31 replies to this topic

[juniorgolf18]

Has anyone implemented and used or using "the secret weapon" gtd system that has been discussed on here?

I've been using other programs for tasks but would just rather use Evernote and looking at some options. I've looked at GatorBrit's method - Click Here but the Secret Weapon is pretty complete but maybe complicated system

Thoughts?

[gatorbrit]

It's gatorbrit not bait!!

I've modified my method very slightly. I now have nested tags that help me ID projects. i.e.

.work <--- this is the parent tag
projectA <---- the project tags.
projectB
etc

I like this because I can click on my tasks notebook (which contains my sub task notebooks "1-next", "2-later" etc and then click on a project, say "projectB" and see all the tasks for that project across the different priorities.

I should also say that in my work, projects are more like areas of responsibility "scheduling", "hiring" etc.

A key thing that I got from TSW though is zero inbox. I religiously clean out my email inbox. An email is either actionable now - quick reply, then archive, not actionable - then archive, or is a task - forward to EN, then archive.

I should add that I've worked hard to minimize the number of tags that I put on stuff - in most cases most of my tasks just have one tag. Keeping it simple works for me.

[juniorgolf18]

It's gatorbrit not bait!!

I've modified my method very slightly. I now have nested tags that help me ID projects. i.e.

.work <--- this is the parent tag
projectA <---- the project tags.
projectB
etc

I like this because I can click on my tasks notebook (which contains my sub task notebooks "1-next", "2-later" etc and then click on a project, say "projectB" and see all the tasks for that project across the different priorities.

I should also say that in my work, projects are more like areas of responsibility "scheduling", "hiring" etc.

A key thing that I got from TSW though is zero inbox. I religiously clean out my email inbox. An email is either actionable now - quick reply, then archive, not actionable - then archive, or is a task - forward to EN, then archive.

I should add that I've worked hard to minimize the number of tags that I put on stuff - in most cases most of my tasks just have one tag. Keeping it simple works for me.

Sorry about typo - lol - fixed it -- by the way your Gators and my Tide are on a COLLISION COURSE

I setup TSW and i'm pretty much a fan - I can see myself customizing it to suit my style - for instance I've changed some of the .When items to this:

!Daily
1-Today
2-This Week
3-Next Week
4-This Month
5-Later
6-Waiting

This works better for me as I was used to planning weekly then moving them to daily tasks

[SFisher]

I started with Evernote and TSW in January of this year and like it very much for GTD. Around June of this year I stumbled on the private beta of Zendone and I am now totally hooked. Zendone is still in beta but it is very functional. You can request and invitation and they will set up an account for you. Basically, I forward all my emails to my default notebook in Evernote. That default notebook is tied to my "Zendone" account. In Zendone my Inbox shows everything that is in my Evernote default notebook. From Zendone I can make an item an "action" with due dates, etc. If it is not an action I send it back to Evernote for record keeping. It never really leaves Evernote, Zendone just uses some additional tags. Once an "action" is completed it leaves Zendone and remains only in Evernote. You can also create actions directly in Zendone. For me, most of my "actions" come from emails.

Eventually it is my understanding that Zendone offer a premium account with a monthly fee, but right now it is free since it is still in beta.

I would recommend that you go over to their website, www.zendone.com and check it out.

Stephen

[juniorgolf18]

I will check that out -- now a tagging question


When I am tagging a "when" tag, like "1-Now" or "1-Today" in my names, do I also tag it ".When"?

I haven't been doing that but noticed when doing one via my iPhone it was listed as a tag and I guess in the desktop I didn't consider it its own tag, more of a header.

[gatorbrit]

I've tried Zendone (along with every other app!!!) and the problem that it has is that it is not a transparent two -way sync with evernote. For example, if you change a task in EN it doesn't transparently update in zendone in a predictable way. I think that they acknowledged this issue.

For me, a true "GTD/Task manager" that uses EN as its back end must have a straightforward sync so that if I want to create or edit a task in EN (because that might be where I am at that point) I should be able to do so. Many of the apps that use EN just use it as a storage device which is fine as long as you only access via the app.

Regarding tagging - I think you want to try and use as few as possible. This is because when you email a message to EN, you need to make it fast.

For example, say I get an email that requires an action. I will forward it to EN by adding the following to the subject line

@1-next #.work #theproject

and I'm done.
Note that I use notebooks not tags to house my priorities.


What I've found though is that you should try and live with your method and then tweak it after a while to make it better. Everyone has a different need and it isn't like adopting a GTD methodolgy requires a religious adherence to the concept.


Finally - Gators are gonna chomp bama.

[juniorgolf18]

Sorry about your Gators man - love playing them in Atlanta.

Anyway - I'm thinking of changing how to process stuff. Maybe your way, help me out. Now I have something in "today" in my inbox for example, and I do it/complete it etc... I move to completed or change the notebook to completed in the note, but my tag is still there and pops up in search or if I remove the tag before moving to complete it disappears from the search as soon as I remove it and then have to hunt it down to move to completed...

[gerscha]

How looks the list view on an Android Smartphone or Tablet PC?

[juniorgolf18]

It looks ok, I just search by tags usually now that I'm using this tagging method.

[Andrew Cruz]

I've been implementing TSW for three weeks now and it has greatly organised my life. My ".When" tags are exactly the same as yours because I, too, would rather plan my tasks weekly. Just in case I need to specify a date for a task, I usually edit when the document was created. So when I click on "Date Created", it would automatically arrange the dates so that I can clearly see what tasks I need to follow up on.

It's gatorbrit not bait!!

I've modified my method very slightly. I now have nested tags that help me ID projects. i.e.

.work <--- this is the parent tag
projectA <---- the project tags.
projectB
etc

I like this because I can click on my tasks notebook (which contains my sub task notebooks "1-next", "2-later" etc and then click on a project, say "projectB" and see all the tasks for that project across the different priorities.

I should also say that in my work, projects are more like areas of responsibility "scheduling", "hiring" etc.

A key thing that I got from TSW though is zero inbox. I religiously clean out my email inbox. An email is either actionable now - quick reply, then archive, not actionable - then archive, or is a task - forward to EN, then archive.

I should add that I've worked hard to minimize the number of tags that I put on stuff - in most cases most of my tasks just have one tag. Keeping it simple works for me.

Sorry about typo - lol - fixed it -- by the way your Gators and my Tide are on a COLLISION COURSE

I setup TSW and i'm pretty much a fan - I can see myself customizing it to suit my style - for instance I've changed some of the .When items to this:

!Daily
1-Today
2-This Week
3-Next Week
4-This Month
5-Later
6-Waiting

This works better for me as I was used to planning weekly then moving them to daily tasks

[grantmarkdavies]

I've been using it about 2 weeks, I'm finding my 3-Soon box is a bit overloaded, but I did have around 1000 emails in my inbox I'm clearing out slowly..

The only thing I've found annoying is I often want to reply to an email I've sent to ever note and include the content, I wish it was more seamless, I know you can save your emails to your desktop and then pull those into evernote but thats not as seamless as clicking Apple-E ( script) to send all current inbox items to evernnote...

I like it, I think its 75% of the way there for me, just needs some fine tuning

1) Being able to "reply" to an item in evernote and include the content if it was originally an email
2) I need to figure out if I need a "today", "tomorrow" and "this week" instead of "now", "next", "soon"...

Grant.

[juniorgolf18]

I've been using it about 2 weeks, I'm finding my 3-Soon box is a bit overloaded, but I did have around 1000 emails in my inbox I'm clearing out slowly..

The only thing I've found annoying is I often want to reply to an email I've sent to ever note and include the content, I wish it was more seamless, I know you can save your emails to your desktop and then pull those into evernote but thats not as seamless as clicking Apple-E ( script) to send all current inbox items to evernnote...

I like it, I think its 75% of the way there for me, just needs some fine tuning

1) Being able to "reply" to an item in evernote and include the content if it was originally an email
2) I need to figure out if I need a "today", "tomorrow" and "this week" instead of "now", "next", "soon"...

Grant.

Grant -

I keep tweaking mine as I go - I just recently went a little hybrid on my initial setup of today, tomorrow etc... I found that I needed a list of things that needed done today or as soon as I can (ie now) - so I changed today to "1-Now" so I now see what is urgent to get done asap and then kept the others 2-This Week, 3-Next Week, etc... It's worked out great.

Hope this helps

[Karol_1978]

Hi,

I'm Karol, the CEO of OneMln, the developer of www.everdo.it

EverDo.it is an app that allows you to create tasks / events out of notes or part of them. It also allows you to put an event / task to your calendar. The iPad version will be available this month. So to sum it up - EverDo.it adds the GTD experience to Evernote :-)

You're all invited to comment on our GTD app for Evernote lovers

Would really appreciate your feedback!

Regards,

Karol

[FunkyLB]

juniorgolf18: I have been using TSW for a few months now but just managed to get through Getting Things Done. If you haven't read it, it's worth your time. The only downside I see to changing your Now, Next, Soon, Later to This Week, Next Week, etc.. is that you are replacing priority with time. If something is due on a certain date you should put it in you calendar. Also, you may have more tasks than you can do in that time frame, or maybe more time. Just my 2₵

[juniorgolf18]

juniorgolf18: I have been using TSW for a few months now but just managed to get through Getting Things Done. If you haven't read it, it's worth your time. The only downside I see to changing your Now, Next, Soon, Later to This Week, Next Week, etc.. is that you are replacing priority with time. If something is due on a certain date you should put it in you calendar. Also, you may have more tasks than you can do in that time frame, or maybe more time. Just my 2₵

That is a VERY good point. I am experiencing this and didn't think about this... I've been re tagging things from next week to this week and vice versa... I may try original way.

Thanks again

[C6REW]

Good point Funky,

The problem with being time related is you end up with too much to do and don't bother!

Regards

Chris

[FunkyLB]

Sounds like you need the 25 hour day like the rest of us

[AdmiralP]

@Karol_1978 - EverDoIt sounds/looks interesting. But it also appears to be an Apple app...
Shame, there are plenty of Android users who would be intersted in this.
Any chance of an Android version of EverDoIt ?

[dallonc]

I get what Gatorbrit's saying about the two-way sync. I know I'm probably in the minority on this, but I actually like the idea of only having Zendone as a "one-way sync" where I can only process my Evernotes and not try to edit them in Zendone. I'm running a dual test with IQTell and Zendone, and I like that Zendone is simpler. I know that I can file Evernotes in Zendone but not edit them. That allows me to know I only process my GTD system in Zendone and edit my Evernote information only in Evernote.

I can definitely see why IQTell is appealing, and I can also see why The Secret Weapon is a good process. For me, I like how Zendone is just a good "just right" overlay for Evernote. I'm very interested to see how the iOS app comes out.

[Karol_1978]

@AdmiralP - yes, web and Android is under development. We want to have a cross-platform solution. I know, some allergic to Apple ;-)

BTW, Everdo.it is available in Appstore here: iTunes