Raz -
I use Lotus Notes 8.5 which in my corporate environment syncs with both my Blackberry Bold and my new iPad Air.
I found the GTD setup guide for Lotus Notes invaluable (you should be able to find it in the Store) when I first started out on my GTD journey (December 2010). I will share a few things about how I use Notes as my "system":
- all my Projects and Next Actions, as well as all other aspects of my system, are housed as "To Dos"
- I use the Category feature to sort all the entries. For contexts relating to my actions I have things like Home, Office, Business Development, Agendas and several others. For Projects, I have several categories such as Projects - Home, Projects - Delegated, Projects - Delivery and several others.
- I name Projects using Capitalized Titles and make the "success oriented", such as "Client ABC - Advice Provided" or "Billy Joel Concert Attended" (that one is done and man was it awesome)
- For Actions that relate to Projects, I start the title with a similar beginning to the Project which helps me ensure I have actions for all projects if I do an alpha sort. An examples would be "Client ABC - initial call with client to discuss scope" or "Billy Joel - purchase tickets"
- I try to include either due dates or "last done" dates in the title so I can easily identify things that I need to prioritize or followup on
- I have a categories called "Incubate" that have months or years attached to them which acts as my "someday" category and keeps my context lists under control - - I review those at the start of the month and move either actions or projects into more current state if need be
- I have a large "Waiting For" category, which is split between those things I am waiting for from colleagues, those I am waiting for from clients and those I am waiting for at home.
- I have a category called "Recurring" which contains all those regular "maintenance" things (such as "Complete GTD weekly review - last done Mar 16 14").
- I do use the "high" priority for some actions that are more urgent - I do this primarily because those items show up at the top of the list when I open my "Tasks" on my Blackberry.
A couple of other things about "process" :
- I make sure my email in box gets to zero (or really close) first thing every morning. Any new Projects or Actions are recorded if I cannot do the task in a few minutes.
- I use folders like crazy to organize email, but I review them regularly to keep them cleansed.
- I have a paper file system at both home and work that is alphabetical like the GTD book recommends.
- I regularly through the day am adding new Projects or Actions and marking them complete, Everytime I mark an action complete, I record a new Next Action to take its place if the project is not finished.
- At the start of the month, I review ALL the entries that were marked Complete in the previous month and, particularly for Projects, consider whether I will need to do that again next year in which case I create a new Project entry (such as "March Break 2015 - Vacation Completed") and add them to the appropriate Incubate list. I also think about other actions such as business development followup opportunities.
Hope the above helps. Looking forward to hearing how you are doing.....
Dan