we heard about credit card data being stolen? Corporate espionage is a real thing and if everyone dumped into a web service, then that is just one-stop shopping for a corporate hacker.

REX Wireless tells me that they're hoping to have a PC-only solution by the end of the year (2008), at which time I would *love* to have another look at it, but for now this feature makes it a complete show stopper. Who really wants to police what they put into their device?