Ok.. so I got a Palm... now what.

M

mibi

Registered
Thanks to my previous thread..

http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7766&highlight=palm

I picked up a used Palm z22 which is nice and light and works well. Except I am having some difficulty porting my GTD setup over to its basic tools.

The "tasks" work fine as I can use the categories as contexts, but I am use to a bit more elaborate GTD setup where I can add tags to next actions, like I might have @ grocery store, @ hardware store, @ drugstore, and they are all tagged with "errands" so when I am out in town I just call up all actions tagged with errands.

Also, where the hell do I put my 'projects'? Do i make a memo for each one?... it would be nice to have the NA's listed under projects as well.

Basically, is there software I can get that is more geared towards GTD and the palms barebones setup?

Thanks
 
S

SGuenette

Registered
One option is to check out Bonsai by Natara. I just purchased it and it seems to be what I'm looking for. Read the GTD Bonsai article and watch the videos (by clicking on the 3 screenshots, not the video at the top) from Fox Mulder at Palm Organized to see how he set up Bonsai to work with GTD.

Hope this helps.

Sally
 
M

mibi

Registered
SGuenette;53930 said:
One option is to check out Bonsai by Natara. I just purchased it and it seems to be what I'm looking for. Read the GTD Bonsai article and watch the videos (by clicking on the 3 screenshots, not the video at the top) from Fox Mulder at Palm Organized to see how he set up Bonsai to work with GTD.

Hope this helps.

Sally
Click to expand...

Thanks Sally, I watched the videos and will give it a shot.... do you use the Calender / Time thing and filters? It seems a bit complicated, at least at first glance.
 
M

mibi

Registered
gah... i downloaded the trial of datebk6 and now i am overwhelmed and have no idea what to do. it doesnt help that i have been using the palm for less than two days.

now i have that same anxiety of choosing a gtd application or process that i had when i first choose a destop version (tracks).

the calendar system on bonzai is less than intuitive and i am not sure how to integrate datebk into gtd at all... where are the tasks?

i wish there was a dedicated gtd app for the palm instead of trying to bend the will of some other app to fit GTD..

any advice for a palm newbie?
 
S

SGuenette

Registered
I've set up Bonsai like Fox Mulder however have not used the Calender/Time section yet. Next Actions work great. Remember that its just an outline program but the power lies in the filters and views. For instance, I added a @Calls branch under Next Actions. Under that I have Call Sue re quotation and put the project name in the Contact field. Now in the default view, Call Sue re quotation shows up under @Calls but if I switch to my project view, I see all items for the projects I'm working on. If you need help with filters or views, just send me a private message here.

I've spent countless hours researching GTD software. I was using ThinkingRock for awhile but it got a little cumbersome and has been in "Epsilon" version for so long that I have switched to Bonsai. All GTD software requires is something simple in my opinion and this fits the bill. I want to enter next actions quickly, see them filtered and sorted based on my needs, and print them out. Bonsai makes it nice to quickly see what percent of items are done (i.e. If I have 10 calls in @Calls and complete 4 of them, the @Calls task will show 40% done) s I can glance at the little bar and see there are some not done in there.

I also run Bonsai off a usb stick so I can move it to any pc and run it. You need to install in on the syncing pc however or sync won't work.

As far as Datebk6 goes, I used that software a few years back successfully. However, it takes a lot of patience to figure out all its powerful features - there are so many settings and options. I will be setting this up with Bonsai soon so email me if you want to talk.

Don't give up!

Sally
 
M

mibi

Registered
Thanks sally,

I removed datebk6 and am just using the standard tasks and calander on the palm. I will try to incorporate Bonsai once my anxiety goes down.
 
M

mikeobrien58

Registered
I've been using a Palm for GTD for a few years now. I use a PC at work, a Mac at home and the Palm everywhere. My criteria for software was that it had to run on all three platforms and be able to sync easily across all three. There are very few apps that meet this criteria.

I ended up using the native Palm Calendar for my "hard landscape", LifeBalance for my task lists, the native Palm Memo app for notes and project support material, and Inspiration for mind-mapping. LifeBalance is where 90% of the action is for me. It is very far from being ideal for GTD but after much patient trial & error I've made it work for me.

Inspiration on the Palm is pretty much useless, in fact I very rarely fire it up at all, on any platform. Nice concept, lame implementation. Probably, mind-mapping on a handheld is inherently a bad idea.

Syncing the Palm Calendar with iCal on the Mac is an exercise in frustration, and I've pretty much given up. Supposedly MissingSync has a product that makes this work, but I haven't ponied up the $$ to try it yet. Palm-to-Mac sync is horribly slow in general. Palm Co seems to have abandoned the Mac -- there used to be a (horrible) Palm Calendar for Mac, but it's gone.

BTW Palm Calendar for Windows is the best Calendar app I've ever used. It's free to download, even if you're not a registered Palm user. Why oh why can't they port it to Mac?

IMHO a handheld device is a requirement for really doing GTD if you're going the electronic route. If you don't have your trusted system with you all the time, you're not really doing GTD. So for me, desktop-only or web-based GTD apps are not really GTD no matter how good they are. Thinking Rock looks like a near-perfect app for GTD, but I can't take it with me on the train or to the supermarket, so it's not really GTD, is it? Maybe if I had a Windows Mobile device...
 
F

fant

Registered
Try Projects for PalmOS

I would suggest:

http://projects4palmos.sourceforge.net/

Freeware and very stable (latest version 1.83beta)

It's very simple and IMO fits very good to GTD, where Datebk6 and Bonsai could be overkill.
Unfortunately there is no conduit available, but import and export of memos is possible.

Give it a try.
 
B

bheetebrij

Registered
You may want to check out Memoleaf

Quite some time ago I read an article from Tammy Cravit on her implementation of GTD using Memoleaf. At the time I did not have a Palm anymore, so could not try it, but I remember thinking that the set-up was great.

I am afraid that googling her and the app shows up the link to the article, but the link is dead. If you manage to find it, it'd would be interesting to look at.
 
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