This is the exact kind of thing that GTD does. Check out the book; it's a fast read. With iCal and the Palm, the best way is to track your next actions there and keep project planning material and a list of projects elsewhere, for instance in a txt file.

Hi- i'm actually a self-taught musician/ producer (hobbyist) so i might have some insight, particularly on matters where it comes to productivity management

The GSD notecard!

ingredients
1 note card ()
1 stack of post-it notes

1) any time you have a project with multiple steps that needs to be done, first start by identifying the steps to your project and the order in whixh the steps must be completed.

2) using one post it note per step, write each of the steps on a post it (i suggest numbering these). If each step must be done before a date or time, include this on the upper portion of each post it note.

3)turn your notecard longways and at the top write the date the project starts, a name to help you identify it (small), and a date by which the project has to be completed

4) take your post it notes and apply to the notecard, starting from the last step cascading upward

5). everytime you accomplish a task, pull the corresponding post it off of it.

6) keep these around your place of work and focus on accomplishing your tasks- i reccomend working on no more than 3 at once

let me know if this was clear or if there's more info that you need
-Lodger

First, I would follow Berko's advice and read the GTD book if you haven't yet. Without a basic understanding of the GTD workflow, the "why" of the following methods may not be clear.

When I used a Palm the method I used for managing projects was the PigPog method: http://pigpog.com/node/1031 It worked great, but I decided to go lofi.

I switched over the the whitepaper written by one of the 43f board members Emory Lundberg. Great resource.

Just keep in mind that no matter what method you choose to manage projects, a regular review of your projects (the recommendation in the GTD process is at least weekly) is key. I actually review my projects every couple of days if not everyday. The interval you'll find is the one that allows you to stop thinking about what to do and just focus on the doing.

Ops

Thanks for all your input. I'd like to comment on a few things:

- about GTD: I'm sure I'll check it out in the future as it sounds promising. But I honestly don't have the time and the nerves to do it right now, especially because GTD seems to be a pretty complex system. And I need something NOW.

- ops30: There are a couple of reasons why I want to keep my Palm: first of all, I've tried the Hipster PDA a while ago and it didn't work at all. I'm a tech freak, I'm not good with normal paper ;)
The second reason is that I've been using the Palm quite a while now to organize my life, and so far it's done a pretty good job. So it seems only natural to integrate project management on my Palm.

- Lodger: Great idea, although a little too lo-fi for my needs ;) But it could be easily adjusted for an electronic system.

The last few days, I've tried to develop a system to manage my projects. I'd like to share my thoughts and ideas with you:

- Each project gets its own Memo on the Palm. (For those of you who aren't familiar with Palms, Memos are basically plain text files).
- Each project is assigned to a category (e.g. "audio", "video" and so on). The Palm lets me filter by a category, so I can quickly see all my audio projects, for example.
- Inside the Memo, there is a list of "next steps" (plural because it doesn't matter for some projects which step is the next)
- If a project or a step of it has a fixed deadline, I note it in the Memo and create a task on the palm. That way, I can see all deadlines at a glance.
- For events that are connected to a project (e.g. the performance of a piece I composed) I create a new calendar entry.
- Ideas for new projects are listed in a separate Memo.

That's the basic system. It might seem a bit complicated at first, but once you start working with it, it feels natural. However, there are a few disadvantages and problems:

- in the worst case, project data is scattered across tasks, calender events and the Memo. Unfortunately, it's not possible to link items together on the Palm.
- Projects cannot be assigned to more than one category. For example, I'd like my custom-made reverberator to show up both in the "code" and the "audio" category.

So, what do you think?

I have gotten around the Palm category limitation by using DB6 icons as a kind of sub-category or extra category. That lets me use the Palm limit for "big" categories like "Household" and "Writing" and "Lectures" and then by adding in icons I can have a huge selection for projects. A red ball for one class, a green ball for another, a blue pencil icon for drafts, a pen-nib icon for final draft for review, etc.

I often used saved views in DB6 to easily sort through the ones I use all the time, but it is simple to make them up as I go too.

Not exactly perfect, but it does help.

emkay

To be honest, I had to google to find out what DB6 is. The program looks kinda messy, doesn't it? But the idea with the icons is great, so I might look into it. Though it looks complicated and a little overloaded...

Oh, sorry about the abbreviation...the sin of jargon...

Anyway, Datebook6 is indeed huge and in a way, messy. But you can just take what part of it you need. As a visually-oriented lefty, I love it for the icons. I bet I don't take advantage of half of what it is capable of, but it made a huge difference in using my Palm more effectively.

Try it, and just learn one thing in it at a time. The developer has written a very thorough manual, but don't be put off by the size- just learn a bit at a time.

Things I use most: icons, saved views with icons (bit of a learning curve here) and templates for quick entering of appointments. I have them for the hairdresser, with a scissors icon, or student conference with a little cartoon of a freaked-out person with wide-staring eyes! :) The advantage is that you can pre-set all sorts of things, like font colors, reminders or not, and then just use the template for a quick entry.

Have fun!
emkay

All in all a nice system. Make sure you update it frequently!

Regarding the scattered project info, I think you can avoid that. I have palm OS 5 and there it can work with your system like this:

1) Each project is a task. You attach a memo to the task. This is possible in plain vanilla palm. If the project has a deadline, you just add that deadline to the task like you seem to do anyway. If you want to see your tasks in calendar view (on the palm desktop you can anyway), just duplicate, as long as you have the due dates in the task/memo, nothing is lost.

2) Multiple categories: once you have set up your projects as tasks you can assign priorities. Just think of priorities as another colum of categories.

3) You can use the category field for something entirely different and "tag" your projects in the memo. For example you could write "<

It seems that all pieces come together finally. And if I can combine my system someday with the templates of DB6 that emk mentioned, I'm close to a perfect project management :)
For now, I'll use the system above and I will let you guys know how it works and if it needs adjustments.