Kinkless

Getting ready for OmniFocus

Merlin — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:38:00 -0400

(Disclosure: I am a contributor to the OmniFocus project)

According to OmniGroup, about 2,500 people are now participating in the "sneaky peak" beta of OmniFocus, and new folks will continue to be added as capacity for support allows. But even if you're not yet using the app and are just waiting to get your hands on a finished version, it's not too early to start thinking about making a smooth transition from wherever you are now.

Moving your world of action into a new application is like moving into a new house (and can be almost as stressful). This is your chance to throw away crap, rethink how you've been doing things, and just give yourself a fresh start. So before you ever fire up OmniFocus for that first time, do yourself a favor and get sorted out with your current system first. Believe me, you're much more likely to handle this well before the temptation of having the app in your hands sends you diving into using it full-time.

In short, I recommend you start by conducting a thorough review that's focused on bringing all your tasks and projects up to date and in line with reality.

delete or archive all the crufty tasks and projects that you've finished or that you never really intend to do
carefully review all remaining items to ensure that each is still timely, well-defined, and worthy of your attention
tweak next actions to reflect true physical tasks that you really plan to complete (related to all three of these: Does this “next action” belong someplace else?)
look over all your contexts and consider deleting or combining any items that are more taxonomically satisfying than functionally useful (related: Simplify your contexts)
if you're using an electronic system, including Kinkless, definitely make and retain multiple recent backups just to be safe

But, whether you're moving from Kinkless, paper, or what have you, when you're finished with this preparation, you should have a completely up-to-date and actionable dashboard of your near-term activities.

Remember, it's garbage in, garbage out with this stuff, so be sure you're starting out with as little crap as possible. And, honestly? If you feel your current system has way more trash than treasure, you might (carefully) consider starting over from scratch once OmniFocus arrives. Whatever works for you.

In my opinion, OmniFocus works because it helps enforce several habits that have been shown to help people succeed with making a personal productivity system that works and that sticks. Still, it's not a magic wand. Like any tool, it's only as useful as the hand that wields it.

In my next post on OmniFocus, I'll go over what I consider to be some best practices that come out of my own experience using OmniFocus for a couple months now, including how to avoid fiddling, how to not get wrapped up in taxonomy, and, how to stay focused on action.

”Getting ready for OmniFocus” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on June 04, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Kinkless.com and "The Kinkless Desktop"

Merlin — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:37:52 -0400

Kinkless | Productive Creativity

My pal, Ethan, is a photographer who's probably best known in the Mac-o-sphere as the author of "Kinkless GTD," the AppleScript for OmniOutliner Pro that caused a sensation last year among Mac productivity nerds and helped lead to the development of the OmniFocus task management app (disclosure: it's a project to which Ethan and I both currently contribute).

Well, if you haven't visited Ethan's Kinkless.com site in a while, you'd do well to pop by for a fresh look, because you're in for a treat.

In addition to doing a re-architecture and redesign that's one of the most eye-catching I've seen on a Drupal site, Ethan has begun writing some very useful tutorials (in addition to the screencasts for which he's becoming well-known).

For example, he's recently completed his "Five Steps to a Kinkless Desktop" series, focusing on how to "clean up, prettify and streamline the usage of your desktop." He starts with "The No-Mercy Cleanup":

So we have an undifferentiated mass of stuff on the desktop. This is the point at which a lot of organization self-help tells you to sort through it file by file. I am not going to tell you this. Why? Because I am lazy and realistic. You are just not going to clean up your desktop right now. Why? It’s overwhelming. So we’ll use a trick I call the “No Mercy Cleanup”

If your Mac and your brain need a dose of strong medicine, don't miss this.

I'm really enjoying seeing Ethan contribute his thoughts on productivity -- I've learned from working with him over the past few months that he's very thoughtful and deliberative about this stuff. Despite being a taxonomical animal, he's always focused on sharing first-person changes that will bring real, non-fiddly benefits to the lives of creative types. Looking forward to seeing where he takes this.

”Kinkless.com and "The Kinkless Desktop"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on May 31, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Drew McCormack on GTD for scientists

Merlin — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 09:31:21 -0500

Getting Things Done (GTD) for Scientists - MacResearch

I enjoyed this post by Drew McCormack on how he discovered GTD and has started using it for his work as a scientist:

The thing to realize is that most people don’t get lessons in organizing themselves at school or college, and they certainly haven’t been prepared for the rapid pace of modern life. GTD is nothing more than a few lessons on how best to organize things. At the center of it all is what could be regarded as a multi-dimensional ToDo list. The idea is to get every project you have, however big or small, out of your head and into the list. That allows you to relax about things, and be more productive at the same time.

"Multi-dimensional ToDo list." I'm totally stealing that.

Also, I mention it here because this post provides that rarest of voyeuristic nerdthrill: getting to peek at how someone else is using Kinkless!

Any tips or stories from the science nerds out there on how GTD is and isn't working for you?

”Drew McCormack on GTD for scientists” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on March 05, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

TUAW's notes from the OmniFocus meetup

Merlin — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:11:49 -0500

OmniFocus Sneak Preview - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Dan Lurie at TUAW has detailed notes on the OmniFocus Meetup yesterday at the Apple Store.

OmniFocus, unlike its predecessor KinklessGTD will feature an instant data propagation across the app, thus doing away with the need for a "sync button," and ensuring your data is always where you expect it to be.

OmniFocus will have a simpler and more streamlined interface than OmniOutliner, on which KGTD was built.

Users will be able to view multiple or individual projects and contexts in either a single window or multiple separate windows.

OmniFocus will support existing KGTD QuickSilver inbox-entry actions.

OmniFocus will also feature a standalone proprietary quick-entry method via keystroke, similar to Yojimbo.

Future versions will support user definable smart folders.

The first version of OmniFocus will not require 10.5 Leopard, but all following versions will due to the use of Leopard only technologies.

Like KGTD, OmniFocus will support syncing with portable devices through iCal.

OmniFocus will be fully applescriptable.

Future versions will support integration with OmniPlan.

Future versions will support universal action creation from other applications (such as turning an email message or iCal to-do into an action).

Future versions will support attaching or tying of files to actions and projects.

OmniGroup is planning to release OmniFocus within the next few months.

It was great to hear Ken lay out OmniGroup's plans and progress on the Kinkless replacement. Thanks much to everyone who showed up yesterday.

”TUAW's notes from the OmniFocus meetup” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 09, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

OmniFocus meetup, Monday @ the Apple Store

Merlin — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:04:53 -0500

The Omni Mouth » OmniFocus get-together during Macworld week

Upcoming.org: OmniFocus Meetup at Apple Store (Monday, January 8, 2007)

As most Kinkless nerds already know, OmniGroup is developing a full-on Cocoa implementation of Ethan's script that they've dubbed OmniFocus. Since the OmniGroup folks will be in town for MacWorld, they've kindly offered to host a meetup at the Apple Store on Monday afternoon. For better or worse, your Author will be the emcee.

I don't think there will be any Steve-like reveals, booth bunny antics, or techno-music-fueled demos of the app, but this will be a great chance to hear what OG's been cooking up -- they're most especially interested to hear your questions, comments, and any kind of input. They seem serious about making this app work for current Kinkless fans.

The meetup is in the theater upstairs and runs from 4:30-5:30. There's a good amount of seating available, but you might want to get there on the early side if you want to guarantee yourself a comfy spot.

[Disclosure: I'm an [unpaid] and only marginally useful advisor on OmniFocus]

”OmniFocus meetup, Monday @ the Apple Store” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 04, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

HOWTO generate a kGTD Project list for your weekly review

Merlin — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:01:22 -0500

While OmniFocus is under development (and yes, friends, I have seen it: it is actual software that does things), we Kinkless users will have to make do as we can for now. And while I still find my own kGTD setup oddly stable given its byzantine under-the-hood workings (think: innards of Cylon Raider meets Brazil's pneumatic tubes), there are definitely times when I crave just a bit more canonical GTD functionality.

One of the most vexing shortcomings in kGTD (God bless it) is the lack of a formal Project list -- one easy location to glance just all of the obligations and desirable outcomes that are on your horizon, without reference to the tasks that comprise them. David Allen has repeatedly said that the project list is critical (as I recall, his quote in our interviews was "...the Project list is king."), and, honestly, lacking an all-in-one Project list for your weekly review is kind of like sitting down to the SATs without your two sharpened #2 pencils.

My solution for this has two components -- one mostly behavioral and one mildly technical. Both are squirrely and lofi and your mileage may vary. As ever.

1. Brutal pruning

First, as part of my weekly review, I relentlessly weed from kGTD any Project that I know doesn't belong there. This could include:

projects that died or have gotten cancelled or rescheduled
projects that have gone hopelessly and irretrievably fallow (functionally dead)
projects I have no real intention of working on (for at least the next month or two)
projects I've kept around because of sentimentality, affection, laziness, or just too much ambition

Bottom line: if the Project doesn't have a legitimate next action that I intend to complete in the next couple weeks? Gone. Deleted or moved to "Someday/Maybe." Next, please.

This, as David is fond of saying, clears the decks by removing any distractions or baseless claims on your attention. And while it's not so novel a concept (everyone's weekly review should include this step in some way), it's critical for part 2 of my kGTD Project list hackination. (Plus, yeah, it just feels really good to do)

For our purposes, it also ensures that you've completed all the obvious pruning before creating your new Project list and delving further.

2. Copy and Paste

<background> As you add projects, actions, and contexts in kGTD, the AppleScripts that keep its lights on are populating the different parts of your document with multiple synced versions of your information. The ability to view, for example, just actions associated with a Project versus just actions associated with a context are arguably the coolest and most useful features of kGTD since it mirrors GTD's ninja shifting between horizontal and vertical focus. </background>

But what it took me a fricking year to figure out is that I already have a project list -- it's just that it's hiding in a dropdown menu.

Getting your Project List liberated

Backup your kGTD document, then do a Sync and Save
- Backup is good. Repeat, repeat.
From any Project or Context view, select the "Projects" column head
- Should be the third column after "Action" and "Context"
- After you do this you should see the column get highlighted (mine's blue) with one of those pretty OmniGroup-y, rounded corner highlights
Reveal the "Column Type" Inspector window
- Either by hitting "COMMAND-3" or by selecting "Column Type" from the "Inspectors" window
- You should see two drop-down menus ("Type" and "Summary") and then a big-ass bulleted list of all your Projects
Select the first bulleted item in the Projects list
Scroll all the way to the last item in the list, then hold down "Shift" and select that last item
- This should highlight all of the projects
- Again, you should see lots of those pretty rounded selection highlight thingees
Hit "Copy" or "Command-C" to snatch the Projects to your clipboard
Open a new, blank text document in the text editor of your choice, and hit "Paste" (or Command-V)
- (I like TextMate but TextEdit will do fine)

And that's it.

"WOW, thank you: you've taught me to 'copy and paste.' So, now what, Admiral Obvious?"

The first thing you might want to do -- depending on your personal brand of anal-retentiveness -- is to tidy up your new Project list document a bit. Personally I Search & Replace all "..."s into TABs, which provides a prettier outline. At a minimum, get the document to where it's visually sensible for you. Then print 'er out.

Cosmetics aside, you do what you need to do with a project list. You let it jog your memory. You use it to find time sinks and attention holes. You scout for dead wood. You comb through it for missed actions, meetings you forgot to schedule, and reminders of things you said you'd do a week ago. This is your outcome-centric viewport into all the projects and actions that need to be added to or removed from your kGTD list. Be courageous.

"No, seriously. Why bother?"

I'll just speak for myself here, but I think that once you're out of the ad hoc procrastination mind set of the task list, you permit a more strategic part of your brain to take over for a while. Your mental CEO gets to take a crack at all the projects, deciding who gets the deep-six versus who's not getting the attention or resources they deserve, and then you can return to your task list with a rejuvenated sense of do-ability, focus, and mission. I call it "Manager Mode," and it's something I really need.

Also, from a tactical perspective, I like to use the Project list as a way to identify my "focus projects" for the week. If you have more than a few dozen projects (and share my own dearth of non-computer contexts), you probably crave some way to narrow your focus. A weekly review of the list can give you the confidence to call out the stuff that must see motion this week. You can even use to pull up what Gina calls your "MIT" (or, most important task of the day).

Regardless of your approach and preferences, if you're attempting some flavor of GTD, it's well worth your time to generate a task-less Project list and review the crap out of it as often as you need to. Because, if you aren't occasionally alternating between the tasks "on the runway" and the larger outcomes of higher altitudes, you're not only not doing GTD; you're probably wasting a lot of time and missing out on some cool opportunities.

Addition, 2006-12-20 10:08:27

Based on comments, I should clarify why a plaintext list of your current projects (without tasks?!?) has value in a GTD review (although David covers the concept nicely in the book, if memory serves). Thus, I will embrace vanity and quote myself at length:

The Project list -- in David's canonical description -- represents the "10,000 foot" view. It should exist as a list unattached to child tasks someplace and then be reviewed and updated as a thing-in-itself on a regular basis. It's not about the tasks per se; it's very much about evaluating how your Projects map to what you want to be doing at 20k [feet] and higher.

My gut sense is that a lot of the folks using kGTD use it as a fancy to-do list. Which is in a sense, what it is. But you mustn't just stop there. It's critical to not spend your whole life shoveling tasks and vaguely hoping that they map to some kind of outcome. That's the Bad Old Days simply relived with updated software.

IMHO, GTD works best (and only) when you periodically take a formal step up and off of the runway to ensure the projects themselves are worth doing (and have a place in your bigger plan).

I love that the weekly Project review also generates new tasks at the runway level; but that's mostly happening specifically because you set aside the time to not focus just on the stuff that's already in front of your nose.

”HOWTO generate a kGTD Project list for your weekly review” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on December 20, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Ethan on Kinkless and OmniFocus

Merlin — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 08:02:23 -0400

Hold breath. Exhale. Focus. | Kinkless

I don't have much to add to Ethan's (typically entertaining and gracious) post about OmniFocus -- an under-development OmniGroup app that will bring Kinkless' functionality to a stable and powerful Cocoa application. But, first off: Yay! The Kinkless is dead! Long live the Kinkless!

Ethan writes:

OmniGroup has been very supportive of kGTD from the beginning, clearly making code tweaks and additions to support this nutty venture. At some point it became clear that the next logical step would be to consider Cocoafying the whole shebang. Having the chance to take everything I’d been thinking and working on with kGTD and see it turned into something bigger and better and brighter is like making a doodle on a piece of paper, handing it to da Vinci and seeing it turned into a full color oil painting. Even better: it’s like Da Vinci letting you sit around and gab at them while they do this and ask for “a bit more cobalt-blue in the sky” and “a few more peasants in that bit on the left”.

While OF is under development, I won't have much to say publicly about it -- I'm superstitious about buying a crib until the baby gets its first smack on the ass -- but I know the OmniMouth will keep you posted on updates, including when you can expect to see a beta, what the feature set for the first cut is likely to include, and so on.

What I will say is that both Ethan and OmniGroup are wonderful to collaborate with. I'm confident that this will be an app that pulls together the functionality, stability, and polish you associate with OG's terrific apps.

[Non-disclosure disclosure: Not sure it matters, but if you're curious, this is not a paying gig for me. Mostly I just stand around like a fat man at a construction site, drinking coffee and shouting pointless suggestions. Ethan and OmniGroup listen patiently, sometimes complying with my random requests, and that's all the pay I could ever hope for.]

”Ethan on Kinkless and OmniFocus” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 27, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

kGTD tutorials: Projects and actions, Timed actions

Merlin — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:23:15 -0400

KGTD Tutorials - 43FoldersWiki

43F Wiki user ThePolack has been putting together some great kGTD tutorials, including a useful introduction to using the Projects and Actions sections that covers several of the features that most folks only figure out after a few weeks of regular usage. Handy.

But, I want to especially highlight his tutorial on using timed and dated actions in kGTD. These are powerful features that have caused considerable confusion for users, and ThePolack provides a lucid explanation of how the different events work and how you can use them to manage all those little periodic tasks that pop up in your life.

The whole purpose of GTD is to get these things out of our head and into our trusted organization system. But at the same time, if I enter this particular action into my action list long before I can actually begin work on it, I'll have to look at it and mentally separate it from the actions that I actually can start working on. It would be nice if I could input these actions into Kinkless, note the start and completion dates for them, and then not have to think about them at all until the appropriate time.

And we can do just that.

Links

”kGTD tutorials: Projects and actions, Timed actions” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 26, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Ask 43F: Handling notes in scattered places

Merlin — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:45:35 -0400

Shiran Pasternak writes to ask:

I'm overwhelmed by various note-taking tools you've recommended in the past (so it's your fault). I use, fairly arbitrarily, either TextMate, OmniOutliner Professional (purchased for kGTD, of course), and Notational Velocity...

My main problem is how to retrieve the notes, given that they exist in these scattered applications. Should I then migrate all my notes and use just one of these (or another I may have missed)? Or, should I use a combination of the tools? If so, can you offer heuristics for when to use each note-taking application, and also, if possible, some ideas for how and when to retrieve notes?

This is a really good question -- especially given how many people are suffering from the first-world problem of having way too many cool Mac apps to choose from for this kind of work. The short answer is to slim down the number of tools you're frequently using, but to then be sure you also do something smart and repeatable with everything you've captured. The longer explanation...

Most of us eventually get pretty good at capturing the informational detritus in our lives -- we have innumerable ways to park ideas, track bugs, create to-dos, and so on. In addition to the apps Shiran mentions, there's also the limitless possibilities of index cards, white boards, web applications, et cetera, on and on. The primary hang-up, in my experience, comes from using so many of these "collection buckets" that it becomes time-consuming and confusing to find, process, and do something with all that stuff in a frictionless way. All the capture in the world is useless unless there's an equally intuitive way to then do something with it.

So, first of all, try to limit the number of tools you entrust to data capture. I'm not saying you should just try to forget about something if you don't have your favorite capture device handy, but at the same time, try not to scatter your stuff among silos that a) don't talk to each other, b) you don't frequently check, process, and empty to zero. Candidly, this is what I like about my combination of text files, kGTD, and The Hipster PDA -- I never have to think twice about where something goes.

If I'm at the computer and need to capture basic ideas and reference stuff, it gets Quicksilvered into a text file
If I'm at the computer and need to track a task, I add it to Kinkless
Anything else anywhere else goes into the HPDA (for processing back at home base)

Your mileage (and devices) may vary, but I encourage you to aggressively thin the herd of whizzy gadgets and apps you use down to the one or two that work best for you. And most definitely don't tear ass to every new bauble that pops up on del.icio.us that promises to revolutionize your brain and your life.

Which brings us to the all-important second point: you must empty and process all your collection buckets on a regular basis. Or you will go insane. I promise. Only you can decide what "regular" needs to be, but, chances are, if you're not sure where something is right now (i.e. which bucket you left it in), it's because you aren't processing and reviewing often enough. A text file, in my case, is often the final destination for a piece of information, so that's not a problem, but leaving tasks, ideas, and notes in untended baskets can be almost as stress-inducing as not capturing them at all. Process the crap out of everything once, empty the basket, then review the processed results as often as necessary. Having fewer of these buckets, as above, makes this emptying a less trying experience.

And, finally, remember that reference materials in particular (like notes, future plans, and other non-actionable items) are only as useful as your ability to locate them when they really matter. Like I've said before, when thinking about where something goes, try to envision the time when you'll need to find it in the future. Where will you be when you need it? What tools and access will you have? What name will you search for? Are there other materials that need to always live with this item? For the retrieval, then -- depending on how you answered all those questions -- the answer might be Spotlight, Google Desktop, incremental searching -- or even just flipping to an A-Z cabinet of file folders. It just depends. But you'll be much better suited to figuring this out once you've chosen your favorite capture, processing, and parking methods and stuck with them. Otherwise there's not really one answer. And that's probably the problem.

Capturing, by itself, will always give you a short and satisfying burst of stress reduction, but it doesn't absolve you of the need to make sure those captured items then get quickly placed into the spots where the really need to live. By minimizing your collection points, processing and reviewing regularly, and using smart planning for storing it in the right place, you can build a leak-free system that runs like a Swiss watch.

”Ask 43F: Handling notes in scattered places” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on September 12, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43F Recap: Best of iCal Tips

Merlin — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:47:26 -0400

Wow. It's been over nine months since I quit Entourage in favor of the kGTD/iCal productivity tag-team. In that time, I could have had an infant, finished a school year, or been responsible for a couple failed sitcoms. (I mean: if I had a uterus, was still in college, and were, say, McLean Stevenson)

Yes, friends, I do still spend a lot of my day shaking my hammy fist in impotent rage at iCal's numerous shortcomings, but I've reached a kind of détente with Apple's stock calendaring app, and along the way I've discovered some modest ways to squeeze more drops of Cupertino-y goodness from its moist Jolly Rancher-like pages. Here's a few of my favorites.

Getting more out of iCal - "The truth is, iCal works great with kGTD (mostly of course), and once you make your peace with the perplexing stasis of its feature set, there are some not-bad hooks and affordances hiding in its pastel, roundy corners. Here’s a few I like."
HOWTO: Flag “penciled-in” events in iCal - "When I create the event, I just put a Spanish-language question mark “¿” (hit: OPTION-SHIFT-?) in front of the event’s title. Like so..."
Schedule (and choose) a dash in iCal "If you start the name of the task with the number of minutes in the dash, you have a very easy to way to see items that can be knocked down quickly (hint: sort “To Dos by Title”)."
Dr. Contextlove or: “How I stopped worrying and learned to love iCal” - "But why bother with organizing these into meta-groups? Ah, because it makes it so easy to reveal or hide all the tasks that I can work on at a given time, just by ticking the group’s little click box."
Kinkless GTD .83: Enhances Quicksilver and iCal integration, much more "I really like to plan in kGTD and then do out of iCal since it reduces the amount of fiddling and meta work temptation. That doesn’t mean, however, that I wouldn’t benefit from a little extra backward integration."

”43F Recap: Best of iCal Tips” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on August 30, 2006. Except as noted, it's ©2010 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"