Does Keynote help GTD?

D

DoingIt

0
I'm about to start implementing GTD. My preference is to use a hybrid system, that is, to use a computer application in order to record GTD data and print that in a suitable format for more portability and easier access.

I'm considering using Keynote ( http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html ) in order to record details about projects, action lists, waiting for, next actions etc.. However, I haven't used this program before and I wonder if someone with some experience with it may give me their opinion about it.
 
[GTD Tools] Keynote

Started to use Keynote for outlining my areas of focus about a year ago. It's a quite useful tool in addition to my paper based system for projects and next actions. And it's free!

Rainer
 
Thank you for the reply. I spent a little time trying to see how to configure Keynote and I think I made progress.

I created a note with nodes for:

@Projects (my Projects list)
@Calendar (I intend to use this to store my appointments etc.)
@Next Actions (currently subdivided into nodes for Work, Home and Anywhere)
@Waiting for
@Someday/Maybe

Additionally, I created a new note for Projects where I intend to record details and supporting information about my Projects. I have nodes per Project and I will create child nodes for each Project as necessary.

I have also created another note which I called "References" and I intend to store there any reference information that I may collect.

I hope I'm on the right track with the above settings. The real issue will be in implementing the system. I shall consider Keynote as finally alright to use, once I do some satisfactory testing of its printing capabilities, which I understand are not very sophisticated.
 
Search

If you haven't already done so, do a Forums search (in the bar just below the Welcome box) on Keynote. I got 18 results.

Carolyn
 
Thank you Carolyn. I took up your suggestion and I found many useful tips after searching the Forum.

Unfortunately, I also learned today(!) that the developer of Keynote has decided to stop any further work on this software. This has dampened down my keeness to use Keynote and therefore I'll consider other avenues.

I think Excel will meet almost all my requirements. I'm a fairly experienced user of Excel and I feel confident that its sorting capabilities and Pivot Tables will provide me with adequate means to list Projects, Next Actions, Waiting For, etc.
 
If you don't mind paying a few bucks you may have a look at TexNotesPro from www.gemx.com.

I evaluated a lot of outliners (including KeyNote) about 1.5 years ago and eventually selected TexNotes because it's featureset and overal quality. I was only in need for a general notes outliner (and my stuff - todo lists of these days :-)) but now I'm happy using it for GTD too.
 
Nelvin, I've already started using Excel. However, the program you suggest looks quite powerful and if things don't work out with Excel, I'll have it in mind to try it.
 
Excel

I've been using Excel spreadsheets for my lists for over a year now, and am very happy with it. It's simple, and it's easy to change the format of your lists any time you feel the need. I'd recommend it to anyone who's already familiar with Excel.
 
Brenda, I should thank you specially, because it was after seeing an earlier post by you that I was encouraged to use Excel for managing stuff. I have devised a spreadsheet that meets almost all my needs and I hope to have everything in place in the next few days.

Actually, the only thing that my spreadsheet doesn't show fully is the duration of appointments booked in my Calendar entries. This means that I have to do some mental calculation to make sure that appointments for, say, meetings booked on the same day will not clash. In practice it's not too serious, because I don't have many appointments in any one day. However, I would like to resolve this, purely from the point of beating a challenge! :)
 
Calendar and Ticklers

One of the few things I don't use Excel for is my Calendar, although it is of course quite possible to do so. I've gone back to an old-fashioned paper calendar for my appointments.

I've recently started to use MS Outlook instead of Excel for date-specific things which may be of interest to me but aren't really appointments (e.g. a social evening that I may or may not want to attend depending what else I happen to be doing at that time). These are just options for things I might want to do, but I don't want to clutter my appointments calendar up with them. A quick glance at my Outlook Today home page shows me what is coming up in the next few days.

I use Excel for other tickler-type reminders (just a list sorted by date, which I review daily). I also use a manual Tickler File for documents that I want to see again at a later date.

Brenda
 
It's true that Excel does not easily render itself as a Calendar, but I find it effective for a quick glance at what is outstanding or coming up over a period of time.

To me all this is still experimental, because I have only recently started trying to implement the GTD system. In fact, next week will be the first week when I shall be using my system on a stable and consistent basis. Hopefully, it will be a success.
 
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