ACT! software and GTD

[CarolinaSongbird]

Anyone using these two together? I have had ACT for years but use about 1 percent of its capabilities. Almost all of my NAs are connected with a person or company so I think I could make this work. Suggestions, anyone?

Carolina Songbird

 

[Doug Walsh]

I use ACT for about 10 years. I have incorporated GTD into ACT by using the Groups feature. You can link any contact to any Group to and Company. Works great for me. The key is using Groups to set up your lists per the GTD method.

If you have any more questions, let me know.

 

[CarolinaSongbird]

Let me make sure I'm understanding what you say. My tasks/NAs are already associated with Contacts, so you then put the Contacts into Groups such as @computer, @calls, etc? You can then Lookup on the Field Groups to see your list. This seems like an awful lot of grouping/ungrouping to do, but I'll have to check it out. It's also a shared database, so that may not work so well.

Of course it gives you an automatic @calls, since you specify those as calls rather than to-dos.

How do you (or do you) work around the forced date for these items? Do you just keep rolling them over from day to day?

Carolina Songbird

 

[Doug Walsh]

Yes, there is grouping and ungrouping, but it really is only a couple clicks of a mouse. My favorite group is @Waiting For. If I follow the GTD process and go thru the clicks, I forget nothing. I helps me get the the GTD concept of "mind like water". By inputing everything in ACT, I don't need to carry file folders and notes on everything. It is already there. So going thru a couple extra clicks and setting up the groups is worth the effort. I figured that it takes me about 45 seconds to go thru each follow up. I think that this is common no matter what system you use (ACT or Outlook). I consider this the weekly review and make sure the notes and follow ups go to the right place. The power of ACT is that I can sort and report by Company or Group for almost anything. I can see how many times I called a company or prospect.

Your right, Calls are Calls. Nothing to do that is fancy here.

As for the forced date. For Calls, I make sure that I date and time them and have it roll over if not completed. This way it does not get "lost" in past dates. I do the same with to do's. You can change and alter Calls and To Do's in the preferences tab. Having an automatic rollover makes sure that if I forget something, it forces me to have it on Todays list.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have anymore quesitons.

 

[CarolinaSongbird]

That helps. Would you mind if I contact you off-list with some non-GTD related questions on ACt? Their Help feature is sometimes hard to follow and it helps to talk to someone who has really used it.

Carolina Songbird

 

[Doug Walsh]

No problem.

 

[dbassett]

ACT! with Palm...

I've got a variation on this ACT discussion--

I've used ACT! v. 6 extensively for a number of years, and I recently got a Treo 650. So with this pairing, I can only sync to the actual Palm software (ie, "ACT for Palm" doesn't work with this config).

I'm stuck trying to figure out how to categorize my tasks-- and the idea of creating a group "@computer" for example, had occurred to me.... but when I sync to the Palm "to do" application, that "group" level of detail doesn't flow over to the Treo. Is this description making sense? So I'm trying to figure out how to be able to capture my stuff in ACT! but have enough info flow over into my beloved Treo 650 so I can use it there while away from my laptop...

Would love some help here because I feel like I "get" the concept of GTD but am just a tad short of being able to implement it with the technology I am committed to....

Thanks,
Diane

 

[Ryan Ridnour]

Synchronization software

You might want to look at Companionlink software. They make synchronization software for ACT and Goldmine. Just a brief look at their website, and it appears their product provides a solution for you (companionlink.com).

I've never personally used it, nor am I affiliated with them, I've just always heard good things.

Ryan

 

[Mags]

Goldmine..

Ryan...
I was wondering how you were doing with GTD and Goldmine. I have been using GM for over 10 years... and I like it. When I look at what I'm going to be doing implementing GTD, I see everything integrates with Outlook.
What I have been thinking is that I need to use GM for my email/followup..and integrate MS Small Business Accounting's ability to import billing info from my PocketPC.
Anyway, before I show exactly how spread out my thinking is at this point...
any pointers from you would be appreciate.

 

[Ryan Ridnour]

GTD & Goldmine

Mags,

Thanks for asking. Goldmine seems to work real well with GTD. I just work off of the Activity List. You can print a report to take with you, or just work off the Activity List under the "View" menu. I've toyed around with using the Code field to differentiate between contexts, and then sort by that field, that way it's broken out by context.

What version of Goldmine are you using? You say everything integrates with Outlook...GM does, too. I'm attempting to keep Outlook out of it, myself. Any tips and pointers that is recommended in Outlook, I try to emulate them in Goldmine. In fact, today, I'm picking up the book "Total Workday Control" by Michael Linenberger, which is supposed to have a lot of GTD-type tips to use in Outlook. I'm going to see if I can implement them in Goldmine.

Hearing how you, or anyone else implements GTD in Goldmine would be great. I've thrown that out there in the past, and I just don't think there are many GTD-oriented Goldmine users out there.

Ryan

 

[moises]

Ryan,

I am going to start a new Goldmine thread. I also would like to hear how others use it.

moises

 

[smithdoug]

Intrigued by Goldmine

I for one will be quite interested to hear of your experiences with Goldmine. I'm looking for a new CRM solution for my business and right now I would have to say that Goldmine appears to be the most promising. We've been using Intuit's Customer Manager but it's awfully slow and balky. Our customer base could easily triple or Quadruple over the coming year so I need something that is much more scalable and can eventually become a multi-user enterprise-wide solution. Other candidates are Act!, Microsoft Dynamic's CRM software, and Avidian Prophet [sp?], but my hunch--from what I've seen thusfar--is that Goldmine will be the best choice.

I also use Outlook and I guess I see Goldmine as an adjunct to Outlook, not a replacement. I envision using Goldmine while doing the work OF the business and Outlook when I am working ON the business.... is that makes sense.

 

[Mags]

I'm on GM 6.00.4XXX... but my subscription would allow me to update. I just need the time.
I'd be interested in working off-line on GTD and GM implementation. Document procedures, tips, suggestions etc.
I experimented with OE when it first came out, but didn't like all the rules, moving emails for storage by hand, etc. If you use GM alot... you know what I'm talking about. I don't want to be bothered with writing a rule for every new contact that I get...but I do want to track their stuff.
Anyway... we might want to do this offline, through a mailing list or something... This thread could get kinda long....

 

[Larry Nordlinger]

ACT! Groups and GTD

Doug,

I am glad to hear that you are paving the way for other GTDers who use ACT!

Are you saying that you set up your GTD lists like @computer, @Waiting for as groups, then you assign contacts to the groups? Where do the ACT tasks fit into the mix? Are you using them and can you aswign an ACT! task to a group? Or... do you assign a task to a person and then put them in the appropriate GTD group?

I would love to talk to you off like if you can spare a few mins.

Thanks

Larry

 

[Eutychus]

Act!

I have used Act! for years but am new to GTD. Stumbled on this forum and GTD while I was looking for some positive info on ACT! 2006. I have since upgraded to 2006 (What was all that adverse fuss about?) but have also purchased and read a copy of David's book. So I reckon I am a convert to GTD through this forum.

And I need all the help I can get.

I too am curious...are you assigning contacts in and out of one or more NA groups?? I can't think why that shouldn't work.

The calendar seems obvious for time dated stuff.

I now have a customized next action field with an associated annual event field for time keyed follow up. I simply sort on that field producing a "look up" of all NA's in a given date range. (As an insurance agent I use a similar set up for prospects' policy expiration dates for follow up quoting.)

Best wishes,

 

[Eutychus]

How do you handle projects?

I use ACT for about 10 years. I have incorporated GTD into ACT by using the Groups feature. You can link any contact to any Group to and Company. Works great for me. The key is using Groups to set up your lists per the GTD method.

If you have any more questions, let me know.

How do you handle projects in act!? As a contact? Or Group? I suppose each contact is a project in GTD terms. But setting it up as a group might be better if you have multiple contacts involved in the project...

Best wishes,

 

[Eutychus]

This system works well

Yes, there is grouping and ungrouping, but it really is only a couple clicks of a mouse. My favorite group is @Waiting For. If I follow the GTD process and go thru the clicks, I forget nothing. I helps me get the the GTD concept of "mind like water". By inputing everything in ACT, I don't need to carry file folders and notes on everything. It is already there. So going thru a couple extra clicks and setting up the groups is worth the effort. I figured that it takes me about 45 seconds to go thru each follow up. I think that this is common no matter what system you use (ACT or Outlook). I consider this the weekly review and make sure the notes and follow ups go to the right place. The power of ACT is that I can sort and report by Company or Group for almost anything. I can see how many times I called a company or prospect. .

Your system works very well. I have added a "next action" field to Act! coupled with an "annual date" field giving a reasonable time for completion. I have inserted these in my layout so they appear anytime I access the contact. Also, I have rearranged the lookup view so that these two fields appear after the name and phone. I can do a lookup on any group and see on that page the next action associated with each contact. If the contact happens to call, there's his or her next action if there is one. I can knock it down while I have them on the line. I can also do a lookup on the annual date and have all next actions listed regardless of group--@call, @wait, etc. This could be helpful on the weekly review I think. However I am still working through the discipline.

In any event, thanks for a great idea and for getting me started!