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Kinkless GTD .83: Enhances Quicksilver and iCal integration, much more
Merlin Mann | Mar 27 2006
Kinkless GTD 0.83 [Relative Motion] | Kinkless The wait is over, kids. Ethan Schoonover has just released his .83 version of Kinkless GTD, and, brother, does it ever bring it. (For an intro to what kGTD is, start here, then go here and of course, here.) So, first great thing: the syncing problems people (including me) were having — getting changes in Action views and iCal to get reflected correctly back in Projects view — has been fixed most elegantly. So it’s just a lot more usable and dependable right out of the box. But that ain’t all E’s been cooking up. Among the trove of new and updated features (cribbed from Ethan):
Visit the kGTD .83 release page for full details Ethan, as ever, has done a terrific screencast explaining how the app works — DO NOT MISS the video if you aren’t “getting” kGTD, because it’s super useful in showing exactly how it works — plus I’m sure there will be lots of lively discussion over on the kGTD forum, so for today I’ll just focus on my favorite improved feature: what Ethan calls “fancy “task shorthand.’” PreviouslyIn the previous release (.7) there was some amazing stuff in kGTD that had helped realign the way I think about doing GTD on a Mac. Kinkless made it easy to add items to an inbox via Quicksilver, and the excellent iCal integration allowed me to organize my contexts in very efficient and functional ways. Which, by themselves, would have allowed me to die happy. But in this latest release, Ethan takes it further (yes! yet! again!) by introducing a simple syntax for taking tasks beyond the inbox — allowing you to create actions via both Quicksilver and iCal that are then placed into the correct project and context back in kGTD. Total round-trip, no-look task management. So let’s look at some examples of how it actually works in practice. Once everything is properly installed, we start to add an action via Quicksilver, and everything works pretty much as before. I bring up QS, type to select “KGTD Inbox,” tab to the second pane and select “Process Text,” then tab to the third pane, and enter my new task via the Text Mode field. (Note, as ever, that you can make a Trigger in QS that reduces all but the actual typing into a one-click operation). The new syntax
Well, if you already have a kGTD project called “ It’s smart, this syntaxYou could also have entered that same item as “ Or, let’s say you did not yet have a top-level project for this particular action and wanted to create one. You might then type “ Now, let’s say you wanted to, for example, do some research on these crabs and want to capture a web address for future reference. No problem. Consider…
…where the line break in the QS text field is achieved via When you pop back over to kGTD, you’ll be pleased to see that the address of your crab portal has been neatly placed in the “notes” field of your new task. Click on it, and you’re taken right to the site. iCal wants to play, too
So imagine my joy that I can now create a new iCal task called “ Plenty more under the hoodI really do encourage you to drop by Kinkless and catch up on all the many new features (and the shiny new site), because it’s all pretty great. I know people have been clamoring for a new release, but Ethan has been a champ about making sure everything was working properly in this ground-up rewrite. This is a terrific, innovative, and geek-centric piece of work, and I’m truly grateful for the hours he’s put into it. It’s my system, I love it, and it really just works like a sonofabitch. Visit the kGTD .8 release page 22 Comments
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 OK, so I'm officially a...Submitted by Ian (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 7:31am.
OK, so I’m officially a jealous windows user now. (I do own and use macs, but sadly, not for my day-to-day stuff, cuz I work as a programmer for a company that’s windows-centric). Are there ANY programs this good out there for Windows? I use MLO and it’s good, but there are some annoyances (in particular, the inability to set future start dates without future due dates) that make it not work well for my system. I’d love to find a really killer GTD implementation for Windows. » POSTED IN:
I'm just glad you had...Submitted by emory (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 8:00am.
I’m just glad you had the courage to discuss your crabs. If more of us stood up and declared our crab-ridden condition we could remove the stigma from our debilitating condition. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m due for my twice-daily shaving. » POSTED IN:
OK, I can't believe after...Submitted by Craig (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 8:36am.
OK, I can’t believe after my weekend of organizing my home office and wanting to muck with my GTD but not wanting to try again to implement kGTD until the new version was up and so wasting even more of Ethan’s bandwidth by viewing the same page 20 times over 2 days hoping for a release that I’m stuck here in my Windows world at work and it’s freaking available. Sweet. Anyway, this is probably answered somewhere in the documents with the download, but can anyone tell me how to add an item to the inbox form QS, or from iCal (PDA). » POSTED IN:
[...] 43 Folders write up...Submitted by kGTD 0.83 is out! - MySprawl (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 9:18am.
[…] 43 Folders write up on this new version […] » POSTED IN:
Kinkless GTD 0.83... Eine neue Version...Submitted by Dobschats Weblog (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 9:22am.
Kinkless GTD 0.83… Eine neue Version von Kinkless GTD. Benötigt OmniOutliner Pro 3.6 Beta. Einige nette neue Funktionen, vor allem das Setzen von Erinnerungen in iCal beim Synchronisieren. Dieses Update funktioniert auch ohne Umkopieren von Daten: Installer durchlau… » POSTED IN:
Love the .83 release of...Submitted by Rishabh R. Dassani (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 12:09pm.
Love the .83 release of KGTD; my productivity just shot up 110 percent, Yahoo !!!! » POSTED IN:
what about Due dates in...Submitted by kjmcw (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 6:13pm.
what about Due dates in quicksilver actions? i’m worried that if i bury a new action at the bottom of a project list (which happens if there’s no due date attached to it) then i never end up seeing it again. » POSTED IN:
 If you like having dates...Submitted by Merlin Mann on March 27, 2006 - 6:21pm.
If you like having dates on stuff, I’d just add the event as “ » POSTED IN:
Don't forget that there are...Submitted by danorama (not verified) on March 27, 2006 - 6:40pm.
Don’t forget that there are some incomprehensibly stubborn LaunchBar (instead of Quicksilver) users out there. They/we can take advantage the very same action-adding coolness, with a very small modification to the supplied kGTD QS script. It’s at http://kinkless.com/node/371 . » POSTED IN:
[...] Merlin Mann, who did...Submitted by Hawk Wings » Blog Archive » kGTD 0.83.0 released (not verified) on March 28, 2006 - 2:51am.
[…] Merlin Mann, who did hard-core beta-testing on this version has written a nice detailed review of the new release. […] » POSTED IN:
Oh I'm in love... It...Submitted by TommyW (not verified) on March 28, 2006 - 3:36am.
Oh I’m in love… It works beautifully. The QS smarts are just the business…. And then iCal having the same smarts…. This is just great. Beyond great. It actually deserves that much devalued term - awesome. » POSTED IN:
By the way... I do...Submitted by TommyW (not verified) on March 28, 2006 - 4:16am.
By the way… I do the QS action the other way and it’s two panes and skips the middle pane of Merlin’s method above. So. 1. Activate QS 2. Hit the period (.) and type in your text 3. Hit Tab 4. Hit k to bring up Send to KGTD It might be Ass Backwards but it’s a little, little faster… » POSTED IN:
It might be Ass Backwards...Submitted by Merlin Mann on March 28, 2006 - 4:24am.
It might be Ass Backwards but it’s a little, little faster… Like I said, if you make a trigger for it the way I do it you actually have fewer clicks and less typing. The trigger brings up the pane (as in the image), you type your task, hit enter and you’re done. » POSTED IN:
Well, tried the new version,...Submitted by Roger Eberhart (not verified) on March 28, 2006 - 4:36am.
Well, tried the new version, but still prefer Notebook. Primarily, because I never have to hit “sync”. Also, the iCal integration will be improved with Notebook 2.1, supposedly out this month (they’re running out of time). Currently it only syncs items with due dates. In 2.1 it will also sync items without due dates as well. Is there any huge advantage of kGTD over Notebook that I’m missing? In Notebook I have a project list. I assign contexts as keywords. I make items into next actions by putting a todo checkbox on them. If I want to see all my items by context, I go to the keyword index. To see my next actions (which I have sorted by context) I go to the To Do Index. And it all works without having to hit sync all the time. Also, Notebook is $20 cheaper than OmniOutliner Pro. » POSTED IN:
Sorry for the, um, triple...Submitted by TommyW (not verified) on March 28, 2006 - 4:41am.
Sorry for the, um, triple post… From your Contexts post (which I found very useful) you had this context
Does this apply? Just curious… I am busy regrouping and looking back at using iCal much as you do. Actually I’d be keen on a blow by blow on your iCal usage. I used to (pre-GTD/KGTD) use iCal and it’s to do list. I would simply keep punching in todos and dragging them onto the week view and map out my upcoming day/week that way. That had it’s ‘shuffle incomplete tasks along’ problem that the David identified but it was quite satisfying and productive. It did focus me. » POSTED IN:
Well, somehow my GTD Quicksilver...Submitted by Allen (not verified) on March 28, 2006 - 6:25pm.
Well, somehow my GTD Quicksilver trigger has gone bad with the release change. I’ll try and fix it, but so far no goodness in terms of adding to inbox with the new release script. Have no idea why not… I’ll try the launchbar version and see how it works… » POSTED IN:
Ok, ok, I got to...Submitted by Allen (not verified) on March 28, 2006 - 7:24pm.
Ok, ok, I got to the bottom of this. Don’t Name Any Task with the beginning of: “Inbox …” This is critical. If you do, your new tasks without projects or context will be thrown below this task!! yikes. :) But, glad I’ve got it working. Thanks for your help, Merlin! Greatly appreciated!! » POSTED IN:
Like I said,...Submitted by TommyW (not verified) on March 29, 2006 - 3:23am.
Uh uh… Aha! Heh heh… Thanks for getting me off my ass and checking out triggers… » POSTED IN:
Merlin I'm with TommyW... Does...Submitted by Stephen Collins (not verified) on March 29, 2006 - 8:58am.
Merlin I’m with TommyW… Does this new version affect in any way the set of context you choose to use? When I uograded my existing kGTD doc, it stripped all the @ symbols from the contexts, leaving the others as they were previously (I modelled mine heavily off your set, as they seemed a close fit; subsequent tweaking improved them for me). It seems that the kGTD changes would determine some reexamination of contexts. Care to share the love with your audience? » POSTED IN:
Aww. http://www.youvegotcrabs.com doesn't exist. ...Submitted by Scott (not verified) on March 29, 2006 - 4:30pm.
Aww. http://www.youvegotcrabs.com doesn’t exist. » POSTED IN:
Anyone know a good widget...Submitted by Peter Jaros (not verified) on April 2, 2006 - 10:52am.
Anyone know a good widget to view and edit (or at least check off) iCal to-dos? I don’t want to keep bringing up iCal anymore than I want to keep bringing up my whole kGTD doc. Extra points for the ability to view one calendar (ie context) at a time. » POSTED IN:
[...] Kinkless | Simple tools....Submitted by Jim Phelps - IT Architect in Academia » Kinkless Getti (not verified) on April 5, 2006 - 3:14pm.
[…] Kinkless | Simple tools. […] » POSTED IN:
About Merlin MannBio Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who started the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today. Also? He looks like this, answers questions, and has something like a life. |
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Inbox ZeroThe original 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way. Don’t miss the free video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero presentation. Making Time3-part series on attention management for artists and makers. Read Bad Correspondence, The Job You Think You Have, and One Clear Line. |
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