Forced to use new Microsoft Outlook and Planner/To- Do ….any success stories??

M

Marisol2413

GTD|Connect
Ive been using Todoist as my Task Management system and love it. At my previous job I used the add-in and loved the ease of sending an email to my inbox or project with a couple clicks, I loved the AI features and how if I just typed ‘every 2 weeks’ it new to create a recurring task, etc. It’s the best system I’ve used successfully.

Now I’ve started a new job and I don’t have the same ease. My company won’t allow the add-in feature that links the email, nor can I click and send it to the inbox or project. Also, the others on my team use Microsoft Planer:To do. I’ve tried to get used to it but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to make it work with the GTD system.

Anyone have success? Are there any videos or guides to walk me through a set up? I need to get this system up and running before my tasks take over. Luckily I’m only a couple weeks in so work tasks aren’t crazy yet. But they will be!
 

How to Use Microsoft To Do With Outlook, Teams & Planner​

Hi, @Marisol2413. I have a little experence with MS To-Do, but not enough to help you. Here is a link to the contents of the GTD setup guides for MS To-Do, which might be helpful. Generally the Setup Guides cost about $10.00.


There is also a notice here on the forum of an updated MS 365 setup guide being available.
davidcoforum

Thread 'New setup guide for Microsoft 365'

We have just released a brand-new setup guide on applying GTD within the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. It's available letter and A4 sizes at the top of the Setup Guides category in the GTD Connect Document Library.
  • Like

I found several tutorials for you with the same instructor. I like the way this instructor speaks slowly. Her videos are from three years ago, so the tutorials may not be up to date. One link contains a short playlist, so some videos may be duplicated. The tutorials are spoken in English, even though some of the link blurbs do not show up in English. I hope this gets you started.

It can be quite a challenge to start a new job. It can be a double whammy when it involves giving up the secure orientation of your preferred software at the same time. Be gentle with yourself. It's a lot at once. Just hang in there, and as you learn, it will all gradually fall into place.

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

Microsoft Planner & To DO

Get organized with Microsoft To Do & Microsoft Planner.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Here is one more tutorial video by a different instructor:

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Last edited:
I think Microsoft todo can be a really good GTD Solution when people use a 100% Microsoft solutions and collaborate with others. The setting could be like GTD explained for Things or Todoist eg lists by context...

I am sorry not being able to help you in your setting. I don't really know Microsoft todo and even don't know if we can link a project to a new action which is crucial for me. I think what brought @Mrs-Polifax is great and I hop you will be happy wither great ressources. I had a look at it and it seems to be very well done and so Interesting.

Anyway, even if I use Microsoft solution and love it, I don't feel the necessity to switch to it as I already use Omnifocus and don't collaborate with a team. Also I feel reluctant to learn every thing about Microsoft todo. It take a lot of time learning a new system and may be I would loose all the astonished function I already have with Omnifocus which works quite well with me.

But @Marisol2413 I understand what's happen with you. May be you could take this opportunity to rethink your Gtd solution around Microsoft tool, accept a learning curve at your spare time about good practice GTD and Microsoft and make it efficient as you like. Todoist is fine but it can be transposed to many software solutions. Happily GTD Principles are universal, and Microsoft has a good advantage every software can collaborate with the others and Microsoft is indeed powerful...
 
Last edited:
Finally, for going further i said before, I have made a little test with Microsoft Todo, just for fun ! ;-) - I love testing software ! I quickly set it like GTD and tried to work with it. Compare to Omnifocus I found it less easy and fast.

There is a latency with my Mac and it is not as nice and easy as Omnifocus is. I also compared it mains functions. => There is no value added compare to Omnifocus. There are aussi some lack like no perspectives. So my conclusion is than except if people need to collaborate or are obliged to work with it for me, compare to OF there is no interest at all for microsoft to do. It is sad because as I use Office 365, Microsoft todo was on paper a good alternative to Omnifocus.

However there are some good ideas about Microsoft todo like "My day" and "important" what I can make with flag and tags. Of course I made it immediately in OF4.

So, definitively, I'll keep Omnifocus, but also, I will try to make it easier in the couple of weeks, months.

For people who could be interested by this sample of setting Here is mine !
NB It is not the only one. There are plenty of possible setting using for example categories and so on...

Capture d’écran 2024-10-07 à 10.39.14.png
 
Last edited:
Mrs-Polifax said:

How to Use Microsoft To Do With Outlook, Teams & Planner​

Hi, @Marisol2413. I have a little experence with MS To-Do, but not enough to help you. Here is a link to the contents of the GTD setup guides for MS To-Do, which might be helpful. Generally the Setup Guides cost about $10.00.


There is also a notice here on the forum of an updated MS 365 setup guide being available.
davidcoforum

Thread 'New setup guide for Microsoft 365'

We have just released a brand-new setup guide on applying GTD within the Microsoft 365 suite of tools. It's available letter and A4 sizes at the top of the Setup Guides category in the GTD Connect Document Library.
  • Like

I found several tutorials for you with the same instructor. I like the way this instructor speaks slowly. Her videos are from three years ago, so the tutorials may not be up to date. One link contains a short playlist, so some videos may be duplicated. The tutorials are spoken in English, even though some of the link blurbs do not show up in English. I hope this gets you started.

It can be quite a challenge to start a new job. It can be a double whammy when it involves giving up the secure orientation of your preferred software at the same time. Be gentle with yourself. It's a lot at once. Just hang in there, and as you learn, it will all gradually fall into place.

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

Microsoft Planner & To DO

Get organized with Microsoft To Do & Microsoft Planner.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Here is one more tutorial video by a different instructor:

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Click to expand...
Thank you! Oh I’ve seen some of her videos. I really like her. I’ll check this out.
 
FocusGuy said:
I think Microsoft todo can be a really good GTD Solution when people use a 100% Microsoft solutions and collaborate with others. The setting could be like GTD explained for Things or Todoist eg lists by context...

I am sorry not being able to help you in your setting. I don't really know Microsoft todo and even don't know if we can link a project to a new action which is crucial for me. I think what brought @Mrs-Polifax is great and I hop you will be happy wither great ressources. I had a look at it and it seems to be very well done and so Interesting.

Anyway, even if I use Microsoft solution and love it, I don't feel the necessity to switch to it as I already use Omnifocus and don't collaborate with a team. Also I feel reluctant to learn every thing about Microsoft todo. It take a lot of time learning a new system and may be I would loose all the astonished function I already have with Omnifocus which works quite well with me.

But @Marisol2413 I understand what's happen with you. May be you could take this opportunity to rethink your Gtd solution around Microsoft tool, accept a learning curve at your spare time about good practice GTD and Microsoft and make it efficient as you like. Todoist is fine but it can be transposed to many software solutions. Happily GTD Principles are universal, and Microsoft has a good advantage every software can collaborate with the others and Microsoft is indeed powerful...
Click to expand...
Goood ideas. Thanks
 
FocusGuy said:
I have made a little test with Microsoft Todo, just for fun ! ;-) - I love testing software ! I quickly set it like GTD and tried to work with it. Compare to Omnifocus I found it less easy and fast.

There is a latency with my Mac and it is not as nice and easy as Omnifocus is. I also compared it mains functions. => There is no value added compare to Omnifocus. There are aussi some lack like no perspectives. So my conclusion is than except if people need to collaborate or are obliged to work with it for me, compare to OF there is no interest at all for microsoft to do. It is sad because as I use Office 365, Microsoft todo was on paper a good alternative to Omnifocus.

However there are some good ideas about Microsoft todo like "My day" and "important" what I can make with flag and tags. Of course I made it immediately in OF4.

So, definitively, I'll keep Omnifocus, but also, I will try to make it easier in the couple of weeks, months.

For people who could be interested by this sample of setting Here is mine !
NB It is not the only one. There are plenty of possible setting using for example categories and so on...

View attachment 2019
Click to expand...
I appreciate the time you took to test this. I like your setup with contexts, etc. helps get the wheels turning! :)
 
I have to use it at work as I can't use any external apps. I keep it very very simple - I either add tasks manually or flag emails into there.

I have a list of projects as my "containers" for tasks, and keep my tasks inside those. Very similar to what FocusGuy shows above. If I have one that doesn't apply to a project and is a one off, it just lives in the general Tasks space. Flagged email tasks can be moved once they're in the app. I use due dates as required, the Today view and the Important star - but all of those sparingly! I actually quite like To Do. I believe it integrates with Planner as well but no one seems to use that in my org.
The only downside I've found is it only works on my main inbox. I have a secondary shared inbox which contains a lot of transactional type tasks, so those I just the inbox as a to do list, and move them into an archive when complete. Anything urgent gets a red flag. Not fancy but it works with minimal friction.
 
Marisol2413 said:
Ive been using Todoist as my Task Management system and love it. At my previous job I used the add-in and loved the ease of sending an email to my inbox or project with a couple clicks, I loved the AI features and how if I just typed ‘every 2 weeks’ it new to create a recurring task, etc. It’s the best system I’ve used successfully.

Now I’ve started a new job and I don’t have the same ease. My company won’t allow the add-in feature that links the email, nor can I click and send it to the inbox or project. Also, the others on my team use Microsoft Planer:To do. I’ve tried to get used to it but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to make it work with the GTD system.

Anyone have success? Are there any videos or guides to walk me through a set up? I need to get this system up and running before my tasks take over. Luckily I’m only a couple weeks in so work tasks aren’t crazy yet. But they will be!
Click to expand...
I have success using outlook and microsoft todo for GTD. I also use OneNote as the reference system.
My setup mostly follows the official GTD setup guide for outlook.
I have some macros and quicksteps that help me perform repetitive tasks in fewer steps, but I can GTD without them if needed.

I have been using the GTD methodology for 15+ years, with outlook, with lotus notes, with and without add-ins and with other programs. For me, it is less about the tool and more about the discipline of processing emails, tracking my commitments and reviewing periodically to make sure I am working on the projects and tasks with the highest value.
 
Hi Marisol, I am in a very similar boat to you. Todoist and now in a corporate MSFT only environment. I use the new Outlook and Todo and am actually pretty happy with it. Is it perfect? Nope, but then I do not want to spend all my time tweaking a system, I will work with whatever I have... because I cannot change it .

I work from my Todo "My Day" for things that I need to do this day and use the 3 (or 4) level of organization.

Groups
Lists
Tasks
and Subtasks.

I also use #nextaction and other hastags to create organizing principles across multiple projects and generally as context.

To help me remember, I have a Task called Hashtags und there are about 15 subtasks attached to that which are basically clickable hastags that give me an overview of what I need to be working on, or could be working on. My contexts are the normal ones from the book, plus low-medium-high energy and 15-30-60 minute tags.

My Groups: (Collection of lists or Projects)

Lists : Anything like morning and evening checklists, shopping lists, etc
Private Projects: What it says on the label, anything that is private
Biz Projects
GTD Projects - I separated those out because I wanted to
House Projects
Church Projects
Someday/Maybe
Paused
Completed

This list of Groups keeps changing, but using due dates, context/hastags and the 3-4 levels allows me to keep control of everything and see what I should be working on.

I also use a Stream Deck to quickly turn an Email into a task or an appointment, and text expander to add the contexts, just a split second saved there as well. Emails added to the system end up in the "Tasks" folder, i.e. tagged Emails, and I clarify them there and they get moved out to where they need to be with the right context and in the right project List.

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top