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Douglas |
Posted May 25, 2010 in: Gmail, GTD and Toodledo.. I may stop using Toodledo
Score: 0
Posted by CJD:
My devotion to Toodledo is the email function. I have a pro account. And when I have an email that I can't respond to immediately (I have many) I forward it to toodledo. You get all attachments, you get all the email and it is placed in toodledo automatically. This approach has been a pretty big help for me as well. When I see something, but can't act on it right away ... if I don't log it somewhere, it simply won't get done. But firing up my to-do list organizer is also a distraction when I'm trying to plow through 200+ emails in my inbox first thing in the morning. I bought a copy of MailActOn (I'm on a Mac) for use with Mail.app. Now, as I am reading each message, a simple CTRL-T and it will automatically get forwarded over to my Toodledo email address in the background with no more effort on my part. I can fire through my inbox extremely rapidly now ... the quick one-line, not-much-thought responses I take care of right there ... the rest, get shot over to Toodledo in this way. Of course, when it gets into Toodledo, it's not really categorized, the titles aren't really great, etc. I actually *like it this way*. I have a custom Search saved called "Inbox" which contains everything that has no context, no folder, no start date, and no due date. When I get 5-15 minutes to focus on nothing but my to-do list, *then* I go into that inbox and categorize, process, rename, clarify next steps, etc. I get to "inbox zero" within a few minutes most days. And now, everything is on my list. This message was edited May 25, 2010. |
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Douglas |
Posted May 05, 2010 in: Anyone using "Search" as their default start page?
Score: 1
That's pretty much what I do. The iPhone client is for new task entry, task check-off, or for checking contexts that I might be in (i.e. "Shopping/Errands") where I might be able to reach in and tick off a few more items that aren't otherwise on my hotlist.
As for my tasks for organizing to "inbox zero" every day ... I think I'll more often leave that as a first-thing-in-the-morning activity when I'm at my laptop. Helps me know what I need to tackle in my day. This message was edited May 05, 2010. |
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Douglas |
Posted May 05, 2010 in: Anyone using "Search" as their default start page?
Score: 0
There are some people out there that have built some scripts to re-arrange the outbound subject line to fit with toodledo syntax (google mailacton and toodledo and you should find them) but honestly that's just shifting the task of needing to prioritize, classify, and think about the item into the front of the process (directly in mail.app) instead of into the back of the process (once I'm in toodledo and sorting out my "Inbox"). I don't find much value in that ... in fact, I think it would make me less efficient. Right now, as I'm going through mail-by-mail, if something comes across that I know I'll probably need to act on ... a simple CTRL-T makes sure it's over in Toodledo for me.
That means when I search my "1) Inbox" search as mentioned above, a lot of items are "Fwd: Next quarter's research report" ... and I have to rewrite that into something more meaningful for a to-do list. This is no biggie for me (like I said, I have to either do it on the front end or the back end but the work is the same). Then, at the same time, I assign all of the relevant context, dates, status, etc. needed. I can get through my entire "inbox" in a matter of minutes ... and then I'm done, and I have a very focused list of what to concentrate on today ... while at the same time knowing that I've not let anything slip through the cracks and other tasks will come up later as needed. That's what makes MailActOn worthwhile for me. It's that single split-second "CTRL-T" on a message ... which gets it over to toodledo and (more importantly) off my mind with no extra effort required. You can't really do that with the stock mail.app rules engine. I do, however, use the built-in mail.app rules engine to automatically forward any reminder emails from Siri (see my other post on that) directly into toodledo with no further action on my part. This message was edited May 05, 2010. |
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Douglas |
Posted May 04, 2010 in: Anyone using "Search" as their default start page?
Score: 0
Only a few minor tweaks as I work through it a bit more and figure out what works for me. Changes include:
- There is now a "4) No target dates" ... I tend to have a lot of low-priority items that linger down here, and need to pull some of them out from time-to-time. - That means that "Someday" is now 5) - Using MailActOn on my Mac, I can shoot emails over to Toodledo with a simple CTRL-T and nothing else. They collect in #1, so that's effectively my GTD Inbox. Also, using Siri from the iPhone, the reminder emails from there get shot over to Toodledo via email rules. So I've got a really efficient capture system so far that doesn't let much slip through the cracks. And then usually it only takes me 4-5 minutes every morning to review my inbox and classify or rewrite to-do titles as needed. This message was edited May 04, 2010. |
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Douglas |
Posted May 03, 2010 in: Free voice-to-Toodledo via Siri
Score: 0
Siri for the iPhone made a big splash last week, because Apple acquired them.
I was playing around with their iPhone app -- and it's actually pretty slick. It's got some amazing speech recognition ... and it will parse out all sorts of queries to try to figure out what you're asking, and then do the necessary search (i.e.: "Show me all the flights to Seattle available today from my area"). Well ... one of the items you can do with Siri, is ask it to "remind" you of something. As in "Remind me in 2 hours to take out the trash". In 2 hours, siri will send you an email telling you to do that. So, what I think I'm going to do, is use Siri for voice dictation of to-do's that occur to me while I am in the car. I will just say to Siri "remind me in 1 minute to: <whatever the to-do item is>". Siri will immediately email me. I have a mail filter set up to send any siri reminders directly to my toodledo address. Voila! Instant (well, almost) speech-to-todo integration. And entirely free! |
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Douglas |
Posted May 02, 2010 in: Anyone using "Search" as their default start page?
Score: 1
So, I've basically set this up ... a little bit differently than originally expected, but if this is a useful structure for anyone, here it is:
* I don't have any defaults set for new tasks. So anything that comes in via the web, email, however else ... unless I've set a folder/context as a part of the creation process, it will come in as "No Folder" and "No Context". * My Search tabs are named & set as such: "1) Inbox" - Anything uncompleted, that is set to either "No Folder" or "No Context". This is so I can quickly get things out of my mind, and process them in more detail later. To make this work, I needed to add an additional context of "Anywhere" so that everything could eventually have a context. I plan to use MailActOn on my Mac to quickly shoot items out of my email inbox and over into Toodledo, where I can refine them later. "2) Waiting/Delegated" - Anything uncompleted, that is dependent on *someone else* for the next step (Waiting or Delegated status) ... but I still need to make sure that it moves forward. "3) Postponed / On Hold" - Anything uncompleted, that has a status of postponed or on-hold. Loosely, I think I will likely use these for things that may not have a tightly defined start *and* end date. Being in this deferred status gets it off of my hotlist until the dates can be set more accurately. I'm still trying to define what "Postponed" and "On Hold" mean to me ... I'd be curious to see what others use as their definition. "4) Someday" - Anything uncompleted, that has a status of someday. These are things where I don't know what my start date will be, nor my end date. These are the higher level goals I want to accomplish. I'm sure I'll refine these more as time goes on. But I can see myself using a system where daily I'm processing #1, #2, and my hotlist ... and weekly, I'll review #3 and #4 to see if it's time to make progress on any of those items. This message was edited May 02, 2010. |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 28, 2010 in: iPhone filters can't hide deferred tasks
Score: 0
Ah -- that is probably it, since I just started using the status field ... I hadn't enabled it on the phone yet.
Thanks! |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 27, 2010 in: iPhone filters can't hide deferred tasks
Score: 0
As I'm starting to branch out into some of the "Deferred" states - like Waiting On - I'm using the filter on my hotlist page (my primary view of what I need to be focusing on) to get those items out of my view and off my mind.
What I just noticed, though ... is that the filters available on the iPhone app do not include filtering deferred items. All the other filters seem to be there except that one. It would be a great update to add that in... That is all. Thanks! |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 26, 2010 in: pop up Wifi dialog box at inopportune moments
Score: 0
iPhone Settings > Wifi > Ask to Join Networks...
set to "Off" |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 26, 2010 in: Using MailActOn on Mac mail.app
Score: 0
FYI - I don't know if anyone had seen this blog entry ... but in looking around for tools for Toodledo, I stumbled across this:
http://www.thefreespeech.org/?p=69 The author is correct in that "a lot of emails are really the source for most tasks that one manages" ... and I am no exception to this. I wanted a quick and simple way that I could spin through my inbox, hit a quick keystroke or two ... and have a task shot over to Toodledo. Well, it turns out MailActOn will help with that (http://indev.ca/MailActOn.html). Now, the author of that blog post gets pretty fancy with his approach - even being able to set folders, priorities, etc. right in mail.app before the to-do is shot over to Toodledo. To me, that's a bit of overkill ... I can tweak that stuff later when it's sitting in my unfiled inbox over in toodledo. The important thing is to have a quick way to get items there with minimal effort. MailActOn is super simple for that. I just made a rule, that is triggered by the "T" key. While viewing a message, or while having an individual message highlighted in my inbox, I can simply press F1 to invoke MailActOn, then T to shove the message over to toodledo. Or, I can shortcut that even further by just pressing ctrl-T. The email is automatically forwarded over to my toodledo private incoming email address. Now, they all show up in Toodledo as not in any folder, and as "Fwd: This is the original subject", no context, no due dates, etc. But I don't find it too difficult to repair all these within the Toodledo user interface (I use grid mode). The main thing is to get them over into toodledo as fast as possible, and off of my mind. |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 26, 2010 in: Anyone using "Search" as their default start page?
Score: 1
Now that I'm a couple months into Toodledo ... I feel like I'm getting enough of the swing of things that I'm going to start trying to re-implement a "GTD lite" system. As a result, I was thinking of changing my settings so that my starting page is the Search tab ... and then having three pre-saved searches named on that tab (complete with the numbers) in this order:
1) Inbox - new items via web, iphone, or other methods categorized here by default. Anything in here, needs to get put into a folder. Anytime anything is in here, I need to process it until this gets to zero. 2) Waiting On - items set "Waiting" in the status field (or a similar value) where I am waiting on someone else for something. I tend to forget these things. 3) Hotlist - basically, a duplicate of the existing hotlist. Once I have processed #1 and #2, the remainder of my time would likely be spent here. This way ... my daily routine can simply be a matter of 1-2-3. I haven't tried implementing it yet (going to re-read GTD this weekend for some more ideas) but was wondering if there were any thoughts. |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 26, 2010 in: Why Toodledo IS the Best for GTD
Score: 0
Chitu - I agree with your approach, and from what I can recall from reading GTD a few years back ... I think it makes sense.
For me, "folders" represent the various hats that I wear in life -- family, work, personal, landlord, freelance writer, HOA board, etc. etc. Within any of those roles in life, I might have multiple projects in-flight ... so each is either a single task, or a parent/subtask setup (I'm just learning those now and getting Toodledo setup the way I want to process those). Personally, I still find contexts helpful. I have a "Shopping/Errands" context ... and I can have tasks that would apply across many of my "roles" (i.e.: folders) that would all share a context. For example, this weekend I had to go pick up a part for the rental property I lease ("Landlord") and while I was out I was also able to pick up some clothes for my day job ("Personal"). |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 26, 2010 in: Suggestion: Time-sensitive contexts
Score: 0
That exactly how I have it today (it's actually called Shopping/Errands) ... and spent the better part of my Saturday processing through that list. :)
But when you can get more granular with that - i.e.: @PostOffice is only open from 9am-5pm, but @Mall is open from 10am-9pm weekdays - it adds an extra layer of coolness and efficiency onto the process. At 6pm at night on a Tuesday, I won't be bothered by seeing postoffice items in my "Errands" list ... since it is impossible to complete them at that time. |
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Douglas |
Posted Apr 25, 2010 in: Suggestion: Time-sensitive contexts
Score: 0
One of the features that I remember from when I was using LifeBalance (?) was that "contexts" could be optionally time-sensitive. If a task was assigned to a context ... and that context fell outside of the defined time ranges ... it wouldn't show up on the list.
For example - let's say I have a reminder to take some clothes to the drycleaners (I do, in fact, have that reminder right now). If I make a context called @drycleaners, and then put in the hours that they are open ... by default, I'll only see that To Do item when it's possible to complete it. So, at 8:20pm on a Sunday evening -- "take dress shirts to drycleaners" wouldn't be showing up on my to-do list. This was a really cool feature to keep one's to-do list neat and tidy. Toodledo is still pretty darn awesome without it ... but it would be a great add-on at some point. Thanks! |