Circle Six GTD Redux

After 1 week of implementing my new productivity system I’m pleased to report that I’m more productive than I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve made a few minor tweaks that I’ll detail, but the system itself, based mostly on tips and tricks I collected around the net, has served me extremely well. When I first implemented it my inbox got so huge that I felt overwhelmed, but I spent the necessary time processing and then took on my tasks one ata a time and got through an amazing amount of work (and even some play) this week. So here is another look at the system…

Mail

At the center of the system is Apple Mail with MailTags and Mail Act-On installed. I’m having some problems with Mail Act-On hanging for exceptionally long periods, but it’s bearable considering the productivity enhancement it provides in general. I’m hoping the kinks will be worked out soon, though.

To recap, I set up a Smart Mailbox that pulls in all unread messages from all accounts, excluding the spam folder. I add to that Smart Mailbox a rule that pulls in messages with a MailTags due date of 1 day before today, which acts as a tickler file. Actually, setting this up requires some complex logic that is most easily done using several mailboxes combined into one Smart Folder with rules that include “message is in mailbox X” for each child mailbox. This smart folder requires a small workaround. Then as mail comes in it’s immediately processed and tagged with a project: @action, @wating, @hold or @respond. Those should be self-explanatory. There are smart mailboxes that show messages in each project. Once a message’s related action has been completed, it’s due date and project are removed (with a Mail Act-On shortcut) and it’s placed in an archive folder.

MailTags provides the ability to create new ToDos and Events from a message, so I use that functionality to create actions that are linked back to the message that generated the action. The newest version of Actiontastic has support for this built in…

Actiontastic

I’ve replaced & ToDo / Task Management Application for Mac & Windows">EasyTask with Actiontastic. Why? Mostly because it looks better. There are a few things I still like better about EasyTask, but I’m coming to realize that they aren’t necessarily congruent with a GTD system. I do, however, have a list of requests that I’ve submitted to the Actiontastic forum (The Hub), many of which were already there and I just added a +1 to:

• Better keyboard navigation, tab between project/action or context/action columns, shortcuts for date entry, etc.
• View multiple contexts, or all contexts. Extend this idea by allowing view by date, today, tomorrow, days of the week and be able to drag actions to other days to change their due date or start date.
• Calendar popup for date entry, and support for more abstract strings in date entry field (e.g. Ruby’s Chronic)
• Fix the start date entry field, date disappears on first entry
• Sort Next Actions by due date, possibly add flagging or priority
• Multiple selections for mass changes and deletions

Overall, though, I really like Actiontastic and the way it syncs with iCal and my iPod. I get a good idea of my Next Actions, and adding to the inbox is a cinch. The new version even lets you specify context and project when adding through Quicksilver. Quicksilver probably deserves it’s own separate mention, but I’m under the assumption that most of you have it and use it regularly. If you don’t, just go get it. You won’t regret it, I swear.

Yojimbo

I created just one more set of GTD folders, this time in Yojimbo, for pdfs, bookmarks, web archives, and miscellaneous notes that weren’t tied to an action. Its screeside drawer is especially handy for dragging URIs to while browsing the web, and cataloging them as @action, @waiting, etc. Adding tags to include them in a project or remind me why I wanted to blog on a subject helps me pick them back up later. It’s also been great for collecting resources for projects. I don’t have to check the inbox or folders as often as I do with Mail and Actiontastic, so it’s more of a project storage folder with great organization capabilities.

Slimming Down

As I expected, some of my plans were a little too complex to be usable. Trimming the system down to just Mail, iCal and Actiontastic has made things simple enough for me to stick with. Having Yojimbo open is a plus, but I can open it with Quicksilver when I need it, too. Keeping things as simple as possible helps me remember to use it! I’m weeding out the use of Google Calendar as part of the system and sticking with iCal invitations and calendar sharing for the purpose of keeping the rest of my office up-to-date. I’m sticking to creating events through MailTags and Quicksilver, and do all of my processing in Actiontastic. When Actiontastic is finished, it will have printing and hopefully some of the suggested features from the forum and I’ll spend even less time in iCal.

My first Moleskine is on the way. I’m trying to carry my laptop with me less and be more productive in my notetaking, so hacking that will be my next project. I’ve found a plethora of Moleskine hacks on the web, so I’m not even sure where to begin…

Actiontastic» EasyTask» Geekery» GTD» iCal» mail» productivity» quicksilver»