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Proximo's GTD Setup
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Yannis |
Let me just write an extra couple of words before I run to bed—it's nearly 2am on this side of the globe.
Many of our GTD woes would be solved if the Toodledoers incorporated some sort of "wildcard" folder and "wildcard" context in the system. By "wildcard" I mean that tasks utilizing them would belong in "all folders" or "all contexts", respectively. The similarities to the currently existing "no folder" and "no context" options are superficial: Wildcards, rather, would allow parent tasks to accommodate subtasks in any context and any folder without any ambiguities or conflicts. They would allow, in other words, nested (indented) displays of our projects when viewing them "by context" or "by folder" with no missing and no redundant information. Just perfect! I see this as a "checkmate move". A feature that would go a long way towards making Toodledo an extraordinarily flexible and powerful platform for task management, including GTD. Dear Toodledoers, any thoughts? Thank you! This message was edited Jan 19, 2010. |
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Derek |
Hats off to Proximo and others for all the great GTD info. I have just recently adopted Proximo's GTD setup for TD but have one main question after finishing my "Collection" phase...
1.) How do you identify your Big Rocks for each day (Starred items) without having to go through every single task over & over again? I currently have 156 tasks identified. I must be missing something. Thanks in Advance, Derek This message was edited Jan 21, 2010. |
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TheGriff_2 |
What do you mean "big rock"? I think you're trying to bring Covey into GTD. ;-)
If something must be done today it should have a date to make it so...otherwise all the rocks are the same when it comes to GTD. |
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Derek |
When I refer to "Big Rocks" I was actually referencing an earlier post from Proximo...
Posted by Proximo: How you identify your Next Actions is up to you, but you should always have Next Actions. Next Actions allow you to focus on the Big Rocks of the day. Again, this does not mean you don't have the flexibility to tackle other things as your Context, Time and Energy dictate. Sorry, should have perhaps included the quote in my original post. This message was edited Jan 21, 2010. |
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cjuzda |
Not exactly correct according to GTD. Priority is one of the four key components for choosing "Actions in the Moment" so it is certainly acknowledged by GTD that some things are more important (Bigger Rocks?) than others.
Posted by TheGriff: What do you mean "big rock"? I think you're trying to bring Covey into GTD. ;-)
If something must be done today it should have a date to make it so...otherwise all the rocks are the same when it comes to GTD. |
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Claudio |
YouTube video of Stephen Covey demonstrating "Big Rocks": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VDxKLSyksI
BTW, cjuzda, I've been enjoying your posts. Good observations, good insights, clearly presented. Thanks. |
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Proximo |
Big Rocks to me is simply my Focus List (Starred Items).
I do daily reviews in conjunction to my weekly reviews. I scan my Next Actions daily and decided what task get a Star to show in my Focused list/Today List. At the end of the day, these task should all be done. The next morning I scan my Next Actions list and decided what I will tackle that day by adding a star. You can use Priorities to keep the most important task on top, making the scanning process easier and quicker. During the Weekly review you need to look deeper and change priorities as needed. Not sure if that makes sense to you but I live of my Today List or Focus List. I only work from my Starred list unless I am done and need to identify new task that will get a star. This keeps me away from the main Next Actions list while I am getting things done. |
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TheGriff_2 |
True...but I've always considered the priority of a GTD item to be non-defined. In a paper system I wouldn't go through placing numeric priority on items.
I've always brought priority in at time of determining what to do now. For example the call to my doctor might has a higher priority over the call to Mom because the discussion is more urgent. Posted by cjuzda: Not exactly correct according to GTD. Priority is one of the four key components for choosing "Actions in the Moment" so it is certainly acknowledged by GTD that some things are more important (Bigger Rocks?) than others.
Posted by TheGriff: What do you mean "big rock"? I think you're trying to bring Covey into GTD. ;-) If something must be done today it should have a date to make it so...otherwise all the rocks are the same when it comes to GTD. |
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cjuzda |
@Claudio
Thanks, I've been using different programs and methods like FC and GTD for quite a while and I'm always interested in what others are using and doing. It's easy to get a bit obsessive with this stuff though :) |
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cjuzda |
@TheGriff
My opinion only but for me it is more productive to pre determine (as much as possible and with the knowledge that circumstances can change) not just what I should be doing on a given day but also which of those tasks is the most important. By using priorities, even if my context changes, the more important items will still bubble to the top of the list for whatever context I'm in. If I don't do this, I can end up just doing the "easy stuff" first and not have time for something more important. Plus, after completing any task, I would have to mentally re process all my remaining tasks before deciding on the next one. You can do this fairly easily on paper as well on a daily basis but I agree for longer time frames it becomes more difficult to do with a paper based system. Regards |
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Hadamard |
Hi guys, I have really enjoyed reading this thread. I have just upgraded my TD account and I am using many of your ideas. Thanks a lot.
I would like to ask you how to manage part of my someday items. Let´s say that I have project A (task) which has 4 steps (subtasks). I have completed the first two steps, and I realize that for now it is enough to get by. I don´t have enough time to go on in that project (my energy is finite :)). Besides its outstanding substasks are not critical. It seems that the last two substasks should be moved to the someday list. How do you guys manage this situation? If you move the project completely to the someday list (that´s, changing the task status to Someday), you may have problems to check your completed projects during the last month. The other option is to clone the project and place it on the someday list. Could this option create some issue? By the way, I would like to know your opinion regarding the waiting for status. I think that the same ideas could be discussed. Waiting for your suggestions. |
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cjuzda |
@Hadamard
Personally if a project required multiple tasks to be done to be considered completed and I was not prepared to move ahead with those tasks any time soon, I would put give the entire project a "Hold" status and not worry abut the status for the individual tasks. You should pick this project up in your Weekly review if you determine that you're going to continue with the tasks in question in order to complete the project. Usually "Someday" is used to identify a project that you may or may not START someday, not one that is already being worked on Chris |
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Hadamard |
Thank you cjuzda, I will consider your advice.
Let´s go guys, more suggestions! I am sure some of you have to move projects!! |
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PeterW |
Hey Proximo,
I've been using Toodledo for about three months and started out with folders based on areas of my work - I am a finance & administration manager so my folders included, Admin, Finance, IT, OH&S, etc and also a Personal folder. I wasn't using contexts or tags as I didn't understand how to use them. However I've been following this thread and reading up on GTD on the Internet to get a better understanding of what it's all about and how it works. I have been convinced that your setup is a better way to use Toodledo and last week converted my own setup over to yours as described in this thread, the only difference being that I don't have a Ticklers folder but I do have a Reference folder. And tomorrow I pickup my copy of the GTD book from the post office so I can get more depth on the method. Already I've noticed a huge difference. My list is easier to manage and use, and now I trust it more. Which means I've been able to free my mind up rather than worry about it and thereby I can focus more on the task at hand. The reason for posting is to say a huge "THANK YOU" for taking the time to describe your setup, make videos of it, and for generally providing good advice and input on these forums for newer members such as myself. It has made a world of difference! I am currently using Appigo Todo on my iPhone but have been tinkering with Toodledo's iPhone app also. I like Appigo better for now but do most of my task management on the Toodledo website. Again, thanks for your efforts. Cheers, Peter. This message was edited Jan 27, 2010. |
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davidholliday |
Proximo, you have created a lot of work for me! I thought I was going to use Nozbe for a while, but the more I was thinking about your Toodledo setup, the more it seemed that it might work for me.
So I'm now in the process of setting it up - so far so good. I appreciate you taking the time to provide all this great information! Cheers! David |
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CJD |
Proximo and fellow posters I give you a HUGE thank you. I teach but also and the Technology Coordinator for 3 school sites, (as well as the buyer). I am horrible in email triage and usually end up with thousands in a very short time.
I have used a number of different things (Nozbe, Vialist, Backpackit, Remember the Milk,outlook) but have been focusing on Toodledo for the last year and a half. I end up with hundreds of entries as I email to toodledo from outlook and it becomes overwhelming. I am going to modify my system to Proximo's as it seems to be less messy than what I am doing now. Thanks to everyone. I don't think I have ever read every post in an 8 page thread before. lol but I was memorized. PS I love the Toodledo iPhone app but hate the phone. I use a Pre and the web interface is not too bad. |
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davidholliday |
I must say that the Proximo GTD is by far the best setup I've found for Toodledo - and I've tried to set it up a lot of different ways.
For me, the key was the naming of sub-tasks. This is essential since I have a lot of projects that often have much the same tasks in them (photographing a wedding is pretty much the same steps each time, from signing contract to delivering albums and discs). I'd been struggling in the past when subtasks show in lists of actions without a clear view of which project they belong to. This makes Toodledo behave as though it is a dedicated GTD app - been looking for this for ages. Now, if only my saved searches were synced over to the iPhone app ... Proximo - I owe you a beer for saving me keeping up the Nozbe account =) Cheers! David |
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Proximo |
I want to thank everyone for the kind words. I was off last week and I am now back and ready to Get Things Done at the office.
I have learned a lot from the other Toodledo users as well, so I also want to thank all of you for your input and advice. Let's keep the ideas flowing. Thanks again. |
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CJD |
I have been using Proximo's system for 2 days now and have run into a bit of a snag. The system works great for me except for one thing.
I teach but unfortunately part of my job involves IT maintenance, user account creation and maintenance help desk, ordering... (long story why, won't bore you) Because I wear multiple hats in my position and I travel between sites, I keep my Actions, Projects and Waiting folders public. For one, so my boss, and fellow workers can see what I am working on and where their "issue" falls in the priority list. But I don't them to see my personal stuff. So now I must keep two folders of each Actions, Projects, Waiting. Which annoys me as Promimo's version of GTD, is so simple and works so well with TD. So I thought of this - What if I switched Contexts and Folders? So instead of my folders being: Actions, Projects, Waiting... Were instead Context items and my Work, Photog Business, and Personal were my folders, this way WORK would be public since we only have Folder control over privacy. Are there any negative implications? |
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PeterW |
Posted by CJD: So now I must keep two folders of each Actions, Projects, Waiting. Which annoys me as Promimo's version of GTD, is so simple and works so well with TD. So I thought of this - What if I switched Contexts and Folders? So instead of my folders being: Actions, Projects, Waiting... Were instead Context items and my Work, Photog Business, and Personal were my folders, this way WORK would be public since we only have Folder control over privacy. Are there any negative implications? Hmmm... I don't think I'd do that. Reason being that if I had a system that was working well for me, I'd not want to destabilise it for anyone else! Could you simply export the tasks you want others to see and let them look at it in a spreadsheet? |
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