shhLIFE!

I’ve stuck pretty rigidly to my GTD plan these past two weeks and I can really feel a difference in my stress level and my ability to feel like I’m on top of everything on my plate.

I’ve modified my toodledo system a tiny bit.  Previously I mentioned that I had 4 folders set up in toodledo:

1. Inbox
2. Projects
3. Discussions
4. Someday / Maybe

This worked for a little while, but I soon found that my Projects folder was getting a bit overrun, so I decided to change Projects to Areas of Focus.  This lets me separate the areas where I don’t have any overlap to allow me to focus better.

My folder structure now looks like:

1. Inbox
2. Focus – Work
3. Focus – Home
4. Focus – Animator Friendly Rigging
5. Discussions
6. Someday / Maybe
7. Calendar

As you can see I also added a Calendar folder.  This is where I’m keeping things like birthdays and other events that I want to find quickly and easily.

What’s really been helping me keep on track however is being SUPER diligent about not letting my email inbox balloon out of control.  My goal is to get it to zero every night, but that’s not always possible to do before heading home to be with the family.

That means I also don’t skim through and start reading my work emails until I get into work in the morning (or sit down at the computer at night) and have time to process everything.

I absolute refuse to let an email sit in my inbox read.  If it’s sitting there, and I’ve read it, I force myself to make a decision on it.  Is it a task?  Is it an action?  Do I need to read it later and figure out what I’m going to do with it?  Even if that last option is the one I need to do, I make it a project, drag it to my Active folder in outlook, and then make a task in toodledo to read the email and process it.

This works for my physical inbox as well.  I spent a good 4 hours on Saturday going through my entire office and cleaning up all my old files, todo notes, etc.  I got everything current, emptied my inbox, and made sure to have a good clean space that’s enjoyable to sit in.

It’s amazing how just having a clean area and a clean inbox can allow you to focus 100% on a task at hand and really plow through it.

I think I’m totally hooked!

Now.. I still wish I had a cleaner UI for toodledo.. it’s okay, but check this out.. has anyone used smartytask?

Smartytask for GTD (Smartytask.com) from Smarty Task on Vimeo.

It looks super slick.. I’d love to give it a try, but 100 bucks a year is a little steep.

I know I’ve been talking a lot about toodledo as my current task manager of choice, but there are a number of options out there for people that would work pretty well for what I’ve been harping on so far.

In fact, almost any type of “list” system will work just fine.  The only reason I’m currently using toodledo is because it syncs with the iPhone so well and fast, it’s incredibly easy!

However, in terms of UI they could certainly use a retrofit.

Check out a similar task list in nirvana.. I can compress the window a lot more, only the relevant information is shown, and it just looks way cleaner.

I love the list of projects on the left, the fact that I can use Areas of focus to easily separate work from home stuff, and it’s super easy to see what items I’m waiting for, what’s next ,what I plan on doing in the future, etc.

The only real issue as to why I’m not using nirvana is because I can’t sync with my iphone.  They have a beautiful mobile app, but it needs an internet connection to sync. When I want to get my tasks I don’t wait to wait for an internet connection, I want the stuff there.. immediately!

Google tasks is another possibility.. you can make individual lists, and you can indent.. but as far as I know I can’t search my tasks, and I can’t tag them.  That makes it a no-win for me.

The other thing I like about both toodledo and nirvana is that I can email tasks directly to the inbox.. super sweet!  And with toodledo I can actually process stuff with my email!  I can send with a subject like:

Call bob about new car ideas ! @@call #today

and it’ll show up in my inbox with the context @call and already marked for #today.  I can also add tags, status, folders, etc..

Crazy powerful!  Also, check out all the connections they have. Lots of ways to work with your data.

They also have a fancy “refer your friend” deal where if you refer a friend to toodledo and they sign up through a special link, you can save money on a pro account.. giving you access to all sorts of cool things like subtasks and more.

I just wish it were prettier.

At any rate, I’d love to hear what other things you guys are using!  In fact, regardless of how useful toodledo is, or how pretty nirvana is.. neither still really give me what I want.

What I WANT is something I can host myself for absolute security that’ll sync with my iphone/ipad.  Anyone know of anything like that?

In a previous post I started going through my new process for handling tasks that allows me to be email inbox zero.

If you can remember, I funnel everything that I have to do (or need to follow up on) to my toodledo inbox, whether it’s from email, snail mail, meetings, etc.

In toodledo I have the following folders set up:

1. Inbox
2. Projects
3. Discussions
4. Someday / Maybe

My default tasks get sent to my inbox folder automatically, so any tasks I add whether it’s within toodledo, by forwarding an email, or by using my own personal python script (I’ll discuss this in another post) all sit first in that inbox folder.

Then, I can go through each item and specify whether the item is a task or project, what it’s due date is, the context (@work, @home, @calls, @wife, etc), what the status is ( next action, deferred, waiting on, etc) and determine if it’s a project, a discussion I need to have, or if I’m going to do it sometime in the future.

Then I move the task to the appropriate folder and I’m done!

Well, done processing anyway. Now it’s time to start doing real work.

Depending on where I am, I will filter my lists by context, so when I’m at work I only see my @work tasks.. Or if I am meeting with my whole animation team I’ll filter to my folder discussions and then check out my @anim items so I know what I want to talk about.

What’s great about this is that I can have a real clear picture of what tasks and projects are relevant to my current state, and I can easily determine what I should be working on at any given moment.

I’ve been focusing on doing this for a few weeks now and my focus has changed considerably. I really feel like I have a handle on most of the things that are taking my attention.

I don’t have everything in this system yet.. For example I know that I have to return my leased car within the next two months but I don’t have a project based on that idea yet.

It’s all a process though.. A journey.

In my previous post I discusses the inbox zero side of my current gtd setup.. Basically processing all my email down to zero.

The trick here is not that I’m completing everything in my email, it’s that I’m cleansing and moving it to a single trusted place. That means that no matter what, I have one single location to go to where all my incoming tasks and projects will be processed.

Of course I was just talking about email previously.. the trick is that I can do this with all types of input.  Email, snail mail, meeting notes, random thoughts, shopping lists, long term goals, etc.

Every thought gets funneled into the same location where I can process, filter, assign, itemize, plan, etc.

The key is to get the stuff to toodledo with a clear action in mind.

It doesn’t help if I just forward an email with a subject like “re: fountains, what a pain!”.

If that ends up in my toodledo inbox I’ll have to re-read the email and figure out what the heck to do about it.  As long as I’ve already made up my mind that I DO need to do something about this (otherwise, why would I be forwarding it to toodledo?), I should phrase the subject as a task that I can physically do, or a clearly defined outcome to a project.

For example, let’s say that what’s hidden in the heart of this email is the fact that there are 15 different kinds of fountains for sale by this company I’m interested in purchasing from, and I need to determine what kind of fountain to get.

Then I’ll forward the email and change the subject to be something like “Choose which fountain I want”.

That way when I look at my toodledo inbox I know that this email is about picking a fountain, and there’s probably information in there for me to look at.

One of the great things about a pro account at toodledo is that I can make sub-tasks for my todos.  So I can break this down even further!

I can create a few very simple subtasks that allow me to really define what’s involved with picking the fountain:

• create a list of fountain names
• find images of each fountain
• put images and names into a google doc
• send google doc to wife
• set aside 15 minutes to discuss options
• etc..

Then, I’ll make each of those a sub-task and add whatever other information is necessary. .for example, add a link to the actual google doc I’m using, etc.

This is where the GTD stuff comes in real handy.  Each of those things are small physical bite-sized chunks of the big project “choose a fountain” that I can easily manage.  Now this project isn’t so daunting!

To be continued..

After all this time of trying various task managers, it feels like I’m starting to settle on one.  Believe it or not, it’s one of the tools I started  out trying and discarding for various reasons, but after much hunting and pecking and trying and pulling and reading and writing.. I’m about *this* close to settling down.

Yes, I’m going to bite the bullet and commit.

This is a really big deal for me, because this search has gone on for quite a while.  I’ve tried numerous systems, and even used multiple todo lists at the same time.

I’ve tried pure web-based applications and pure iPhone apps.  I’ve tried using Outlook to manage my tasks and a OS X to email combination.

Through everything I’ve tried, only one application has had the best customer support, iPhone application, and web application that makes it easy, cheap, and possible to use a GTD system to manage my tasks, be they management, animation, home, etc.

That application is raman amplifier Toodledo.com.

Yes, I hate the web-based UI.  I can’t stand that I can’t have subtasks unless I pay for support.  The name makes me think of the Denny’s “rooty tooty fresh ‘n fruity” commercial from the 90′s.

But even with all that, every other todo application I’ve tried has been lacking in some area, and Toodledo (shudder) lacks the least.  The only thing I really don’t like about it is the UI on the web page, and there are so many other ways of integrating with it that I can get over that.

Here are the things I dig about it:

• The iPhone application – easy to use, syncs fast, 4 bucks
• The forums – super crazy active with great advice!
• The developers – actively working to improve their product.  This is more than I can say about RTM and Todoist, my two other favorite apps
• Integration with other tools – iPhone, twitter, email, google gadgets, firefox, ical, rss, jott… the list goes on and on!
• Customized saved searches
• Tags and contexts and folders and goals.. and subtasks if you’re a pro subscriber!

So if you haven’t tried Toodledo, give it a try.. but use this link:
http://www.toodledo.com/index.php?ref=td49a592734c5eb
if you do, because if 4 people sign up I get pro access for life!