Outlook customization: David Allen Vs. Bill Kratz?

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anonymous20110111

Registered
Just curious, how does DA's Outlook workflow manual compare to Bill Kratz's Outlook website? Does Kratz suggest basically the same stuff as what's in DA's manual, or does Kratz's site build off the DA's fundamentals?

Jason
 
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ext555

Registered
They are very different , Kratz's method is based mostly on making each project a contact in outlook and linking all related tasks etc. to the project. Definitely worth a look --it's powerful stuff.

David Allen's outlook method was developed to help their clients that use outlook to be more productive in that enviroment. --Kind of a "best practices" effort at "dumbing down" outlook to make it fast and simple to use. (and it does just that) --so the comparison is almost "power or simplicity which is most important to you? " The David Allen company uses Lotus Notes and not outlook for their communications as mentioned on this forum and others like it .

Hope that helps

Paul
 
F

Frank Buck

Guest
If I remember correctly from earlier posts on Bill's work, his method is for people using Outlook rather than relying on both Outlook and a PDA. When you enter info on the PDA, you have no way of assigning a contact, hence no way to link the next item to the project. He is pretty up-front about this limitation.
 
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ext555

Registered
Bill Kratz does hava a method worked out for transferring info to the palm with a "plain vanilla " approach. It's a little more work but it works -

He was working on a way to automate the process more but ran into some pc -outlook problems a while back (details are on his site )

It all comes down to "what are you willling to do to have the info you need ? "

Paul
 
W

whkratz

Registered
Power or Simplicity

Here's food for thought --

"Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible."
Alan Kay

"There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies."
C.A.R. Hoare

Regards.....Bill Kratz
 
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vegheadjones

Guest
I have not tried the add-in (I won't buy software unless there's a trial period) but I am very happy with Bill's set-up. I sync to my Palm using Pocketmirror Professional and it saves all my project information in the address book under the project category. Works well for me.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
re: NO GTD "trial period"

While the plugin doesn't have a trial period, it does have a money back guaruntee.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Well, I have worked with both for a little bit of time, and this is my opinion.

If your environment is "project centered" and you need to track activities and assign a variety of Outlook features to a project (E-mail, task, appointment, journal note, etc.) Then Kratz's method is more powerful, and can be used without any "modifications" to Outlook. I used it with Agendus and could also quickly create a project history on my Palm.

However, if your work environment is E-mail centered, and your tasks, delegations and appointments are generated by E-mail and communicated to others via E-mail, then the GTD Add-in is easier and quicker. At least, at this point this is the case, in my view. NetCentrics is working on improvements to the Add-in that will make it more project friendly, as I understand it.

HTH,
Gordon - in Canada
 
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Doug Walsh

Guest
Bill Kratz web site

Anyone,

What is the website for Bill Kratz methods?

Thanks,
 
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whkratz

Registered
The old site is back. Comcast has taken over AT&T's broadband operations. This weekend there was a glitch in the redirect of sites from home.attbi.com to home.comcast.net.

The new site is coming. Really, I promise it is.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Keysuite and Bob Krantz's system

I just bought KeySuite by Chapura and I love it. It is especially good for Bob Krantz' system because projects are considered contacts and you can have multiple contact folders. KeySuite synchs Outlook to the Palm. It is on sale for $50 because it is a new product.

I have my regular contact folder for people I call weekly.
I have a WEBSITE contact folder for my sites I visit often with my passwords and user ID's.
I have a GOALS contact folder for my 12 MAJOR AREAS OF FOCUS [I call them goals]
I have a PROJECTS contact folder for the GTD-STYLE projects that I link to my appointments and tasks.

I am still tweeking my system but this past week has seen a great surge in my project productivity using Outlook, Keysuite and Bob Krantz's "Project as contact" system.

Bridgette

PS key suites allows you to link multiple contacts to tasks and appointments. It is perfect for what Bob is trying to do.

PPSS Thanks Bob for creating your GTD for Outlook system, it has allowed me to really start implementing GTD into my seriously busy life.
 
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