Clarity on categories of action reminders

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hippiechick
  • Start date Start date
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Hippiechick

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Hi,
I just finished GTD (Wonderful! Wish I'd read it ages ago) and I'd like some clairification on categories please. Half my life is reality based, the other half web based. I spend a tremendous amount of time living in Outlook and on the computer in general. Since the Outlook Add In isn't ready for OL2003 yet, I need to make my own folders there, per DA. To make sure I've interpreted this correctly, will my categories look roughly like this?:

...My lists to capture the plethora of paper, notes and "stuff"

~Calls
~Errands
~Home
~Agendas
~Computer
~Websites (things that need to be done at the websites I own/run)
~Waiting For

...then in Outlook, folders for:....

@Waiting For
@Action

So, when I'm deciding what my NA should be I look at a contextually appropriate catagory (my "Home" list when I'm at home) and when I sit down to work at the computer then I hit the "@ Action" Outlook folder and see what needs to be done there before moving on to the broader "~Computer" or "~Websites" list? Is that about right?

Thanks!
Lisa
 
Lisa,

I would suggest some additional folders for email use:

@Read/Review (Generally no action other to to read it)
@Someday/Maybe (anything that you want to handle sometime in the future)

I also file all my email for traceability and future reference. Consequently, I have a number of folders/subfolders for storing emails after the actions are completed. Some suggestions here would be:

Active Projects
Completed Projects
Corporate Notices
General Reference
Weekly Reports
etc

This would work for almost any email system (my company happens to use Lotus Notes). For my GtD system, I also use a Palm PDA/ Palm Desktop. The only negative to this setup is transferring calendar items and NA/Projects from email to the Palm as needed.
 
Scott,
Thanks for getting back to me. You made some great points and I'm going to set up my OL just like you recommend and see how it goes.
Thanks!
Lisa
 
Major Overkill!

Twelve on the gadgets forum, and 17 (count them - 17!) posts here. I read this one, and that's the only one. Brett, please don't do this again.

Carolyn
 
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