GTD Podcast: From the Archives - Lotus Notes & eProductivity

[MichaelVino]

Hi all,

Just gave a listen to the most recent GTD Connect Podcast which was a "from the archives" conversation between @kelstarrising and Eric Mack discussing eProductivity and Lotus Notes. It was surprisingly refreshing to step back in time (which wasn't *that* long ago) before the abundance of list managers and GTD apps -- and even the rise of Outlook, as far as I can tell -- and be reminded how simple this methodology is. Tinkering, feature-creep and shiny-new-tool syndrome can sometimes be an issue for me and this was a wonderful back-to-basics listen. The screen shots Erick talks about (posted here) actually still exist and they even inspired me to take a look at my current system and identify areas to simplify. Definitely recommend giving it listen!

 

[Dmitry Kultaev]

I tried some time ago to find if it’s possible to get a current version of Notes for Mac from 2 HCL partners in US and DE but left nowhere after several follow ups never received any way forward. Wondering if someone in this community has successful experience of obtaining current version of Notes for Mac or Win to try out eProducticity or is it out of maintenance completely?

Wonder what David is using his himself

 

[John Forrister]

I tried some time ago to find if it’s possible to get a current version of Notes for Mac from 2 HCL partners in US and DE but left nowhere after several follow ups never received any way forward. Wondering if someone in this community has successful experience of obtaining current version of Notes for Mac or Win to try out eProducticity or is it out of maintenance completely?

Wonder what David is using his himself

Hi Dmitry,

David and our team migrated from Notes to Microsoft 365 earlier this year. We finally have on calendar for next week to record 1–2 sessions with Eric to talk about software and productivity.

I still have Notes on Mac and Windows. We all still have licensed, installed versions to be able to access local Notes applications (databases). At our last renewal, I got the licenses through Teamstudio. Here is a link to their HCL page. Email connect@davidco.com if you'd like me to give you the contact information for the person who handled our licenses.

https://www.teamstudio.com/hcl-products

As for eProductivity, I'm not sure if Eric is still selling it. The site has an expired SSL certificate, so you'll get a security warning. But Eric told me today's he's updating the SSL within a day or two.

On the Mac I have to be careful about OS upgrades, because they often cause Notes not to work. For now I'm stable with Mac OS Big Sur and HCL Notes 11. To get there I had to upgrade Notes to 11 first, then upgrade the OS from Catalina to Big Sur.

 

[Dmitry Kultaev]

Hi Dmitry,

David and our team migrated from Notes to Microsoft 365 earlier this year. We finally have on calendar for next week to record 1–2 sessions with Eric to talk about software and productivity.

I still have Notes on Mac and Windows. We all still have licensed, installed versions to be able to access local Notes applications (databases). At our last renewal, I got the licenses through Teamstudio. Here is a link to their HCL page. Email connect@davidco.com if you'd like me to give you the contact information for the person who handled our licenses.

https://www.teamstudio.com/hcl-products

As for eProductivity, I'm not sure if Eric is still selling it. The site has an expired SSL certificate, so you'll get a security warning. But Eric told me today's he's updating the SSL within a day or two.

On the Mac I have to be careful about OS upgrades, because they often cause Notes not to work. For now I'm stable with Mac OS Big Sur and HCL Notes 11. To get there I had to upgrade Notes to 11 first, then upgrade the OS from Catalina to Big Sur.

Thanks for reply John, will follow on your hints with HCL. You are right re MacOS upgrades, in last years I always delay it as new features are not really big productivity improvements but easily crash your established ecosystem & workflows.

Office 365 is interesting story, I have it as corporate world as probably many others, will post separately on interesting aspect of combining own and shared with multiple other groups process & projects & next actions. We tried Teams and Planner but it never worked out really as people ended up thinking is my stuff in Teams or email and giving up on teams at the end.

I ended up writing small JavaScript that would pull all my assigned tasks and projects from multiple share points to single page to have single place overview.

 

[enyonam]

I miss eProductivity! I am seriously waiting for Eric to engage with a new product and get that going again. I have had maybe 4 GTD systems post eProductivity (and this was after I attempted to buy Lotus Notes as an individual .... harder than you think!), and none of them have matched the ease and simplicity of eProductivity. Eric .. what's the plan?? Heck, let me know and I'll do it with you!

 

[John Forrister]

I miss eProductivity! I am seriously waiting for Eric to engage with a new product and get that going again. I have had maybe 4 GTD systems post eProductivity (and this was after I attempted to buy Lotus Notes as an individual .... harder than you think!), and none of them have matched the ease and simplicity of eProductivity. Eric .. what's the plan?? Heck, let me know and I'll do it with you!

As far as I know, Eric's not planning to build more software. But I will find out in a few hours when he and David and I record a discussion for GTD Connect tomorrow. Stay tuned.