As best I can tell, Toodledo seems to be the only option for iPhone>Outlook synching, unless the new iPhone 3.0 OS has brought something new to the table around all that.

(Dan Collier on Jun 26, 2009 11:17 AM) I use the Plaxo toolbar to sync from Outlook to Google, then I use Google Sync to sync from Google to iPhone here http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/sync.html I hope that helps.

(GTD Things on Jun 27, 2009 8:19 PM) It is discontinued, but they are going to keep the service until June 2010 - that is what the site says. On June 20, 2009, KeyTasks and KeyNotes for iPhone OS were officially discontinued. This was a business decision business based on the conditions of the market. "No updates will be made to these products; however, they will be supported and the synchronization server will be available until June 20, 2010"

That "What is it?" question is the assessment before the decision. That's the time where I'm giving myself the time to actually give some careful thought and consideration to what I'm dealing with, such as:
- What is this email asking me to do?
- Is this even part of my job?
- Am I in the To: field or CC:?

People ask me all of the time how I get my Inboxes to zero every day (or nearly every day.) Here's what works for me:
- I give myself enough processing time
- I've gotten really fast at the "assessment" step
- I have a simple clear model to know what to do with something after I assess what it is
- I'm really clear about my current 20,000 areas of focus to know whether something is my job or not
- I'm really current with my projects & actions to know if I can/should say no or yes

I'm going to do a webinar this summer on GTD Connect showing real examples of this with my email. In the meantime, I hope this helps to bring light to some of the nuances with processing.

(Ron Lane on Jun 20, 2009 3:38 PM) Great article. About how many emails do you get a day? Do you leave it up all day and process it all during the day, or do you have specific times that you check email?

(Dean Graham on Jun 20, 2009 4:11 PM) Kelly this is a great added step. I suffer a great deal from the problem of, "I think I need this, I need to do some thing, I think." Stopping and asking what is this, seems so simple, but is really gets you moving in the assessment process. Knowing what it is, will very much help me figure out what I have to do with it! Thanks for your work getting me de-fusterclupped!

(Chris on Jun 21, 2009 1:54 AM) Yes, "what is it" seems to be really the important point of inbox processing. A lot of people that I know have a really hard time to scan through an email and get the important points of to dos, questions or whatever. Really nice summary.

So to bring y'all up to speed, here's what went down since I wrote these two posts:

GTD & iPhone
More on GTD & iPhone

November 2008 - I drove off the lot, drunk on entertainment features, with my new 8GB iPhone, even though I knew there was no secure iPhone>Lotus Notes (LN) sync that my IT group would approve. I kept my lists in Palm Desktop, where they happily lived for over 10+ years, for the time being.

January 2009 - Fed up with having email in LN and lists in Palm Desktop that weren't synching to anything anymore, I searched high and low and found KeyTasks for Chapura, which could sync lists on the iPhone to Outlook on my PC. I wasn't necessarily wanting to move to Outlook, but it was better than nothing. That lasted about a month before my setup with Chapura just became too frustrating. I had duplicates, their server was sometimes down (required for synching) and Outlook kept crashing. And, my job shifted such that meeting requests started coming in like a fire hydrant into Lotus Notes. It didn't work to keep Calendar data in 2 places, or even copy and paste like I used to into Palm Desktop.

February 2009 - I moved everything into Lotus Notes--lists, calendar, contacts, memos--all of it. I was never a fan of the ultra-unsexy Lotus Notes To Do's, but the eProductivity boost for Notes made it palatable (and actually fun.) Alas, still no synching option from iPhone>Notes. I recall Tweeting about my dismay with this lack of synching option and an IBM'er (who actually might have something to do with the project?) took pity on me and Tweeted back, "Coming soon." My hopes were raised for a little longer. For the last few months I've resurrected my old Palm and have been synching Palm>Lotus Notes and using my iPhone for everything else. Yes, I now have TWO handhelds. How did this happen? Ahhh...I needed to have an iPhone before the business solutions were there.

So you can imagine my glee when I saw an article today that showed "Notes Synching" as a future feature of the new iPhone.

...but something tells me they mean the Notes pad, not Lotus Notes.

Overall, I am still thrilled with the iPhone as an entertainment device. I think Palm still does an exceptional job as a productivity device. Well, I am productive on my iPhone, if bowling and Twittering count, but not in terms of my GTD workflow management. Yet.

(PhilK on Jun 4, 2009 6:41 PM) I can't help with Lotus Notes but on iPhone the best task management apps (that I've tried) are OmniFocus, Things, Remember The Milk, Appigo ToDo (in order of preference). Unfortunately for you the best ones are Mac only (but totally worth it). Good luck, and enjoy your iPhone!

(Joel Smith on Jun 4, 2009 7:32 PM) Kelly, Have you looked at Daylite and Daylite touch. I think it is by far the most complete Mac/iPhone GTD ap. I'd be curious to know what you think. They have a free download and trial version. http://www.marketcircle.com/daylitetouch/index.html Joel

(Jason on Jun 4, 2009 8:00 PM) I totally feel your frustration.. Although probably from a different place. I am just getting into GTD and have an iPhone that I love.. But unfortunately I have been having a hard time figuring out a good tech solution for practicing gtd. See at home I have a mac (yay!) but at work I use linux. My home email is gmail bit work is through an exchange server.. So my work email is done using outlook 2003.. It's all I have access to. So trying to find a single solution that will let me track work email and calendar, home email and calendar, and sync with my iPhone has been driving me nuts. Any suggestions?

(Kelly on Jun 5, 2009 9:41 AM) Hi Phil, Mac would be nice, except I need to use Lotus Notes. Thanks though! Hi Joel, Yes, I know DayLite. The developers attended a public GTD class I did in Toronto to learn GTD better. Really powerful app, from what I saw, especially for collaboration. And how great that they actually made a serious effort to learn GTD when building their app. Hi Jason, I don't have a solution for you, but a similar discussion took place over on GTDTimes: http://www.gtdtimes.com/2009/05/07/managing-gtd-systems-on-two-machines/

(Chris Blatnick on Jun 8, 2009 4:06 PM) Hi Kelly...Your wish will soon be granted! Lotus Traveler 8.5.1, which is currently in public beta, includes the ability to sync your Lotus Notes with your iPhone. You can find a little more info on the Lotus Greenhouse, which is a sandbox for current and upcoming Lotus products: https://greenhouse.lotus.com/home/product.jsp?p=traveler If you'd like some more info on this, please feel free to ping me or ask Eric Mack to get us in touch. I'm a big fan of eProductivity myself and can't wait for people to get this functionality on their iPhones! :-)

(Eric Mack on Jun 14, 2009 11:16 PM) Chris, a problem that business users face with the iPhone, from a GTD perspective, is that the iPhone does not support tasks. So, unless Lotus Traveler 8.51 adds a Task app to the iPhone, Kelly will still not achieve the level of productivity she seeks. Let's talk. Eric

(Vaughan Rivett on Jun 15, 2009 5:10 PM) @Eric I am surprised by your comment. That is not good at all. If this is the case I would then suggest that Kelly could look into using iNotes Ultralite which has been available for a few months now. If my memory serves me correctly, it does support tasks. If Kelly's Lotus Notes server (Lotus Domino Server) is running on release 8.0.1, then this feature is already supported. However, if Kelly is using your eProductivity, then she will need to wait until you have built in support for the ultralite feature.

(Mark Jantzen on Jun 16, 2009 10:22 AM) The iPhone may not have a native Apple tasks app but no Task support is not quite right. I'd explore eProductivity for my iMac if I could seamlessly take my lists with me, review and update on the iPhone like I can with Omni Focus. Be careful about getting too down on the limits of GTD on the iPhone.

(Kelly on Jun 17, 2009 9:42 AM) Thanks for all of your comments! If I understood correctly from a follow-up email from Chris Blatnick, the first version of Traveler won't have Tasks support. To Vaughan's suggestion for iNotes Ultralite, also no Tasks support yet, from what I see. Thanks though! To Mark's comment about getting "down on the limits of GTD on the iPhone," I am specifically and only talking about the synching capabilities of synching an iPhone device to Lotus Notes Calendar, Tasks and Contacts. If I were using Outlook I would have an easier time with KeyTasks or Toodledo. If I were willing to use a cloud-based Web app like Remember the Milk, I'd have an easier time. And of course, if I were on a Mac and could sync to OmniFocus, Daylite or Things, well then I'd be all set!

Best & Worst Practices of Collect
Best & Worst Practices of Process
Best & Worst Practices of Organize
Best & Worst Practices of Review
Best & Worst Practices of Do - Part One
Best & Worst Practices of Do - Part Two

In part three of Doing, I'll talk about the Horizons of Focus. In my experience, this is one of the parts of the GTD approach that can take a little time for people to get their arms around. This is where priorities and perspective live. Whereas traditional time management approaches attempted to give people an ABC type coding system for defining their priorities, David Allen's approach has always been that priority codes are too simple for the complexity of most people's changing lives, as the only measure of what to do. For example, assigning an "A" priority to something (or flagging is the popular method in email programs these days) could change with the next new piece of input you get. Plus, in my experience, people tend to get lazy with that code or flag without really deciding the next action. A flag, or #1, or lighting the email on fire still doesn't tell you what your next action is. So is David saying to never use those? Of course not. Just be sure that what you are marking as high priority has a a clearly defined next action and be willing to change that priority the moment your world changes--which it will.

What David Allen does encourage people to do is trust their gut/butt/hunch/intuition about what to do. A clearly defined set of projects and actions, with any relevant information captured for your longer term goals, vision and direction will be your best coach when deciding your priorities. GTD helps define your priorities through 6 Horizons of Focus:

50,000 - Life Purpose
40,000 - 3-5 year Visions and Strategy
30,000 - 1-2 year Goals and Direction
20,000 - Areas of Focus and Responsibilities
10,000 - Current Projects
Runway - Current Actions

The best way I know of to work with these 6 levels is to go with where my attention is. I don't find it often works to assign myself to go map those out perfectly, especially 30-50,000 levels. They will get subtler the higher you go up in your focus, but they will all help in choosing what to do.

Will knowing your 50,000 tell you exactly which email to read or meeting to go to? Probably not. But it will probably bring to the surface if you're in the job you want. Play around with them. See where your attention goes. David's new book Making It All Work goes into lots more detail on Horizons of Focus and seems to have cleared up some of the mystery around that for people who read and implemented GTD.

Hope this helps,
Kelly

(Ron Lane on Jun 18, 2009 9:02 PM) Kelly, I like this article. One thing that I have been thinking about is using OneNote as a list manager.

I look at a GTD system as being like a house. You need 5 basic rooms in that house for your Projects and Actions (10k and runway). For most people, their Calendar already lives somewhere. If that works for you, keep it there. If not, find somewhere else for it that does work for a complete personal/professional view of calendar stuff. For the other 4 rooms, you just need something that will allow you to create lists that can sort by context/category, allow due date (but not force it) and allow a field to capture additional notes on the entry (when needed). So that house might look like:

Ground floor (where you'll spend most of your time):
Next Actions list(s) (these are context lists tracking your next actions)
Calendar
Waiting For list(s)

Second floor (good overview, looking down on the ground floor):
Projects list(s)

Attic (place to keep the 'seasonal', not yet needed stuff):
Someday/Maybe list(s)

You want this house to live somewhere that is:
- a place you like (don't underestimate this one)
- a place you can access the information easily (too slow will fustrate you)
- somewhere you feel free putting things into (not everyone wants "get legs waxed" on their work computer)
- portable, if needed (printing works, if not handheld sync)
- something you would feel like maintaining if you were sick in bed (don't get sucked into complicated is better)
- it is scalable for your personal and professional work (give yourself room to capture it all and continue to grow)

Out in the backyard, in a tool shed you can get to easily, you'll also want a place for your non-actionable stuff (checklists, reference lists and reference files.) And, please, get a good filing cabinet!

By the way, this is not in the GTD book--just my way of explaining this after years of doing seminars and looking for the easiest way to demystify "lists" for people.

Hope it helps.

(Joe Ely on May 5, 2009 7:43 AM) Terrific post, Kelly. I like the simplicity, as well, of the hand-drawn house. And, shoot, if we can build the house, let's at least build it somewhere we like. I'd vote for a place with a view of some water!!!

(Harry Larsen on May 5, 2009 8:13 AM) The GTD 'house': a sparkling brilliant simile!!!

(Kelly on May 5, 2009 8:57 AM) Thanks Joe. I didn't take 2 weeks of adult-ed cartooning class for nothing...

(Darla - ShareYoga.com on May 5, 2009 9:49 AM) Awesome analogy Kelly. Have you been moonlighting as an architect? I looked at the picture before reading the article and I was trying to figure out why you shot the Reference material into space on a rocket ship. (Not a bad idea, especially when there's too much of it!) Keep up the free-form thinking. It helps thinks from becoming stale.

I had a friend come to me recently asking how to work with his lists. His job changed entirely, within the same company, and he was having a hard time putting new items onto old lists, but still needed to go through those old lists one last time to see if there were any nuggets to pass along to the team he left. I suggested he move that old stuff to "un-categorized" to process as new or just move it all to a new category called "To Review " and treat going through those as a next action. Or, I said he could just declare them complete and archive them. (BTW, I am not a fan of purging/deleting for the sake of completion. That can often create even more stress for people. You're better of at least archiving them for the safety net of being able to retrieve them at some point.)

You know how often I update my lists? As often as I can. Any chance I get I am marking things complete, moving things around and adding new items, so that my lists stay fresh, current and appealing. If you wait to only do that during your Weekly Review, there's a good chance something will spoil before you get there.

(Steve on Apr 30, 2009 5:50 AM) Excellent Kelly. You have such an ability to keep GTD always fresh. I read your entries with great enthusiasm and interest. By the way, is it appropriate to ask you how the iPhone is working with GTD compared with the Palm that you previously used for some years? Just as good or better?

(David C. on Apr 30, 2009 10:30 AM) Kelly, Thank you for another terrific post. This is a very timely subject as I have tried (and periodically struggle) to keep my lists fresh. A couple of tactical questions: 1) USE OF EMAIL "ACTION" FOLDER AND NEXT ACTION LISTS: When you get an email that contains a next action (e.g., the email has an attachment that requires you to review and respond back to the sender) do you normally put the email into your "Action" folder AND create a Next Action on your list? Or do you just put the email in your Action folder, knowing that you will get to it later over the next day or two? My preference is to minimize "double entry" and if I know I will get to the Action folder soon, I don't add a Next Action to my list. The downside risk is that if I don't update my list and get real busy, I might not remember that email unless I look at the Action folder in my email. I am curious to see what your thoughts are. 2) UPDATING NEXT ACTION LISTS WHEN EVENTS OCCUR IN RAPID SUCCESSION: Are there times when you don't bother to update the Next Action list if you know that you will likely get another Next Action within very short period of time? For example, if your next action is "Call loan officer for status of refinance" but you get his voice mail. After leaving a message, technically, you should change your next action to "Waiting For loan officer re: refinance status." Do you recommend updating your list right away or do you assume that the person will get back to you soon, at which point you can cross off the Next Action? If they call back within the next 10 minutes, maybe you learn there is another Next Action such as "Fax loan officer copy of pay stub." In this example scenario, the Next Actions appear in rapid succession after each other. I sometimes feel that updating my list "real time" gets a little tedious...but I also realize that the risk of NOT updating my list right away is that if I get interrupted or if there is a lag / delay, my list is no longer fresh. My intellect says that the right thing is to keep my list up to date as real time as possible...but how do you overcome the feeling of tedium (at least in the short term)? Do you have any suggestions? Thanks again! David

(David Crisp on Apr 30, 2009 11:37 AM) Love this. Thanks for keeping us motivated to stay current.

(Joe S on Apr 30, 2009 3:35 PM) thanks Kelly. It truly is the repelling of my lists that has kept GTD from sticking for me for the past few years. One of these days I'll hopefully find a system which works and isn't so cumbersome for me.

(Kelly on May 2, 2009 12:47 PM) Hi Steve, Thank you for your kind words. I thoroughly enjoy doing my blog, and am so glad to hear people get value from it. My Palm to iPhone and Palm Desktop to Lotus Notes migration has been an adventure. Educating and frustrating at the same time, due to lack of secure and well-designed synching options between iPhone and Lotus Notes. Until someone (Lotus?) creates a good solution to sync iPhone to Notes, I just brought back my Centro for synching. I still adore my iPhone as an entertainment device (personal email, Twitter etc.), but it has yet to replace the productivity functions that my Palm did so well. Kelly

(Kelly on May 2, 2009 12:57 PM) Hi David, Q: do you normally put the email into your "Action" folder AND create a Next Action on your list? A: I do, but you could just put it into the @Actions folder IF you have the discipline to go there AND your Task lists to see your actions. Most people, in my experience, stop looking at one or the other. And just dropping it into the @Actions folder has the huge risk of moving it there without clarifying the next action. Then all you've done is just move it out of In. Putting it onto a Task list forces me to clarify the next action. Q: Are there times when you don't bother to update the Next Action list if you know that you will likely get another Next Action within very short period of time? A: Of course. Lots of times I wait until my next mini-review or big weekly review to sync it all up. Q: I sometimes feel that updating my list "real time" gets a little tedious... A: Absolutely. It's a fine line and no real black/white rule here with GTD. There's a science of tracking, but an art of knowing and trusting your own intuition and finesse with all this. Technically, buying a stamp could be a 12 step process from the thought, to standing in line, to putting it on the envelope, etc. I try not to go overkill with it. The bottom line is to trust the question, on whether to track it or not, "Will I have my attention on this?" If I think there is any part of me that will still have my attention on whether I have tracked the next microscopic step (or not), or updated the call to a waiting for (or not), or whatever the thing is, I always lean on the side of tracking to get it off my mind. Thanks to all of you for your comments! Kelly

(Review 777 on May 12, 2009 11:10 AM) This is a really great point. I am trying to figure out the things I get really excited about doing and focus on doing those things. I then go "Yeah! What's next that I can do?" because I want to do the things on my list :)

I've said it before, and it's worth repeating: if you want a GTD system that will actually stick, don't create a list manager for yourself that you would only feel like maintaining when you are at your best. A simple system, as long as it matches the sophistication of what you need to track, will shine. Time and time again, over the years, I have seen people create elaborate list managers and GTD systems that require so much thinking, detail, criteria and cross referencing, that they can't maintain it as soon as stress or change hits them.

These past two months have been some of the most stressful times in my life. My job was completely redefined (although bigger and better) and a family member passed away. Through it all, a few things from GTD kept me sane:

- Weekly Reviews every few days, especially if I was going to need to unhook and hand-off at a moment's notice
- Daily mind sweeps
- A projects list to drop in new problems and challenges that included outcomes such as "Resolve", "Look into", "...Up & Running"
- Extremely hard edges on the calendar so I knew exactly what had to get done on any day and quickly renegotiate as needed
- Checklists to remind me of the obvious when my brain wasn't always firing (like a travel checklist when I had 4-hours notice to buy a plane ticket and get to the airport)

Almost no one likes change done to them. Almost everyone likes change done by them. - Carol Kinsey Goman

(Kim Nielsen on Apr 21, 2009 3:47 PM) You are absolutely right; K.I.S.S. "Keep it short and simple" Thank you for reminding me!

(Grant Hiesterman on Apr 21, 2009 6:04 PM) Thanks so much Kelly. I really needed the reminder and reinforcement today. Today it has been exactly 5 months without any business for our management consulting firm. Now, more than ever, I have to be productive and have every activity contributing to all levels of my horizons of focus. As anxieties crept in I noticed I was still staying very busy but not productive. Heck, I was even relatively stress-free. Well, for now I am not totally stress-free but heeding your advice on keeping my system as simple as possible. Doing so is enabling me to continue a positive systematic GTD approach with improved control and perspective. Thank you so much for your candid sharing. I am sorry for your loss.

(Michael Crouse on Apr 23, 2009 4:38 PM) It is surprising that a simple system can often be the most productive and the most sophisticated. Sometimes we try so hard to get the right system set up for GTD that we miss the point of being productive with as little stress in our lives as possible. Thank you for the post.

Honestly, in my experience, it's for anyone but not for everyone. In my 15+ years of working with this and David Allen, I've seen people "get" GTD from every walk of life: men, women, young, old, techie to luddite. So what does it really mean to "get" GTD?

GTD is about finding and using the most energy-efficient, effective, and least stressful ways of getting things done. It has nothing to do with someone's personality or lifestyle. Sometimes "organized" people are too structured to get what they really want done, so they need to loosen up. Some people need to tighten up. They're both GTD. It's an approach, not a system. If someone's system gets in the way, it's not GTD. If it's creating freedom and expansion and results, it is. Simple as that.

- David Allen

(brian turner on Apr 9, 2009 5:25 PM) As humans, our minds can overanalyze some things, taking our attention away from what is necessary in the moment, to what we think should be right. It is refreshing to revisit "the spirit" of GTD as opposed to "the letter" GTD.

(TesTeq on Apr 10, 2009 5:29 AM) "I have nothing against the system or David Allen. I’m sure it must be awesome for some people (that’s why it has all those followers, right?). But for others, it just doesn’t fit. Mostly with creative-minded people." - Zen habits blog TesTeq comments: "Do you mean that GTD is good mostly for non-creative people? Interesting... I know many creative people (including me :-) ) that have no problem with GTD." "Figuring out what to stop is part of the GTD Weekly Review process. (If you are not doing your Weekly Review, you are not doing GTD and not thinking about your life enough). So there's no need to create yet another list what not to do. I prefer to have Next Actions list(s) 'to do' - not the list 'not to do'." "Partial GTD implementation disables entry to 'mind like water' state." "I am afraid that people who are not disciplined enough to implement #GTD say that it is because their creativity. They're wrong."

(Sam Barnes on Apr 11, 2009 3:11 PM) I only use about 5% of the GTD system to determine next actions, waiting for items and to get to inbox zero at least once a day. Although a miniscule amount, just these parts of the system enable to me to keep on top of my projects and maintain a certain level of low stress levels. GTD as a whole certainly isn't for everyone, but I cant think of a single person not using any of it who wouldn't benefit greatly by just adopting some...

Best & Worst Practices of Collect
Best & Worst Practices of Process
Best & Worst Practices of Organize
Best & Worst Practices of Review
Best & Worst Practices of Do - Part One

In part two of Doing, I want to talk about GTD's Criteria for Choosing. Let's say you're staring at a big list of next actions. Hopefully they attract more than repel you. So, how to choose?

Best practices: Making balanced, trusted, intuitive choices about which to do
Worst practices: Driven by latest & loudest and emergency scanning

Here are some guidelines for choosing:

Context - if you are not in the right place, near the required tool, or have access to the person you need, you can't take that action. That will narrow down your choices.

Time available - How much time do you have right in this moment? If you only have 10 minutes before you bounce to your next meeting, that's a different choice than the times where you've got a large chunk of time to choose what to do. I'd say due date will play a factor here too sometimes (just be sure to watch out for the syndrome of ignoring the "undated masses").

Resources - what's your energy like? Brain toast or high-performance brain? Is it Friday afternoon and you're fried or just getting fired up? Intuitively, the choice will be different based on how you know you'll use your time the best.

After those three limiting factors, then you're going to factor in Priority. What?? Priority is last? How can that be? Think about it. Context has to be the first limitation. It doesn't matter if something is "high priority" if you are not in the context to do it (unless you get yourself in that context). You also can't make time appear out of nowhere, unless you start renegotiating. And, if you won't intuitively want to choose something that you know you won't have the brain space to tackle.

So how do I know my priorities? Ah, the golden question. Only you know your priorities. GTD helps you define where your attention is with the Horizons of Focus. But ultimately, no system will tell you what to do. Only YOU know what to do based on how you have captured what has your attention, made decisions on all that, organized those answers in a place you trust and then reviewed them on some kind of regular basis so you trust they are current based on what's important to you personally and professionally. Then, doing becomes a matter of trusting your hard-wired intuitive judgment. If you do it any other way, it cannot be sustained. If intuition is too fluffy of a word for you, call it something else: your knowing, your heart, your gut, your instinct. It's that part of you that just KNOWS that you're making the best choice and just does it.

Next up, more on the Horizons of Focus.

(Jim on Apr 5, 2009 3:34 AM) Thanks Kelly! I am really enjoying this series!

(Paul Gardner on Apr 7, 2009 8:07 PM) Hi Kelly I'm enjoying this series too - It's really helpful. One thing, I'd like to see more posts from you (and others) about the real life benefits of GTD. I've posted myself on 4 Reasons You Should GTD but I know I'm only scratching the surface! What do you think?

(Simon Potton on Apr 13, 2009 3:47 PM) Kelly, Thank you for this very helpful series. Do you feel that the intuitive approach you mention here is a crucial element of GTD? It's a very different from the approach taken by other 'authorities', who tend to teach priority setting of one kind or another. Relying on my in-the-moment judgment worries me-my procrastinating part might decide what NOT to do! Any tips on how to avoid this, please?

(Dhamodharan on Apr 13, 2009 7:17 PM) Kelly, I have a question here about choosing the context. Generally when I am in office, I have more than one context available to me - In office, I am always @COMPUTER, @WEB, @OFFICE, @OFFICE_NETWORK, @PHONE, @TEST_MACHINES. How do I choose context in this case? It happens that this is the repelling point where I get stopped. Please help me. Dhamodharan.

(Kelly on Apr 15, 2009 3:40 PM) Hello Simon, Yes, the intuitive approach is core to GTD. It's the most natural way we make decisions anyway. The best way I know to avoid procrastination is to have the outcome mean something to me, and the next action to describe a successful step (e.g. make sure it's really your *next* action.) Kelly

(Kelly on Apr 15, 2009 3:43 PM) Hello Dhamodharan, You can be repelled by the number of lists you have, or what's on them. I'd get clear on that first to know how to make them more attractive to you (perhaps fewer lists, or clearer next actions.) Hope that helps, Kelly

So if we consider my latest post on the Three Fold Nature of Work and Doing, my day looks like this so far:

1. I've scanned my pre-defined work (just the calendar--nothing there--moving on to #2)
2. I've defined any new input by processing my inboxes (email and some others--nothing to handle there other than decide--moving on to doing work as it appears)
3. I looked at what I feel like doing (my husband and I started negotiations about which movie to see)

Are my lists at zero in order to feel free to do whatever shows up? Far from it. They've never been longer. But they are completely current and my inboxes are at zero. I know that nothing on those lists has my attention right now. I may scan one or two action lists today, especially my "Out & About" list since I'll be heading to the Big City for a movie and will want to handle anything we can while we're there. But otherwise, it's a free day to do whatever shows up.

If you see us each going into a different movie, you'll know how the negotiations went.

(Grant Hiesterman on Mar 21, 2009 3:51 PM) Kelly, That is so refreshing to hear! The Three Fold Nature of Work has been one of the hardest concepts for me to get...but I am getting there. Likewise, I spent 3 hours processing today and no "doing" time. Once every commitment was off my mind and in my system I did a quick scan. The world would not end if I did none of it so that's what I did. We took the Harley out of mothballs up here in Minnesota and went for our first spring ride. I could enjoy the time and knew that if anything did occur it could always be captured on my ever-present Notetaker Wallet or pocket digital voice recorder. Thanks for your open sharing and trust you and John had a great time.

(Dean on Mar 21, 2009 7:11 PM) After an early morning engagement, my wife and I headed out to enjoy a five hour drive and gawk at the beauty of The Adirondacks coming to life before our eyes. Did we have nothing on our lists? Hardly! But what we did have were current systems that held all the "stuff' of our world until we got back. Speaking of being back, we've been in the office six hours now so it's time to go home! Thanks, Kelly.

(Jorge Ledesma on Mar 31, 2009 5:56 AM) Great post Kelly, quick question is your "Out & About" list a replacement for @Errands, just from the actual wording it seems a bit more casual. Can you enlighten me on this thanks

(Kelly on Apr 4, 2009 4:29 PM) Hi Jorge, I get bored with my list names sometimes so I switch them up. Out & About is just my current name for Errands. Kelly

It's an interesting look on how fast the world is moving, or how little our attention spans are willing to absorb, that a quirky little service like Twitter seems to be luring so many of us in.

Not familiar with Twitter? Well, have you ever been to one of those Lazy Rivers at a resort hotel? The kind where you hop in and out as you please? And around it goes, whether you're in the river or not. That's the best description I've heard of Twitter.

One of the intriguing things about Twitter is that quantity seems to rule over quality. There is little expectation that every post needs to be useful or even grammatically correct, unlike email. If you've got the time, and bandwidth to take in yet one more piece of input, it's an interesting place to hang out. If you are interested in GTD-related posts, you can also follow me or do a Twitter Search on "#gtd" to hop into the conversation with other GTDers.

(Renaud on Mar 19, 2009 1:51 AM) Hi Kelly, I am a faithful reader/listener and GTD-er and I must say this hype for twitter is so disappointing, especially from GTDers! Twitter is typically a source of interruption and procrastination with very limited added value except hyper-connectivity. Do you share some of my thoughts? Keep up with the top level coaching on your blog!

(Kelly on Mar 19, 2009 8:39 AM) Hi Renaud, Glad you're getting value from my blog. I like sharing with all of you on ways to get more out of GTD. As for Twitter, I don't feel like it's any more of an interruption or procrastination opportunity than any other kind of input I choose to allow into my life. Sure, it's coming at us faster than most things, but it all depends on how often you put yourself in front of it--just like TV, the coffee machine in the break room, watching the birds fly by your window, YouTube, a stock ticker, your coworkers stopping your office, instant message, new email, a newspaper, etc. I'm not advocating FOR Twitter--it's not for everyone. But I do see its value in giving people a low barrier to sharing quick sound bytes of information that other people may want to read--or not. And like every other kind of input people get, people will get stressed out about Twitter if they have some kind of implicit agreement with themselves or others about what they should be doing about it, and are not keeping that agreement in a way they feel good about. Mismanaging our agreements is stress producer 101 and core to getting free of stress with GTD. I quite like Twitter because I have absolutely no agreements inside of me about what I'm doing with it. If I post, fine. If I don't, fine. The Twitter world will go on just fine without me telling everyone I just ate a cookie or saw an interesting web site. Interesting stuff to look at, for sure. I do applaud you for being vigilant to know what works for you, and doesn't. After all, at the end of the day, you are the one processing all of your stuff, so it's good to get clear on what you want to allow in.

(J.Norman on Mar 20, 2009 6:12 AM) Thanks for that reply, Kelly. Some people think every GTDer is alike. If some choose to use Twitter, then I'm glad David Allen and Co. will be here to teach us how to process it appropriately.

(Renaud on Mar 23, 2009 3:04 AM) Thanks for your full-fledged feedback that puts things back into perspective!

(Lynn O'Connor on Apr 15, 2009 7:52 PM) Hi Kelly: I like your "twitter attitude." I'm probably spending too much time there, but I think I'm beginning to figure out why. On twitter, I've formed (or am a part of) a highly ambitious, geeky/intellectual community who are providing me with some fantastic input that I would never have found without twitter (all those great links that feel like reading the Enquirer but are conveying more technical and even scientific or at least social science information.) I am getting the chance to listen in on conversations of people who are changing how we communicate and this excites me. I'm a long time connect member, a 3-4 year GTD person, and still a student of GTD. I'm finally reading back through your blog posts, and subscribed so it comes into my netvibes, where I house GTD/productivity blogs. You already know why I wasn't at the summit. If nothing else, getting my thoughts about it out there led to a flurry of women's posts discussing sexism in the productivity/blogging world. A final note on that one, I asked Steve Leveen (Levenger) what percent of his customers are women. He said, "60%." Levenger is one of my favorite sources of "productivity" gear and I bet I'm not alone with that. So figuring out the problem with GTD and women may be a good business decision. Meanwhile, your friendly use of twitter impresses me.

Here's a photo I grabbed at the opening session this morning. David Allen and Guy Kawasaki kicked it off.

(Tom Munch on Mar 12, 2009 10:07 PM) #gtdsummit doesn't come up with anything on Twitter in a search or a direct entry https://twitter.com/#gtdsummit Are you sure this is right?

(Kelly on Mar 13, 2009 10:25 AM) Hmm, that's odd. When I use "search" at the bottom of my Twitter home page and put in "#gtdsummit" I get a ton of entries. Does this go anywhere for you? http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23gtdsummit You may also want to check out: http://www.eachdayempty.com/gtdsummit/

Overwhelmingly, OmniFocus by OmniGroup leads the pack for Mac users as the most popular application. It deserves to. It's a solid application, with a smart team behind it that has worked hard to make it true to the GTD logic.

Things by Cultured Code, for the Mac, also seemed to be a fan favorite. It seems to have the core components to make it work as a GTD list manager.

For those of you who favor web-based applications, RememberTheMilk.com and Nozbe are your top choices.

And for Outlook users, whose choices are few and far between, KeyTasks by Chapuraand Toodledo are in the lead for Outlook integration. There don't seem to be many developers clamoring to figure out the iPhone to Outlook sync, from what I could find.

Since that post, I have moved my entire system out of Outlook and into Lotus Notes. I was using KeyTasks synching to Outlook 2007. But given that my David Allen Company email and dozens of collaborative databases live in Lotus Notes, and the KeyTasks synching server was MIA for a period of time, I decided to jump ship and move my entire system over to Lotus Notes. Eric Mack's eProductivity template finally made Notes To Do's functional for me. As for iPhone synching, that's now a new project to figure out. I have a couple of leads, but nothing synching yet. So I am relegated to printing my lists for the short term.

(johnwin on Mar 10, 2009 4:22 AM) Kelly, Great article. For those looking for a web based system with iPhone app and syncing I recommend www.toodledo.com You can use their own iPhone app or several 3rd party ones will sync to their servers. John

(Alan on Mar 10, 2009 5:59 AM) For syncing tasks with Outlook and iPhone, Toodledo is a good alternative to Keytasks. I am a longtime follower of David Allen and GTD. Everything he says makes sense with one glaring exception: Lotus Notes.

(Mickey on Mar 10, 2009 10:00 AM) Personally, I prefer Nozbe. It's similar to Toodledo, but seems to work a bit better for me.

(Don Schaffner on Mar 10, 2009 12:17 PM) Glad to hear your positive comments on Omnifocus. I've been using it for 3 months on the mac and iphone, and I'm still learning, and surprised by it's elegance and power.

(nacho on Mar 10, 2009 3:05 PM) I switched from Omni Focus to Things about 2 months ago and haven't looked back. Things is just simpler and cleaner, I felt like I had to manage OmniFocus too much.

(Dean on Mar 10, 2009 5:12 PM) How is using printed paper lits working for you, Kelly? Do you have a plan for when to print new lists, what lists to print, etc?

(steve on Mar 11, 2009 3:34 AM) Pocket Informant has just submitted their excellent program to Apple. This is for use on iphone. It is GTD compatible. I have used Pocket Informant on pocket computer for years. I love it. Works great with GTD. If you want to see more about this, google: pocket informant for iPhone

(Schultzter on Mar 11, 2009 12:32 PM) I'm trying out Remember The Milk and comparing it to the new Google Tasks. What I can't figure out is how to separate my items into different lists outside of RTM?! Like the RTM iGoogle gadget lumps all the items together so I can't separate out the ones appropriate for what I'm doing. Within RTM I can switch between lists. But I prefer to have everything in a gadget on my iGoogle home page.

(Alan on Mar 11, 2009 8:38 PM) I don't understand why Omnifocus is willing to overlook all of the PC users out there. It's a market that would be very successful for them.

(Schultzter on Mar 16, 2009 7:16 AM) As a follow-up to my previous comment I've elaborated my thoughts on RTM, Nozbe, and GTasks here http://blog.cameron-schultz.ca/2009/03/not-getting-things-done.html and here http://www.2fatdads.com/2009/03/not-getting-things-done/ Thanks for getting me started.

(Casper TFG on Mar 20, 2009 7:34 AM) Fingers crossed - iPhone's recently announced OS 3.0 update - may be able to hook into the phones core apps (like email) So you might not have to cut and paste to input data into your iPhone apps. GTD operational nightmare - OVER! iPhone "Notes" will sync in 3.0 - but there is so far no mention of Mac's version of Tasks - "ToDo's" (which are wonderfully easy to create in Mac Mail - running on Leopard OS) Right now on my Blackberry - I have FIVE data capture apps that are accessible when I am looking at emails... Any GTD software company will SURELY already have the 3.0 developers kit and will be working frantically between now and this summer to update their apps to make use of the new features of the 3.0 OS. Fingers crossed! I am going slowly crazy trying to do GTD on my Mac / Blackberry combination! I feel I will be better of with a Mac computer / Mac phone combination!

(Mark on Apr 12, 2009 10:42 AM) Hi everyone, I just wanted to say that I have found Remember the Milk to be an ideal GTD program. There is a tagging and list setup to customize to GTD standards that is explained in the RTM blog-an easy google to find by the way. The over the web syncing, I believe, is the best option because any computer with internet can become your screen based task/list manager. You'll be happy to know that both apps-web based and iPhone sync really well (better than my Palm ever did) and can both be used offline. I wanted to praise the iPhone app 'Streaks' as it helps reward daily routines by showning a calendar with your accomplishments marked on each day. This has the benefit of separating areas of responsibility/maintenance tasks from cluttering up the daily runway tasks that are specific one time tasks.

(Ned Baker on May 6, 2009 6:00 AM) Vitalist is another excellent web-based system (already with an iPhone tailored version of the site) and is about to branch out with a full iPhone app. I use www.vitalist.com everyday and love the simplicity of its interface combined with powerful query reporting. For those of us without an iPhone, Vitalist also has a great mobile version of the site which I access using my BlackBerry browser.

(Craig on May 6, 2009 9:06 AM) As a Palm user for 10 years I recently switched to iphone and I can't wait to switch back to Palm (Pre) for one main reason: I miss too many meetings/appointments with iphone. I don't want to think about meetings until they pop up in my system and I have become reliant on the Palm repeating vibrating reminders for meetings; it doesn't let go until you acknowledge the meeting. The slacker iphone, however has a weak 1 second buzz or sound that I usually miss even if it's in my pocket. It's this way to conserve power. I checked and there doesn't seem to be any fixes on the horizon even with the new 3.0 software. There is one software that offers a solution but it requires you to jailbreak the iphone which can make it unstable. Any thoughts?

(Christine Quillian on Jun 26, 2009 9:17 AM) Now that the new iPhone software is out, have any readers here found new solutions to the challenge of synchronizing Outlook Tasks with an iPhone and NOT having a website in between (If I understand correctly, this is what one has to do with Toodledo)? I am very happy with my GTD implementation on Outlook. However, it would be nifty to make those tasks portable by synching them *directly* to my iPhone with the same categories and sorting. Please, any suggestions? Christine Q. P.S. I see that as of 6/20/09, KeyTasks is no longer being offered by Chapura.

Best practices: Making balanced, trusted, intuitive choices about which to do
Worst practices: Driven by latest & loudest and emergency scanning

The Three-Fold Nature of Work - How to spend your time and energy:

- Doing Pre-Defined Work - picking from your existing work on lists and calendar
- Doing Work as it Appears - choosing to act on what shows up (Doing an email, rather than processing an email)
- Defining Work - processing your Inboxes (most people need at least an hour a day just for processing)

There is a unique balance for each of these 3 that will be different for every person. We all need time in each. For example, someone in a client-facing role would naturally need to be ready to "Work as it Appears." A project manager might need to spend more time doing "Pre-defined Work" to keep the project moving forward. It's a balance.

Universally, I can tell you that the majority of people we work with spend far more time Doing Work as it Appears than they think they should (latest & loudest), and not nearly enough time Defining Work as they know they should (hence, bloated Inboxes and feeling buried.)

Next up, I'll talk about Criteria for Choosing.

(Jonathan on Mar 11, 2009 7:08 PM) Eagerly awaiting part-two :)!

(Schultzter on Feb 10, 2009 1:42 PM) I just checked out the "podcast" and that web site looks typical of what a project manager would come -up with :) The specific page URLs are masked so you can only bookmark the main-page and podcast itself is an embedded QuickTime so you can't actually download it to your iPod!!! Could you please make it available here, as a proper podcast. Thanks.

(Kelly on Feb 10, 2009 3:45 PM) So sorry this is not what you're looking for. We do not plan to re-package this or ask them to. They are a non-profit organization and this is just a simple little recording I did for them that I wanted to share with my blog visitors. We have many others you can download on GTD Connect :) Cheers, Kelly

(Adrian Harper on Feb 11, 2009 7:10 AM) There is a subscribe button on the website that will allow you to download the podcast within iTunes. Direct file link - http://web.me.com/camper.bull/Project_leadership_pod_cast/Media/pc%207.1.m4a

(Dean on Feb 11, 2009 5:15 PM) Kelly, I really enjoyed listening to your podcast. Simple and clear presentation for those who are new to the GTD family but also enjoyable for us veterans. Thank you!