Blackberry GTD theme

Based on the David Allen Co setup guide I made a BlackBerry theme that hides the notifications. I also added:

* TodayPlus feature for Calendar, Messages and SMS
* Shortcut for SMS (click $ key)
* Enlarged Clock & Date
* Put Tasks and memo on home screen


Download OTA for 9600 series:
http://bit.ly/gtd96xx

Download OTA for 9700:
http://bit.ly/gtd9700

OS5 only I'm afraid! OS6 doesn't let me hide notifications. Plus I don't like the new Calendar in OS6, it's too easy to miss appointments in Week view.


Tips for BIS users
BlackBerry works best on BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) because everything gets reliably synced OTA. For us BIS (Blackberry Internet Service) users I suggest Gmail:

* IMAP syncs deleted and read emails
* Gmail calendar syncs 2 weeks back and all future events
* Search messages on remote server
* Move messages to subfolders (Labels) like @Action, Waiting for


Unfortunately the Gmail Address Book sync lumps all address info into one field. Instead I use Yahoo sync for Address Book.

Two reasons I don't move messages into subfolders on BlackBerry. One is it is convoluted (Assign Label, Archive, delete from phone) and second is I can't look at the contents of the subfolders using my BlackBerry.

Instead if I have an email that takes more than 2 mins I move it to a Task and assign a @Email context. During downtime if I review my @Email next actions using my BlackBerry I can search for it by Subject on the server, then reply.

To make an email, SMS, missed call, etc, into a task or calendar item I highly recommend the free BlackBerry app OntoCalendar:

http://www.soundslikeobiwan.com/~roger/OntoCalendar/

It adds a menu item to copy an email/SMS/call to your Calendar or Task list. OntoCalendar uses the subject as the title and (optionally) copies the body of the message to the notes. Works on OS5 and OS6.

-- Robert.