Tag Archives: GTD

Using OmniFocus to maintain a list of daily goals at work

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I really need to have a way to track a rotating list of things I need to try to get done every day. These are items that just have to get done on a daily basis that don’t need “project management”…they are just things that I need to make sure to get done. Start and Due Dates aren’t important. If something doesn’t get done one day it needs to flow into the next. In OmniFocus the only way I can think of to accomplish this is to use the flag and then use the “Flagged” perspective to be able to see these things.

I’ve been using Evernote for these but it doesn’t make sense in my mind to do it there because I use OmniFocus to keep track of tasks. Instead of using Evernote to have my main list of goals they are going to go into OmniFocus every morning. I’m going to try doing the following with those tasks to keep them separate from the others:

  • No start or due dates.
  • The context should still be Work.
  • Create a single action project called “Daily Work Goals”.
  • Use the “Flagged” perspective to follow all of this.

At the very least I think I’ve found a good reason to use the flag in OmniFocus. :) Up until now I really haven’t had an idea of where that might be useful.

nvAlt – just not clicking for me yet

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A week ago I wrote about my new writing workflow. The tool I chose for keeping notes was nvAlt (and ResophNotes on Windows which is a duplicate of Notational Velocity on the Mac). Up to that point I had been using Evernote to keep notes. So far the nvAlt way is not working for me. I like how Evernote gives the ability to have folders and notebooks. nvAlt relies on searching. That is all well and good but I’m so used to browsing to see if I’ve already written something on a given topic it is hard for me to switch to searching. The mental jump required, as easy as it seems, just hasn’t happened yet.

I’m not giving up on nvAlt by any means. I promised myself that I’d give the new workflow a month. I’ll reevaluate at that point but a week in and Evernote hasn’t lost it’s appeal even if it is much harder to get stuff out of it.

On having a clear head…

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In my new experimentation with GTD I’ve learned something that I just never paid much attention to in the past:  energy level is a very important aspect of the whole system.   It’s great to have a list of stuff to do but if you never have the energy to accomplish anything the lists are pretty pointless.   I’ve got some big projects that require me to do a lot of mind work and I’ve found, and have come to accept, that doing those projects after work just isn’t going to cut it.   By the time the kids are in bed and I’ve already been engaged in work all day I just don’t have the mental capacity to start working on other things that require a lot of thought.   So I tried something different.

For several weeks I’ve been getting up about an hour earlier for a couple of days and it’s made me hugely successful in accomplishing some of my goals.   My brain is well-rested (well….most of the time anyhow) and I have more overall energy.  Those days I was able to get a lot done in the extra hour I had.   So tonight I’m starting that routine a bit more formally.  I’m going to go to bed earlier and wake up 2 hours early.   With the house quiet I can do whatever thinking I need with the energy I need and without the fear of being interrupted.

OK. So I’m a data junkie. Oh, and GTD rules.

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They say the first step in solving a problem is admitting you have one right?  But I’m starting to come to grips with the fact that I am in fact a data junkie and it’s time to embrace that :)

I get overly excited by weather facts and statistics.  I love to tag things on my computer even if the tags aren’t useful later.  I love to collect information on my financial situation (even if I’m not going to look at it very often).  I love to fiddle with personal time management software and experiment with “systems” for keeping my life in order (even if I don’t pay attention to it later).

But honestly?  I’m feeling a hell of a lot better lately just accepting it for what it is and jumping in with both feet.  I’m feeling more in control with my task list and I’m feeling pretty damn good about it.  I always liked GTD an connected with it but always ended up falling off the wagon so-to-speak.  This time it’s clicking.

I’m going to be writing on this subject quite a bit because it’s an important subject to me and I’m excited about the impact it is having on my life, even in such a short period of time.  If I can help even one other person with something I write that will be awesome.  So stay tuned.

Lotus Notes/Google Calendar Sync: 3-1/2 Options

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I’ve been looking for a way to get my work and “life” calendars in the same spot.  I had been trying to keep them separate because I didn’t want my work appointments invading my personal calendar.  In theory that was a great idea but in practice, due to my workplace’s access policy, it is nearly impossible to see my work calendar outside of the office.   We use Lotus Notes at work and I use Google Calendar (GCal) for my personal calendars.  Surely given the still-heavily used Notes someone had come up with a sync option.   Sure enough several someones had and each had it’s strengths.   Here they are starting with the option I chose for my own use:

  1. Lotus Notes to Google Calendar Synchronizer(open source)Basically one-way sync from Notes to GCal.  This was perfect for me.  I’m not interested in making appointments in my Google calendars.  I just want to be able to see what I have coming up when I’m not in the office.This application can be run in command-line mode to make it run on a schedule either via Windows scheduled tasks (as I’m running it) or on Mac OS X/Linux as a schedule shell script (via cron or some other tool).

    It is Java-based and is completely client-side.

  2. GooCalSyncfrom OpenNTF.org  (open source)This one goes in the opposite direction,  Google to Notes.
  3. GooCalSync ProfessionalSame as above but isn’t free.  Allows bi-directional sync and can be scheduled.

    I haven’t tried this one at all.

  4. AwesyncAnother pay-for product with a 30-day trial.   Allows bidirectional sync of calendars, contacts, and tasks between GCal and Notes.  Includes scheduling, etc.

    I tried this in the past when it was in beta and liked it but I wasn’t willing to pay for a product.  It appears to have improved quite a bit since I tried the demo and looks very complete.

I’ve been pretty happy with option 1.   I only require simple calendar sync from notes to Google.  It’s free and comes with a good help file that explains clearly how to set it up and how to schedule the sync via the Windows task scheduler.

RTM and Appigo go at it over RTM API access

Well well.  It would appear that the folks at Remember the Milk and Appigo are in a bit of a dust-up over the Appigo iPhone/iPad app Todo.

Just a quick piece of information to make the story clear: the Todo app on both iPhone and iPad supported syncing with two web-based services: Toodledo and Remember the Milk.  As of 5/11/10 the folks at Remember the Milk shut off API access to Todo.  This was done without notifying customers.

The Appigo side of the story basically says that on 5/11/10 they were contacted via email from Remember the Milk and notified that access to the sync API had been shut off for Todo iPhone.   Appigo claims that the sync code for iPad was the same which is why they were using the same API key as the iPhone application.  They also claim that they have tried working with Remember the Milk to resolve the situation with no success.  Needless to say they have removed the RTM module from Todo and have worked with Toodledo to get RTM users 6 months free of Toodledo Pro.

I don’t know the details of the behind-the-scenes exchanges between the two parties but Appigo handled the situation, from a customers perspective, perfectly.  The status on the problem was matter-of-fact and cordial with no bad words for RTM.   Furthermore they worked with Toodledo to get RTM users a nice free period to switch over to Toodledo Pro if they want to try Toodledo.   Kudos to Toodledo for doing that.  Also a good way to get some new customers :)

Remember the Milk on the other hand come out smelling like a steaming pile on this one.  Emily from RTM, in the forums posted this:

Like many companies, our API is available for non-commercial use, with commercial use only available to select partners and products by prior permission. Third-parties who are interested in using the API commercially in a product can submit a business proposal for our consideration.

Appigo didn’t have a commercial license to use the Remember The Milk API for this app (and didn’t even apply for one); the first we became aware of the existence of this app was its launch on the App Store yesterday.

Unfortunately, despite being perfectly aware they didn’t have a commercial API license for any products beyond their iPhone app, Appigo chose to launch and advertise their new app with a Remember The Milk sync feature. The sync feature subsequently does not work, and this has resulted in a lot of confusion and disappointment for users. :(

We’ve given Appigo plenty of chances to do the right thing (they’ve been warned in the past about API terms violations), so we’ve been really disappointed in their recent behaviour. We take any abuse of the API very seriously, and have ended any relationship with this company; they will not have access to the API in the future.

We apologise to users affected. For any Remember The Milk users who were misled about this iPad app’s support for syncing with our service, if you upgraded to Pro on May 12 or May 13, 2010 to use this app, we will happily refund your Pro account payment (please contact us to request a refund; requests will be accepted until May 20, 2010). Any requests for refunds for the iPad app itself should be directed to Apple.?

It’s nice that RTM is willing to refund Pro payments for people who bought the iPad app on 5/12 or 5/13 but what about the folks using the iPhone version?  RTM is shitting on their customers.   I understand they need to protect their business but based on the Appigo side I find it hard to believe that RTM was working very hard to remedy this situation and the only losers are RTM customers.

A bit later in the thread of forum posts Emily says this:

It was a deliberate act on their part to abuse the API, and launch an app knowing they were not licensed to do so. They counted on the fact that if we terminated their API access after they launched this app, we’d have a bunch of upset Remember The Milk users on our hands. :( ?

I already posted about why I left RTM and this whole thing makes me completely sure my choice was the right one.  What a company.  Sheesh.  They counted on the fact that RTM would have a bunch of upset users on their hands?  Why in the world would Appigo want to do that?  It makes no sense given that those affected would also be Appigo customers as well!   Why would they want to piss off those users directly?

If there are any other reasons needed here to *not* support RTM by paying them $25 for a stagnant product this is another.  What a crappy way to do business.  Good riddance.

Bye Bye Remember The Milk…

Today, after being a Remember the Milk customer for years, I gave up on them and closed my account.   I paid up for a year of Toodledo Pro.  I really loved RTM at one point.  The user interface was fresh and worked pretty well.  It helped me implement GTD.  Eventually though my needs changed and the people behind RTM let the web site stagnate.   They seem to be concentrating on mobile devices more than the web interface these days and while I understand that decision I think they’re ignoring a large portion of their user base and I finally had enough so I closed up shop and left.

Toodledo consistently seems to work on the website (though I still can’t stand the plain-Jane UI) and adds features.   The feature set is much better than RTM and they have a date picker for due dates!   Seriously, this is the one major thing that pissed me off about RTM even though it might seem like a nitpick.  Their date picker is fantastic as it interprets strings like ‘next Tuesday’ in the due date field and translates them into dates.  However as great as that feature is sometimes a person just wants to choose a date from a calendar and that feature doesn’t exist in RTM.   There is a calendar icon that makes it look like it can be done but it can’t.

Toodledo also syncs wonderfully with Todo from Appigo (iPad or iPhone) which I just discovered yesterday with the release of the iPad version.  It is a fantastic todo list application with a beautiful user interface.   Todo actually syncs with RTM as well but you have to pay the $25 yearly “pro” fee to get the sync functionality which Toodledo provides for free.   I paid $14.95 for a yearly “pro” fee for Toodledo.  Hmmm….$25 for a stagnant application or $14.95 for an updated one.    Tough choice.

A $25 yearly fee certainly is viable if you provide a service for that fee but keeping the website stagnant and ignoring customer requests certainly isn’t what I’d call viable.  So it’s been fun RTM but you lost me.  ?Sorry.

The death of lifehacking

Maybe the title is exaggerating things just a bit but the idea is floating out there that the Golden Era of lifehacks is in the past and we are left with nothing more than productivity porn. And who is out front in saying this? None other than the productivity porn king himself Merlin Mann!

On September 10th of this year Merlin wrote in a post titled “43 Folders: Time, Attention, and Creative Work”:

Friends, I’m done with “productivity” as a personal fetish or hobby. There are countless sites that are all too happy to vend stroke material for your joyless addiction to puns about procrastination and systems for generating more taxonomically satisfying meta-work. But, presently, you won’t find so much of that here.

Except inasmuch as it can help move aside barriers to finishing the projects that you claim matter to you, “productivity” is often a sprawling ghetto of well-marketed nonsense for people who really just need a ritalin and a hug. So, for myself, random tips and lists that aren’t anchored to solving a real-world problem for a smart but flawed adult with a mind are dead to me. Pour a forty on ‘em.

The first time I read this I laughed. After all Merlin Mann pioneered productivity porn. To hear him complaining about how many sites are now out there peddling the stuff of his making was laughable. At the same time the guy has a point. In that article he describes, quite correctly, the problems with the productivity blogosphere today. Too much noise and not enough signal and I found myself agreeing with him to the point that I cut all of it out of my life.

Well, that and a big chunk of other time-wasting material. I trimmed about 2/3rd of the subscriptions I had going in FeedDemon/NetNewWire. I’ve all but given up political blogs which have been my other, massive, black hole of time. I’ve got a lot to do and not enough time to do it all. The cognitive dissonance being created by all of that reading without any real purpose behind it was becoming deafening so no more.

And honestly the best part of his post was the discussion of “conversation” and “community” :

Stupid, venal, ignorant, self-linking comments from people who couldn’t be troubled to actually read the article. Angry forum posts full of personal attacks, giant avatars of Manga characters, and 4-vertical-inch signatures about which Golden Girl you are. Nonsense tagging, meta-commenting, ass-kissing, trolling, and…oooo!…video responses….neato! Please. It’s nuts and it’s pointless and it’s really cynical on the part of almost every publisher that allows that crap to go on.

Right on. My blog hasn’t hit the popularity curve the same way 43 Folders has ;) Not yet anyhow but this is my blog. I’ll say what I want, when I want to say it. If you have something to say to me email me but I got sick of tools like this on my own site. If you like what I have to say please keep reading. If you don’t keep reading or leave. The decision is yours but I’m not going to justify myself to anyone else let alone turds pretending to be people like I mentioned above.

Thanks for the whining Merlin. I feel a bit lighter now myself ;)


The “simple” task of concentrating

I’m pretty scatter-brained these days.  I think years and years of “multi-tasking” hasn’t done a whole lot for my powers of concentration.  Today I decided while eating lunch to only eat lunch…live in the moment as it were.  No books.  No computer.  No radio.  Nothing.  Just the simple act of eating.

I suppose in some ways that is similar to meditation and it was really damn hard.   My mind kept flitting all over the place.  I had to restrain myself from moving over to the computer to read something or send a friend an instant message.  I’ve been slowly weaning myself from various sources of information that have been nothing but time sinks.  Today was a quick plunge into the cold waters of single-tasking and boy…definitely not a simple thing.