Is GTD add in of great value given Outlook 2010 Quick Steps funcionality

[tominperu]

I have been a GTDer and the Outlook GTD add on user for many years.

Very happy with my set up.

Recently however, my company has let us know that they prefer us to upgrade to Office 2010 soon (from 2007).

I understand that my GTD add-on for Outlook 07 would not work for 10 and a new add-in for 2010 would cost around US75.

However there is new functionality with 2010 that I suspect makes this unnecessary. http://www.blog.martinspriggs.com/2011/06/30/wiring-up-gtd-in-outlook-2010/

The Add in is great though. Key advantages I am worried about losing if I don't fork out for the add in are:

Ability to creat a task from an email sending the email to a folder at the same time.
More time to make sure the text from the email is in the task/action created.
Creating an calender item from an email with text from the email.

Please note I do not use the add-in ability to link actions with projects as I don't find this necessary.

What are peoples experience with Outlook 2010 with the Quick Steps/GTD?
Is there anybody out there who has used Outlook 2010 without add in after using the add in previously who can give an insight?

Thanks for you help in advance.

 

[tominperu]

I'll try and answer my own question.

I bought the guide for using Outlook 2010 (without add in) from the DA website. The process it gives for converting an email to a task keeping the email easily accesible from the task is very much more laborious than with the add-in. The add-in lets you very easily go back to the email that prompted the task saving lots of time during the day.

The Quick Steps procedure seem to be more for sending emails to folders with one click. Please anyone tell me if I am wrong

I will keep resisting an upgrade to Office 2010 but if I have to, apparently I can keep Outlook 2007 going alongside other Office 2010 programs (Word, Excel etc). I will argue I need to do that with our coorporate IT team (wish me luck).

 

[johnaohman]

I think Quick Steps will do everything you need.

We use Outlook 2010 at work. However my "GTD-like" system resides in ToodleDo and on my Android phone. However I am able to use Quick Steps to complete a series of sequential actions on a single email. For example, I have set up one QuickStep to forward the email to my ToodleDo account and then file it in a different folder. The same can be done with a different QuickStep to create a calendar appointment and then file the email.

Each QuickStep can be set up to do just one action or many.

Hope this helps.

 

[tominperu]

Thanks for the reply.

Does the Quick Step automatically put the text from the email into the calender appointment? What about any attachments in the email? If it does both automatically then that would be doing what the add-in does for both appointments and tasks. I think that is what I am most interested in. It guess it might sound trivial but when you are sent a great many emails each day and have been using the add-in for three years to quickly process, it will be frustating having to go back to manual methods.

 

[mk3013]

Upgrade price?

If you haven't asked already about the upgrade price, I suggest you do so. I think you only have to pay $19.95.

 

[johnaohman]

I think Quick Steps will do everything you need.

Thanks for the reply.

Does the Quick Step automatically put the text from the email into the calender appointment? What about any attachments in the email? If it does both automatically then that would be doing what the add-in does for both appointments and tasks. I think that is what I am most interested in. It guess it might sound trivial but when you are sent a great many emails each day and have been using the add-in for three years to quickly process, it will be frustating having to go back to manual methods.

Looks like QuickSteps will create a new Outlook Task or and Outlook Appointment with either the text of the email or the attachment in the newly created Outlook item. Not sure it will do both at the same time though. While I suppose you could do both by creating sequential action steps in the Quick Step, this might actually create two Outlook items - not sure since I don't use Outlook Tasks. As for Outlook appointments, I just drag the email to the Calendar icon.

 

[tominperu]

Looks like QuickSteps will create a new Outlook Task or and Outlook Appointment with either the text of the email or the attachment in the newly created Outlook item. Not sure it will do both at the same time though. While I suppose you could do both by creating sequential action steps in the Quick Step, this might actually create two Outlook items - not sure since I don't use Outlook Tasks. As for Outlook appointments, I just drag the email to the Calendar icon.

Have done a search on this and found this video which suggests you are are right. It's reassuring. I might just make the leap of faith and try the upgrade!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W29zY7Hb4Q0

 

[tominperu]

If you haven't asked already about the upgrade price, I suggest you do so. I think you only have to pay $19.95.

It seems you are right. For some reason I thought I had to pay the full price going to the Outlook 2010 compatible version. I'll post back if I found out you do have to pay full wack.

 

[tominperu]

Good news

It's good news for me as when I asked about the cost of the upgrade they told me my older version of the add-in now works for Outlook 2010. I think I remember being told it wasn't compatible a long time ago but I guess they fixed the problem.

So now I have Outlook 2010 with the add in.

I can confirm that the Quick Steps buttons are pretty awesome. For someone like me who only uses context categories but not project cateogories there really is very little the add in adds.

For me the only real advantage is you get text in the task AND an easy entry from there to the actual email with attachment. With Quick Steps you specify if you want text in note form OR the attachement of the actual email.

But with the Quick steps I can have one button for common emails I get to convert with one type of action with a specific context and the email going with a specific folder. Also I can turn an email into both a task and an appointment a the same time very easily which is useful.

For those who like the project linkage I really do recommend the add-in though. They were so helpful to me today, all for no extra charge, I feel I owe them!

At the moment I have both the addin and Quick Steps so I really feel spoilt.

 

[Jakob Abrahamsen]

addin for outlook

Hi guys,

I am just about to get started setting up my outlook via the outlook 2010 GTD guide, but now I learn from above thread !! that there is a David Allen outlook. I would be much curious about this addin.

Could you advise which addin we are talking about and from where it can be found.

I am using Outlook 2010.

 

[John Forrister]

Hi guys,

I am just about to get started setting up my outlook via the outlook 2010 GTD guide, but now I learn from above thread !! that there is a David Allen outlook. I would be much curious about this addin.

Could you advise which addin we are talking about and from where it can be found.

I am using Outlook 2010.

Hi Jakob,

The GTD Outlook Add-In is made by a company called NetCentrics. They developed it with input from David Allen and his senior GTD coaches. Here's a link where you can learn more and download a trial version.
https://www.gtdoa.com/learn/

The GTD & Outlook 2010 Setup Guide is written to be used with the plain vanilla version of Outlook, not the Outlook Add-In. It's for Outlook users who don't have the Add-In.

One thing to note is that the NetCentrics Add-In does not support 64-bit Outlook.

 

[Jakob Abrahamsen]

Thanks. Will check out netcentrics. Indeed looks intriguing.

 

[apastuszak]

Does the Netcentrics addin maintain a link between the task and the original email. I like that you can make a task with an email attached, but I'd like to be able to flip back to the original email and do what I need to with it.

 

[tominperu]

Does the Netcentrics addin maintain a link between the task and the original email. I like that you can make a task with an email attached, but I'd like to be able to flip back to the original email and do what I need to with it.

Yes, it does and it is very easy to switch back and forth. Even without the addin it is very easy now with Quick Steps to create an task out of an email with the email included as an attachment. Then you can easily also switch between the two. Now, the only slight advantage of the addin is that you get a text summary in the email which is easier to see and then if you want to find an attachement you click on on the "go to associated email" button.

 

[apastuszak]

Yes, it does and it is very easy to switch back and forth. Even without the addin it is very easy now with Quick Steps to create an task out of an email with the email included as an attachment. Then you can easily also switch between the two. Now, the only slight advantage of the addin is that you get a text summary in the email which is easier to see and then if you want to find an attachement you click on on the "go to associated email" button.

Well, having the mail as an attachment to a task is not the same as linking back to the original email. I understand the convenience of this, because you can just double click on it and hit reply. But I would much prefer a task be created, with the next of the email in the task description and a link back to the original email.