The best part of iGTD is the keyboard/quicksilver integration. It was very fast. I stopped using it in favor of my gmail box for a couple reasons. 1) for me to be productive at all, I need all my notes, thoughts, tasks, etcetera to fall in one place that I check everyday. I check my gmail everyday. 2) The flexibility of labels and filters make it easy to customize.

I set up a contact in my address book that is “myusername+gtd@gmail.com” and quicksilver any tasks or ideas I have to it. I set up a filter to let all messages from that email pass the inbox and labeled ACTIONS. Then I have labels based on the basic GTD concepts but arranged so when I label the actions I make a rough sentence of what I need to do: i.e. actNEXT, actSOMEDAY, byCOMPUTER, byPHONE, byHOME, byTRAVEL, for”PROJECTNAME”, etcetera. I star any actNEXT’s that I’m currently doing or need to do next. I go to my starred box and see the abbr. task, and the labels read actNEXT byPHONE forWHATEVERPROJECTI’MDOING.

I’m sure this idea isn’t new, but I developed it from using iGTD. It’s slower than iGTD because Quicksilver will only let me go through Mail to send the idea I type in, but everything I need to GTD is one place when I get up and to review when I go to bed. (Disclaimer for my life: I work retail so I practically never have to put work-related tasks in my system, but because I am also an artist I need that structured time to create and the above system has helped enormously. Someday, I might even be able to afford a smart phone and use the gmail mobile, but until then, I just keep a stash of notecards and space pen handy. I consider it The Merlin’s contribution to making my life better. Also, this is my first reply on 43 folders about anything, and I find myself strangely nervous… hmmm..)

I am a Windows user with a Blackberry that is tied to my Exchange mail server. The best way I’ve found to manage tasks and integrate them with the Blackberry is to use tasks an then change the names to something from Franklin Coveyish like A1 Take Nap, A2 Do such and such project.

Are there any other cool tools for this that integrate with Exchange and Blackberrys?

Thanks

Mike, I need this badly. (from whom do you think you inherited your ADD?) Please teach it to me and install it for me. I will make you any kind of cookies you want! Or whatever. love, mom

okay, okay.. you got me to switch.. i have been using planner-el (the emacs script) for the past year or so, but there are a few limitations that have made it hard for me to live with. so, today, i dropped the hour into installing igtd and putting my tasks into it..

the ONLY thing i really am missing is a straight and simple task list. that is the one thing i used every day in planner-el. i wish i could just look at something, that showed me a list of all my tasks that are due today and past due.. now THAT would rock.

Wouldn’t using iGTD’s F8 option “Quick type in” be just as easy, if not easier? (…its certainly the way to go for anyone who isn’t using quicksilver)

@DG - I wasn’t even aware of iGTD’s F8 option until recently (I think it’s fairly new no?). So yeah, I guess if you’re not into Quicksilver that’s a great feature - I do often use F5 to capture URLs though I’ve been tweaking things (without much success) so that captured URLs are automatically dropped into one of my contexts. It really should be something I can set in preferences.

In the next few installments of my iGTD series Quicksilver becomes a big part of my GTD flow, enabling me to do things that would be a lot more complicated otherwise.

@Michael - and I didn’t realize that with the QS plug in you can also do more advanced things like add links to files etc. Plus, it makes sense for QS users to integrate into a preexisting way of doing things. It’s nice that iGTD offers a QS-less option for this kind of quick entry, but I guess I really should give QS a try ;)

@m_s: Sure, here is some more detail about how I do it.

I have a folder set up in Documents called (I lied above) “Upload by FTP”.

I created an Automator workflow called “ftp to temp directory”. I have three separate actions in this workflow, in this order:

• “Get Specified Finder Items” - Add “Upload by FTP” to this list
• “Get Folder Contents”
• “Upload by FTP” - this action can be downloaded from Apple [1].

In Hazel, I added the folder “Upload by FTP” and created this rule:

If Date Last Modified is in the last 5 minutes Do the folowing: Run Automator workflow “ftp to temp”

In iGTD, click “Contexts” and then File-Export to File… I name this “todos”. Choose Export to HTML table, Export All, Save. Then I click “Projects”, File-Export to File… name this “projects” and click “Save”.

Now my projects and tasks-by-context are available where I had FTP’d them.

[1] http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/uploadtoftp.html

Errr… my nerves must have got the better of me last post. What I didn’t say in my gmail example of iGTD is that the biggest downfall of iGTD is that everything you put into it is still just “Stuff” because despite the integration with Mail and iCal and MailTags, I still had to switch and swap between apps and contexts to get an accurate picture of what I was doing and needed to do. It’s faster than my system in capturing the information because the period on Quicksilver will only let me go through Mail, thus I end up brokering a step or two to another app. But all my tasks and email and calendar end up in the one place I need to go - gmail. Since gmail is available at any computer with internet and on mobile (and maybe offline in the near future), I can get to it pretty much anytime I need to enter my stuff into it. As fast and brilliantly flexible as iGTD is (and for that matter Stikkit, Todoist, and Remember the Milk), it still just leaves me with stuff that I have to switch through three apps to action into actianable items. Gmail leaves me with one place and a couple extra steps. Then I pop open the app I really need and get to work. Is that any less confusing or amusing than my first post? If I’m not doing any better, my apologies ahead of time.

I have been using iGTD for a while as well as a movement away from kGTD. I use .mac sync everyday between (2) macs and have no issue. My favorite upcoming features for iGTD is rich text editing in the notes section and separating the Inbox outside of a context. Check the forums for more information on new features.

The way I use the system is also with nested folders for my work and home life. I keep track of my teams project stuff in a folder hierarchy. Something like this: Work: Someday projects: My Boss 1:1 My Projects: - Project A - Project B Dev Team: - Billy - Project A - Bob - Project B Sys Admin Team: - Billy - Project A - Bob - Project B

I have been through many iterations of contexts but finally landed on keeping the number of contexts low. I started to get contexts and projects confused at one point in my GTD life. Now all I have are these contexts:

@assign to someone @computer/work @computer/home @discussion (I use verbs in tasks to differentiate between do this in a meeting vs. a phone call) @errands

Some have said that iGTD has to many features but the beauty of so many features means each person gets to setup their own GTD system. Thanks for the post. Have Fun!

I love iGtd, and I generally end up using their function keys for quick input because I don’t want to remember the quicksilver terminology (also you can insert direct links to mail messages, web pages, and journlr items.

But the amazing feature for me is the amount of nesting it allows in projects. Realistically, all of my projects have subprojects and sub-sub projects, and that’s not an organizational option elsewhere (ok kgtd, but that’s awkward.) And there are contexts and sub-contexts and a beautifully functional sync with ical, which means I can use my treo to add to do items to the @inbox category.

Now if only the .Mac sync worked.

For windows, I use microsoft outlook and a GTDish system. It’s not perfect but it works for me and it works in outlook which i think is the best PIM out there. I have more info on my blog at http://emad.blogstogo.com/2007/05/10/get-things-done-with-outlook-2007/

thanks for this.

and thanks for the funniest example i’ve seen in a long time

What interests me most about this post is that you aren’t using Stikkit which also has a Quicksilver plugin. A former stikkit user who is now using iGTD, I also switched over, but I’d be interested in hearing your reasons for doing so. For me the main issue (other than speed and offline access) was that Stikkit wasn’t 100% reliable, I found it to be a little buggy. I also find that iGTD offers better tools for managing things as projects.

My favorite iGTD feature, however, is the integration with Mail.app using mailtags. The ability to link to an IMAP e-mail is fantastic. It allows me to empty out my inbox and still keep track of e-mails that need to be acted upon.

The screencast says it all. I’m so happy to be a Mac user ;)

I have been following this thread, and I think our software, i.e. ActiveWords does everything QS does and perhaps more. We only run on Windows. I have spoken to the developer of QS about building ActiveWords for the Mac, which we might do one day.

What I am also doing is building what we call a WordBase for GTD. I am looking for ideas as to what 10-20 things users would want us to automate around GTD.

I’ve just started using this program, and this article was helpful. Now if only someone could showcase how they use both contexts and projects, and how that helps them, with real world examples. I understand that contexts are like “where do I do this” and projects are like “What is this task a part of”, but I don’t see the usefulness in categorizing things both ways.

Great post. I use the exact same system. A couple more suggestions would be to install Growl http://growl.info/. Growl will notify that your Idea has been placed into the IGTD inbox for extra comfort. Also..I changed the default preference for the second window in quicksilver pane to be “put into IGTD inbox” instead of “Large Type”. Once less step towards mind like water.

Great article and GTD system. Is there some kind of Windows alternative to this system?

Darn, I thought that was a screencast about lolcode. Thanks for nothing ;)

Good article, I look forward to the next installment. I’m a recent and enthusiastic convert to GTD as well.

@ Nick: While several actions may all be a part of one ‘Project’, each of those individual actions may have different contexts (e.g. The Project is ‘Organize Margie’s birthday party’, whereas calling the caterer would be an @Phone context, making the guest list might be @computer, getting supplies might be @mall, etc.). Being able to group together actions with the same context but from totally unrelated projects, you could bang off ALL your phone calls when using the phone is convenient, you could easily get supplies from the mall for several different projects in one trip, and so forth.

@ Micheal: Try ‘Thinking Rock’. I’ve been trying out a bunch of GTDish apps for windows, and Thinking Rock has the others beat by a long shot. It took some playing to work out the nuances and customize it the way I want, but it’s been worth the effort many times over. I use it in conjunction with google calendar and gmail (you can upload all the dates you put into TR straight into gCal - which then emails automatic reminders to your gmail).

Love this stuff, I too just started using iGTD and am kind of in the same boat as Nick in not seeing the clear distinction between the two. I’m looking forward to more pieces on this awesome setup. Keep it up Mr. Buffington, a busy unorganized mess such as myself can use all the suggestions you can muster.

I had no idea iGTD existed. Awsome looking tool. Hopefully the reality will match the promise when I install it.

@Mike - Can’t wait to see the future post. I am loving that this app is getting the attention it deserves. Bartek is doing a great job.

Great to see that iGTD is on the menu here. I have used iGTD for almost two months now and I find it simply terrific. On the side I am trying out OmniFocus too because I came from Kinkless kGTD want to watch how OmniFocus grows. I also happen to like all the stuff that the Omnigroup makes.

In the meantime and possibly in the future I will use iGTD. It’s very stable and updated with new exciting features very frequently. I use it a lot like shown in this screencast but there is so much more. Features like hitting the F6 key when reading a mail I need to attend to later, or when I bump into an interesting blog I need/want to read later or even hitting F6 in my endo RRS reader — all this throws a link to these into iGTD inbox and then I process with the right context.

Another feature I am starting to use a lot is when I am processing my mail I flag, tag and more with MailTag. All of these go too into the Inbox of iGTD if you want for further processing. A lot of handy keyboard shortcuts are included.

One little thing I want to mention too: When typing a note like Michael does, you can also split the note with “:” Example could be “Go shopping with wife : Take Mother in Law along”. then the task is “Go shopping with wife” but down in the Task Notes goes: “Take Mother in Law along”

iphone: Thought you would be interested in this slam: http://tinyurl.com/2a5q5q

I’m not (yet?) a GTD convert, but I do like some of the organising aspects of the GTD principles. Since I have a Mac at home and PC’s at work, I prefer a multiplatform tool: I’m using a (homemade) varaint of the GTDTiddlyWiki (http://shared.snapgrid.com/index.html). Put it on a memory stick, plug it in whatever computer you have at hand, run Firefox, and voila…

@Dave: that sounds great! would you be willing to share more? i’ve just ignored igtd since it came out, because i really need to able to access my data anywhere, and i have the bad fortune of having to work on PCs during the day, though i happily return to my macbook when the sun goes down.

OK, here’s a question. Is anyone switching frequently between Windows and Mac? The only solution I can think of to make gtd available on both platforms is a web based product. I’ve been experimenting with a product called Vitalist (www.vitalist.com), but I wonder if anyone has any other recommendations for web based solutions that I could explore.

I’m a fan of iGTD as well.

One thing I wanted was a simple way to get my iGTD info onto a web page for those times when I’m away from my Mac.

My solution was to use Hazel (a Folder Action should also work) and Automator.

I set up Hazel to trigger an Automator action when files are added to a folder named “Upload to web”. The action uploads by FTP to a webserver.

After I’ve done some work in iGTD, I’ll export my contexts to a file called todo.html and then export my projects to projects.html. Both of these are saved to my “Upload to web” folder and in a few seconds they are available from anyplace there is a web browser.