Adding new Next Actions while driving my car?

B

Borisoff

0
I'm in sales so drive a lot. And sometimes I cross off @Call NAs while driving. It's easy to cross but difficult to put new ones while drive :) And of course I forget about them. So some projects stop till the next Weekly Review. My GTD "instruments" are Outlook for WR planning + Palm Treo Windows Mobile for daily usage + Moleskine for meetings capture.

Can you give any ideas on how to "update" Next Actions that couldn't be updated immediatelly for a mobile user like me?

Regards,

Eugene.
 
Post its is mine, in the car nothing beats a Post it can be get into the car wheel as I drive, or wait for the info. A soon as I get to the next inbox everything is there.

I have serious abundance of Post it in the car...
 
Borisoff;44616 said:
I'm in sales so drive a lot. And sometimes I cross off @Call NAs while driving. It's easy to cross but difficult to put new ones while drive :) And of course I forget about them. So some projects stop till the next Weekly Review. My GTD "instruments" are Outlook for WR planning + Palm Treo Windows Mobile for daily usage + Moleskine for meetings capture.

Can you give any ideas on how to "update" Next Actions that couldn't be updated immediatelly for a mobile user like me?

Regards,

Eugene.
Click to expand...

Please either get yourself a voice memo system or forget about GTD and concentrate on driving, but don't write while driving.
 
Tools

Eugene,

I'm in sales too and use the same tools as you do - except for a Windows Mobile phone (T-Mobile SDA). I dont know what its like in Moscow, but here in Texas I'm usually doing 80mph on the highway when a next action or project idea strikes me and I just keep driving. I've heard these suggestions though: call and leave yourself a voicemail, use the voice recorder on your Treo, stop and write it down, or blow it off like I do.

Mark
 
I say don't cross it off when you cannot add a next action.

It's not a strict rule that you should cross an action off at once after doing it.

Just review your @calls list when you get out of the car. That way you can right down the immediate next actions after crossing off the finished ones.
 
Eugene -

2 rules:

1) DMV RULE: always drive safely and focus on the road
2) GTD RULE: always be able to ubiquitously capture an idea or next action, regardless of location

Are they in conflict? not necessarily. i'm not sure it will work for you in Russia, but I'm a big fan of the free service Braincast http://braincast.viatalk.com .

It's basically a voice recorder which autoforwards into your email inbox. I program the Braincast number to speeddial ! on my blackberry, so with a bluetooth headset, i can safely capture an idea while keeping both hands on the wheel. no lost post-its, no extra voice recorders to lug around etc.

as always, your mileage may vary , but it's worked nicely for me.
 
If I have an idea while driving, then= when next I come to a stop light or stop sign, I pull out my Moleskine and add a note to myself. I process any new notes in my Moleskine into my system every evening.
 
I either use the voice recorder on my cell phone/PDA or I give myself a call and leave a VM. For the most part though, I tend to try to not take or make calls while driving - I use that as quiet time to think or listen to audio books. When I make a break (typically every 2-3 hrs) I check my emails and also make one or two calls then if necessary.

Paul
 
Rather than fully crossing it off your list, only partially mark it off. Then when you process your in-basket for the day, include your @calls list. Process and capture the NA needed and then fully cross it off your list.

Good luck and please drive safe,
Pamela
 
If you want to trust your memory...

I tend to take inputs while I'm in the car by calling my own voicemail.

Also, in GTD Fast, David mentioned a trick he uses to avoid forgetting things when he can't write them down: He said he forms a very clear mental picture of himself remembering the idea the next time he's in a place where he can write it down. After focussing on that image, he forgets the idea; when he gets back to wherever he visualized (his desk, hotel room, whatever), the brain says, "Hey, I've seen this configuration before!" and the idea pops back in. I don't trust my mind enough to make this a regular process, but I have used this one a couple of times and it seems to work reasonably well.
 
I use an Olympus voice recorder, despite my Treo's recording functionality. The 3-4 second delay on most PDA recorders is viscerally unacceptable to me. Recording should be instant-on.

When the recorder is empty, it's stowed in the tray above the windshield, with the garage door clicker. As soon as I record a note, I place the recorder in a tray behind the emergency brake, which queues me to remember that there's content to be processed.

I don't leave my car until I've processed or transcribed every voice note. It's often recommended to throw the voice recorder into the intray, but after forgetting to return the recorder to the car enough times, I adopted the process-in-car rule.
 
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