A
Anonymous
Guest
I thought the Microsoft article [http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011436401033.aspx] was not very good at illustrating the power of Onenote for GTD. For me, Onenote serves as a great archive of papers, images, and text, as well as a powerfull Next Action capturer.
I've divided my Onenote notebook into several sections: Projects (College applications, Research paper...), Classes, Personal (books, movies, shopping, photography) and ACTIONS (@Calls, @Home, @Computer_Email, @Computer_Reading, @School...)
Also, I've set up the 'customizable note flags' available with SP1 to fit my needs. I have note flags for 'simple to-do (being a student, this is where i put homework, which is always well-defined),' "Question," "time sensitive," "important," "not urgent," "event," "call," "remember," "waiting on" and "research." There's lots of overlap but onenote allows multiple note flags, so something can be a "not urgent call" or whatever.
Because i don't think it makes sense to move a next action from, say, a project folder ("call library to get hours for research") to the 'calls' list, I DON'T, and simply label the to-do with my telephone note flag. A call that's not related to any thing else--- for example, "call dentist"-- just goes in the regular @CALLS list with a telephone note flag. The subdivisions of ACTIONS are helpful, but not necessary.
Any actions that I can 'predict' for the future are entered, but don't get a corresponding Note Flag.
Every morning (or whenever), I press the fantastic "note flags summary" button and every single note flagged action-- from all of my notebook-- goes into an elegant sidebar. That way, I don't need to be too concerned with organization-- since it'll go on the day's summary regardless of where the next action is. From there, I can create a temporary notebook page and print out the day's to-do's, separated by category (question, important, etc).
I also hear that onenote has great ties with outlook-- you can create new tasks and whatnot directly-- but i don't have outlook 2003 so that will have to wait.[/url]
I've divided my Onenote notebook into several sections: Projects (College applications, Research paper...), Classes, Personal (books, movies, shopping, photography) and ACTIONS (@Calls, @Home, @Computer_Email, @Computer_Reading, @School...)
Also, I've set up the 'customizable note flags' available with SP1 to fit my needs. I have note flags for 'simple to-do (being a student, this is where i put homework, which is always well-defined),' "Question," "time sensitive," "important," "not urgent," "event," "call," "remember," "waiting on" and "research." There's lots of overlap but onenote allows multiple note flags, so something can be a "not urgent call" or whatever.
Because i don't think it makes sense to move a next action from, say, a project folder ("call library to get hours for research") to the 'calls' list, I DON'T, and simply label the to-do with my telephone note flag. A call that's not related to any thing else--- for example, "call dentist"-- just goes in the regular @CALLS list with a telephone note flag. The subdivisions of ACTIONS are helpful, but not necessary.
Any actions that I can 'predict' for the future are entered, but don't get a corresponding Note Flag.
Every morning (or whenever), I press the fantastic "note flags summary" button and every single note flagged action-- from all of my notebook-- goes into an elegant sidebar. That way, I don't need to be too concerned with organization-- since it'll go on the day's summary regardless of where the next action is. From there, I can create a temporary notebook page and print out the day's to-do's, separated by category (question, important, etc).
I also hear that onenote has great ties with outlook-- you can create new tasks and whatnot directly-- but i don't have outlook 2003 so that will have to wait.[/url]