Great GTD Sytem + Google Calendar = ????Extreeme Productivity?

[casualstuff]

So ive got a great system for managing ALL actions thanks to David Allen's amazing books.

*I have All my projects listed & comfortably & consitently maintained
*All my non-project actions on a list that gets updated when a new action flys in & has its own daily timeblock to be wiped clean
*& Daily Timeblocks for routine actions
*Lastly a Weekly "Collect, Process, Organise, Review & Do" Holistic Update of all my actions

*

although all of my actions are out of my head, regularly updated, & i am literally ready for anything (inward flow of action-wise, please dont throw any sharks at me )

it would be most masterful now if i could see all of my actions & how they spread out over the month & year.
(mainly project wise)

so i found google calendar and started tinkering but realised it doesnt have a SELECT & DRAG option, meaning if i need to reschedule something i might need to MOVE allll of my actions forward for that whole project which could span over a MONTH so 31 days of action moving. sounds like a whale of a time :roll:

*

for anyone who gets this, is familiar with gCal or uses a similar calendar system, what do you suggest a fellow GTDer does to deal with delays that need rescheduling on their calendar without moving months of actions back & forth for hours everyday?

much luck to you in your learning & eventually and growingly effortless application of productivity expertise!!

Clay

 

[Folke]

for anyone who gets this, is familiar with gCal or uses a similar calendar system, what do you suggest a fellow GTDer does to deal with delays that need rescheduling on their calendar without moving months of actions back & forth for hours everyday?

Personally I do not schedule my own solo tasks, not even time blocks for types of tasks (although I try to direct family activities to the evenings and appointments to the afternoons). The only thing I truly schedule is appointments etc.

But I know perfectly well what you are talking about. Time planning is much more common a methodology than situation based ones like GTD. Many people seem to use a mix. And the distinction between "hard" scheduled (true GTD) calendar actions and "soft" scheduled "appointments with myself" is essential for both types of methodology. For the pure GTD person you simply skip "soft" scheduled actions. For those who in whole or in part rely on "soft" scheduling it would certainly be useful to be able "auto-reschedule" all sof "soft" actions while leaving the "hard" ones in place.

I have suggested this to many apps developers. Not because I would use it myself, but for an entirely different reason. Those apps that even have a start date (scheduled date) certainly have no additional GTD tickler date, so if you want ticklers (task possible to consider again from this date and onwards) you have to use the scheduled date. And those apps that have calendar integration then dump the tickler dates on the calendar, just as if it were a hard scheduled calendar action, which makes the calendar messy.

So we both need a distinction to be drawn in our task apps, but for two different reasons. And you, but not I, need some elegant rescheduling capabilities in addition to that.

 

[casualstuff]

nicely put folke, appreciate your reply, do you have any clue what apps or total alternatives offer this functionality for me to actualise the new level of productivity?

 

[Folke]

Sorry, no idea. I have never seen anything even close to it, but I think it is the kind of thing users would have to keep pushing for in the form of feature requests.

Better distinctions between hard and soft, calendar mappable and not, etc, are elements that both GTDers and non-GTDers alike would have an interest in, albeit for different purposes. And there also seem to be a lot of "hybrid GTD" practitioners out there, so I think there are a few features that many kinds of users could agree upon:

- clear separation between appointments and other kinds dates (tickler dates, due dates etc), for example:
- if mapped to calendars, possibility to map these to different calendars in order not to clutter appointment calendar
- within task app's own lists: see difference clearly, sort/filter by type
(valuable for all users)

- separation between hard and soft "appointments"
(mainly for non-GTD and hybrid GTD users; "pure" GTD users avoid making appointments with themselves)

- various types of auto-rescheduling of soft appointments while avoiding time slots taken for hard ones.
(mainly for non-GTD users)

 

[Oogiem]

so i found google calendar and started tinkering but realised it doesnt have a SELECT & DRAG option, meaning if i need to reschedule something i might need to MOVE allll of my actions forward for that whole project which could span over a MONTH so 31 days of action moving. sounds like a whale of a time

I'm confused, why would you need to move things on a calendar? Actions shouldn't really be on a specific date unless it has to happen at that date. So I'm confused about the problem in the first place. Actions live on context lists and do not as a rule have any date associate with them. So first I'd step back and ask why do you need to move so many actions?

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to change the conditions so the problem doesn't exist.

 

[tabinfl]

it would be most masterful now if i could see all of my actions & how they spread out over the month & year.
(mainly project wise)

It sounds like you're looking for true project management software, ala Microsoft Project, that handles dates, dependencies, reource allocation, and so on.

It's not cheap, but it exists.

I've also used mind mapping software for a simpler tyoe of project planning / management. I group tasks together in branches (linking to resources in a separate map if necessary), and I can move entire branches from one week or workgroup to another if need be. It doesn't provide as clear a timeline as full-blown project management tools, but at least helps me see what's affected if I shuffle tasks around.

 

[casualstuff]

Better distinctions between hard and soft, calendar mappable and not, etc, are elements that both GTDers and non-GTDers alike would have an interest in, albeit for different purposes. And there also seem to be a lot of "hybrid GTD" practitioners out there, so I think there are a few features that many kinds of users could agree upon:

- clear separation between appoint...

@Folke i with you & have added to many google feature requests with all sorts of people wanting it, im not sure why they've missed all the points you've brought up & as soon as i find something that possesses real GTD system compatible functionality google will have to do, im thinking about starting a thread to deal with this, like a wishlist everybody can add to & as we're probably the online core of time-management & productivity enthusiasts & early adopters; necessity to die-hard GTDers maybe some capable software developers might fill this much craved-for gap in the market before somebody else does by listening to the people.

do you mind if i put your name & bullet points of features in there? i'll give you the link to the thread aswell afterwards.

Actions live on context lists and do not as a rule have any date associate with them.

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to change the conditions so the problem doesn't exist.

@Oogiem Thanks for contributing to this thread, I think i see exactly where your coming from on the first part, i used to just have a project list & timeblocks to complete the actions on the projects list, yet i'm an entrepreneur so on the main projects list i was working on, i was setting up a business. now please tell me if you can see if theres any chinks in this new system, because i do get what you mean. but i couldnt answer this question - when will you be done setting up this business?

it hit me that without a deadline, my actions spread out visually over time (atleast to a self-defined next stage of my project) i couldnt say when i would be done doing anything, whereas a deadline and a story of actions to explain its likelihood to be met gives me a live big picture clarity & a rough picture of when i will be done.

how can i know how worth it a part of a business is worth setting up if it takes more time than it creates value or money to push the whole business's cause forward & how can i answer that if i dont know how much time its gonna take?

do you get what iam saying? any ideas of where i could be wrong i welcome & thanks for seeing deeper than the specific issue of moving action but at the wider picture & the conditions my idea lived in. thanks

if you want to contribute to the post i spoke about in the reply above yours' with @Folke please do, people who care about mastering time-management, who invest their time into their time in my experience are some of the smartest & most productive & influential people i've ever seen & god damn it we deserve the software & tools so we can make the changes we need to make in the world, our lives & each others lives!

i will post the link in my next post.

Microsoft Project, that handles dates, dependencies, reource allocation, and so on.

I've also used mind mapping software for a simpler tyoe of project planning / management. I group tasks together in branches (linking to resources in a separate map if necessary), and I can move entire branches from one week or workgroup to another if need be. It doesn't provide as clear a timeline as full-blown project management tools, but at least helps me see what's affected if I shuffle tasks around.

you've clearly been using and becoming familiar with this for a while, ive checked out Microsoft Project & it is a fine program indeed though it seems to lack leigh-way for the simplicity & mind-like-water state ive managed to attain since using GTD as much as the other softwares you described they sound more minimal & silent-running, how have you gone about finding these tools, through a job or searching for yourself?

i can see you get where iam coming from because of the quote you chose, i think your understanding of GTD & experience with GTD friendly software will help if you also list some traits that have benefitted you in the past so please add to the thread im making, i will post in the next reply to all of you guys (& girls @Tabinfl & @Oogiem)

thank you for contributing to this thread, you're all invited to my birthday party lol

 

[Steele]

There is a fantastic program I use for doing dynamic scheduling called Taskline, and I think it only costs $50. Taskline is an Outlook add-in and works with several task management programs that plug-in to, or export to, Outlook as well, like Mylifeorganized, Netcentrics gtd, FranklinCovey, Mindmanager, Clearcontext , PlanPlus, OneNote and Mindjet.

Taskline automatically schedules tasks to Outlook's calendar. It schedules right around fixed appointments, and can schedule tasks directly into specific timeblocks too... the program is really amazing. When circumstances change, and the current schedule is no longer on-track, taskline reworks it all, at the push of a button... it's really cool to watch!

You can see a 5 minute video of it in action at http://www.taskline.com/default.asp

Good Luck on your quest!