05.12.08 09.36 am
What's in your notebook?
One of my favorite advertising campaigns of all time was from Apple (natch). It featured a number of Mac using celebrities giving a list in response to a simple question – “What’s on your Powerbook?”. What was great about this... » More
05.09.08 08.00 am
My Addiction
My name is Patrick, and I am a notebook addict. I have never really tried to hide my addiction. Many who know me well know of this “problem” (I am sill not sure I feel comfortable calling it that). Sometimes I am able to fight it. I convince myself that I really don’t need yet another notebook that will sit on a shelf and probably never be used. Sometimes they are given to me. Sometimes, I just can’t stop myself. The paper is too nice, the aesthetic beauty too compelling. The myriad of uses flood my brain and I become drunk with the elixir of possibility.
Here are just some of the examples of the times I have fallen:
Black n’ Red Ruled A4 – Years ago I worked for a company that had an office in Brussels. These were the office standard issue notebook there. It was love at first sight so on a visit I grabbed two and I still have both. These are big euro letter sized bound books with 192 pages of bright white paper. One was used as a Journal, during a particularly miserable time in my life, for about a dozen pages. The other remained unused. Looking back, I figure that the misery did not stop but my will and desire to chronicle it did.
Grey Sketchbook – This was a birthday gift sent to me by my friend Adeline in the U.K. I am not sure of the manufacturer, as there are no markings to indicate it. The book has a grey suede slipcover, blank pages with the following quote from Gandhi stamped into the cover ” You must be the change you wish in the world.” At my most recent day job, I gave it to one of my student workers who is a wonderful cartoonist and had him draw something on the first page. What he returned to me is a true work of whimsical art. That is what is linked to above since I can’t find the manufacturer of the notebook.
Xonex Ru – Bought this in the Walker Art Museum Gift Shop after seeing a friend with one. I have the charcoal grey model. There was just something about it that I was compelled by. Perhaps it was the European sizing – A bit more flat and geometrically shaped than a Moleskine. It has a number of the same features though, an elastic closure and a pocket in the back. Also, here’s the thing, I generally don’t use notebooks without ruled lines or grids. My writing is far too messy and my art skills are like those of a two year old.
Muji – I actually have two different Muji Notebooks, neither of which can be found in the US. They were brought back for me by a co-worker from Japan. The first is about the same dimensions as the Xonex Ru, has a beige craft cover and decent blank paper (did I mention I usually don’t use blank notebooks). The other is very much like a Large Lined Moleskine but with a bookcloth cover and without a pocket in the back. It does have the elastic closure though.
Moleskines – Since they keep popping up, I will discuss the several Moleskines I have. I have a Pocket Lined (this was my daily capture for a long while). I have a Large Lined (use this as a personal journal). I have a Pocket Squared (unused). I have a Reporter Squared (A few mind and process maps but otherwise unused). I have a Barcelona City Book (The maps were indispensable. Wish I had written more in it and hope to return soon to fix that).
As I said, these are just a few examples. I have intentionally left out quite a few. Many of which I have written about recently here. The two Levenger Circa Notebooks. The several Field Notes Brand notebooks I have waiting on deck for me to complete the one I am using. The list could go on.
OK, I guess I may need an intervention.
05.07.08 08.24 am
Dash/Plus in Action
Almost two years ago to the date, I wrote a Productivity Whitepaper describing my complete GTD/Notetaking/Staing on to of stuff system at that time form top to bottom. I described a number of tools, applications, processes – Basically everything I could think of that got me through the day. Of all that I included in the post, nothing has seemed to catch in and resonate with people the way that my dash/plus Markup System has. Merlin Mann even referred to it as “sexy” in a post featuring my whitepaper on 43 Folders. Not a week goes by when I don’t see it mentioned in a post on someone else’s blog or I see it in actual use by a friend or co-worker. Here are some examples of how others have put it to use:
Joe Ely posted about how he uses it for A Simple Index Card GTD System over at GTD Times. A nice little HPDA system he has set up for himself.
David MacKay uses dash/plus with a Filofax and Moleskine. Another fine example of a paper based GTD system.
Jon Crosby, developer of Actiontastic, mentioned that he used dash/plus for capture.
Of course, my good friend Jason Echols of Black Belt Productivity uses dash/plus markup in his notetaking.
To save you the jump, the dash/plus system works a little like this…
In all, it really makes me feel all proud and puffed up to know that I started something that has proven so useful to many. If this blog were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, I would be satisfied with this accomplishment alone.
Are you using dash/plus? Do you have a blog? Have you posted about how you are putting it to use in your system? I encourage you to link it up in the comments.
04.17.08 02.01 pm
Getting Real With Your Lists
Here is what I want you to do… Take out your lists. This may be one single big list of to do items like Princess Bethany likes to keep. If you are a Getting Things Done practitioner, you probably have... » More
04.08.08 03.46 pm
Thoughts on "The Pleasures of Uninterrupted Communication" (and managing expectations)
Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow, wrote a great article for Internet Evolution recently - The Pleasures of Uninterrupted Communication - detailing his strategy for dealing with interruptions and not having to deal with the mountain of e-mail one encounters after having returned from and extended break or vacation - “email apnea” as it has been coined.
So I eliminate the mountain: when I go away for an email fast (usually coinciding with a holiday), I set up an auto-responder advising correspondents that I’m away and that I “won’t be reading their email” when I get back, asking that they re-send anything urgent after my return (I make sure a few key people, like my business-partners, parents, and agent know how to reach me by phone). When I sit down at my desk again after the break, I download all my mail while I have a little walk or tidy up my desk. Once it’s all downloaded, I select every last message and delete them. No email apnea.
Cory does not delete the e-mails because he does not care about the people who sent them, he does so because he cares too much to not be able to respond due to the sheer volume.
You see, I love communicating too much to be interrupted. Whether I’m writing an essay or a novel, composing an email, or chattering with someone by voice, the last thing I want is to be given a jolt of useless adrenaline every time something new lands in my queue. Indeed, the oppressive weight of the knowledge that the queue is lengthening is enough to stress me out — any time I go away for a day or a week, all I can think of is that mountain of mail accumulating on my server.
One of the many things I love about this is that it is yet another wonderful example of managing others expectations, through simple and compassionate communication, in order to achieve your own freedom. Compassionate? Well, you see, if you let people know what to expect from you - that you only check your e-mail twice a day and at particular times, for instance - then they will not be disappointed that you did not respond to their e-mail as soon as they sent it.
For those of us old enough to remember, there was once a time when this kind of access and availability did not exist. Leaving a phone message is a good example. Once upon a time if you called someone, and they were either not home or on the phone, your only option was to call them back later. The responsibility was placed upon you to remember to take action at a later time, not upon the person you were trying to reach.
Now, all of this has changed around. Now, because there are so many ways for people to place the responsibility of follow-up upon us, even while we are “not available”, it adds up to increased workload and stress placed upon us. I think one of the many dangers of our growing “always connected” society is the idea that license is given to others to always have a way to interrupt others at anytime. The expectation has already been set by the sheer existence of tools that provide ever increasing ways to get our attention. People naturally assume that everyone treats these tools as they do. If they prefer (or are conditioned to) jumping on their email, mobile phone, “crackberry” every time it buzzes or blinks, then they, somewhat naturally, assume the same of you. The onus is therefore upon each us to manage those expectations to fit our needs.
Here is an idea, how about sending an e-mail to your coworkers that goes something like this?
Dear Comrades,
Because I value my communication with you and would like to make sure that I respond to your needs with the appropriate level of action, I have set up some basic criteria for handling my e-mail and mobile phone.
I check and respond to e-mail twice a day. Once in the morning at 9am and again in the afternoon at 4pm. I do this in order to give my responses complete attention at those times. Because of this, I would prefer all non-urgent communication to be e-mailed to me and it will be acted upon at those times.
If there is something that requires my immediate attention, please call me on my mobile phone at 555.555.5555. I assume that anything coming to me via phone is urgent and requires my immediate attention. Therefore, as a courtesy to those that truly require urgency, please do not call my mobile for non-urgent items.
To recap:
Urgent = Phone
Non-Urgent = E-mail
Thank you for your cooperation in helping me provide you with the service you desire.
Sincerely,
Patrick
As I have said before, Be Pavlov, not the dog…
04.07.08 04.58 pm
Remainders 04.07.2008
Here are more random whisperings I picked up in overheard conversations in the crowded and overpriced pick-up bar that is called, The Internet:
There are some new and updated GTD Apps that may be of interest to you.
First off, if you live in GMail and have yet to give GTDInbox a try, now may be a good time. This Firefox extension converts GMail into a “productivity and personal management powerhouse”. It has recently been updated to version 2 and contains a bunch of new features.
If GMail is not your thing, maybe you want to give GTDAgenda a try. It is a new GTD based web application that is aiming to be the solution to all of your GTD needs. It contains it has all the tools required for getting your Org-fu on, like goals, projects and tasks, contexts, next actions, checklists, schedules and calendar.
Then again, maybe you have a Mac running Leopard (Mac OS 10.5). Well then, Dennis Best says that you really don’t need a specific GTD application – you have all of the tools you need right there in Leopard. He makes a pretty convincing argument for using iCal, Mail.app, smart folders in the Finder, and many other default tools to string together a pretty workable system.
04.03.08 08.33 am
Whither Productivity
The Growing Life is a recent favorite new blog of mine. One of the things I have enjoyed in the past few weeks of checking it out is the often “alternate” takes on productivity Clay, the author, offers. He often... » More
04.01.08 07.39 pm
The Today Page Experiment
In a post last week, I discussed my strategy for using a Today Card. That is, an index card with three tasks that I would like to accomplish with some room left for additional tasks, notes, and scratchpad items that come my way. One of the things that I find fascinating about blogging is that, sometimes, the real interesting things said are in the comments, not in the original post itself. That was very true in this instance and it spurred a new variation of this idea that I am experimenting with. It was mentioned by Damon in the comments and I am calling it the Today Page (I have a picture of it posted here).
Instead of an index card, I use one of my Cornell Ruled Circa pages. Title and date go at the top, then I divide it thusly:
Action - These are the same three items as on the index card before. Three things I would like to try to accomplish that day.
Agenda - I write down any and all calendar items that I may have going on that day. Even though they are on the calendar, I use a web based calendar and that tab is not always front and center in my browser. Writing them here helps to keep them front and center so I am mindful of them.
Notes - This are is for anything I need to jot down for the day. It ends up being both scratchpad and short form journal of the day.
So far, this is working out very well. Some of the advantages are that, due to the left hand whitespace, I have an area for metadata. Also, by collecting everything together on one page, at the end of the day I have a pretty good top level view of the course of my day and how the time was spent. While not as small and portable as an index card, I have my Circa on my desk anyway so why not use it and ditch the card?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this, if you have tried anything similar, and how it has worked for you. Special thanks once again to Damon for spurring the idea.
03.27.08 01.00 pm
In Defense of Fiddling
Some one sentence thoughts in defense of fiddling with your system…
I often find that switching things up a bit, to a new task/productivity application or cool new paper product, often brings the “interstingness” in my productivity system back to life for me and gives a whole new spark to my productivity.
In other words, I am so excited by the shinny new car that I tend to drive a little faster, turn up the radio and sing along with a joy an exuberance I have long since lost.
While the basics of the system (capture, review, do) never really change, and neither do some of the tools that just plain work for me, I like changing things up a bit for freshness.
Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly people who are more interested in searching for the “perfect productivity system” then in actually implementing and sticking with one.
There are also people who think that the perfect piece of software or someone else’s methods will solve all of their productivity problems like the holy grail.
I am not defending this behavior.
What I am defending is people who have a system in place who regularly change out the tools they may use to implement that system just to try out new things and keep it all fresh.
It is all about developing a system you trust after all, if you have that then the tools should be fairly interchangeable.
03.25.08 08.00 am
The Today Card
In my last post, I mentioned a little something I call my “Today Card”. Here is a bit more about how that works. I keep an index card with three simple things I would like to accomplish for the day... » More
03.21.08 04.06 pm
How I'm Workin' The Circa -or- GTD, Baby, and Levenger Makes Three
As many a reader of this journal knows, I am a big fan of Levenger’s products. I love them. Covet may even be a more apt word. I recently noticed, while placing yet another order with them, that they are celebrating their 20th anniversary. It was then that I realized I have been a customer for almost 18 of those. My first order from them was a Lap Desk which I still own to this day. They happened to be running a promotion at the time that gave me a free pack of their Cornell ruled pads with my order. While I was more than happy with the Lap Desk, the Paper Pads were a revelation to me. I was a young man of 22 years old who had never even thought about the satisfaction that could come from writing on nice paper. Let’s just say, I never looked back and have been hooked ever since.
In addition, I have been on paternity leave from my main job since the birth of my daughter last Month. As anyone with children knows, at this stage, your to-do list mainly consists of “Feed baby”, “Change Baby” and, perhaps the hardest item “Baby is sleeping. Now what?”. It is that “Now What?” where the methods espoused in Getting Things Done really come into play. You see, you have about one hour, maybe two, before she wakes up. When she does, you will really be unable to pay attention to anything else. The house may be a wreck. There may be calls to return or errands to run or doctors appointments to be made. It is in these moments that having been capturing these items into a trusted system and organizing them by context gives you the best insight into how to use that “free” time.
How do these two things relate? Well, since I am not “working”, the number of things I have to track has become more simple. That being said, there are still many things I have to stay on top of, and some brainstorming for my consulting business I have been trying to take the time to do. Also, these days I often only have use of one hand (since the other has a baby in it). This makes using the computer for capture, notes and project tracking difficult. Paper on the other hand is faster, only requires one hand for writing and therefore is just plain better. One Levenger product has really helped me stay on top of my Org-fu in the last few weeks is my Junior Sized Circa Notebook. The Circa Notebook system is designed so that it is highly customizable and pages can be moved around and mixed and matched with a ton of add ons and such. I wont go into a long detail about that here. Levenger has plenty of that information on their site. Here is how I have mine organized…
I have the notebook divided into three sections using some of the plain white dividers available from Levenger.
Action: The front section is for Action Items and Capture. I keep things open to this page most of the time while on my desk and a pen at the ready.
Notes: The notes section is for notes and where I flesh out projects. I also have a page marker for my Circa that gets used here. Active projects and notes go in front of the marker, non-active go behind. This way, I know that anything between the section divider and the page marker in the notes section is in play.
Archive: When my Action items pages get mostly complete, I start a new one free of completes items. I move the old pages to the Archive.
Back Section: In the rear of the book I have a clear pocket to hold loose items and ephemera such as stamps. I also have a 3x5 dock that I, in all honesty, have not really sussed a good use for yet. Finally, in the built in pockets of the leather cover, I keep a stencil and some extra 3x5 cards (will cover my use of these in a future post).
So, is there anyone else out there reading this using a Circa? I would love to hear in the comments about how you have yours set up and what you use it for. Share it people!
Click here for more pictures of my setup.
02.19.08 10.23 am
Backpack Gets Down To Business
Backpack, the personal organization tool from 37 Signals, got a lot less, well, personal today. They have rolled out a new multiuser version that makes it easier for small teams to organize and exchange information. As stated on their product... » More
01.24.08 11.49 am
Outsourcing E-mail
I was recently discussing some of the money making strategies used by Tim Ferriss, blogger and author of the very popular book “The 4-Hour Workweek”, with a friend of mine. Despite the fact that some have questioned whether it is possible to really achieve the level of anti-productive zen the book espouses, there are still many take away items that can be employed to one degree or another in our own lives. The idea of creating sources of constant income that require little to no maintenance for instance, but I digress…
The upshot of what my friend responded back with was that they did not believe that even Tim himself was able to truly walk the walk. The basis for this theory was (paraphrasing here), “I wrote him an e-mail once and got back a very long personal reply from him.”
My response, “It was probably not from him directly. I bet he outsources that too.”
Well, true enough, Tim outlines exactly how he does that in a recent post to his blog. His strategy:
“For the last 12 months, I’ve experimented with removing myself from the inbox entirely by training other people to behave like me. Not to imitate me, but to think like me.”
Not only does he outline the strategies he uses to achieve this, he also includes the actual set of rules he gives to his Virtual Assistants to help them process almost any e-mail as if he were doing it himself.
Just like the book, you may not be able to do exactly what he does. That being said, there are still many smaller time saving strategies one can take away from this. Here are some of my favorites
Pre-written replies for commonly asked questions - Are you are in a position where you often have people ask you the same questions. Why reinvent the wheel for every reply. Have the same one always ready to go.
Send social networking requests straight to the trash-bin or archive - LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other friend requests can all be handled the next time you log into those services. No need to have them clutter up your Inbox.
Cluster tasks via context - GTD folks will be familiar with this idea. Set aside times of the day for dealing with e-mail, returning phone calls, etc. and only those times. Cluster like tasks together via context. Be Pavlov, not the dog.
This is just the start. There are so many thought provoking ideas in here that it is really worth the time of reading it all. Then, if that has you going, delve into some of his other posts. There is so much nougaty goodness inside the candy shell.
The Holy Grail: How to Outsource the Inbox and Never Check Email Again
12.18.07 01.37 pm
SpeakerSue Says... Read this blog!
Just thought I would take a second to call attention to the blog of my friend Sue, SpeakerSue Says… . Not just because she is a friend, but because she is also an expert on using e-mail, and other forms of written communication, as a powerful sales and business tool. She has trained some of the most well known name brand organizations all over the world.
Her new blog has started out very nicely with several great posts. Here are a couple of my favorites with short comments:
The Etiquette of Email Productivity - Even an e-mail expert can struggle with that Pavlov response many seem to have to the new mail sound.
Thank someone today - On the importance of a handwritten thank you note.
Blue Man Group = Presentation Mastery - What silly guys painted in blue can teach you about giving great presentations.
These are a few of my favorites but all of them are great. Especially if you are in sales or business, this is a must add little gem to your RSS feed.
Link: SpeakerSue Says…
12.05.07 12.58 pm
Take Notes like and Alpha Geek
Author, blogger, and self-described note taking addict Tim Ferriss shares some of his best tips for becoming a note taking Ninja. I myself have been trying to be better about the notes I take and making sure I do so as often as is needed. Therefore, I find much of this very compelling. Here are some of my favorite take away bits:
”Put page numbers on the upper-right of each right-hand page but not on the left (e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.)… Whenever you complete a page, put the page number in an index on the inside cover (front or back) and a few words to describe the content. If it’s on the left-hand page, just take the prior page and add “.5” to it. Thus, if you flip over page 10, for example, and write on the back, that second page is “15.5” in the index.
I love this idea. Some notes one takes may span half a page, some multiple pages. This is a numbering scheme that can accommodate them all without having to number every single page.
”Not all notepads are created equal… This doesn’t mean that one is better for all things, just that you should match the form factor and durability of a notepad to the content.”
Not to keep being a Levenger pimp but this is one of the reasons I am loving the Circa system. Some notes cry out for a cornell style page while those with sketches may require a grid style. Some may need a letter sized page, others a smaller one. With the Circa, I can mix and match the sizes, rule types (lined, grid, cornell, etc), colors that fit the topic and put them all into the same notebook.
There are many other good take away items in the rest of Tim’s post, well work the read.
10.25.07 11.59 am
Hanging with Ryan from Brassing Adds Character
Been a very busy day so far and is only getting more so. Therefore, just a quick post for now...
Had the great pleasure of hanging out for a few with Ryan Roossinck from Brassing Adds Character last night. What a treat it was. We spent hours geeking out over his massive collection of Pens, my hefty collection of notebooks and our mutual eclectic music tastes. I honestly think this kid (yes, I am enough his senior to use that term) is my brother from another mother because we have so much in common it is scary.
The highlight for me though was having the chance to play with a ton of different pens, nibs and ink types. Ryan is a real serious pen freak and has many custom nibs and rare models. He is a deep abyss of knowledge when it comes to pens and their histories so it was fascinating to just sit back and listen to each story behind the pens. His writing is even smaller than mine so he is also a fan of very fine nibs making each pen absolutly drool worthy to use. By the time it was all said and done, Imanaged to fill up a nice sized page of test doodles. Good times...
If I have not said it firmly enough before, Ryan's blog is a fantastic read and there are more great things to come. If you have any fascination at all with analog capture tools, this is a must add to your daily web reads list.
10.23.07 12.14 am
TaskPaper 1.0
As I have mentioned before, I have been really enjoying a new list management product called TaskPaper which has been in development for a little while now. It is officially released as of today and it is a decidedly simple but stunning effective little app. Not too hard on the wallet either.
What I love about it is that it is basically just an simple interface wrapped around a text file. The features are minimal but effective. It has everything you need and nothing it does not (which seems so rare these days). There are just tasks and projects. Items can have context tags. You can open those contexts and projects in tabs and/or narrow them down with a search. Being that it is basically just a text file, you can easily change the extension and then open it up with any text editor which makes it highly portable.
Larger projects require more levels of detail, so I have not entirely given up on OmniFocus (still in alpha but also very good). I have a couple of “Big P’s” with “Sub P’s” and “Baby P’s” that I still manage there. But for the basics, TaskPaper is just what I need right now.
10.22.07 02.40 pm
The Levenger Store - Chicago
This past weekend, I was in Chicago for the wedding of a good friend. It has been many years since I was last in Chicago and being there with Princess Bethany was even better. Now, we did not have much time in Chicago proper but there was a nice gap in between the wedding, which was near Irvine Park and the reception which was downtown. This gave us a good hour or so of time to wander around downtown for a quick sightseeing. During this little foray we decided to walk through the famous flagship location of Marshall Fields ( note: I refuse to call it by it’s current name so don’t bother correcting me). I was not quite prepared for the treat that laid before me upon entering the door and what a treat it was. There, in Chicago, in Marshall Fields, was a fully stocked and staffed Levenger “store-whithin-a-store”. How did I not know about this before?
I was just floored. Astounded. Dumbfounded… For me, this was Mecca.
The store was stocked with, from what I could tell, the full catalog of Levenger goodness. The staff was amazingly knowledgeable and helpful. They even had a table where they helped you build a free Circa notebook. You could choose which page types, ring colors and add ons you wanted in it. Obviously this is simply a gateway drug to get you hooked on the product (as I already am) but it sure was effective. I built one in the Junior size (half letter size) with a nice mix of gridded pages, cornell style pages, some daily agenda pages and a pocket in the back. The staff person who helped me even mentioned that, if I called him directly, he can ship me anything in the store. Thereby avoiding Levenger’s onerous shipping fees. So, basically, I now have a personal shopper at Levenger. How cool is that!?
So, if you are in the Chicago area, and have a fetish for fine paper pr0n as I do, make a stop by. It will be well worth the time and may even be as religious of an experience as I had.
10.07.07 06.28 pm
Lightweight Org Apps for Linux
Please pardon the 1337 speak while I communicate a special message to our Linux using friends…
Word up haxorz! Looking for some contact/calandar/tasks applications for your little *nix boxen? Well then, look no further than Pimlico, a suite of lightweight PIM applications designed primarily for mobile boxes (like the Nokia N800, natch) but with some desktop versions as well. Not a lot in the way of features but a whole lot in the way of small and portable. Basic, simple and free, as in beer.
09.21.07 09.05 am
My Portable One-Two Capture Punch
I have written before of my love for my Levenger Shirt Pocket Briefcase as my ubiquitous capture tool of choice. It is small, keeps me organized and is highly back pocketable. Always at the ready to help capture the action items that pop up in the course of my day. The three pockets help to keep a few spare index cards around (I use Levenger's expensive-but-worth-it brand) and allow me to stash a few business cards to boot.
While it was great for capture, I needed something equally portable, pocketable and chic (style is important to me) for personal note taking. I often find myself in situations outside of work that require me to jot down things of a more permanent nature. For that, I am loving the new Field Notes notebooks. They have a durable cover, great grid style paper that takes ink very well and a fantastic sense of design nerd style. You get a three pack of these babies for just under 10 bucks and it is money well spent.
Due to recent health concerns, the idea of getting to a point where I can carry everything I need to get me through my day in my pockets is an especially important goal to me. Not to mention, once a baby girl comes along and I now have my hands full of strollers and bottles. These two items get my a long way there.
07.27.07 02.33 pm
GTD with The New Backpack
Recently, 37 Signals released a major update to Backpack, their web based organization tool. Frequent visitors to this site know that I love me some Backpack. I have written about it several times before. Moreover, I have written about how I’ve implemented a Getting Things Done system using it. I will try not to rehash too much of what I have written previously, as not much with the structure of the system has changed, but the new features added to Backpack allow much greater flexibility and enhanced ease of workflow.
Therefore, I will outline my system here briefly (please look at previous posts for further detail). Also, I will point out how newly added features allow for improvements.
Without further ado, here are the basics of my Backpack GTD setup:
Inbox (Home Page) - I have re-titled the “Home Page” in Backpack to “Inbox” and basically acts as, well, a digital Inbox. There is one list on this page titled “@Action”. One big dumping ground for any action item or project that pops into the head. When time allows (daily review), two minute or less items are knocked off right away (per The David) and any projects are migrated to the @Projects page or it’s own separate page (more on that in a bit). It is here that most of the new added functionality adds value.
One of the nice new features of Backpack allow you to move any list items to any other lists on the page. Before, you were limited to only moving list items to lists directly above, or below, the one the item originated in. Now, one can do their “fleshing out” right there on the Inbox page. When it is time for a daily review of your Inbox, you can now easy create new lists for projects and drag items from the main big Inbox list mentioned above to those lists. Why would you want to do this on the Inbox page?
Well, that brings me to another new feature of Backpack (and this is a huge one)… The ability to drag elements, such as lists, from one page to another. One can even create a new page based on one of the elements. In other words, you can create lists for projects on the Inbox page as mentioned above and, once done, you can drag and drop that list to the @Projects page or an individual project page (see below) listed in the pages area on the side. If it is a large enough project, you can drag that list to the “Make New Page” button on the side and it will create a new page with that list… Killer! I really can’t stress enough how much time this will save anyone using this method.
The rest of the setup is pretty much the same as before…
@Projects - This page contains a separate list for each project. I have a topmost list titled Next Actions. N/As are then moved from the projects below to the NA list at the top via Backpack’s new ability to drag any list item to any list on the page. This way, I go to that page and see right away the next actions for all of the projects on the page and, per GTD, execute items in the Next Action list.
Individual Project Pages - I should clarify what the projects are on the @Projects page versus ones that get their own. The @Projects page is for smaller one-to-five step projects, as to do anything else would make the page too confusing and long. Projects that are larger than that I actually break out into their own separate page as they may have multiple lists and sub projects. Another advantage to this approach is that you can use the other features of backpack like notes, attaching documents, etc. for things that are specific to that project. With that being said, I still make a next action list the first list on the top so I can see right away what I need to do for any and all subprojects on that page.
@Someday - You need a space to defer and to dream. The someday/maybe list is where you do that. Scan this as part of your weekly review.
For further information on how the workflow goes, some ideas on handling contexts and other pages to consider, I refer you once again to my original post. I mainly wanted to highlight how the new features in Backpack have increased the speed and ease of use in my system. I really must say that 37 Signals really have done an outstanding job here offering much more flexibility. If you have yet to try Backpack, it is good for many other things than just GTD and there has never been a better time to try it out.