How Can I Get Certain Occasionally-Needed Info Off My Mind?

D

Dsean

0
I've read the book multiple times and been through the entire GTD process. However, I don't recall coming across the answer to this question, so I'm going to ask it. How do you remind yourself of a piece of data that you need only in certain situations and don't want to rely on your mind to store? For example, when I place an Amazon order, I need to remember to log in through smile.amazon.com so that they will donate 5% of the purchase price to my favorite charity (Big Cat Rescue). I want to get that fact out of my head but I don't know where to put it so that it will pop out at me when I place an order.
Any suggestions or advice you can give me would be appreciated.
 
The simple answer is I do not think there is a way. Of course, you could write this intention down somewhere, but how would you you make it pop up at the right time? Or you could bookmark smile.amazon.com to make it easier to remember, but I cannot think of any foolproof way. (But rest assured, however you choose to deal with it, as long as it works, it will definitely be GTD, by definition.)
 
Dsean, please be patient for others to answer, and don't take the first answer as final or authoritative. The cynical parenthetical part is emotional baggage someone else is trying to hand off. How to tell? If you leave off the parenthetical part, no information pertinent to your question is lost.
 
Now, on to your question. Good on you for Big Cat Rescue! I have a question in reply to your question. Where do you place your Amazon orders? For example, always from your computer, or sometimes from your smartphone, or . . . ? A practical answer to your question could depend on the context(s) in which you place your Amazon orders.
 
Dsean said:
I've read the book multiple times and been through the entire GTD process. However, I don't recall coming across the answer to this question, so I'm going to ask it. How do you remind yourself of a piece of data that you need only in certain situations and don't want to rely on your mind to store? For example, when I place an Amazon order, I need to remember to log in through smile.amazon.com so that they will donate 5% of the purchase price to my favorite charity (Big Cat Rescue). I want to get that fact out of my head but I don't know where to put it so that it will pop out at me when I place an order.
Any suggestions or advice you can give me would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hmm. That's difficult. So it's not that you need to remember HOW to do X, you need to remember TO do X, at the same time that you're doing Y, when Y has no particular scheduled time. And even if we could come up with a specific solution to this one, I assume that you're looking for a generalized solution to that sort of situation, right?

I'm feeling the desire for more examples, if you have any? I'm trying to make some up:

WHEN I buy a book, buy it using smile.amazon.com.
WHEN I drive to the north side of town, avoid the intersection of 8th and B. (It's a blind intersection in my town that's prone to a lot of accidents, which I'd like to avoid but I always forget until I'm already aimed for it.)
... there must be more.

Now, GTD handles one specific category with contexts:

WHEN I talk to Joe, check the Joe context for things that I need him for.

But you can't reasonably have a context for every little thing in your life.

So far, I've got nothing.
 
Dsean said:
How do you remind yourself of a piece of data that you need only in certain situations and don't want to rely on your mind to store?
Click to expand...
For the general example of that stuff I am a bit lost as that can take so many forms but for your particular example I'd try one of these options:

Edit all bookmarks to Amazon on all devices you make orders from and make them all go through the login of smile.amazon.com so you are always in there from the right place. Be sure to set it up to forget you so you have to log in each time.

Create a Make an Amazon Order checklist and put the log-in to the correct place at the top.
 
If you tend to order from the same computer, put a sticky note on the computer monitor to remind you. Eventually, it may become habit and a reminder won't be needed.
 
Thanks for all your suggestions, both high and low tech. I like Tes Teq's idea (assuming the app works) because it effectively solves the problem. A post-it note won't work for me, because I can't be sure that it will attract my attention at the moment I place an order, even if it's right before my eyes. I don't use Firefox, but I see there's an app that does the same thing for Chrome. I'll let you know if it works. Thanks again for your support.
 
I don't know if there's one solution to fit all instances, but it's in situations like this I find technology is my friend. While my Amazon always nags me to use Smile, I also use my text expansion software to replace all amazon.com's with smile.amazon.com after typing. I use TextExpander on my Mac religiously (email templates, symbols, lorem ipsum, HTML/CSS/JavaScript snippets, etc.) and PhraseExpress on my work PC. PhraseExpress syncs with TextExpander, so I always have my snippets at my fingertips. I just set up a snippet where if I type amazon.com, it immediately swaps "amazon.com" for "smile.amazon.com" and hits return, taking me to the site.

This solution won't work for everything, but at least when it comes to typing things it does. Someone changes their name? Set up a snippet. New email to remember? Snippet. Word you constantly spell incorrectly? Snippet. It's pretty wonderful :)
 
chirmer said:
I just set up a snippet where if I type amazon.com, it immediately swaps "amazon.com" for "smile.amazon.com" and hits return, taking me to the site.
Click to expand...

I've got no experience with this kind of software (shame on me). What happens when you type "smile.amazon.com". Isn't it replaced with "smile.smile.amazon.com"?
 
TesTeq said:
What happens when you type "smile.amazon.com". Isn't it replaced with "smile.smile.amazon.com"?
Click to expand...
not if you include the spaces in front and behind. That's how TextExpander works, if you type it correctly it won't change it.
 
I would put this on the list where I keep 'shopping lists' for various stores. It isn't quite a Next Action list, since I don't have plans to go to the store right away - that trigger would be on my Next Action/Errands list. This is more like David's 'Next Time In...' checklists but it is perhaps a more active part of my system than I imagine his checklist would be.

Examples: a list of things I typically watch for when I'm at Costco, or at the specialty butcher that I seldom visit. Also items the food bank is always in need of, and my children's current clothing sizes... basically things I may want to refer to while I'm shopping.

Sometimes I forget I've listed something there, but I do glance through it when doing my Weekly Review, and that usually keeps it current.
 
Your task refers to a checklist and the checklist reminds you what to do for a particular situation - similar to what Oogiem said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top