Managing 10K+ level commitments in Outlook?

[invincible]

I'm now running an Outlook-based implementation and this seems to be my bottleneck at the moment. It's very important for me to effectively organise and manage my targets and objectives which I used to do on paper but now want to integrate into my Outlook system.

Should the higher-level commitments go in the projects list (as suggested in the book) or do you create a seperate task category for each level. For example, I have a 7 day target, a 30 day target and a 90 day target, which I guess are between 10,000 and 30,000 feet in GTD terminology.

I recall reading that the notes section of Outlook can be used for storing higher-level commitments but that just seems too detached from the rest of the system, at least for managing these short-term targets/goals.

I would appreciate any input I can get on this. Where do you put your weekly and monthly targets for instance, if you have them?

Thanks!

 

[jpm]

Should the higher-level commitments go in the projects list (as suggested in the book) or do you create a seperate task category for each level. For example, I have a 7 day target, a 30 day target and a 90 day target, which I guess are between 10,000 and 30,000 feet in GTD terminology.

I use two categories for 10,000 to 50,000 foot management. All 10,000 foot items (projects) go in the projects categories, with their prospective next actions in the appropriate next action lists.

I use a second category (I called it "My Life", but you could call it "After Takeoff" or any other name that makes sense to you) for everything above 10,000 feet. I have an outlook task for every focus area (20,000 feet) with a list of the primary objectives, roles, goals, and projects, etc. for each area. I also have one task called Mission/Vision in this category that serves as my top level (50,000 feet). This sort of glosses over 1-3 year goals (30,000 feet), and 5-10 year goals (40,000 feet), but for me those really relate to focus areas and specific projects. For me a 30-40 K level question is really about answering: Are my current focus areas right for where I want to be long term? So by answering that question, and getting focus areas right I'm also handling those areas.

As for you're examples above, for me your 7, 30, and 90 day targets would all be individual projects (or sub projects) managed at the 10 K level.

My system works for me and it was designed partly because of the 15 category limit that Palm places on tasks. If you don't sync with a palm you could add more categories. However, it may not be necessary, because as you move up in altitude there are a lot fewer focus areas/goals to think about.

hope this helps.