Completely stuck on visualizing the GTD Next Actions
- Thread starter gandalfrat
- Start date
Just weighing in with a couple of thoughts.
Firstly, are you the first/only one to get the massive number of emails? Because it might be worth trying to farm out the 'first responder' responsibility to your team members: I'm thinking of something like redirecting the problem emails to each team member for 1/2 a day, if possible. If not, you could at least have them act as quasi-PA for you for that time, giving them access to your Inbox to handle whatever they could.
Ditto the phone - that can be more intrusive than emails.
The idea here is to give yourself (and team members) blocks of uninterrupted time in which to handle the thinking work: it can take up to 15 minutes to re-establish your train of thought and get back to working at your peak, and if you're being interrupted so often, you're hardly getting anything done.
I can't speak for Dragon, but I've used voice recognition software, and it can be more trouble than it's worth. You need to spend a fair amount of time training it, and it still does weird stuff (although that might be less pronounced for you, if you're in the US, as I suspect that the software often works best on US phonemes, despite claiming to be 'Australian version').
Also, in terms of lists, have you considered Remember The Milk? It's pretty simple, and by using lists, tags, and smart lists, you can easily see your lists by context, project, or due date. Or whatever: the smart list is merely a conditional search that allows you to group all entries with the same tag/s, or from one or more different lists, or whatever. I find it's pretty adaptable for most users, and if you can touch type then it's faster entry than writing. And it's free.
For paper-based lists, I use a Levenger Circa notebook. You can pull the pages out and stick them in wherever you like, and there are some handy dandy dividers to keep the sections separate (eg capture and lists).
That's enough for one comment, I think. Hope it helps.
Firstly, are you the first/only one to get the massive number of emails? Because it might be worth trying to farm out the 'first responder' responsibility to your team members: I'm thinking of something like redirecting the problem emails to each team member for 1/2 a day, if possible. If not, you could at least have them act as quasi-PA for you for that time, giving them access to your Inbox to handle whatever they could.
Ditto the phone - that can be more intrusive than emails.
The idea here is to give yourself (and team members) blocks of uninterrupted time in which to handle the thinking work: it can take up to 15 minutes to re-establish your train of thought and get back to working at your peak, and if you're being interrupted so often, you're hardly getting anything done.
I can't speak for Dragon, but I've used voice recognition software, and it can be more trouble than it's worth. You need to spend a fair amount of time training it, and it still does weird stuff (although that might be less pronounced for you, if you're in the US, as I suspect that the software often works best on US phonemes, despite claiming to be 'Australian version').
Also, in terms of lists, have you considered Remember The Milk? It's pretty simple, and by using lists, tags, and smart lists, you can easily see your lists by context, project, or due date. Or whatever: the smart list is merely a conditional search that allows you to group all entries with the same tag/s, or from one or more different lists, or whatever. I find it's pretty adaptable for most users, and if you can touch type then it's faster entry than writing. And it's free.
For paper-based lists, I use a Levenger Circa notebook. You can pull the pages out and stick them in wherever you like, and there are some handy dandy dividers to keep the sections separate (eg capture and lists).
That's enough for one comment, I think. Hope it helps.
Just as a quick add to this great thread - re the OP who writes a lot of stuff in notebooks.
A friend (medical technician) has to draw diagrams, during surgery, of devices that need built later. She was drawing diagrams in the hospital, going home, scanning the document, emailing it to the manufacturer.
I found this: http://www.livescribe.com/
an electronic pen that 'records' what you write as you write it in their proprietary notebooks (cheap-ish). Connect the pen to your computer using the free software and you get a PDF doc generated of whatever was on the page. It's great. Of all the gadgets and what not I've seen, I was genuinely surprised how good this is. Once the doc is on your computer there is OCR in the software, allowing you to search PDF documents for words, when those words are in your own handwriting!
Does lots of other stuff, like record audio, then can play the audio back in sync with what you were writing at the time the words were spoken. Watch the videos on the site, will make sense.
Not in any way connected to the manufacturer, just I've filled Moleskine books for years and never knew what was in them!
Cost about £120.
A friend (medical technician) has to draw diagrams, during surgery, of devices that need built later. She was drawing diagrams in the hospital, going home, scanning the document, emailing it to the manufacturer.
I found this: http://www.livescribe.com/
an electronic pen that 'records' what you write as you write it in their proprietary notebooks (cheap-ish). Connect the pen to your computer using the free software and you get a PDF doc generated of whatever was on the page. It's great. Of all the gadgets and what not I've seen, I was genuinely surprised how good this is. Once the doc is on your computer there is OCR in the software, allowing you to search PDF documents for words, when those words are in your own handwriting!
Does lots of other stuff, like record audio, then can play the audio back in sync with what you were writing at the time the words were spoken. Watch the videos on the site, will make sense.
Not in any way connected to the manufacturer, just I've filled Moleskine books for years and never knew what was in them!
Cost about £120.