It's great to know there are still Newton users around. I'm still using a Messagepad 130 -- largely because of its slightly smaller size. I found a Five Star Texas Instruments Calculator case that works perfect for keeping it and all of my credit cards, etc. together. It all goes onto a shoulder bag I bought from Fossil that ensures I always have my ubiquitous capturing device with me. I'm still amazed after so much time just how the Newton still has functionality that rivals the best PDAs out today. If only there were a way to increase its memory power.

I use TimeTrax for the dates on my Newton. It works amazingly well for accessing at-a-glance all of my todos, calendar items, and I can toggle between months and day and week views really quickly. Very nice little program for the Newton. I also use NewtSync and NewTen for installing new packages onto my Newton. And I use the text plug-in with NewtSync to upload any new notes into the "Send to PDA" folder on my desktop.

I also have been working on designing my own GTD implementation on the mac called "Ready-Set-Do!" which comprehensively integrates all of one's files and programs into the GTD workflow without locking users into a particular application. Just reading through your online stuff I think you'll be able to relate to the philosophy behind my approach to GTD of streamlining it all through the file system architecture of the mac. I designed a Sync iCal ToDos plug-in that goes with it that works really well for Palm users who sync with iCal. I had to do that for Palm users since there are so many of them. But I'm also very interested in ideas for the Newton since that's what I'm using right now. You are right about the bugs in the syncing with NewtSync. But perhaps you'll see what I'm doing and come up with some ideas for me. It's also possible, as I state in the Read Me file of Ready-Set-Do! to set it up so that instead of iCal, it works with whatever calendar program or handheld device a person uses. So you could change the alias of the "Calendar" alias on the dekstop to open a folder or something that says "Look at the calendar on your Newton" or something.

Anyways, if you're interested, here's the link to Ready-Set-Do! I'd appreciate any suggestions or feedback.

http://homepage.mac.com/toddvasquez/apps

Sincerely,

Todd V
Ready-Set-Do! Creator

Hi, Todd,

Thanks for posting your comments on my Newton use. I downloaded your system and tried it out very briefly before I realized that it was way, way more complicated than what I usually need. I don't really know of any academic who has successfully implemented GTD with all its micromanaging of actions and projects.

Seriously, my problem is that I have too many projects (I have 3 PhD and 7 masters students actively working on roughly 5 major and 15 minor things, overlapping in responsibilities, and so on, plus I teach 4 different courses a year and assist on 3 others). To reconfigure EVERYTHING into a GTD system doesn't seem worth the effort when I have a system that already works for me well enough that I am able to get through life.

Mostly, my communications are email based, my duties are Newton based (I don't use iCal to backup, for example), and I plan my day around those elements. I have Mail Act-On and MailTags to maange the daily flow of email, and spend a bit of time in the morning thinking through which things I'll do that day. MoreInfo lets me be project specific on the Newton, cross referencing among the projects I have.

Perhaps the biggest issue in moving to a full GTD system is that last micro level - defining the actions in a project. I often don't know, and let creativity rule the day as it happens. Like Merlin Mann has said - how small an action do you pick? When writing my final exam, do I put an action for each question I ask? Or for the sub-elements? For a calculation necessary to understand a sub-element? Or do I just put "write final exam" and let my mind take over as I do it?

I prefer large grain planning, in other words, and GTD flows across too many grain-size boundaries for my taste. As a result, I really LIKE what you are doing, but it's not for me. It's an excellent implementation of GTD (though it slowed my Finder down to molasses speeds, until I turned off folder actions again), but it's not for my work. I simply spend too much time on the Newton.

You don't have to break projects down into all the actions. The keys are:

• Put a stake in the ground to mark your projects. The project is the commitment to change the world in some way.
• Have somewhere for supporting information for projects. The project file holds any ongoing thinking regarding the project, including task outlines, timelines, and supporting material.
• Do enough thinking on your project so that you know what the very next action is: what do you do to make this thing move one itty bitty step forward.

Trying too hard to break-down projects into "atoms" is what killed my previous efforts at systematically managing tasks. The key for me is getting that next one thing figured out, and freeing my mind to stop worrying about it.

But, if your system works for you, keep it up!

Webb

I actually happen to be an academic myself. Ready-Set-Do! was an attempt for me to appropriate GTD into my academic workflow. I do think somebody needs to write a book on GTD in academia in large part because most academics are used to working with one-step actionables like "Write a rough draft", "Read this book", "Finish this article", etc. The difficulty with most of the 'stuff' in academia has to do with the fact that you have to read 30 pages to really answer that first question "What is it?" or that many of the elements are what David Allen calls "Look into?" projects.

It sounds to me like the one thing that is working the best for you is the Newton-centricness of your workflow. You pretty much have only one bucket and space in which you work, which greatly simplifies things for you. And given my own experience with the Newton I can definitely relate to the simplicity that provides. I've even thought of going all-newton for my calendar because of the constant pain of trying to keep up with syncing and new operating systems.

I think the key, at least what I've been discovering, is that many projects in academia begin as look into projects. And the goal is to create some first action steps that eventually give the project some 'teeth' or 'hooks' that sort of pull the mind into the project because its contours are becoming more concrete. Not every actionable item needs a full-blown purpose, standards, vision, etc.; and even if the action may consist of 2-3 actions and is 'technically' a project in the GTD sense, I still treat these as one-step actionables and keep them on my action list, and when I complete the first step I just redefine the next action, and so on. So there is a kind of balancing-act between 'high' vs. 'low' degrees of specificity on more-than-one-step actionables (i.e. projects). I think it's better to keep low-degree of specificity projects (i.e. 2-3 steps to complete) with one-step actionables, and to keep high-degree of specificity projects with Projects where one defines all elements -- Purpose, Standards, Vision, Mission-Critical, Key Milestones, Deliverables. Some GTDers may get a bit too legalistic about the grain-sized boundaries by keeping everything on the other side of either one-step or more-than-one-step lists. Eventually one just has to acquire the intuition for which projects need high degrees of specificity and which do not. To give a sample of an academic project, I've attached a text file generated from one of the projects I completed using Ready-Set-Do! last February. It's a really good example of how a "Look into?" project began as "find a topic" and then acquired greater specificity over time into "present the paper at this regional conference." Some of the actions-steps are now missing because as I complete actions towards the goal - e.g. read this chapter in so-and-so, fix this section of the paper, rework section 4, etc. -- I delete them along the way. So the only ones left are the few I had to complete towards the end (e.g. cull paper down to 15 pages, present the paper, etc.)

Thanks for giving the scripts a trial run and good luck with the Newton. It makes perfect sense to me that it would be your tool of choice.

Hi, Todd,

Thanks for the detailed response. Both responders are absolutely right that the part of my "system" that works is sticking to the Newton (and also to Mail). In the process, I have two locations with tasks that need doing today. The Mail-related tasks are typically one step deals - even if that's reviewing a paper, it's seen as a single step - while the Newton is where my project and advising work comes into play.

Honestly, I have to re-read your post and think about it a bit before I reply in more detail. It's a question of filtering and monitoring, and the Newton really does a great job of it. MoreInfo lets me plan tasks within a project space, while applying dates for completion (these may change, but I just revise the date completed as I check them off). TimeTrax gives a fabulous view of the calendar, you're right. Wow. And then there's linked Notes, a folder called "Somedays" which contains free form planning checklists on each project, and something I need all of 20 seconds to look at as I sit down to work on a thing.

For some reason, that exact same mode isn't possible on the desktop. I could do it, of course:

* iCal with different calendars for each project
* Note files or MyMind maps linked to the various events and such, launched with alarms, for example
* connection to Mail and AddressBook items...

But somehow it doesn't work that way. iCal is deathly slow to launch, and I find it far less intuitive than the Newton. Plus, it's not with me at all times. And, worst of all, it doesn't absorb synch files from the Newton ToDo soup. If it gathered in the ToDo soup, I'd be happier.

Do you have a solution that, by the way?

I'll spend more time thinking about organizing my projects, and see how that meshes with your RSG! scripts. I may yet come back to them!

Michael

Using the newest version of the ToDo Sync I believe it is possible to sync the Newton ToDos. You can download the lastest one here. And there are also some other nice Newton-syncing programs for sycning with OmniOutliner, OPML, TextSync, DateSync for iCal 2, etc.

http://www.thenowhereman.com/hacks/newton/index.html

The only downside is that the todos tend to sort in the order in which they were created rather than by title etc. so that can be a real drag in terms of how it organizes the todos on the Newton. It also doesn't sync the notes of the todo on the Newton with the notes of the todo in iCal.

Another solution is to sync via text files, but the Newton has a limit of how long a note can be (I think it's 999 characters or something) and the sync workarounds like those at the site above still have certain characters that trip up the sync (e.g. like parenthesis characters). But I'm working on a solution. I would like to get it to the point where I can streamline text-files of my Ready-Set-Do! inventory to the newton by bypassing some of these limitations. When I do I'll let you know. Currently I've been syncing my iCal todos with my iPod and that has been a nice workaround for now. The TextSync plugin above is also fabulous for uploading all of my notes from the Newton onto my computer for processing.

Also, with the scripts, if you use your Newton instead of iCal you can make a new folder somewhere on your computer and call it "Look at your Newton" or something and then change the alias of the "Calendar" icon on the desktop to link to this new folder. Then the review scripts would bypass iCal and just open up this folder so you could walk through your reviews on just your Newton without having to look at iCal.